European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 14, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Observation please pass the Pencil Jean Turner guest columnist at the end of last school year my son brought Home a list of supplies he would need for the 1990/91 school year. The rationale be Fig i guess that we could take All summer if needed to round up the necessary items for the Well equipped second grader. In be always wondered just How such lists Are formed. After looking at this one i was More baffled than Ever. Do they have a Board of teachers that gets together for cards and pizza one night and makes up these lists Are the lists computer generated Are Board games involved the list was placed on the refrigerator and the appropriate items were highlighted in Orange so they a jump out at me. The list started out pretty straightforwardly a no real surprises. Then i noticed a requirement for 36 #2 pencils. Thirty six pencils. I wondered How they had come up with that figure. Why not 37, or even 38? in the first Grade my child needed one package of # 2 pencils just six of them and now he needs six times that amount i envisioned second Grade teachers with storage closets filled with # 2 pencils. Why would second graders need so Many pencils will they make special projects out of them a Pencil log Cabin a Pencil Bird Bath the next item that caught my attention was pointed scissors. Get real a wild vision of second graders wandering around the Halls with bloody scissors in their hands flashed into my mind. Maybe i should Send bandages along with the scissors the last object on the list was a Pencil Box. With 36 #2 pencils stuffed in it i doubt there will be room for much else. I think ill Send a shoe Box instead looking farther Down the list to third Grade i noticed they required Only three #2 pencils. Then the Light dawned on me. For some strange reason second graders must eat their pencils apparently this problem creeps up in the summer Between first and second grades. Although the selection process still baffles me in a thankful to the school Board for sending me this list. It has made me aware of a very serious problem. Lead deficiency. From now on in a keeping a close watch on my son. And id advise you to do the same with any second graders you have Jean Turner is a military family member living in Schwar Kreuz of liking junk Peggy Davidson staff writer living in Europe is a wonderful experience. But like most americans overseas in be found there Are a few things peculiarly american that i really miss. Nothing big just some Little things. I miss . Television commercials. I miss answering the phone and having a computer Tell me to a stay on the line for an important i miss billboards along the highways. I miss newspapers full of ads for the local k Mart. I miss a Blue Light but being in Europe Hasni to caused me to miss junk mail. It still finds me. I have been the a a finalists in More sweepstakes than de Mcmahon has dollars to give away. I still get promos from companies i dealt with in the states a usually a week or so after the offer is Over. Sales brochures catch up with me also too late to use. In Europe however a new style of junk mail has begun littering my Mailbox and crossing my desk at work. That mail includes Chain letters which Are illegal despite the fact that they done task for Money according to Post office officials and religious tracts threaten dire consequences if i done to straighten out my act. Not to worry though. Others in my office Are getting the same attention. The latest religious leaflet asked the question a Are you guilty a and the sender saved me the Effort of answering by writing on the envelope Flap a you Are guilty i just wish the sender had put a return address on the envelope so that i could find out what in a guilty of which court found me guilty and who was on the jury. I guess i really worry about that because if the Chain letter that in be gotten at least eight copies of is right in a not going to live Long enough to change my ways. The letters threaten dire consequences if i done to Send out dozens of copies to my unsuspecting friends. I done to Send my friends copies of the Chain letter in Hopes of keeping them my friends. So while i enjoy the outdated sales material the sweepstakes chances and any and All Cata logs i really done to need predictions of doom and gloom. I get enough of that each year when Congress works on the budget. Feedback do you think our allies Are doing enough during the Gulf crisis sgt. Viroqua Correll 36th Supply so Pitburg a Germany some of them Are but not All. I think Germany and Japan could be doing More. Staff sgt. Mace Reeves 3rd in 58th aviation Gie Belstadt Germany i think there Are a few More that could Send troops not just Money. I think if we re sending troops with the possibility of getting killed they should be taking the same kind of risk. Soldiers Are Worth More than Money. Spec. Jeffrey Evans 4th in 8th inf div Vanhofen Germany no. If you look at All the countries in the United nations and then at those helping with the persian Gulf crisis you see that the United states is paying for the Protection of Many countries. What would they do if we weren to willing to do that sgt. Merrill Millic Etc 703rd main support in 3rd inf div Wurzburg Germany i think they re doing exactly what needs to be done. They re not doing anything less than what needs to be set in place or accomplished in order to prevent this crisis from becoming anything More than it already has. Cheri dates military family member living in Lamper theim Germany no. Our troops Are being taken away from their families. If More countries would Send troops maybe each individual would not have to stay there As by stars and stripes staff october 14,1990 sunday to plus c Page 3
