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WITandWISDOM(tm) - November 21, 2000 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "We cannot live better than in seeking to become better." - Socrates Source: Awesome Quotes, www.coolnewsletters.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: About thirty years ago (written in 1955) a class in sociology at Johns Hopkins University made a scientific study of one of the worst slum districts of Baltimore. Tabulations were made on cards, 200 of which were marked "Headed for Jail." On each card was the name of a boy or a girl whose background, attitude toward life, and prospects indicated a life of crime. After a lapse of twenty-five years another class in sociology in Johns Hopkins, in searching for a project, found this bundle of cards marked "Headed for Jail." The task of checking on every card was chosen by this class as their project for the year. Only two persons on the cards marked "Headed for Jail" ever got there. The reason was "Aunt Hannah," a school teacher in that slum section. Here are typical stories: "I was the worst kid in the neighborhood," one man said. "And how the cops did like to pin things on me! And they were usually right. One day Aunt Hannah kept me after school. "'You're too smart a kid to be getting into trouble,' she said. 'Why don't you come to my house for dinner next Sunday, and let's talk?' "I went, - can't really remember what we did say, - but I just never had the heart to let Aunt Hannah down after that; she encouraged me to take up a career of service. Now I'm a doctor with a fine practice." "I am one of Aunt Hannah's alumni," said one of Baltimore's prominent businessmen. "While in school I clerked in a grocery store and would steal money, candy, and groceries for a gang of boys we had organized. Of course I got caught. But I just had sense enough to go and talk to Aunt Hannah. "She didn't preach to me, but she did point out that when we do something wrong we must pay for it in some way. Was I willing to pay back all that I had stolen? I said I was. Aunt Hannah then worked it out with the grocer and the police. "I did pay it all back, too. I also kept on working in that same grocery store and finally bought it. This is it, improved and modernized." Wherever the interviewers went, they found that something from the vigorous faith of this schoolteacher had rubbed off on her young charges. The result: some of the most service-minded citizens in Baltimore. When the college survey team visited Aunt Hannah in a home for retired teachers and reported their findings, what a great story she could have told! To their questions, however, she explained simply: "I just loved them as if they were my own boys and girls." That's about all you could ever get out of Aunt Hannah. But that's all you need to know to explain why only two out of two hundred of her boys and girls marked "Headed for Jail" ever got there. By William L. Stidger Source: Signs of the Times, Copyright (c) November 22, 1955, Pacific Press, www.pacificpress.com/signs via http://www.witandwisdom.org Submitted by Dale Galusha ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: YOU'RE NOT OLD UNLESS YOU CAN REMEMBER: Close your eyes (if you can read with them closed) . . . And go back . . . Before the Internet or the MAC, Before SEGA or Super Nintendo, Way back . . . I'm talkin' about hide-and-go-seek at dusk. Sittin' on the porch, Hot bread and butter. The Good Humor man, Red light, Green light. Chocolate milk, Lunch tickets, Penny candy in a brown paper bag. Playin' Pinball in the corner store. Hopscotch, butterscotch, doubleclutch Jacks, kickball, dodgeball, y'all! Mother May I? Red Rover and Roly Poly Hula Hoops and Sunflower Seeds, Root Beer Popsicles, Banana Splits, Wax Lips and Mustaches, Running through the sprinkler, The smell of the sun and lickin' salty lips.... Watchin' Saturday Morning cartoons, Mighty Mouse, Road Runner, Lambchops, The Three Stooges, and Bugs, Or back further, listening to Superman on the radio, Catchin' lightening bugs in a jar, Playing sling shot. When around the corner seemed far away, And going downtown seemed like going somewhere. Bedtime, climbing trees, An ice cream cone on a warm summer night Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe butter pecan, A cherry coke from the fountain at the corner drug store, A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers, Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Sittin on the curb, Jumpin down the steps, Jumpin on the bed. Pillow fights. Runnin' till you were out of breath. Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt and being tired from playin'... Eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar. Remember that? Submitted by Lyle Pohly, James D. Wisner, Carol Blum ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: "I hooked up my accelerator pedal in my car to my brake lights. I hit the gas, people behind me stop, and I'm gone." - Steven Wright Source: LAUGH-A-LOT! Via http://www.witandwisdom.orgwww.graceweb.org/Laugh-A-Lot!/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: George Ballas was driving his auto through an automatic car wash one Saturday morning. As he was watching the nylon fibers rotating on his car, he was thinking about the chores he had to do when he returned home. One of the jobs was to trim and edge his lawn. He noticed that when those nylon strings rotated at high speeds they actually straightened out. Then an idea struck him. Wouldn't a thicker nylon cord whirling at high speeds trim the grass around trees and edge the lawn? When Ballas got home he punched holes in a popcorn can, tied on some cords and bolted it on the whirling blade of his edger. It worked. Then, after being turned down by twenty distributors for his professional model, he invested his own money in a television commercial and was flooded with orders. That was it! The Weedeater was invented. It was the start of a multi-million dollar venture - and it began with a drive through the car wash! By Neil Eskelin in Neil Eskelin's Daily Jump Start(tm), Copyright (c) 2000, www.neileskelin.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org |