The 17 year old know-it-all

My mom with my brother Gus shortly before I was born. Already a battle-scarred veteran of married life in the mid-fifties, and expert housewife and mother, she was living right next door to her own mother and father on Oakland at the time.

This is how you get to be a grown-up, all you kids out there! Just get married and have kids! As long as you're past puberty, it's OK! There are states down south where you can still get married at ridiculously young ages!

And the life-long bond between you and your children, your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be longer, too.