Hey I resemble that remark! I was a glue sniffer - but only as a result
of building plastic and later balsa models (the tissue paper dope is WAY
better than the glue). sniffing glue is nothing. Try the smoke from
burning/exploding them while simulating the Battle of Britain.
Kids tend to shed less than dogs, depending on the dog, and the kid.
Marin, as Lou Reed once sang, think of it as raising your own
pallbearers. As I once described my mother's situation (seven kids) it
can also be described as a third world retirement plan: a bit less than
two months of the year with each kid, and she won't need to go in a
home. Of course that assumes you raise them well enough to trust they
will do unto you in old age as you did unto them.
And for Rover content (I feel a certain sense of hypocrisy coming on in
light of my OT comments ofa few days ago): I have a photo of my mother
and her sister standing in front of the family's 88 (SII??) somewhere
in Europe, in the fifties. They used to keep a jug of sangria and the
dishes inside the bonnet mounted spare. Her father's never attained
dream, was to have a Dormobile. I've talked to her about getting a
dormie and dropping a chevy drivetrain in it for her, as she has
misgivings about power and reliability (Her being English, I am
mortified she could feel this way! Mortified I say!) She dated a wheat
farmer who once had his Jag towed a hundred plus miles to Portland for
repair, and after that converted it, and she doesnt like the idea of
doing the cascades (or remote Nevada) with a Rover powerplant.
And none of her kids are glue sniffers. Dad left when I was 10 (don't
get me started on the single mom thing causing kids to be screwed up.
Its crapola). Oldest kid was 16. He's succesfully retired from his own
business, at age 41 or so, now works for the railroad for fun. grad
degree in Russian and music. Next is sister, PhD immunology, Genencor
research scientist, brother, graduate degree computer science, Tacoma
Pierce health dept, Sister, PhD Geophysics, doing something I don't
really understand at MIT for two years, budding Perfessor type, then me
(the black sheep) lawyer, then brother, engineering degree, high level
yes-man for Autodesk software, then youngest son, soon to be a cop, ex
truck driver/Les Schwab guy. What's my point? We all watched TV, and
were given free rein (mom worked graveyard, my brother worked for a beer
distributor when we were in high school - need I say more?), my mom made
us what we are through example, the power of guilt and an insistence on
educashun.
I am a world class cynic, and not much of an optimist when it comes to
the future, but I am making my own efforts at improving it by raising my
kids to be good productive citizens, and by trying to make it better my
own way. I have a sister who has no kids. I wish she had, because she
would have raised kids who would have made the world better. A license
ought to be required to have kids, IMHO. Too many bad child raisers out
there. (He said keeping his fingers crossed for the next 20-50 years)
So its all very well to say the world is going to hell in a handbasket
and kids these days are the worst, etc, but it is more credible of the
person saying it is also trying to do something about it. And I am sure
you are. But when it comes to bad kids? Blame the parents and the kids
themselves, once they reach a certain (I think fairly young) age. Not
society, not the schools. Not the Gov'mint.
But all that said about making the future rosier, I did buy a gas
powered weed whacker yesterday....
Simon "I blame society. Society made me what I am"" Harding
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Apr 09 2001 - 17:05:57 EDT