What's the best advice you got as a kid?

[wtmusic]

A bit that comes to mind came from my US History teacher, Mr. Distel. He said, "Marriages in which the couple are not close in terms of intelligence never last." At the time I thought it just sounded like cynical oldfart sentiment, but in the depths of my aged experience it's pretty damn true.

[slackmaster]

1. Don't get married until you are at least 30 years old

:D

[wtmusic]

3. Yep

My mom pelted me with that one until I was oh, about 30 :D

[Richardo]

2. "Don't do anything stupid."

The entire transcript of the 'talk' I got from Dad as I was going off to college.

And I must say I did not fully heed this advice. ;-)

[wtmusic]

4. But that's an important element of college life

I guess there's stupid and REALLY stupid :P

[Richardo]

6. That was the distinction I made, too

LOL wtmusic!

[skygazer]

5. Keep pen and paper handy at all times

And write. A high school English teacher.

[crispini]

7. From a movie.

The immortal Buckaroo Banzai. "No matter where you go, there you are."

Sounds stupid, but pretty profound when you think about it. I found myself mulling that one over on many a slow bus around Asia....

[wtmusic]

8. That implies you can never really "get away from it all"

:scared:

[tridim]

9. That's what psychedelic drugs are for

:crazy: !

[crispini]

10. Yep. You may find yourself....

living in a shotgun shack ... in another part of the world...

but YOU'RE still YOU.

Took me about seven years to figure that one out.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Yes, that IS a statement far more profound than many give it credit for

Both because you are you, wherever you are and whatever situation you are in.

And also, as I read the phrase, it reminds me that wherever I am, there is a call for me to live with the place/situation/event, accept it, deal with it, and do with it what I can. No sense wishing to be somewhere else, unless I am first dealing with what is immediately in front of me.

[tridim]

18. I didn't give it much credit because I first heard it

in the Brady Bunch Movie.

[crispini]

27. LOL, that's why I like it so much.

It *sounds* amazingly stupid and it turns out to be quite profound. :D

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. An old man who was part of my scout troop taught me an important lesson

I didn't get it all at the time (I was fifth or sixth grade) but sometime in college, I think it was, the meaning of it came to me.

He showed me, my first day in the scout troop, a coin he kept in his left pocket. He said, "Every morning, I put this coin in my left pocket to remind me that I need to do a good deed for the day. And when I do something good for someone, I move it to my right pocket; then I know I've done my one good deed for the day."

I was with him through that part! Woo hoo! A way to keep score! And I only have to do one!

But then he confused me with, "And then, a little later, I move it back to my left pocket."

That's the part that took me about 10 years to figure out.

[hatredisnotavalue]

12. From my Grandmother:

Public service (volunteering) is the rent you pay for your time on earth :)

[wtmusic]

15. I bet she is/was an FDR Democrat

and coughing up a little hard-earned dough for charity never hurt either!

[hatredisnotavalue]

19. Yes she was!

Best Democrat I ever knew. She could have been head of the DNC!. She was friends with Rachel Carson. She died in 1990. Her only fault was that she raised a rabid Republican ( my mother), otherwise she was everything the Democratic party embodied and embodies.

[wtmusic]

21. Interesting that you're flipping generations that way

Sorta happening in my family too

[hatredisnotavalue]

41. my family too!

My mother has been on the dole her whole life, while degrading the democrats, just to tick her mother off. She is a union member, was on food stamps for the majority of my time growing up, and is now abusing the federal health care system. Payback time, her roommate at the nursing home has a picture of her son with Dennis Kucinich on her night stand. My mother is a bitter old woman, who wouldn't give me a drink of water if I was dying.

[Sporadicus]

14. 'Don't Compare Yourself to Others'

From my sage grandmother. As true today as it was in my youth.

[no name no slogan]

16. "Don't trust whitey"

No wait, that was the advice Steve Martin's character got from his dad in "The Jerk". Sorry :dunce:

[tridim]

20. Hehe.. I love that movie

It helped me discover my "special purpose" too.

[Amaya]

38. " Lord loves a workin' man;

don't trust whitey; see a doctor and get rid of" Love that movie.

Good advice too.

[no name no slogan]

50. Yeah, as a straight white male, I have to agree! (nt)

[kodi]

17. "always be away when 'they're' moving"

.

[GOPisEvil]

22. Only borrow money for cars and houses, and pay them both off early.

Sadly, I didn't follow this advice, and paid the price. I'm still not totally following it, but I'm MUCH better than I used to be.

[wtmusic]

24. That's GREAT advice

Someone should make a compilation of this stuff and print it for mandatory reading in high schools...

I can't even bring myself to borrow for a car. I actually save up for them. :crazy:

[GOPisEvil]

26. I've only bought one new car.

The rest were purchased at reduced price from my parents. I paid the car off early. I'm making extra payments as I can on my house. Just paying some extra principle.

Now...credit card debt is where I had my problems. But, I've gotten better. Promise. :-)

[mtnsnake]

32. Same here. If we can't pay entirely for the car, we wait until we've got

the entire amount, even if it takes years to do it initially. Over the years we've saved tons on interest.

[Thor_MN]

58. My grandfather would pay cash for a car and then make payments to himself.

to get the cash for the next one. I paid cash for my second to last car (my nephew is going to fix that one up for his first car) and this one is a 0% loan.

[Taxloss]

23. "It is always better to regret something you have done,

not something you haven't done."

From my dear old dad.

[wtmusic]

25. I wish...

my dad had been around to give me advice like that. He was always working. Never had the proverbial Father/Son talk...

