We Didn’t Start the Fire

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billy joel, history, lyrics homeschooling

We were driving down the interstate the other day, singing along to Billy Joel on my car stereo.  I don’t sing well – AT ALL – but it doesn’t stop me from belting out my faves whenever I have the chance.  “Find some noise-cancelling headphones if ya don’t like it!” is what I tell my kids when they hear me crooning and give me the look that begs me to keep my musical appreciation to myself.

Usually our musical conversations enlighten them and I love giving them the scoop on everything from Bon Jovi and Alice Cooper to 8-tracks and marching bands.  It also assures them that I’m either rockin’ smart, or certifiably crazy.

Some days it’s just a coin toss.

So, anyhoo, as I’m belting out the fast-paced lyrics to We Didn’t Start the Fire and playing that video in my head of me and Dom singing this song at the top of our lungs in the back of Mama Mia’s (who remembers those days?!) it occurred to me that I not only wanted to share with my kids all the memories I have of this music, but also what the music means.

This one just happens to be a history book set to a drum beat.

So this is my version of homeschooling:  I told the kids that we are going to dissect this song.  Item by item, I want them to research the topics mentioned and learn about why they are/were known by name and what historical significance they held that has earned them a spot in the lyrics of this tune.  I plan to chime in heavily with my personal memories of these events.  But I have a feeling I’ll learn almost as much as they will.

Excuse me, please, while I crank the volume up to 10. 😉

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe,

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, “The King and I” and “The Catcher in the Rye”
Eisenhower, vaccine, England’s got a new queen,
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye 

[Chorus:]
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it 

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc,
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron,
Dien Bien Phu falls, “Rock Around the Clock”

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team,
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland,
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev,
Princess Grace, “Peyton Place”, trouble in the Suez

[Chorus]

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac,
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, “Bridge on the River Kwai”
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball,
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide,

Buddy Holly, “Ben Hur”, space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, “Psycho”, Belgians in the Congo,

 [Chorus]

 Hemingway, Eichmann, “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion,
“Lawrence of Arabia”, British Beatlemania,
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson,

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex,
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say?

[Chorus]

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again,
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock,
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline,
Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan,

“Wheel of Fortune”, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide,
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz,
Hypodermics on the shores, China’s under martial law,
Rock and roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore

[Chorus]
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on

Makes ya wanna go buy a Billy Joel CD, doesn’t it? 😉
We Didn’t Start the Fire, from the album Storm Front by Billy Joel.  Lyrics obtained and copied from MetroLyrics.com 

Day 322: Today May Be the Day You Need It…

When my children were born the issue that plagued me the most was car seat safety.  I admit, I read everything in my path related to child safety.  I scoured books and articles with advice on everything from how to do baby CPR to how to save an injured tooth.  I childproofed every cabinet.  All cleaning products went into storage above the refrigerator.  Outlets were safety-capped and cords were constrained.  Bumper guards protected them from sharp corners and gates were affixed at the staircase. 

And the car seats were inspected by me, Dom, my father and the state police, lest any haphazard inattention to detail go unchecked.

I kept close watch on the weight limits of every car seat.  I registered every one of them so I would be notified in the event of a recall. I knew when to replace them, when to adjust them for growth, and when to be done with them completely.

Let me go on the record now and say: We are not done with them yet.

My children abhor the booster seats.  Not that I blame them.  I can vividly recall using plastic booster seats at restaurant tables when I was little, and being SOOOO grateful when I was finally pronounced “big enough” to sit in the regular chair without the boost.  So I get it when my kids complain that they HAAAAAAAAAATE the booster seats. 

But, state law says 4’9” is the magic height to finally be out of a booster.  My oldest has two inches to go.  The booster seats accommodate children up to 80 pounds.  My kids are 58 and 68 pounds.  So, Mom’s Rule is that they still must ride in the boosters. 

They hate me for it.

When we pull up to the school, the children insist on being let out “at the bridge” at the front of the school so they can walk up to the building, rather than going through the traditional carpool line and being assisted by the 4^th and 5^th grade Safety Patrol.  It finally dawned on me that perhaps they don’t want their peers to see them climbing out of a booster seat in our vehicle.  And I so want to help them avoid harassment and embarrassment.  But at what cost?

Having read every article ever published on car seat safety and the necessary regulations that govern them, I recall only one with painful clarity.  A mom let her 6-year old ride in the front seat of their SUV.  He seemed big enough.  He was wearing his seatbelt, after all.  And mom was conscientious enough to have disabled the airbag.  But during the drive she swerved a tiny bit and her tire caught the shoulder in such a way that caused her to lose control of her vehicle.  The SUV rolled.  The passenger door came flying open.  And the 6-year old too quickly and too easily slipped out of the seatbelt’s hold and glided underneath the rolling vehicle.  His little body was just too small, too light, for the seatbelt to restrain him properly.  His mother is now an advocate for child safety restraints in vehicles.

I do not ever want to pay such a high price to care so much.

