These kids are going straight to hell!

Or are they?

Oddly, these words have been a guidepost for me as a parent. My father wrote those words and the ones that follow below, over 30 years ago, in response to our rapidly changing cultural climate. I marvel at how he found the wisdom to look beyond what met the eye.

As a teen, I was proud of how cool my late-in-life parents were. My father was 40 when I was born, amid a sea of twenty-something child bearing suburban couples. Old fashioned by some standards. Visionary by others.

Today, the words soothe me as I watch my teen daughters and their friends engage in activities I could not even dream of at their age.

But the words also chill me, as I read the news of blatant intolerance around the globe.

By the late Basyl H. Tucker, sometime in the early 1970's:

I saw a boy walk in the place
With hair down to his shoulder
Good Lord, he could be president
Someday when he gets older

These kids are going straight to hell.

Or are they?

The girl who came in with him
Was something to be seen
Hair too red, skirt too short,
Her eyes were painted green!

These kids are going straight to hell.

Or are they?

And then the played the jukebox
Such noise you would not believe!
How they can listen that stuff
I really can't conceive

These kids are going straight to hell.

Or are they?

Then suddenly it hit me
When I was once their age
There were Tams and Plus Four Knickers
And Zoot Suits were the Rage

We kids were going straight to hell.

Or were we?

The girls wore funny things then too
Hair cut short like men
The way we dressed in those day
I don't want to see again

We kids were going straight to hell.

Or were we?

And when we played the jukebox
You couldn't stand the sound
Of Mairzy Doats the Jersey Bounce
And Music Goes 'Round and 'Round

We kids were going straight to hell.

Or were we?

So fella's wear you hair long
And girls your knees don't hide
For how you wrap the package
Doesn't tell you what's inside.

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Parents, let acceptance begin at home. "Get with it", as we used to say way back when, show your children that you can go beyond tolerating them and truly embrace all that they are. Model that behavior for your children, and your children may grow up to model that behavior for the world.

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Teaching early education, parenting education and personal development since 1989, Natalie Tucker Miller has called Vermont home since 1985. Growing up in Long Island, NY, she graduated from Five Towns College, then continued her education in the pastoral setting of northern NY at SUNY Potsdam. There she met Paul, to whom she's been married since 1982.