There Are Certain Trade-Offs I Would Not Make For All Of The Money In The World

I would not trade my time of growing up in the 60's and 70's with a child growing up today in 2023 for all of the money in the world. I would not trade whatever issues I am facing with anyone else's issues for all of the money in the world. Take a listen to this episode and find out why.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hello, and welcome to another episodeof The Mark Medley Show. And this
is your host, Mark Medley.Thank you, thank you, thank you

(00:21):
so much. As always, I'mmuch appreciative of your applause and your feedback
as much as you love me asas much as I love you, so
thank you so much. Well again, this is another episode of The Mark
Medley Show, and today's episode istitled trade Offs that I would not make

(00:42):
for all of the money in theworld. There are just some things that
if I could, if someone askedme, if somebody presented me to the
opportunity to trade, I would notfor all the money in the world.
And one of them I've actually probablyaddressed in a prior episode of The Mark
Readley Show, and that is Iwould not trade my time from growing up.

(01:10):
And I grew up in the sixties, seventies, and eighties. I
was born in nineteen sixty two,that's right, one nine six two,
So therefore I was a child inthe sixties. I was a child in
the seventies, and I came intobeing a teenager and in my early twenties
in the eighties. And if Ihad the opportunity, if someone said,

(01:34):
Mark, I'll give you all themoney in the world, if you would
change your time for being a child, exchange it with a child who was
growing up now here in twenty twentythree, I would say no, I
would turn down. As much asI want to be a millionaire and a
billionaire, I would turn that downif I had to trade my time from

(02:00):
growing up and exchange it for atime with a child who was growing up
in this time frame. And letme tell you why, because I'm sure
some of you have probably said,well, why are you saying that or
what do you mean by that?Because during that time when I grew up

(02:20):
between nineteen sixty two in nineteen eightyand beyond, we actually had fun.
We actually had some social skills becauseas we came up in the sixties and
the seventies, we actually went outsideand were able to play with each other,

(02:43):
We were able to play with ourneighborhood kids. We were even able
to walk around the neighborhood and notworrying about being kidnapped or being killed,
or being shot or molest it.And I'm not saying those things never ever
happened during that time frame. Butwhat I'm am saying is it was not
headline news every day of it occurring. As a child, I was able

(03:07):
to go out into the backyard,and I was able to go out and
play in the sandlot across the street. Matter of fact, the sandlot was
filled with rocks and glass. Weeven named it Rocky Stadium. But we
played football there and you could nottell us that we were not whatever the
latest pro football team was. Andwhen we played baseball there, you couldn't

(03:28):
tell us we weren't whatever the latestprofessional Major League Baseball team was. Oh,
we became the Mets. We becamethe Yankees, we became the Dodgers,
we became the Astros, we becamethe forty, the San Francisco Giants.
In football, we became the PittsburghSteelers, and the Dallas Cowboys,

(03:50):
and the Oakland Raiders, the PhiladelphiaEagles, and the Minnesota Vikings. We
became those teams on that sandlots,and we played and we were socialized.
We played that game and the gamescalled hot peas and butter. We played
games called tag. We played gamescalled red light green lights. We played

(04:12):
games like Mama may I. Andthose are just the games that we played
running around the street. We won'teven get into games that we played,
such as board games such as Monopolyand whatever, you know, electronic football
Monday Night Football that was way beforeMadden Football that we play on the television
screens and computer screens. Now wegot a chance to play with each other.

(04:35):
But see kids coming up today don'thave that opportunity because many parents are
fearful to allow their children out oftheir site, and rightfully so. As
a teenager, I can remember goingout on dates, going to the movies
where a movie ticket was maybe threedollars and fifty cents of five dollars for

(04:58):
the ticket, and then you wentin you I want a bucket of popcorn
for maybe another two fifty or fivedollars or six dollars or what have you,
And then a soda. Maybe thesoda cost you a dollar dollar and
a quarter dollar, fifty cents orwhat have you. But in any event,
the date in and of itself wasno more than maybe twenty five or
thirty dollars, and that covered thecost of two people in the movie that
same date in two thousand and twentythree. And I don't know how teenagers

(05:21):
do it today, if they doit at all, is at least one
hundred dollars to go to the movies, buy a tub of popcorn, and
buy two large drinks. It comesclose to one hundred dollars. Now maybe
exaggerating a little bit, but notmuch, because when you total it up,
that is about what it comes tois nearly one hundred dollars just to

(05:43):
go to the movie. See,I can remember, I'm hearing the northern
New Jersey area, in the Northarea, and the Patterson area and the
Clifton and Bloomfield and Montclair and allthat northern New Jersey area. So I
can remember going out to clubs suchas Zanzibar and Club eighty eight and the
Peppermint Lounge and all these different barsand clubs during that time frame in the

(06:05):
seventies and the eighties, being ableto go there and just have a good
time. You leave there at twoor three o'clock in the morning, and
you come buy white Castles and passaic, and then go home and get home
about four o'clock in the morning.And no one worried about getting killed,
No one worried about, you know, the possibility of not coming home anything

