Jena events a reminder of the 50's

With all the renewed stir about race relations in the wake of the student flare-up in Jena, La., I was reminded of my own days when racial relations were a concern, when I was starting a Brownie troop in the mid-1950s in an affluent neighborhood of Philadelphia.

My only daughter was seven years old, and I decided it was time she had some female playmates. Having four brothers, she needed opportunities to enjoy the friendship of other girls.

I started the Brownie troop as an after-school activity, and we had a mixture of white, black, Christian, and Jewish. The girls were rich and poor and inbetween. All the girls in the school wanted to join the troop.

Some girls whose fathers were doctors and business executives were black, while some of the white girls were among the least wealthy. Sometimes when we had cookouts, we had two separate fireplaces going so that the Jewish girls could keep kosher.

Even with this melting pot mixture, everyone always had a good time, and we all liked each other and enjoyed the time spent together. I'm glad my daughter and the other girls had the opportunity to get to know each other. They learned to respect each other's differences and didn't mind making adjustments.

So when I read the news about Jena's troubles, I wondered why, as somebody said not so long ago, "Why can't we all just get along?"

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My latest information from the Mayo Clinic Health Letter contains some interesting facts about our weight. Most people add a few pounds during every decade of adulthood. Is that unhealthy?

Well, it depends on your genetic make-up. Does your excess weight settle around your middle, giving you an appleshaped profile, or does it settle to the buttocks, hips and thighs, making more of a pear shape?

"Apples" may actually have increased health risks, because the fat cells tend to break down and enter the bloodstream, contributing to arteriosclerosis. There will be more to follow in this interesting research.

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Here are some more definitions for a fast-paced "modern" world:

Americans: People with more time-saving devices but less time than anybody else in the world.

Efficiency Expert: a person who is smart enough to tell you how to run a business, and too smart to start his own.

Incentives: the possibility of getting more money than you have earned.

Planning: the art of putting off until tomorrow that which you have no intention of doing today.

See you next week!

The preceding article was cut short in Oct. 25 issue of Gulf Breeze News. We apologize for the inconvenience.