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Topic: If your over forty......... (Read 1434 times) |
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TerryS
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If your over forty.........
« on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 4:40pm » |
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Well, you are over forty (or close to it) if you get this. You lived
as a child in the 50s or the 60s. Looking back, it's hard to
believe that we have lived as long as we have.................
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a
special treat.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets,
and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention
hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors!
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then
rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After
running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the
problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we
were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!
We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt.
We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth and there were no law
suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to
blame but us.
Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and
learned to get over it.
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter,and drank sugar soda but we were
never overweight.... .....we were always outside playing.
We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no
one died from this?
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X Boxes, video games at
all, 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound,
personal cellular phones, Personal Computers, internet chat rooms,
...........we had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode
bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung
the bell or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing.
Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world!
Without a guardian. How did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and
although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many
eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who
didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.....
Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and
were held back to repeat the same grade.....Horrors! Tests were not
adjusted for any reason.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to
hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law
was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and
problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has been an
explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure,
success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
And you're one of them.
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echo
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #1 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 4:50pm » |
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We must have lived in the same neighborhood.
I do worry about the future for those being raised now.
No spelling bees -- too stressful. How will they learn to deal with stressful situations and someone being smarter than them.
Almost impossible to get the kids to stay outside on a nice day. Seems like their imagination has been limited to what is given them by video games.
I remember leaving the house after breakfast, heading to several friends houses and all of us taking off on our bikes until dinner time. There were days we were 10 miles from home, no one knew where we were. When asked, we would say, no one got overly excited about it. We were home safe and sound, tired, hungry, dirty, and ready to set out for the next adventure.
Then again -- I grew up with one TV station to watch, and one AM radio channel.
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domm
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #2 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 4:51pm » |
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Terry - thanks for the memories. We went out in the morning and didn't make it home til dinner time. God help you if you missed dinner.....cuz Mom was gonna kill ya.
It still amazes me that todays HS graduate has no inkling of B&W TV, JFK, Nixon, Vietnam, life without a computer, landing on the moon, etc. I guess you just had to be there.
Thanks again from one old fart to another
domm
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TerryS
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #3 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 6:20pm » |
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Yeah I grew up playing little league bassball building forts in the woods and sleeping in them, swimimg down at the creek riding my bike everywhere and fishing with my dad.
I do think they were the best years of my life, ( No Stress ) just happy times.
Thanks all, TerryS
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> With these clumsy hands of mine.
> The secret of unfolding flowers
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suzy617
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #4 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 6:26pm » |
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When I was a teenager I hitchhiked everywhere all the time. It was alot better then waiting for the bus. Nobody really ever got creepy with me and I'm still here. Now adays, I'd kill my kids if they ever did that! Ok, feeling old now, got to go take a nap, LOL 
suzy
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cbolony
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #5 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 6:35pm » |
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Terry thanks for the memories they we great years
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Jackie
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #6 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 6:38pm » |
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Thanks for the walk down memory lane, Terry.. 
Yes....those were the good old days!!
And we're smarter, better people, harder working and more responsible because of those days 
I sometimes wonder what the kids of today will have to reflect on.....  Scares me 
I must be getting to be an old fart.... ;D
Jacks 
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cootie
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #7 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 7:31pm » |
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I used ta walk ta football games and out where my horse was boarded several miles by myself day and nite and walk to the fairs.....now in our neighborhood even tho it's in the 'boonies' the neighbor girl left the fair on foot 'n got picked up and hacked ta pieces by a creep she knew that lived nearby also...never found all of her....things don't seem ta be the same anymore....either that or I was jus lucky ??
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BobG
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #8 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 8:11pm » |
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Ahaa yes........great growing up in the 50's and 60's.
Youg people today are lazy, ignorant and can only say gimme gimme gimme.
Who the hell raised this today's generation?
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kim
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #9 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 8:52pm » |
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Smiling Terry at the memories....Yup, we took off at sunup on bikes and every day was an adventure. I remember playing baseball (hardball - LOL!) and my mom calling me in for lunch was TORTURE. I remember teaching my neighbor how to play "catch", LOL, I informed her that an incoming "hard ball" was on it's way. Her father did not appeciate the dentist bill ??? LOL.
We played Ring a Levio, kick the can, tore up the neighborhood! We had fist fights, fought mighty battles, and later belly laughed till it hurt. We survived. Each day was a surprise and a mystery.
Got some kiddos now. It's different. When I see a kid riding his bike along a busy road all alone, I wonder for his safety and at the same time I feel that pull from my past. It's a different time. What a luxury it was and we did not even know it!!!!
We must now make "appointments" for our kids to get together. When you suggest that the kids go bike riding, they look at you like you just committed them. Well, I gotta admit, I'm a hard ass and on a sunny delirious day, I WILL "force" them to get on the bikes and see what is still to see. They can thank me later
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Margi
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #10 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 9:10pm » |
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Thanks, Terry - that brought on a serious case of the warm and fuzzies. 