[Taxloss]

28. Well, my father was abroad a lot. But ...

... he certainly made what time we had count, and I am still grateful to him for that. We remain very close, a fact that I will be forever thankful about.

[Cuban_Liberal]

29. "Borrow seldom, save often"

From my dad.

:)

[NightTrain]

30. From my two-pack-a-day father: "Don't smoke!"

I never did. Unfortunately, dad was too addicted to stop, and it killed him at 62. :(

[wtmusic]

33. My Mom did the same thing

She lasted to 71 but it was those dirty Lucky Strikes that did it. :(

[Left Is Write]

31. "Get a library card."

[MisterP]

34. The X-Files; caught increasing snippets as my bedtime was extended

past 9 (or 8?)
Don't trust the pretty men who tell you cancer is good for you

[slutticus]

35. "Don't ever get married" n/t

[HEyHEY]

36. "If you don't give people the benefit of the doubt...

You're just as miserable as everyone else."

[Medium Baby Jesus]

37. Don't trust anybody n/t

[B Calm]

39. Never loan your car to a friend.

My dad preached that to me during my teenage years. When I was in the Navy I loaned my car to a fellow shipmate who had a hot date. He hit another car and did quite a bit of damage to both vehicles. I find out the guy didn't even have a drivers license and I'm put on high risk insurance and was responsible for paying the damage to the other car..

[wtmusic]

40. After that he was an ex-friend, perhaps?

That one is kissin' cousins with "never lend money to someone in your family"

[Thor_MN]

59. I would ammend that one.......

"never lend money that you expect to get paid back to someone in your family."


I have a sister who is a single parent - I "loaned" her the down payment for her house, bought her a used car, "loaned her until Friday" many times. She claims to know the exact amount, if I had to guess, it would be around $14K. I consider it to be my contribution towards preserving my genes - I don't have any kids and am reaching the point where I don't expect to have any. Those kids have on average 1/4 of my genes, so it's money well spent.

[wtmusic]

66. interesting perspective

like buying a little piece of immortality

[saltpoint]

42. Concert pianist Gina Bachauer told me --

-- backstage in Cincinnati, Ohio to "never take more than 19 aspirin before performing."

True story.

[wtmusic]

43. A beta-blocker or two can sure help

with stage fright, though

[saltpoint]

44. Hi, wtmusic.

Thanks for your post -- it's interesting and reassuring.

Enjoyed the range of responses you got, too.

[livinginphotographs]

45. My dad.

"People are no damn good."

"If you expect the worst out of people, the only thing you can ever be is pleasantly surprised.

If you expect the best out of people, the only thing you can ever be is sorely disappointed."

He was right, you know.

[HEyHEY]

46. I got the exact opposite advice

:shrug:
Expect the best outta people and hold them accountable.

[livinginphotographs]

47. Then he bought me a Camus book when I was 10.

No wonder I ended up the way I did. :)

[likesmountains 52]

48. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. n/t

[MisterP]

54. of course, then it's all YOUR fault if someone hurts you on the inside

[Vinnie From Indy]

49. I was about to get out of college and my older successful cousin

told me that I should get a job as a "steward" at an airlines so I could nail all the stewardesses and see the world. We still laugh at his attempt to dispense wisdom. The funny thing is, looking back, it wasn't that bad of an idea. Damn!

[rug]

51. You'd best put that down

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

52. From my godfather when I was a broken-hearted

18 year old after my first boyfriend broke up with me: "Men are like buses, you can always catch the next one."

Uncle Jack was the best!!!

[Mr.Green93]

53. to set down

and STFU.

[mike_c]

55. always wear clean underwear...

...because you never know when you might be in an accident.

I'm not making that up.

[Rabrrrrrr]

56. My mom used to say that a lot

and lo and behold, one day I was in an accident.

[Thor_MN]

60. Bill Cosby said that one was pointless because

"First you say it, then you do it."

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

57. "Always do the hardest job first."

One of my sixth grade teachers, Mrs. Wagner, told me that once, and I took it to heart and try to do that to this day.

[Thor_MN]

61. That goes along well with what my uncle told me while working on a car

Work on the hardest to reach bolt first, because if it doesn't come off, the others don't matter.

[grasswire]

62. "if you want to know how a man will treat you...

....watch how he treats his mother."

I ignored it. Big mistake.

[tsakshaug]

63. From my basketball coach

-two posts about him today, haven't thought about him in years-
"Never stick a cotten ball in your eye"

[dback]

64. "Harriet never minded admitting she didn't know something."

"'So what," she thought, "I can always learn.'"

From "Harriet the Spy," of course. :) I still re-read it every couple years.

[tk2kewl]

65. fake it til you make it

offered by a friend.
can get you through tough times

[Seabiscuit]

67. If you chopped down the cherry tree, admit it.

[Mojambo]

68. Never drink at your neighborhood bar

My mom always said, "Do your drinking on the other side of town."

[Radical Activist]

69. Don't touch that!

The only consistently good advice I got.

[wtmusic]

71. I got that too

but it sorta went out the window in my adolescence. :D

[fujiyama]

70. "If you're going to cheat...

Dammit, do it right. Don't be stupid. Don't get caught".

He was funny. He also called the House of Representatives, the House of Reprehensables.

[noonwitch]

72. If a ball rolls in front of your car, it will be followed by a child

My mom said this when I was learning to drive. It has been proven true at least 100 time in my driving experience, and I always slow down if I see one and look to see if there is a kid ready to run out to get it.

Also, when I am outdoors and I see little kids playing across the street and their ball rolls out in the street, I go get the ball and throw it back to them.