When I was a teenager, I really wanted to jump off the Orford-Fairlee Bridge into the river, but my mother talked me out of it.  ”It’s too high and you could break your neck,” she said.  ”Besides, there could be old bridge posts you could land on.”

Shortly thereafter, I was just about to take a walk across the bridge when I saw about a dozen young (and handsome) guys standing on the other side of the rail, about to jump.  Eager to save their lives, I began running as fast as I could,  yelling: “Don’t jump!  Don’t jump!  You could die!”

They politely refrained from jumping until I reached them.  Grinning, one of them asked me why he shouldn’t jump.  I repeated what my mother had said.  Trying valiantly not to laugh, the guys told me they’d already jumped off the bridge several times and it was perfectly safe.  A hot blush flooded my face, but I tried to play it cool.  ”Oh, carry on then,” I said.  I was almost out of earshot when they burst into guffaws.

The moral of this story is: Don’t listen to your mother.

Rachel – NH