My banana bike could FLY, man. Then my mom got it converted to a 3-speed (instead of the pedal brakes, damn near killed myself with my new hand brakes!). But I did actually survive my childhood withOUT helmets, seat belts or kneepads. Amazing.
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Jabeen
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #11 on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 9:16pm » |
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Someone had sent that to me already and it really did ring true. But beyond that-I brought my children home from the hospital in my arms, no mandatory car seat and they fed them in those flimsy little infant seats that I sat on my counter-not belted in. So much has changed since then! Also-did you guys run behind the DDT truck as they sprayed for mosquitos?? Thats the one that really kills me!
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Charlie
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #12 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 12:39am » |
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That was fun Terry. I'm one of the goofs who came home in the dark, black and blue, nail in my foot, snake in my pocket, bee sting, burdocks in my hair, eating a Chunky, while engaging in our nightly horse chestnut war. Them there was them daze.
Today, everyone is terrified because they watch TV news, which here, tries to scare the beejesus out of parents who make kids even more frightened. No matter what you see on the tube, there are fewer per capita crimes of almost all kinds. The rate of kidnapped and molested children is lower than ever. No one will believe this because it isn't said on TV. What a shame.
Sorry but you know me. I can't leave this kind of thing alone.
Thanks Terry.
Charlie
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BobG
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #13 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 1:09am » |
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Yer right Charlie
Fear, violence, murder, rape, child molestation, war sells big time.
Kids getting straight A’s in school are ignored. No money in it.
Who's running the news organizations and producing "kids" cartoon shows these days? Those of the generation that grew up in the 50's and 60's.
Yes, I am one of those that grew up in the 50's and 60's and I'm not too proud of my generation. My generation is also running Arthur Anderson and Enron. And W is from my generation and wants to take us to Iraq for the big oil companies.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 3rd, 2002, 1:11am by BobG » |
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Ted
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #14 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 1:37am » |
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Feel better about your generation, Bob. Before yours it was the laissez-faire economists leaving everyone to Darwinian social systems. It was blacks at the back of the bus. It was blacks not eating at counters. Segregated fountains. Segreagated schools. Folks starving in the Appalachias, Selma, Washington DC. There was a war that the soldiers were spit upon unnecessarily, but also the war needed to be stopped. There were unequal opportunities for women, compared to men. The list goes on big time. But those Enron/Arthur Anderson types have managed to dimish your generation as one of a bunch of liberal whiners that didn't do shit for this country. Well, the liberal whiners stole this country from the laissez-faire economists. The white supremacists. The anti-women-working/wearing pants crowd. The war industrial complex. From all the bastards trying to take the country back these days. All those areas still need work. But before your generation, very few were working on it or cared. Yours, despite the rhetoric out there, was a generation of saints-on-acid.
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Charlie
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #15 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 6:58am » |
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Well done Ted.
Something else to consider is that the World War Two generation, those who grew up in the depression and fought, worked, or sacrificed for the cause, were the ones who became the liberals. These voters kept the Democrats in control of Congress from the 1950s through the 1990s. Patriotic veterans were the backbone of liberal thought of the time, not liberal radicals. It was our civic minded parents who were responsible for most of what you said Ted.
Perhaps after seeing the horrors of war, liberalism looked pretty damn good.
Charlie
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| « Last Edit: Dec 3rd, 2002, 7:06am by Charlie » |
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catlind
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #16 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 4:36pm » |
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Geez, where the hell did I grow up.... LOL
I'm not over 40 but that's how my childhood was. Charlie, I had completely forgotten about chunkies!!! Man they were good. Miss them terrible. I still remember at age 9 or 10 standing holding the reset button on the B&W TV while we watched Elvis' last concert. Bike riding was the only means of transportation, as we didn't consider foot transport LOL.
I lived by the river, and we woke up and headed across the road and swam til November LOL. I still remember the contests to see who would be the first one in for the year. I won by going in during March before the ice flows came down from the lakes. We played outside all year long....winter didn't slow us down one bit. My folks never once worried about us walking the highway by ourselves down to the park 1/2 mile away. The didn't stop and think twice as we all trooped out to the bush lots behind the fields. Only time Mom ever got upset was when we were caught chopping steps with an axe in Old Mr. West's 100 year old black walnut. That and the time we brought home the wild dog...but that's another story. We created our own games to play, Mr. Eberts wife will never forgive him for giving us that hand pully. It made for a great ride down from the top of the oak tree in the back yard. We built our own rafts out of scraps instead of cars. That was all great til we decided to add a chair and "seat belt" to one. We didn't know much about physics, but we learned that when you knot the red head kid into the lawn chair at one end and shove off, the raft will tip over! Of course we caught royal hell after we all stopped laughing and realized that Greg wasn't coming up! Ooops, shouldn't have tied that knot so tight. Oh and hunting....each other! Now that was fun. Of course Mom didn't think so but she didn't find out til we were grown LOL. You'd be amazed at the power of green bubble yum in a pellet gun!
