Today's 21-Year Olds

I was speaking with a good friend this morning and somehow the topic of "things today's 21-year-old has never experienced" came up.

Today's 21-year-olds . . .

• never made a mix tape off the radio, probably never owned cassettes, and for certain never played records;
• have never owned a typewriter because they have always had a computer they could use anywhere at anytime, do not know life without the internet and wi-fi and may not know how to write research papers without it;
• may not have ever been to the drive-in;
• have never eagerly awaited the premier of Madonna's latest video on Friday Night Videos, adjusting the rabbit ears or the possibilities that exist with less than half a dozen television stations, and have never gotten off the couch to change the channels;
• may never have met a loved one at the airline gate;
• will probably never send or receive a love letter in the mail because so few people write them anymore;
• don't know the frenzy that ensued over the original Super Bowl Shuffle and so may not have gotten just how hideous the remake was in this year's Superbowl;

• probably had to have the original We Are the World explained to them and still haven't heard of many of the artists;

• has always had multiple ways to instantly connect via their cell phones, texting, and instant messaging;
• never relied on Liquid Paper for typo-free term papers;
  
• have never let their fingers do the walking in the Yellow Pages;
• have never waited a week while their photos were being developed;
• have had their whole lives - the good, bad, and ugly - chronicled on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. and have not experienced the benefits of making mistakes in privacy;
• have always known who was on the other end before they picked up the phone;
• know only a life with instant gratification whether it's dinner cooked in a microwave in 3 minutes or broadband internet connection rather than dial-up or no connection at all;
• have never used payphones or rotary dial phones and have certainly never gotten a busy signal;
• have never watched a film strip in class;
• have never eaten a McDLT where the hot side was hot and the cool side stayed cool;

• have never known a divided Germany;
• are too young to have seen Michael Jordan and Sweetness in all their glory . . . live;
• never driven on the Calumet Expressway, thrown change in the bucket at the Deerfield Toll Plaza, and never searched for 40 cents under the seats while driving 55 mph on the Northwest Tollway; and
  
• have never "told two friends, who told two friends, who told two friends, and so on".

And suddenly we felt really old.

Why Kids Need Music

Check out this chorus from PS22 in New York. I just saw them on Nightline singing Eye of the Tiger then I found their blog and watched them sing the best version of Landslide I've ever heard. I loved watching the expressions on their faces as the kids sang. You can feel their passion.





These kids will inspire you. We owe it to them to keep music alive for them.

Kids Do the Darndest Things

As I've talked about before, there was a time when I was growing up that we lived on food stamps and got help from the local food pantry. I was in 8th grade and I was a student at Thomas Junior High in Arlington Heights, now Thomas Middle School. At the time, I don't remember ever doing things like food drives, although I guess we did. If we did, however, we all just brought a few cans to school and that was the end of it. We most certainly did not take time out of school to form a human chain to the Wheeling Township Offices and Food Pantry, which like today, were located just down the street from my school.

Having gone to the food pantry as a kid because we needed food and now being a regular donor, my heart swelled with pride in today's youth when I read this story about the students at Thomas Middle School. 872 students and 101 faculty and staff collected over 5,000 cans of food - more than double what they collected last year. WOW.

Summer is one of the hardest times for food pantries. Donations are down and demand is up. Demand is up because parents who rely on the free or reduced-fee breakfast and lunch programs to help them stretch their meager food budgets (usually food stamps) are suddenly without that supplement when school ends in early June.

I'm delivering a box of food to Wheeling Township tomorrow and I'll be bringing extra veggies from my garden later this summer. If we all just add a few extra items to our carts every time we shop for groceries, it's not a strain on anyone's budget and in no time we'll have a full bag to drop off at the food pantry. Many stores run "buy one, get one free" specials and these are great times to get extra items at no cost.

Will you join me in collecting food for your food pantry this summer? If less than 900 middle school kids can donate more than 5,000 cans of food, what can we do?

Read the article below and watch the video.

