Before I go off on this, let me crystal clear - this isn't intended to start a Reg/Res flame war. I have several friends in the Reserve who have spent considerable time in Petawawa and they don't apply to this at all so if you are a Reservist, don't take personal offence because this probably doesn't apply to you - it's intended to be directed at the young bucks who have accomplished nothing in their careers thus far except a trip to the QM to get kitted out.
I went with my family to Black Bear Beach on Saturday as it was the perfect day for it. Apparently, lots of other families thought so too because it was fairly busy with lots of moms&dads tending to their wee ones running rampant along the beach and in the water. Right smack in the centre of the beach was a picnic table with about 15 or so brand spanky new recruits. For some reason, they felt compelled to try and impress the girls (most of whom were married and with their husbands anyway) with their language skills, which revolved around a few select colorful words. They seemed oblivious to the 30 or so children running around them and were on the receiving end of several pointed looks from various mother hens who understandably so, didn't want their children hearing these words. A couple of them also saw the need to harrass some guy who was with his wife and child by yelling some taunts his way - not too cool. The guys trying to enjoy some family time and some young yahoos are bothering him. The icing on the cake was a group of four of them trying to pick up some young girl who came for a swim, presumably from the campground as she was alone. The girl looked 14 or 15 tops. (Which to me is a good indication her pops is probably at minimum, a Sergeant)
Finally, a woman had enough of the behavior and went over and told them to clean up the language and show some respect to the fact that there were numerous children about. They bitched a bit to each other after she left about their rights to enjoy themselves on the beach too, and much to the credit of one of them - he told them to sort themselves out and watch their language. Coming from one of their own, they seemed to have less problem with it and watched their language from that point on. Thank you to the mystery woman and the young recruit who got his chums to knock it off.
To the young troops full of p!ss & vinegar, please show some respect when you're visiting in Petawawa - this is our home where we live and raise our families, and with the fact that there isn't all that much to do in the first place, you can help out by not making one of our favorite places to take our families an unpleasant experience.
Regards
(As stated before - NOT intended to start a flame war, so please don't get all huffy if you're a Reservist. I KNOW, this doesn't apply to 95% of you, but it only takes a few to spoil a nice thing, right?)