I'm not even 40 yet and I lived all those things. I wonder what my kids will do .... if the playstation is off limits and the cable goes out, it's as if they have been inflicted with the most horrendous punishment of all. The words I'm bored are always coming out of their mouths....thank goodness I learned how to handle that one....there's always a toilet that needs scrubbing.
To think we survived and without too much money going into therapists pockets! LOL
Whatever shall we do with today's kids?
Cat
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Azrael
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #17 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 4:59pm » |
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I remember the good ol' days... An hour late gettin' home and still 10 miles away... Hikin' 2 miles through the backwoods to my friend's house everyday to just do BS all day, only to have to hike the 2 miles back at the end of the day... Living 5 miles away from the nearest school bus stop... Building a bike ramp out of old plywood and cement blocks, then busting up my bike on the first test of the ramp... Throwing rocks at a wasp next, then realizing that wasps can fly a lot faster than we could run... But wait a minute... I'm not 40, so just forget all this...
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catlind
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #18 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 6:25pm » |
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Man Drk, forgot all about the ramps....except ours ended in the river LOL You'd probably make a fortune if you went diving in the St. Clair river and brought up all the bikes we lost!
Cat
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Charlie
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #19 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 6:49pm » |
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What TV reset button? Our first TV was a 1949 Meck. That, all the way through the 1963 Zenith, had dials that wore out and had to be jostled to steady the picture. Often, we took off the knob as it would work better. I still have the box of dad's old RCA tubes which he used for replacements. Collectibles now.
Never could swim but we had some bb gun wars. Never got hit and most of us were bright enough to split anyway. Joe shot my friend in the finger with a pellet gun...damn that must have hurt. I fell through the floor of our "secret" abandoned house. Used to get fireworks from some place in Ohio. 4th sounded like a small war around Dearborn St. and burn barrels didn't have a chance. At my uncle's cottage on the big lake, where the 4th was pretty dangerous, dad brought the assortment of 10,000 firecrackers...he was a great dad.....we blew apart everything. One guy found an old well pipe and discovered what kind of noise acetylene made. No wildlife within miles of the place. Mom used to toss barrel bombs (you probably know them as M-80s) in the water. Waterspouts were like mines. Probably some not very happy fish. Mom liked fireworks more than anyone.
We walked one mile to school in the morning, home for 1-hour a lunch (no cafeteria) back to school and them home. City kids had no school buses. Used to build some pretty dangerous (go-carts) out of just about everything after stealing the remains of a wagon, dug holes and covered them with twigs and dirt. Mrs. Swanson got mad when she nearly sprained her leg and we had to stop. Pretty stupid.
By the way, I still drink from the garden hose now and then and you can still buy Chunkys here. Don't miss Flav'r Straws though...horrible...
Charlie
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cootie
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #20 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 7:48pm » |
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Anyone ever watch American Bandstand on a black and white tv....after a while we took the knobs off and used plyers to adjust stuff. Mom would sit on the floor doin her theigh exercises eatin a huge bowl of potato chips and choc cream 'toes' watchin Amercian Bandstand....don't think the exercises did much verses all that fat food tho.....
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Edna
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #21 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 8:49pm » |
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gee terry........THANKS
I'm not 40 yet........39 only and lots here has kept the smile going
AND CHARLIE WOW
YOU KNEW MRS. SWANSON?????????????? did you ever get to sample any of the TV dinners??
EDNA wonderful, fun memories here!!
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| « Last Edit: Dec 4th, 2002, 9:55am by Edna » |
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Charlie
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #22 on: Dec 3rd, 2002, 11:11pm » |
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Yup. I ate tons of them there dinners. Just awful. Now its Stouffers stuff in its many forms.
We used pliers for the knob too. Dad used surgical clamps sometimes......even better.
Bet you kids didn't know that about 1950, most network TV didn't come on until the afternoon and signed off about 11:30. I kid you not.
Charlie
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brain_cramps
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #23 on: Dec 4th, 2002, 2:53am » |
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none of you from up north here (CAN) that played hockey at 20deg below 0 (NOT CELSIUS) for 5hrs at a time???
nothing quite like hearing a bunch of kids with frostbite in their feet. TAP.TAP.TAP.....
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cootie
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Re: If your over forty.........
« Reply #24 on: Dec 4th, 2002, 9:05am » |
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I 'memeber when we 'first' heard of McDonalds openin up in a nearby town....we'd get excited an drive over there for special dinner nite out plans an mom'd order bout 20 extra burgers "ta go" and put em in the freezer so we could have Mickey D's more often for dem special occations.....yeah.....love that special sauce now days that does special things to your gut.....
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| « Last Edit: Dec 4th, 2002, 9:07am by cootie » |
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