A little experiment in time travel

The year is 2016. The scene:

A father and his 7-8 year old daughter are riding their bikes downtown. They need to cross the street in some traffic.

Daughter: “Meow, meow, meow, meow…” (apparently pretending to be a cat. Kids are so frickin adorable aren’t they? You just want to squeeze them until they can’t breath.)

Father: “All right honey, be careful, you need to pay attention.”

Daughter (SCREAMING AT FATHER): “I AM PAYING ATTENTION! MEOW MEOW MEOW!” (this has now become partly aggressive and partly petulant meowing).

Father: “I know, but it’s dangerous and there are a lot of cars around.”

NOTE – They are now holding up traffic in the middle of the road.

Daughter: “Meow, meow, meow.”

Now let’s try this again. The year is sometime in the late 70s. To give you a visual, here I am in 1978. A bit younger than our character above, but you’ll notice:

1. Meowing has been replaced by crying.
2. My hands are covering my rear end and I have strategically backed myself up against a wall for protection. These are likely related. Spanking wasn’t a sexual term then.

Okay. Here goes. We’ll replace the daughter with a son.

Son: “Meow, meow, meow, meow.”

Father: “Shut your mouth and pay attention.”

Nearby Motorist: “Sir, I saw the lip that boy was giving you. If you need to spank him right here I don’t mind waiting. I can turn on my high beams if you need extra light.”