The other day I happened to overhear a rather ignorant and self-centred comment from one of my students, one that is typical of the 19-year-old he is.

It reminded me of a couple years ago when I was working in a local grocery store. I and a  co-worker friend were in the staff room on a break, and there were a few of the young male employees there, too. It was in the second half of summer, and the guys were bemoaning the fact that there hadn't been any really long and rowdy bush parties that summer, because whenever they got things going in their favorite spot along Range Road 20, the Mounties showed up and busted it up.

As a group, they came to the conclusion that obviously the Mounties were intercepting the text messages they were sending around on their phones to tell people about the party, and that's how they knew it was going on and when to show up to shut it down.

My friend and I finished our break, and as we went back to work, she said to me "I live on Range Road 20. We have the direct phone number of the Mounties who patrol our area - when we hear the kids starting a party, we call the Mounties and they come take care of it."

I laughed, thinking about how it hadn't even occurred to any of the young men that the neighbors might be calling the police, or that if the Mounties have the technology to intercept text messages, they would find much better uses for it than discovering and busting up teenage bush parties...

I had to ask my friend...were we ever that stupid when we were that age? ...and the answer, unfortunately, is yes, we probably were...