Mama said, mama said.

[Army Wife'79]

Back in the early '60's my mom made us 4 kids go outside and "dig dandelions" with a paring knife b/c she didn't like pesticides. Her thinking was "if it kills the weeds, what else is it bad for?" By early '70's we were recycling almost everything and my friends thought we were strange for "sorting our trash" and then Dad would drive it across town to the recycle center. We were early environmentalists. In retrospect, it's too bad more people didn't think that way back then.

But with 3 daughters, my mom's most memorable phrase was "a man won't buy the cow if the milk is free".

[AGDee]

My mom gave some very good advice.

Don't ever let a boy come between you and your girlfriends. Your girlfriends will be your friends forever and he probably won't be around for long. (And yes, 25 years after high school graduation, those friends are the most precious and none of those boys are around at all).

Don't tell anybody anything unless you'd be ok with it being broadcast on TV. Don't write it down if you wouldn't want it in the newspaper. (this was wayyyyyyy before the internet!)

[ForeverRoses]

take care of your neck and hands- you can always tell someone's true age by looking at their neck and hands. So take are of them!
and she always used to say that I wouldn't understand certain decisions she made until I had kids of my own.

What was she wrong about? well the grade school I had to attend was absolutely horrible and did a number on my self-esteem that too A LONG time to work through (and sometimes I do find myself falling into those old traps). But she always insisted that I was getting a "good education" (but what good is a great education if you don't have the self-esteem to use it?)

however I do see know where she was coming from- she went to school in post-WW2 East Germany when education really was one of the only ways to get out.