Think about is… Seriously If you think you are smarter than the previous generation… 50 years ago, the owner’s manual of a car showed you how to adjust the valves. Today, it warns you NOT to drink the contents of the battery.

I read the following story recently and it hit home.

There was once a farmer who had a son named John, a boy very apt to be thoughtless, and careless about doing what he was told to do.

One day his father said to him, “John, you are careless and forgetful, that every time you do wrong, I shall drive a nail into this post, to remind you how often you are naughty. And every time you do right I will draw one out.” His father did as he said he would, and every day he had one and sometimes a great many nails to drive in, but very seldom one to draw out.

At last John saw that the post was quite covered with nails, and he began to be ashamed of having so many faults. He resolved to be a better boy, and the next day he was so good and industrious that several nails came out. The day after it was the same thing, and so on for a long time, till at length only one nail remained. His father then called him, and said: “Look, John, here is the very last nail, and now I’m going to draw it out. Are you not glad?”

John looked at the post, and then, instead of expressing his joy, as his father expected, he burst into tears. “Why,” said the father, “what’s the matter? I should think you would be delighted; the nails are all gone.” “Yes,” sobbed John, “the nails are gone, but the scars are there yet.”

So it is, dear children, with your faults and bad habits; you may overcome them, you may by degrees cure them, but the scars remain. Now, take this advice, and whenever you find yourselves doing a wrong thing, or going into a bad habit, stop at once. For every time you give in to it, you drive another nail, and that will leave a scar on your soul, even if the nail should be afterwards drawn out.

—CC—

Although I do not text, many of my friends do. In fact, more and more seniors are texting and tweeting so there appears to be a need for an STC (Senior Texting Code). If you qualify for senior discounts, this is the code for you. Be sure to pass this on to your children and grandchildren so they can understand your texts.

ATD – At the Doctor’s BFF – Best Friends Funeral BTW – Bring the Wheelchair CBM – Covered by Medicare CGU – Can’t Get Up CUATSC – See You at the Senior Center DWI – Driving While Incontinent FWBB – Friend with Beta Blockers FWIW – Forgot Where I Was FYI – Found Your Insulin GGPBL – Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low GHA – Got Heartburn Again FWBB – Friend with Beta Blockers HGBM – Had Good Bowel Movement FWIPMK – Forgot Where I Put My Keys IMHO – Is My Hearing-Aid On?

LMDO – Laughing My Dentures Out LOL – Living on Lipitor LWO – Lawrence Welk’s On OMMR – On My Massage Recliner OMSG – Oh My! Sorry, Gas ROFL…CGU – Rolling on the Floor Laughing… Can’t get Up!

TTYL – Talk to You Louder WAITT – Who Am I Talking To? WTP – Where’s the Prunes WWNO – Walker Wheels Need Oil —CC—

A long time ago one of the ’53 folks sent me the following and now is the perfect time to share it.

Do You Remember When?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

The Fifties It took five minutes for the TV to warm up? Nearly everyone’s Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog? When a quarter was a decent allowance? You’d reach into a muddy gutter for a penny? Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels?

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn’t pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?

They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . and they did?

When a 57 Chevy was everyone’s dream car . . . to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?

No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?

Lying on your back in 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?

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

When being sent to the principal’s office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?

Remember Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Doody and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk?

AND summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.

Candy cigarettes Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers Newsreels before the movie P.F. Fliers Telephone numbers with a word prefix... (Raymond 4-601) Party lines Peashooters, 45 RPM records, Green Stamps, Hi-Fi’s Metal ice cubes trays with levers Mimeograph paper and smelly ink.

Beanie and Cecil Roller-skate keys Cork pop guns Drive ins Studebakers Washtub wringers The Fuller Brush Man Reel-To-Reel tape recorders Tinkertoys Erector Sets The Fort Apache Play Set Lincoln Logs 15 cent McDonald hamburgers 5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum Penny candy 35 cent a gallon gasoline Jiffy Pop popcorn Do you remember a time when...

Decisions were made by going “eenymeeny- miney-moe”?

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, “Do Over!”?

Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?

It wasn’t odd to have two or three “Best Friends”?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was “cooties”?

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?

A foot of snow was a dream come true?

Saturday morning cartoons weren’t 30-minute commercials for action figures?

“Oly-oly-oxen-free” made perfect sense?

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

War was a card game?

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?