Arlington Heights students make dent in need at food pantry
By Deborah Donovan, Daily Herald Staff, May 29, 2009

Is it a world's record if 872 middle school students and 101 staff members pass cans and other nonperishable food items they've donated from hand to hand for at least five blocks?

The students at Thomas Middle School, 1430 N. Belmont Ave., Arlington Heights, collected more than 5,000 containers of food, and Friday they stretched out from the school door to a truck waiting across the street from the Wheeling Township Food Pantry, 1616 N. Arlington Heights Road.

While village authorities let them block streets like E. Lynnwood Ave., closing Arlington Heights Road during the morning rush hour was not an option.

The school is hoping to create a new category for the Guinness Book of World Records, said Jason A. Dietz, assistant principal: Longest human chain passing food.

The weather was gorgeous, the students were only getting out of homeroom, but things were more complicated than you might think.

Believe it or not, the food--two or three times what they collected last year -- did not move in a smooth-flowing chain. Miscues caused cans and boxes to fall to the grass or sidewalk. Sometimes nothing seemed to be coming down the line, but then Danielle Stasik, 13, was juggling so many items that a classmate popped one into the hood of her sweatshirt.

Small groups of students -- usually eighth graders like Abbey Groves, 14, and her friends -- served as unofficial quality control experts, pulling out damaged cans and packages. Groves also pretended to confiscate a box of tea when she noticed it was her favorite brand.

All kinds of nonperishable items were donated from tins of tuna to boxes of breakfast cereal and plastic bottles of syrup and of course cans of pork and beans.

"I'm collecting good dinner ideas," said Victoria Self, a teaching assistant who lives in Inverness. "I've never seen some of these brands."

All year the students sponsored projects that demonstrated kindness and compassion to others, said Dietz.

"The students and staff at Thomas have worked hard to start a 'chain reaction' of kindness and compassion for others," he said. "Creating a human hand chain and passing the cans allows everyone to be a part of something special."

Conversations I've Never Had With My Mother

As I was on my way home a few minutes ago, I stopped off to get gas. When I walked into the gas station, there was a girl standing at the counter who couldn't have been older than 18, flirting with the attendant and chatting on the phone with her mom, affording me the opportunity to overhear the following cell phone conversation:

Girl on the phone with her mom: Mom, you gotta let me borrow your car tonight to go see Becky.
Mom (I assume this is her response): No.
Girl: Aw, Mom, come on. What if I promise not to drive drunk?

At that point, I looked at the guy behind the counter who is just shaking his head. I have no idea how the conversation ended because by that time, I had my change, so I had no reason to stand around and eavesdrop.

I swear that's a conversation my mom and I have absolutely never had.

Note to Self: Do Not Have Sex in the Police Station Parking Lot

Given the state of the world economy and the nastiness of this presidential election, I felt that this morning needed some levity.

This is from the Chicago Tribune and before that, the Allentown Morning Call.

Bad timing for tryst in ultimate wrong place
Amorous Pa. couple finds itself in police station parking lot

By Pamela Lehman Of The Morning Call
10:05 PM CDT, October 8, 2008

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- A couple caught by police having sex in their car early Sunday morning admitted they were unaware where they had parked.

When an officer knocked on the window, they quickly learned their trysting spot may have been a little hastily chosen.

The couple were busted in the Hellertown police station parking lot, with the engine still running, in a handicapped spot.

The driver, Dennis Conor Cullen, 23, is charged with drunken driving. Police did not charge Cullen, of Potomac, Md., nor his unnamed female companion, with anything related to having sex in the car. Cullen is free after posting $1,500 bail.

Cullen and the woman told police they had been drinking at a Lehigh University function earlier in the evening.

Police found the couple after responding to a call shortly before 3 a.m. of a suspicious vehicle parked in a handicapped space in front of the station at 685 Main St.

When an officer asked why they were parked at the station, Cullen and the woman said they were unaware and did not see that they had parked near several marked police cars, according to a news release.

Police said Cullen refused to submit to a blood sample. Cullen could not be reached for comment Wednesday.