This is a new story to me and rather amusing. If the AP and Newsweek noted it, social media would have been overwhelmed with calls for posse formations. At that stage in my era, we went through "integration" which was the ultimate bogeyman to most white parents whose whispered and sanctimonious paranoia was not rational and still fits neatly in today's headlines with names like ESG, Critical Race Theory, Restroom (and Sports) deviation and feverish arguments over the content of most any book besides those kept on scrolls. So, who's afraid of the Smurfs? The parents. of course, because they are the ultimate teachers. The irony is that while parents have argued endlessly over the things I've mentioned, in my day very few people locked their backdoors, in case the milkman showed up.
I do remember the hullabaloo when the Crips came to MO City (probably because I was a fairly recent--1979--transplant from Venice, CA, where gangs were happening.) Kinda recall the Smurf thing, but I didn’t knowing many (any?) local K-12 students at that point in life, & v few friends in Houston were procreating yet, let alone ones w school-aged kids.
This is a new story to me and rather amusing. If the AP and Newsweek noted it, social media would have been overwhelmed with calls for posse formations. At that stage in my era, we went through "integration" which was the ultimate bogeyman to most white parents whose whispered and sanctimonious paranoia was not rational and still fits neatly in today's headlines with names like ESG, Critical Race Theory, Restroom (and Sports) deviation and feverish arguments over the content of most any book besides those kept on scrolls. So, who's afraid of the Smurfs? The parents. of course, because they are the ultimate teachers. The irony is that while parents have argued endlessly over the things I've mentioned, in my day very few people locked their backdoors, in case the milkman showed up.
I distinctly remember talking about The Smurfs during recess at Poe. We heard they’d come and rip the earrings right out of kids’ earlobes. 🤣
I do remember the hullabaloo when the Crips came to MO City (probably because I was a fairly recent--1979--transplant from Venice, CA, where gangs were happening.) Kinda recall the Smurf thing, but I didn’t knowing many (any?) local K-12 students at that point in life, & v few friends in Houston were procreating yet, let alone ones w school-aged kids.