European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 06, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse & ends 4gimme kids Are willing to give Erma Bombeck Universal press Syndicate Judith Martin United features t s 1990. Do you know where your Chil Dren Are i what a question of course you know where they Are. You read the newspaper and watch television. Some of them Are making touchdowns winning spelling bees and earning scholarships. The rest of them they re doing drugs getting pregnant cruising skip Ping school running away from Home stealing cars playing with guns and travelling in gangs. If that s what you think you need to been lightened. There s a huge segment of the teen Community that rarely makes it to the pages of the newspaper or on film at 11." by news standards they re not doing any thing that dramatic or that spectacular. They re just washing cars to earn Money for a child s liver transplant delivering Flowers to nursing Homes and Hospital patients Reading to the Blind and dishing up food for the homeless on a sunday morning. They re hugging the special olympians who Cross the finish line picking up trash from our roadsides and recycling bottles and cans. They re climbing mountains to Benefit kids with cancer and teaching water safety at Parks and recreation programs. Some of them Are in the counselling business Manning crisis hot lines for their contemporaries who Are deep into drugs and alcohol and Are contemplating suicide. They re filling out the ranks of the red Cross and United Way working at food Banks and Ronald Mcdonald houses and giving Aid to police programs. For every kid who drops out of school there Are scores of teens who drop in to Tutor a sick child. In fact according to a Gallup poll 50 percent of All american teen agers Volunteer on the average of five hours a week. Every year in my City Young people dump thousands of Little rubber ducks at $5 a shot in a canal to stage the great american Duck race. It s their Way of showing their involvement against drug abuse. Recently a High school class threw a prom for the residents of a Home for the elderly. They actually did get Good Media coverage on this too often adults Don t bother to look beyond the Stone washed jeans the Punk haircuts the giddiness the vocabulary and the culture of youth. But compassion comes wrapped in Many packages. What is perceived As the Gimme generation contributed heavily last year to the number of americans who volunteered $ 150 billion Worth of their time. In a world where troubled teens is a redundancy it s Good to know one out of every two of our kids has discovered the meaning of life find a greater need than your own and serve it. Dear miss manners i prefer notto eat meat though i do eat entertaining i serve the things i eat fish vegetables pasta Etc. I strive to be an easy to entertain guest and a gracious hostess. Miss manners in the Community where we lived for 10 years i did not mention food preferences when new friends invited us for dinner however these dinners often resulted in cementing relationships. When the couple became Good friends i would then be in the embarrassing position of having been invited to their Home several times where i had eaten or politely picked at whatever was served and later feel ing i had misled a Friend. As the relationship progressed i could find no Way to say by the Way you be been serving me food i Don t care to eat and so remained silent. We have recently moved to a new Community and other couples have invited my Hus band and me to have dinner in their Homes. Here we Are starting Over. Is there something i can say even when someone asked if we had a food preference it would have seemed Forward of me to suggest what should be on their menu. Gentle Reader it seems to miss manners that you have handled things with great consideration. She doubts that you put your hosts into retrospective agony Over their menus presumably you enjoyed the food you could eat at their dinners and the conversation even More. You might mention that. When you Are specifically queried it is not Horoscope for the week of May 6 Aries March 21-april 19 vault Over Obsta cles in your path. Utilize inherent creative talents in the arts business or Media. Don t delay Spring vacation much longer. Taurus april 20-May 20 Don t Brood Over what might have been. Take charge of your own Fate. Influence spreads through your words. Also focus on Basic chores. Gemini May 21-june 20 break from the past is imminent. Slippery like Mercury you won t be tied Down for Long. Use language skills in new part time work. Catch up on read ing As Well. Cancer june 21-july 22 Don t Burn a Hole in savings refurbishing your Domestic scene. Play the peacemaker role with estranged relatives accentuate sincerity Over Arm twisting Maneu vers. Leo july 23-aug. 22 Trust intuitive flashes. New business dealings in the offing. Use your financial savvy to the fullest. Virgo aug. 23-sept. 22 if you re attacked by the morning grouches vigorous exercise helps. Research and literary projects highlighted. Buy books for Home Library. Clear out obsolete files. Libra sept. 23-oct. 22 Shower a loved one with gifts it will be reciprocated in kind. Trust your feelings and express them in unusual ways. Forward to say something similar i Don t eat meat but i m Happy just eating the vegetables and salad so Don t do anything special for they will of course do something Spe Cial but the question indicates that they were prepared to do so. Dear miss manners living in Miami we Are surrounded by both Spanish and English. Recently my husband and i were invited to a wedding and the entire 1 /2-hour ceremony was in Spanish. Unfortunately i am not fluent in Spanish and my attention Span did not extend to 90 minutes. Should a couple inform the guests on the invitation if a wedding is to be in Spanish so they can choose whether to attend gentle Reader you certainly have a Peculiar Way of choosing whether to attend a wed Ding. It is miss manners understanding that wedding guests Are there out of affection for the bridal couple not in the expectation of riveting entertainment adjusted to whatever their Atten Tion spans happen to be. Unfortunately there is no Way to indicate on a wedding invitation that unsuitable people should decline. If there were it would read if you Don t care about us Don t bother to at dear miss manners is it right to sit in front of the to set when you re eating supper is it Nice to Boss people around is it Nice to Tell people to shut up some kids in my class say shut i Don t think it is Nice it can Hurt people s feelings. Gentle Reader All of these things Are wrong unless bossing people around is the term you use for what your parents and teach ers Are doing to you. When they Boss children around politely. Miss manners Trust sit is acceptable because it is properly called child rearing and watch your health this week. Scorpio oct. 23-nov. 31 you May be pursued by those who think you have psychic Powers. Mysteries become enlightened physical attraction is part of the scenario. Sagittarius nov. 23-dec. 20 a rest less week ahead. Almighty Dollar and Domestic issues spotlighted. Relatives bother you Only if you allow them to. Diffuse intensity with humor. Capricorn dec. 21-Jan. 19 you la need to shift into High gear on the career front As projects multiply. Everything comes up roses and roadblocks disappear. Don t allow emotional storms to rain on your Parade aquarius Jan. 20-feb. 18 old Friend says i told you practical matters influence love life. Focus on Home family business responsibilities. You Are in Driver s seat. Pisces feb. 19-March 20 focus on communication writing associations with dynamic individuals. What you thought was out of reach now is in sight. Don t be the fall Guy. Persever Ance wins. May 6,1990 sunday Page 11
