Recently, it has been reported that President Obama has attempted to deter his daughters from following the trend of young adults and teenagers today from getting a tatoo.
That reminds me of when I was going home on leave from basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. After training, we got a chance to hit the town, or in other words to celebrate our getting out of basic, and presented with our next training, or duty assignment.
Many of my class members headed to the saloons or the tatoo parlors, or the red light districts, and there are plenty of each just outside of Lackland.
Though I was educated in the early 50's with all upper classmates, in a one room school house, that also served as our church on Sundays, sex was not a subject that parents, or grandparents of my generation ever to discuss. Hey! But, it was understood though never a word was spoken about sex or tatoos in our family. Both were taboo subjects.
Those neighbors, workers who did have tatoos showing, usually were celebrating a love affair, or remembering a parent or loved one, which often were soon regretted.
When I came home on "Home Leave," I mentioned to my mother--not my father, mind you--that I had thought about getting a Tatoo: "Dangerous Dan."
Why Dangerous Dan? Well, a family friend, who later would lose a leg in a mining accident in West Virginia, coached Sandlot Baseball and had given me the moniker: "Dangerous Dan" for relief pitching, and strike outs on our baseball team: Chisler Motors. Don't laugh, I did have a tryout with the Cleveland Indians in 1960.
My mother's response: "You better not get no tatoo." That was that! Had I mentioned it to my father I might not be writing this blog.
Obama's attempt to threatening his daughters about getting a tatoo amounts to being a challenge: "Like families who tatoo together stray together, or stay together."
A better approach would be: "Get a tatoo, and you're out of here." or "Fine, get a tatoo in lieu of Tuition."
