It's 11:30 p.m., do you know what your kids are buying?

[ArenaBoy]

A few weeks ago, I stopped by a Kroger to get some groceries. I had been stuck in work all day and ended up working some late hours. When I walked in, it was around 11:30 p.m.

When I was in line, I saw three little kids ahead of me, no parent in sight. The oldest kid had to be about 11, the others being 10, and 9. They were being lectured by the cashier because they had attempted to buy a lighter and condoms. The kids tried to convince the cashier that it was for their mother. However, a mother wasn't anywhere in sight at all. The cashier said she wasn't risking getting in trouble and lectured the kids. They kept trying until eventually they gave up.

My whole thought on the matter was best said by the guy in front of me.

"At that age, I wasn't even thinking about sex."

Still, I wonder what those kids are doing now.

[Gaki]

When I was about 14 I bought a 3 pack of condoms to see how much water I could fit in them before they broke (about a gallon, I was impressed). The cashier never bothered to ask me about them, probably because I was with my guy friend and we were discussing how we were going to measure the water after they'd popped.

[Mikkel]

I think they were more thinking of filling the condoms with lighter gas and make them go WHOOF.
Even if kids that age were thinking of sex, I doubt they would think of safe sex.

They may even have told the truth.

[bainsidhe]

It's interesting what others are posting here, food for thought. But it still gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about kids so young buying condoms.

[ThirdGenRetail]

Doesn't your city/state/country have a curfew...? Around here, after I think it's 10pm, persons under the age of 18 are not allowed out without a parent/guardian/older sibling over the age of 18. So I'm more concerned about what they were doing out at 11:30pm.

[siead_lietrathua]

It's interesting what others are posting here, food for thought. But it still gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about kids so young buying condoms.

i feel jaded now. i've seen kids in the store around 13-14 buying condoms, and kids the same ages buying pregnancy tests. i know which one i prefer selling. haha.

[Shalom]

I think they were more thinking of filling the condoms with lighter gas and make them go WHOOF.

Bah. An unlit blowtorch (with the vents adjusted for the proper stoichiometric ratio of propane/oxygen), a bucket filled with soapy water, one of those foot-long matches you light your fireplace with, and (most importantly) some good earplugs, make a much more impressive noise than a mere WHOOF.

Disclaimer: I have not tried this. Don't you try it either. Especially without the earplugs.

[Mikkel]

Bah. An unlit blowtorch (with the vents adjusted for the proper stoichiometric ratio of propane/oxygen), a bucket filled with soapy water, one of those foot-long matches you light your fireplace with, and (most importantly) some good earplugs, make a much more impressive noise than a mere WHOOF.

I can imagine, it's not for nothing that oxyhydrogen mix is called "knaldgas" in Danish. Directly translated it means bang gas .
I think I would prefer a longer range ignition source than a footlong match, in respect for my eyebrows - not to mention my manly beard.
The main ingredient of that can't be bought in a grocery store at midnight, though.

[Sparky]

Oh please forgive me. This is probably against all the rules of the forums, but I MUST tell you this joke.

A little boy walked up the the pharmacist and demanded a box of "rubbers." The pharmacist refused to sell them because the child didn't look like he was more than six years old.
"But my mother sent me to buy them" the child said. The pharmacist still refused.
"But my mother really needs them, right now!" said the boy. "If you don't sell me some rubbers, I'm going to throw my tricycle through the window!"
The pharmacist was shocked, and wondered what kind of parents would send a child on such an errand, but he didn't want his window damaged, so he sold the boy a packet of rubbers.
Half an hour later he heard a huge crash! He looked up and saw that the child had, indeed, thrown a tricycle through the front window. The boy stomped up to the pharmacy counter. He shouted "Just what did you think my mother was canning? Bananas?"

[Shalom]

Oh please forgive me. This is probably against all the rules of the forums, but I MUST tell you this joke...

I'd have sent the kid to a shoe store. When I was growing up, "rubbers" was what we called galoshes, overshoes or what have you. Rubber things that you crammed your shoes into when it rained, which were inevitably too small no matter what size you bought. This caused major incomprehension when I got to the age where we started hearing dirty jokes. (As in, why would someone wear galoshes to bed? What would be the point?)

I am also reliably informed that the English word "rubber" simply means "that which rubs". No, getcher mind outta the gutter, it's because its original use was in pencil erasers.

(I'd like to make a pun here about gutter perchers, but I can't be arsed at the moment.)

I had to think a bit about your joke before it sank in, though. Modern canning jars have a 2-piece metal lid with rubber or similar material on the underside of the disk part, which seals up without needing an external seal. My mom still has one ancient jar left over from her grandmother's kitchen that she uses on Passover for the fresh-ground horseradish for the Seder, which has the old-style glass lid with wire bail and the separate rubber seal. Kind of like the Grolsch beer bottles, if you've ever seen one of those.

(Tip: Don't ever fill up a glass bottle, which has been used for 75 years for horseradish, with orange juice. Unless you like horseradish-flavored orange juice. Yugh.)

[Ironclad Alibi]

Regarding the joke, I was thinking the mother sent kid to get some rubber bands.

[Mikkel]

Regarding the joke, I was thinking the mother sent kid to get some rubber bands.

Those rubbers:

[Solumina]

Fun (well not, really more like terrifying) fact: the average age in the US for people to become sexually active is around 13 (I'm using the statistic from a couple of years ago but I don't think it has changed much) so yeah maybe they really did need them for the intended purpose *sigh* kids these days.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Those rubbers:

I knew that. I used to help my mother with her canning.

[BrenDAnn]

The word rubbers can at any given time refer to: Boots (as was mentioned), the canning rubber things, rubber bands, condoms, or...erasers. Those are the ones I've heard it used for anyway. As for young teens buying condoms...Ugh...Babies having babies anymore. Shudder.