(06:27):
short of you know, God forbida car accident or something along. But
We weren't worrying about being in theclub dancing and getting shot up. We
wasn't worried about somebody coming through thedoors guns blazing. We weren't worrying about
if we stepped on someone's toe whiledancing that they would turn around and pull
out a pistol and take our life. But just stepping on their toes,

(06:48):
that was not a worry when Iwas a child, when I was a
team. And that's not to saythat it didn't ever, ever, ever,
ever happen, because I know somebodylistening out there is gonna say,
oh, yes, Mark, thatdid happen. It might have been a
once in a while a chip shotdeal, but it was not an everyday
occurrence like we have now that everytime you turn on the news, every

(07:08):
time you pick up a newspaper,every time you go on a social media
site, you're seeing someone getting senselesslykilled, as we have absolutely no regard
for life whatsoever in twenty twenty three. That's what I mean by I would
not trade if I had the opportunityto say, Okay, you can go

(07:29):
back to being five or six nowin exchange for the time when you were
five or six or seven or eightor nine or ten or what have you.
Back in the sixties and the seventies, if you think about it,
the children that were supposed to startschool when COVID hit, the children who
would have been kindergarteners or first gradersduring the time COVID hit, and we
had that two year lag where theystayed home and we were our virtual We

(07:53):
were on the computers, we wereon the chrome books, we were on
whatever we needed to be on.We could not socialize it. Those children
did not learn how to socialize,and then when they finally did come live
to school, they were coming inas either a second grader or a third
grader, not having been socialized wherenormally socialization skills take place, which is
like in kindergarten in first grade.Many of these children entered the school year

(08:16):
after COVID in second or third grade, and they did not know how to
socialize. They went from home tobeing plucked into a classroom after being home
for two years for the most partsolo. Now they're going into a classroom
where they're gonna sit with twenty orthirty kids and expect to know how to
do that, and teachers getting frustratedand principles getting frustrated because they all they

(08:37):
do is hit each other and calleach other names. It's because they did
not learn or did not have thatopportunity to socialize. So if I had
the opportunity, if they say we'regonna give you a million dollars, if
we're gonna give you all the teain China for you to exchange your time
for growing up with the children's timeof today growing up, I would not
take it. These children. Iwork with children every day. They don't

(09:00):
even know how to have fun.For them. Fun it's hitting for them.
Fun is name calling for them.Fun is sitting by themselves, looking
on their cell phone at a videogame, or looking at a video game,
a handheld video game. So forthat is considered fun. It does
not take a lot of socialization skillsto sit and play a video game by

(09:22):
yourself. Our children's and I knowwe've seen the meme about it. I
know we have some fun about it. But our children's thumbs are stronger than
their bodies because their thumbs are sostrong from working these various controllers on these
various video games. Again, itdoes not take socialization to isolated with a

(09:43):
video game. So that's one tradeoff I would not make. I've said
it to my students, and Iwill say that to anybody. I'll stand
up and say that to anybody.I know. It's all relative. However,
I honestly would not trade my childhoodfor the childhood of children coming on.
I have a grandnephew that I don'tknow what the world is going to

(10:05):
be like for him. He isquick and smart as a whip. I
hope maybe one day he will bea world changer. But I would not
trade places with my grandnephew Jason foranybody's money in the world. I would
not want to be a child bornright now having to grow up in the

(10:26):
world that we are living in.It is ridiculous that we have folks trying
to ban books that is count oureducation. That you're going to ban books
that tell the truth. It isridiculous that you have politicians who are saying,
we don't want you to mention thatRosa Parks was an African American woman.

(10:50):
If you don't mention that Rosa Parksis an African American woman, there
is no story. Hence that's thewhole plan. We don't want the story
being told. Therefore, if youdon't mention that Rosa Park is an African
American woman, there is no story. So we don't want that story out
there. See, this is ridiculous. This is what we're being faced with.
This is what our children are beingfaced with. They're going in a

(11:11):
time where politicians and leaders are tryingto limit or trying to eliminate information that
needs to be told to help folksunderstand that their group contributed to the greatness
of society and to the world andto the country as world as well.
You have folks literally trying to actas if other groups did not contribute to

(11:35):
society, that only one group,that only a dominant group did everything,
when that's just not the truth.You have politicians in powerful positions who are
leading efforts to keep people ignorant,and it's by design. So I would
not trade off. Right now,I am sixty decades old. I am

(11:58):
sixty. Heard me saying in thetop of the show that I was born
in nineteen sixty two. That meansI am sixty and this is twenty twenty
three. I will be sixty one. God will income August, and I
would not trade because I can honestlyand truly sit here and record this podcast
and be grateful and thankful for awonderful childhood for what a child should be

(12:24):
able to do, to play.When you really think about it, we
only have about eighteen good years beforewe really an adult and stress really start
skiking. Because that's another reason Iwouldn't want to trade with these children to
day, because they are stressed outat such early and young ages. They
should not be stressed between one andtwenty. Those years should be time for

