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From: wales@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: How to stop thumb-sucking?
Message-ID: <4781@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 12-Apr-85 20:28:36 EST
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.4781
Posted: Fri Apr 12 20:28:36 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Apr-85 04:02:53 EST
Reply-To: wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (Rich Wales)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 26

This is how I was induced to stop sucking my thumb.  I am reporting this
without judging the technique one way or the other.

My mother and I went to the supermarket one day.  I don't know exactly
how old I was at the time, but I was probably around four or five.

The owner of the store was a good friend of my mother, and the two of
them were talking about something (at the time, of course, I couldn't
have cared less exactly what) when I started sucking my thumb.

When the store owner saw this, he became quite upset and showed me his
thumb, which was all black and blue.  He said that this was what would
happen to my thumb if I kept on sucking it.

I never sucked my thumb again.

It wasn't until a long time later that I figured out that the grocer had
gotten his multicolored thumb from hitting it with a wayward hammer or
slamming a door on it -- NOT from sucking it as a child.

Curiously, I never felt any kind of betrayal or resentment over having
been "lied to" in connection with this incident.
-- 
Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 213-825-5683
	3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024 // USA
	wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA        {ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!wales