Samuel was born in Florida, Missouri in 1835 so he did not have a television, video games or a computer to occupy his time. No, poor little Samuel had to find his own entertainment, adventures and games to keep his mind busy. When his family moved to nearby Hannibal, a larger town, that afforded Samuel more opportunities for adventure and more ways to get into trouble.

Whether it was stealing a neighbors apples, climbing fences, nearly drowning in a creek (several times), getting lost in a cave or floating down the river on a log raft - Samuel was learning and self-educating himself. Sometimes he played with the poorest boys in town and sometimes with the nicest girls in his neighborhood. He also studied adults, from the town drunk to the slaves to the successful businessmen. Each person he put in his memory and he would draw from his memory in later years.

The death of his father at age twelve required Samuel to get a job to help support his family. He became an apprentice in the local newspaper shop and even though his job was to clean the shop and pick up spilled typeset, he was still learning all he could every day. He later worked for his brother in a newspaper shop, but adventure kept biting his heels and he knew it was time to face the world on his own.

Samuel got a job working on steamboats plying the Mississippi River and worked his way to riverboat pilot, a prestigious position, but that was dangerous work. The average life of a steamboat on the river was five years and Samuel’s bother was killed in a steamboat explosion. Samuel had gotten his brother the job and he never forgave himself and felt responsible for his brother’s untimely death.

It was time to seek new adventures and the west was inviting with many unknowns. Samuel had to experience the west for himself so he took a stagecoach westward and settled in Virginia City, Nevada, one of the richest and most ruthless cities in the west where scoundrels thought nothing of shooting each other. But the scoundrels were mild when compared to politicians in the Nevada Territory. Having a background in newspapers and loving to write and give his opinions, Samuel got a job as a newspaper reporter and he worked there two years. After writing “Nevada has the best politicians money can buy” he was forced to leave town in the dark of night or face being murdered.

While working in Virginia City he changed his name from Samuel Clemens to Mark Twain and we know the rest of the story. Now, lets get back to my story.

Samuel learned about life by experiencing life and not by watching television, surfing the internet or playing video games. He wrote about the people he met in life and if he had watched television we would not read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and many other books, magazine and newspaper articles that made their way into printed books.

I recently saw a report on television (yes, I watch TV) that 20% of the children today are obese and the number will soon rise to 25%. The report further stated these children will began adulthood with diabetes, heart problems and develop knee and joint problems. They will die in their mid-sixties and live a poor quality of life until death.

If children today were like Samuel and roamed and explored the way he did, there would be very few obese children. So parents - turn off that television and send your children outside to explore.