I’m not sure if this is the right community, but just wanted to spark discussion and I love hearing people’s different experiences
Inspired to ask because elsewhere I was telling a story about how I got invited to poker night at Jehovah’s Witnesses one time, and none of it made any sense to me. First of all we were not supposed to be having a party and listening to music, nor gambling, nor drinking according to the rules of JW which were outwardly acknowledged.
But they had come up with all kinds of outs and justifications, and minor rule bendings to justify basically doing all of that. I’m sitting there like thanks for including me guys but this is just a weird scene.
You’re all running off to the laundry room to make alcoholic drinks and coming back to mutually joke about how ya merely went to freshen your Kool-Aid. It was very mentally taxing
Not exactly weird or baffling, but interesting. I’ve been in the punk scene for 30yrs. When I first started going at 15 the “all ages” venue was a dive bar the made the minors walk through a dog kennel that kept them out of the “bar”, but on the other side was the pit where everyone was drinking anyway and the cigarette smoke was so thick you couldn’t see the drummer. I’ve seen people shit on stage, get blowjobs on stage, had a fiddle player helicopter his wang over my head during a solo, saw a guy run through the pit with a live chainsaw, another dance with a meat cleaver & claw hammer, people bash each other with fluorescent light bulbs, a rusty scythe, a leather with broken glass glued to the sleeves, taken an empty bottle of Jack randomly chucked to my face, been knocked out with a spin kick, seen a drunk dude wander out of the pit with someone else’s tooth stuck in their cheek, and once molly-whopped a bonehead with a lock & chain. I’ve been fortunate to have lived and seen some crazy shit.
But last year I was at a punk show and for the first time realized truly how old a lot of us are getting. There’s folks in their 60s still moshing right next to 14yos. But for all I’ve seen, something that really sticks with me is the mom who walked her maybe 5yo daughter to the edge of the stage and, after a little hesitancy, the little gal crowd surfed. And the crowd responded. It was still a wild mix of humanity, a bunch of crusty strangers in hyper-aggressive clothing, tattoos, and eyeliner. But now we’ve got this precious little soul getting to join the fray, and while the band continued to rip, the pit continued to circle, and the cheap shots continued to be pounded, the human tempest made sure she got to enjoy her trip across the pit safely back to her dad. And you could see how thrilled she was.
Not a lot surprises me anymore, but casting your child into a sweaty sea of weirdos and trusting they’ll do the right thing, and a bunch of half-drunk, ritualistically violent strangers being the right people to make sure they do stay safe is… heartwarming? Still kinda weird.