AARP Study - Modern Maturity, July/August 2002

“Embracing the Future” by Christina Ianzito  reports that grandparents believe their duties include teaching the kids about religion and spirituality, telling them about their family history, disciplining them when needed, and helping them with schoolwork.

You may wish to order this magazine, www.aarp.org

Subject: 57 CHEVY - Sit Back and Enjoy!!!!!!

Remember when......?
You'll enjoy this one. OK, so some
of you might have been too young to remember . . . .

REMEMBER....
When the worst thing you could do at school was smoke in the bathrooms,
flunk a test or chew gum. And the banquets were in the cafeteria and we
danced to a juke box later, and all the girls wore fluffy pastel gowns and
the boys wore suits for the first time and we were allowed to stay out till 12 p.m.

When a '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car. . . to cruise, peel out, lay
rubber and watch drag races, and people went steady and girls wore a class
ring with an inch of wrapped dental floss or yarn coated with pastel
frost nail polish so it would fit her finger.
And no one ever asked where the car keys were 'cause they were
always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked.
And you got in big trouble if you accidentally locked the doors at
home, since no one ever had a key.

Remember lying on your back on the grass with your friends and
saying things like "That cloud looks like a..."
And playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the
game. Back then, baseball was not a psychological group learning
experience-it was a game.
Remember when stuff from the store came without safety caps and
hermetic seals 'cause no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger.
And...with all our progress...don't you just wish...just once...you could
slip back in time and savor the slower pace...and share it with the
children of the 80's and 90's...

So send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The
Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger,
The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger and
Buttermilk as well as the sound of a real mower on Saturday morning,
and summers filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy land, baseball
games, bowling and visits to the pool...and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the
fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.

Basically, we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive
by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.

Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!  But we all
survived because their love was greater than the threat.

Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that!

And was it really that long ago?

Dirt Roads ~by Paul Harvey~

What's mainly wrong with society today is that too many Dirt Roads have been paved. There's not a problem in America today, crime, drugs, education, divorce, delinquency, that wouldn't be remedied if we just had more Dirt Roads, because Dirt Roads give character.

People that live at the end of Dirt Roads learn early on that life is a bumpy ride. That it can jar you right down to your teeth sometimes, but it's worth it, if at the end is home...a loving spouse, happy kids and a dog.

We wouldn't have near the trouble with our educational system if our kids got their exercise walking a Dirt Road with other kids, from whom they learn how to get along.

There was less crime in our streets before they were paved. Criminals didn't walk two dusty miles to rob or rape, if they knew they'd be welcomed by 5 barking dogs and a double barrel shotgun.

And there were no drive by shootings.

Our values were better when our roads were worse!

People did not worship their cars more than their kids, and motorists were more courteous, they didn't tailgate by riding the bumper or the guy in front would choke you with dust & bust your windshield with rocks.

Dirt Roads taught patience.

Dirt Roads were environmentally friendly, you didn't hop in your car for a quart of milk, you walked to the barn for your milk.

For your mail, you walked to the mail box.

What if it rained and the Dirt Road got washed out? That was the best part, then you stayed home and had some family time, roasted marshmallows and popped popcorn and pony rode on Daddy's shoulders and learned how to make prettier quilts than anybody.

At the end of Dirt Roads, you soon learned that bad words tasted like soap.

Most paved roads lead to trouble, Dirt Roads more likely lead to a fishing creek or a swimming hole.

At the end of a Dirt Road, the only time we even locked our car was in August, because if we didn't some neighbor would fill it with too much zucchini.

At the end of a Dirt Road, there was always extra springtime income, from when city dudes would get stuck, you'd have to hitch up a team and pull them out.

Usually you got a dollar...always you got a new friend...at the end of a Dirt Road!