Platitudes

I've been using that word wrong forever.

Platitude n. A trite or banal remark or statement, especially one expressed as if it were original or significant.

So what word should I use for sayings by famous people applied to situations by others suposedly to instruct the young. HMMMMMMM

Ah a story to enlighten.

In Brunswick Maine, our second time there, we lived in Base Housing. This was a little confusing because the Base was on the other side of town but still Base Housing. Everyone in that neighborhood was military of varying rank.We all walked to the same school, played in the same fields & woods. Our house was on the perimeter of the project which gave us, not legal, all of the woods as a playground. Into the woods and down a ways was the 'Sand Pit'. Most of the year we used it to recreate Nazi woopin battles but after it snowed it was our sledding place.

Hours upon hours down the hill ...trudge back up the hill..down the hill ... trudge back up. With the occasional snowball fight. There was no adult supervision there was no need. Well almost no need. I guess there's always a bully in every neighborhood. Ours was an older guy, older than most of us anyway. He liked to sled down beside you grab the side of your sled and flip you over. This got real old real fast. One evening I told Dad about it. The only part of the conversation I remember now and apparently the only part I applied then was "Walk softly and carry a big stick" a statement I was told made famous by President Teddy Roosevelt. Well if it was good enough for Teddy it was good enough for me by golly! Trouble was my 3^rd grade brain understood 'walking softly' no problem in snow & 'carry a big stick ' also no problem seeing how we walked through the woods to get to the sand pit. That 3^rd grade noggin also knew that carrying a big stick was good for only one thing-- yep WACKIN BAD GUYS! Remember we wooped Nazi's the rest of the year. So down the hill on my sled I went with my Big Stick in hand. Made sledding a little cumbersome but worth the effort. Then he came. Not knowing his peril, Teddy said nothing about a warning, he pulls up beside me and instead of a handful of my sled he gets a nose full of my Big Stick.

I remember it like it was yesterday. He went off without his sled, crying while holding his face, through the woods towards the houses. I was a bit of a hero except to the older kids, they seemed to think I was gonna be in trouble. Trouble? Why President Roosevelt said it was the thing to do. No problem.

That is until later that night when Marine Major Daddy shows up at the door with his wounded offspring with the bandaged nose to talk to my Navy Chief Daddy. RICHARD! COME HERE! Did you do this? Yes Dad you told me to. Remember? "Walk softly and carry a big stick".

When Marine Major Daddy learned of his sons Bullying behavior & my Navy Chief Daddy promised I'd be punished the issue was resolved. I think I was not allowed to sled at the pit for a week or something minor as punishment.

Dad quit using archaic quotes to direct my behavior after that.