Originally broadcast on CHED radio - Tuesday, May 30, 1961

I took a drive around the city last night looking at all the beautiful lawns and gardens. The flowers are starting to come out and the homes look beautiful. But as I looked at those lawns and gardens it occurred to me that they are contributing to juvenile delinquency. That's right, and I'll explain why. Most people put expensive shrubs in their gardens. They go to the finest nursery where they exchange hard called cash for these exotic bushes. They take them home and plant them, water them, fertilize them, pamper them and pray over them. Now when I was a kid we had shrubs in the backyard, only we called them bushes, and we didn't put them there, they just grew. They didn't have names you couldn't spell. For the most part they were Willow, but they had a profound effect on the behavior of my brother and me because whenever we misbehaved father would hand us his small pearl handled jackknife and tell us to go cut a willow switch. That meant one thing, a good sharp flogging. Really it wasn't the switching that was the most painful, it was that long trip to the back of the lot where we had to select our own rod with which father could thump us. Now my dad didn't go to college, but he was a pretty wise man. He knew how deeply we searched our souls as we made that trip out there to cut the willow and therefore he never kept the stick for further use. We'd have to cut a new one every time. Well that doesn't happen anymore because I figure a kid would have to commit murder to warrant me sending him out to lop branch off my South Australian Night Blooming Low Bush Alder. So that's why I say our beautiful lawns and shrubs are contributing to juvenile delinquency. They are no longer functional…just decorative. Just so I will not leave the impression my father was a tyrant, if you'll drive down the lane at 10819 -125th St., I think you'll still find a fair supply of Willow. They are all pretty big trees now but if you look closely you'll notice many of the branches have been cut off sharp. The part of the tree that is no longer there probably played an important part in shaping the character and behavior to John T. and Jerry Forbes