Vehicle seat belts are made to properly restrain adults in the violent reactions of physics during a crash.   A child is different.  That is why there ARE child safety restraints.  Booster seats raise the child up so that the lap belt rests across their lap in the proper way, and makes the shoulder restraint fit them better, so that in the event of a crash the child has more of the height properties of an adult and is more likely to avoid injury.  Car seats of all kinds are designed to help the seat belt function properly.  If that seat belt is not ready for my 58 pound daughter, then she is not ready for it. 

I see children much smaller than my own riding in the back seat with no booster, and worse, riding in the front seat.  All the time.  I know my kids think it’s embarrassing to be in a booster seat at ages 9 and 10.  But I also know there is nothing the mother whom I mentioned earlier wouldn’t give to have her child sitting safely in the back seat in his booster, to have rolled that SUV and not lost the most precious thing she had. 

When talking about seat belts in general, I heard a guy say this morning that he encourages people to “Wear your seatbelt today.  Today may be the day you need it.”

For as long as my children fit the requirements for booster seats, they will ride in them.  My purpose, after all, is to keep them healthy and safe. And, BECAUSE. I. SAID. SO!

Day 144: A Little More On Texting While Driving

I checked in on Crystal Parker’s Facebook page last night (I mentioned her car accident on Day 137).  She remains in a coma with some improved responsiveness. 

The following video is linked on her page.  This was produced by a guy in England for the benefit of high school kids.  Its message is simple:  don’t text while driving.  Warning: It is incredibly graphic.  I sat there, motionless, for the entire length of the film.  It lasts just over four minutes, and it is powerful. 

There’s not really much more to say today…

Day 137: The Danger of Distracted Driving

As I write this post, the cousin of a Facebook friend is in a coma across town as the apparent result of cell phone use (texting) while driving.  I do not know Crystal’s particular details, but Brian has kept everyone updated on her progress, and has shown photos of her car which convey an accident I cannot imagine anyone escaping.

While everyone is surely hopeful for a happy ending in this situation, the enormity of the tragedy itself causes me to bring this particular subject to light here.  As a result of the nature of my job, I have been provided the following sobering statistics via an email from The National Catholic Risk Retention Group dated April 29, 2010:

• Distracted driving is the number one killer of American teens. Alcohol-related accidents among teens have dropped. But teenage traffic fatalities have remained unchanged, because distracted driving is on the rise. (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Study and NHTSA Study)
• While over 90% of teen drivers say they don’t drink and drive, nine out of 10 say they’ve seen passengers distracting the driver, or drivers using cell phones. (National Teen Driver Survey)
• Brain power used while driving decreases by 40% when a driver listens to conversation or music. (Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University Study)
• More than 80% of drivers admit to blatantly hazardous behavior: changing clothes, steering with a foot, painting nails, reading documents and shaving. (Nationwide Mutual Insurance Survey)
• Drivers on mobile phones are more impaired than drivers at .08 BAC (blood alcohol content). (University of Utah Study)
• Crash risk increases 4 times while using hand held or hands free cell phones. (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
• At least 25% of all motor vehicle accidents — more than 1.5 million per year and more than 4300 per day — are caused by driver inattention. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

I also believe everyone should read Understanding the Distracted Brain, published by the National Safety Council in March of this year.  Further information can be found at the National Safety Council website for distracted driving.  (They have an entire site dedicated to this topic.  Does that say something to us?!!)

My personal resolution to this problem is simple: no phone for me in the car.  I have begun to hand my cell phone to the kids in the backseat.  They love to talk on the phone, answer any darn phone that rings, and are more than willing to entertain a caller if I am busy.  Victoria even randomly texts people from my phone.  (I apologize ahead of time if you are in my contacts list!) So, they can deal with any incoming phone calls while we are on the road.  I will do my level best to focus only on the task of safely reaching our destination.

As I hope you consider the risks of cell phone use while driving, I ask also that you please, please send up every prayer you can for Crystal and her family.  May they find strength and peace in the days ahead.  May she return to full health, and may the change that takes place be for the better.  And may we all strive for safety on our roads.

Day 5: Slowing It Down A Bit

Recently I was asked from the backseat, “Mommy, what’s the speed limit?”

“60, darling. Why?”

“Because your thing says 70.”

Sure enough, I was speeding. Nothing like getting busted by your 8-year old. Only slightly less embarrassing than facing a cop – but with far more lasting repercussions. There’s no chance of paying Victoria the fine and being done with it.

I always had a heavy foot as a young adult. I certainly had my share of speeding tickets and frowns from my father. Fortunately – knock on wood – I have not gotten a speeding ticket since the kids have come along. I must admit I slowed down considerably once I had those two precious heartbeats in the backseat. But every once in a while, I will realize how fast I am driving, and I have to remind myself that despite all the reasons I have to hurry, I have many more reasons to slow it down.

The good thing about all this change is that it’s never too late to make a fresh start. So, with a concentrated effort from this point forward, I will drive the speed limit.

So don’t rear-end me!!