Holland is a great country for kids. Homes, schools, businesses, and recreational facilities are located close together, and bicycles are a major and fully integrated form of transportation. As a result, children don't have to be chauffered by car all over the place; they can get around more independently (and this is especially good as, since I think I might've mentioned previously, we still do not have our car).
My 12-year old child, who is thrilled with being able to get around by bike and with feeling more independent, wanted to make a trip to the nearby electronics store on his own in search of a Wii cable. I asked him if he'd like to pick up some frites for lunch from the nearby stand. Frites are french fries, which, despite any disrespect regarding Dutch cooking that might have been implied in my previous post, the Dutch make exceptionally well.
"Child," I said (not his real name), "the frites stand is a yellow free-standing place in a small park a couple of blocks down from the electronics store on the left" (italics added). He comes back with his Wii cable but no french fries. He couldn't find the frites stand. So I repeated the directions, only this time with the italics and with lots of gesturing and pointing.
He goes off on his bike again, and this time he comes back with frites and a story. He notices a yellow (correct) non-free-standing shop (wrong) in the vicinity but not in a park (wrong) and walks in (wrong again!), perceptively observing that it stocks an awful lot of cigarettes for a frites place (correct). He walks right through to the counter at back, notices a display labeled "marijuana," and asks the guy behind the counter whether he speaks English. The guy says yes, so The Child asks something along the lines of "isn't it illegal to sell marijuana in a frites shop?" The English-speaking, pot-selling guy concurs that it is, in fact, illegal to sell marijuana in a frites shop. The Child brilliantly concludes, "this isn't a frites shop, is it?" At which point the guy says "No, this isn't a frites shop," lets him know he's too young to be in there, and kicks him out.
Does the kid pause at (1) the paradoxical name "Smart Shop" over the door, in really, really big letters, (2) the lack of that distinctive frites smell, (3) the presence of other distinctive smells, (4) the seven stoned-looking people hanging out in the place at 1 pm on a Monday, or (5) any of the other myriad clues that this place was not, and in fact at no time ever had been, a frites stand?
That was a rhetorical question.
My 12-year old child, who is thrilled with being able to get around by bike and with feeling more independent, wanted to make a trip to the nearby electronics store on his own in search of a Wii cable. I asked him if he'd like to pick up some frites for lunch from the nearby stand. Frites are french fries, which, despite any disrespect regarding Dutch cooking that might have been implied in my previous post, the Dutch make exceptionally well.
"Child," I said (not his real name), "the frites stand is a yellow free-standing place in a small park a couple of blocks down from the electronics store on the left" (italics added). He comes back with his Wii cable but no french fries. He couldn't find the frites stand. So I repeated the directions, only this time with the italics and with lots of gesturing and pointing.
He goes off on his bike again, and this time he comes back with frites and a story. He notices a yellow (correct) non-free-standing shop (wrong) in the vicinity but not in a park (wrong) and walks in (wrong again!), perceptively observing that it stocks an awful lot of cigarettes for a frites place (correct). He walks right through to the counter at back, notices a display labeled "marijuana," and asks the guy behind the counter whether he speaks English. The guy says yes, so The Child asks something along the lines of "isn't it illegal to sell marijuana in a frites shop?" The English-speaking, pot-selling guy concurs that it is, in fact, illegal to sell marijuana in a frites shop. The Child brilliantly concludes, "this isn't a frites shop, is it?" At which point the guy says "No, this isn't a frites shop," lets him know he's too young to be in there, and kicks him out.
Does the kid pause at (1) the paradoxical name "Smart Shop" over the door, in really, really big letters, (2) the lack of that distinctive frites smell, (3) the presence of other distinctive smells, (4) the seven stoned-looking people hanging out in the place at 1 pm on a Monday, or (5) any of the other myriad clues that this place was not, and in fact at no time ever had been, a frites stand?
That was a rhetorical question.
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