By cracky, these whippersnappers deserve ban By G. Michael Dobbs Managing Editor Be honest with me for a moment. Remember your youth and the times you had to listen your parents speak about their childhood? Remember how your mind would wander and your eyes would roll back into your head and you were suddenly aware that time had stood still? The stories they told always had a similar theme their life was much harder than your pampered existence and you should have been grateful you didn't have to walk a mile in waist-deep snow to get to school. Or that you weren't working at 13. Or that you got the chance to go to college. You know what I'm talking about. And didn't you swear you would never do something like this when you were a bonafide adult? I know I did and I'm about to break that oath. Actually I broke it many times before just ask our foster daughter. When I was a teenager you see, here it comes there were occasional trips to Eastfield Mall, the first enclosed mall in the region, but my circle of friends never thought about setting up camp there. We were there to shop Flag Brothers shoes, Chess King, and the like. Actually I never had the guts to be so stylish as to buy something at Chess King. The most "hanging" I did at Eastfield Mall back in the day was getting an ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins and sitting in front of the Frederick's of Hollywood store where I'd watch guys trying to persuade their wives and girlfriends to buy some trick underwear. We had things to do part-time jobs, chores around the house, dates and schoolwork. Some of my friends were on sports teams, while I was busy publishing a fanzine. And I would never say to my girlfriend, "Let's go to the mall" unless one of us had to buy something. I will readily admit that I just don't understand the whole "hanging at the mall" experience and therefore I don't have tremendous sympathy for the kids who have been making life miserable for some folks at the Holyoke Mall. I find it fascinating that at a time in which people say that teenagers have "over-booked" lives between school, athletics, part-time jobs and extracurricular activities that there are enough idle teens to cause problems at the mall. I also find it amusing that the complaint that "teenagers don't have a place of their own" is still being used today. I heard that when I was 15 as an excuse when kids landed in trouble. You know the grim truth is that the kids who want to hang at the mall would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to a youth center. The kids at various youth programs want to be there. The mall kids don't. Thanks to the Internet, video games and DVDs, today's teens have many more choices for wasting time than I had as a mere boy and beardless youth. So parents of these kids now must face up to the responsibility of knowing what their children are doing and providing some guidance rather than just a lift to the mall. So I don't blame the mall for making its decision. Those mall rat whippersnappers brought it on themselves. Boy, do I feel old! You know the drill. These are my opinions alone. Send your comments to mdobbs@reminderpublications.com or to 280 N. Main St., East Longmeadow, MA 01028.