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nails in a post, more to come


Bolshevik
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Anybody remember that poem vpw read a lot that went:

some kid was bad so his dad put nails in a fence post

the kid started acting good so his dad pulled them out

the dad pointed out all the nails were gone, but the kid started whining about holes in the post.

then he grabbed a nail gun and went postal.

anybody know how it went, where it really came from, it's point, and why vpw read it?

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Here's the story I can find.

I have no idea if vpw is one of many people who passed it along,

or if he changed it and told a different story,

or told none of them- I didn't hear him say it live or on tape.

But this may be part-or all-of the answer you wanted.

Please note that different people add some endings to it.

=========================================

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.

He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it; and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there."

---------

A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

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I can honestly say that in my ten years in twi -under vpw - I never heard that storied uttered by anyone, much less der Victoid.

Ditto on that...In my 13 years, which included far too many personal encounters with the prince of darkness, I never heard him utter that one...

...although it DOES sound like something he'd use...

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Ditto on that...In my 13 years, which included far too many personal encounters with the prince of darkness, I never heard him utter that one...

...although it DOES sound like something he'd use...

How ironic that he was prone to recite that ole favorite about the old violin, given that everything he touched became broken.

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I heard it, too, Bolski. I'm just not sure exactly where and when. It was definitely in TWI, though. Is it on one of those albums like All Aboard or something? I may have heard Howie Y. tell it, as well, at a FLO night. Howie Y. was quite good at presenting that sort of thing.

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I don't remember what the album or film was called, I think it was just a film on vpw for everyone to watch and feel emotional.

I think the video sticks in my head cause on one of those occasions, I had just caught a skink in the west woods, and as I was shuffled into the auditorium, I shoved it in my pocket. When we left it was dead, and I was ....ed.

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I just googled the entire poem, word for word. It appears that we, in The Way, may have been the only people on the planet who had NOT heard this anywhere else before. Page after page after page of this very story. "Author unknown" was all I could find for credit.

Edited by waysider
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what's a skink ?

Google "Ohio lizards" or five-lined skink.

Haven't found one since.

I just googled the entire poem, word for word. It appears that we, in The Way, may have been the only people on the planet who had NOT heard this anywhere else before. Page after page after page of this very story. "Author unknown" was all I could find for credit.

do you remember a monologue following it? Vpw putting a "Father (god) and his kidz" spin on it?

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