Bring DOWN big brother

When I was 11 I lived in an apartment complex. The complex had a swimming pool, beloved by all the kids who would beg a different mom each day to come to the pool and watch us while we swam. We really didn't want an adult to watch us, but there was an age limit for children without adult supervision. That limit was 12 years of age. After a full summer of adult supervison all of the kids discussed at the close of the summer how the next year, we would be able to swim whenever we wanted because we would be 12 years old. In early summer, the pool opened. It had new lounge chairs, new paint and a new sign. The sign posted the Pool Rules and on that list it said, No child under the age of 13 to be admitted unless accompianed by a parent or guardian. 13. We were stunned.
For some reason it never occured to us to just go to the pool anyway. In an apartment complex that large, there is no way that the office staff would be able to keep track of the ages of all of the kids. But we didn't know that then. We feared the office staff. Although in their early twenties, they had JOBS for God's sake.
While we it never occured to us to just break the rule, it did occur to us that maybe we could change it. Us being my friend Kyra and I. We were still young enough to be idealistic about the country, it's values and still believed that we were living in a democracy.
So, we consulted Ky's mom, who completely encouraged us to try to make a change. Bring DOWN big brother! We created a petition, handwritten on unlined paper that we had drawn the lines onto to make it seem a little more imporant that something torn out of a sprial ring notebook.
And we did it.
We went door to door with out petition, asking all of the residents to sign the document we had created that stated it was unfair to change the age for unsupervised children at the swimming pool. And you know what? They signed it. Most of them. We had a couple of people refuse but that measured out, by the couple of people that praised us for being so democratic, and then to further add to our karma we smiled and nodded as old women went on and on about their 15 year old poodles.
Once we had hit every house in the apartment complex we put our petition into a manilla envelope to make it seem more business-like and presented it to the office staff.
We stated our case and explained that we had gotten all of the signatures, presenting them with our envelope. They didn't say much and I remember leaving with a sense of dispair as they sort of just looked at us, looked at the list, looked at us. Now I know that they were just stunned. What do you say to a couple of rabid, libral 12 year olds? So, they just said nothing.
Until the next complex newsletter was sent... they had lowered the age that children could be in the pool area unsupervised to 12.
And it was a fantastic summer.