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Post to the Host: I

March 23, 2005 |

Post to the Host:
I grew up on public radio, living in the woods with no electricity or running water, listening to you on a battery operated radio. Somehow I managed to reach the ripe old age of 25 before learning that Lake Wobegon wasn't a real place. All those years I had pictured you in my imagination as tall and bearded and then I saw your picture and something in my heart broke. But I got over it. Now at 28 I am a first time mother and I'm looking forward to sharing APHC with my son and his generation. So thank you for all the years.

Amelia Stiles
Scott AFB
Illinois

Amelia, it's good of you to write and congratulations on that little boy. Twenty-eight is a good age at which to beget your first-born. You're wiser and have some idea who you are and you're young enough to endure the sleep deprivation. This is what kills us geezer parents, the interrupted sleep that turns us into the walking dead and makes us forget where we put our car keys, not to mention our car. Just don't be one of those all consuming parents of the sort we see more and more of today, the kind who put headphones on the mama's belly so the fetus can hear Mozart and wave flash cards at the little tykes as they eat their soy cereal. Don't get swallowed up in parenting. Don't bother reading the books. Be loving and kind and let your boy be challenged and you make sure to have a good life yourself. As for the beard, I grew it for years and then it wore me out and I shaved it off. I can send you a picture of me with one, if that's a comfort to you.

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