(12:45):
fun and learning and encouragement and growthand everything else, not being stressed out
at such a young age. Butthe kids today, they are being stressed
out at like three and four andfive and six. I literally have had
third and fourth graders in my officetalking about suicide. So no, I

(13:05):
would not want to trade my timeof coming up, my time of being
a child, my time of beinga teenager with any of these children born
during these time frames. Another tradeoff I would not want to make is
are these various issues that all ofus face. There is no way in
the world we are going to getout of the world alive without having face

(13:28):
one issue or more or another.I would not because I've had relationship issues
in the midst of a relationship issuenow, and I would not trade my
relationship issue with somebody's health issue.I would not trade that for anybody's money
in the world. If somebody said, you know what, we'll give you

(13:52):
an opportunity to trade your current relationshipissue with someone's current health issue, would
you do it? No, Iwould not. I would trade my current
issue relationship wise, would anybody's healthissue, Because as my youngest daughter could
say, you know, my dad, you can always get another honey.
But I tell you what, whenthat health go you may or may not

(14:15):
get that back. You can haveall the money in the world, but
money does not buy health. Youcan be a zillionaire, and once your
body starts going, or if youcome up with a terminal illness or a
terminal disease, all the money inthe world will not reverse that. Now,
it may bring you some comfort,it may bring you some things that
maybe folks without money would not beable to have. But at the end

(14:37):
of the day, that health isstill going. So if I had the
opportunity to trade again, this isabout trade offs. If somebody said,
you know, we'll give you allthe money the world, you can trade
your relationship issue for somebody with aterminal health issue, and absolutely not would
not take the offer. I wouldrather keep my relationship issue than I would
the health issue. Struggling with ahealth issue that you have no control over,

(15:01):
it can do nothing about. BecauseI agree with my youngest daughter,
she's like twenty eight now, butI agree with her dad, you can
always get another honey. I couldnot agree with her more. For that
matter, you can always get moremoney. But once that health go it's
pretty much a rap. My heartgoes out to anyone who is struggling with
health issues because health issues brings ona whole lot of other issues in terms

(15:24):
of having to go back and forthto doctors, having to have all these
treatments, having to take all thismedicine, having to spend all this money.
There's a whole lot that goes alongwith having a health related or health
related issues. So if somebody said, Mark, you know you want to
trade your relationship issue for the healthissue, no, I wouldn't. There
are financial issues out there, thereare relationship issues, there are health issues,

(15:46):
there are a job and career issues, all kinds of issues out there
that if you live long enough,one or more of them is going to
come upon you. There is nogetting around there. At some point,
every one of us is going todeal with some type of an issue again,
whether it's relationship, somebody's heart gonnabe broken, whether it's job,

(16:07):
somebody gonna be fired or laid off, whether it's health somebody's going to get
a bad report from a doctor,somebody's gonna go bankrupt one way or the
other. We all deal with issues. So to be honest with you,
I'll deal with mine. I don'twant to trade off. That's a trade
off I would not make growing upin this time as a child going into

(16:30):
teenagers, or being a teenagers goinginto adult, I would not trade.
I had an absolute last from nineteensixty two to nineteen seventy two, those
ten years, from nineteen seventy twoto nineteen eighty those eight years, and
then from nineteen eighty on wonderful yearsas well. Have I had my ups
and downs? Yes I have.I've had some ups and downs. But

(16:52):
I tell you what, as thesongwriter says, when all is said and
done, my good days outweigh mybad days. I won't complain because when
I really sit back and reflect,I've had way more good days than I've
had bad days. I've had waymore updates than I've had down days.

(17:18):
So when I trade when not notfor all the money and or whatnot for
all the tea in China, notfor anything I would not trade. You
can agree or disagree. This happensto be my particular podcast. It happens
to be my particular opinion, happensto be based on my particular observations.

(17:38):
Back in my time, we couldhave house parties. We could actually have
friends and everybody come over to yourhouse and have a party and everybody go
home, nobody get hurt. Nowwe're in situations wherein you're trying to have
a party in your own house andsomeone who didn't get invited will come to

(17:59):
the door and everybody up in theparty. That was unheard of when I
was a child and a teenager,that you're having a party, a personal
party, in your own house,and someone who did not get invited to
that is so called offended that they'regonna come in and kill up people at
a hand nothing to do with them, just because they didn't get invited to

(18:19):
this party. Most recently, inthe South, we had a teenage kid
ring the wrong doorbell, He wentto the wrong house. He made a
mistake that anybody could make. Hehappened to be African American. The person
on the other side of the doorwas an eighty four year old Caucasian.
Asked no questions, just shot throughthe door or through the window. Ridiculous.

(18:42):
Unheard of. Whenever I was achild, you had a young lady
up in the upper part of thecountry in New York Are somewhere. Caucasian
girl turned into the wrong driveway twentyyears old. She was turning around in
the driveway and she got killed.Unheard of. So if anyone I would
ask me if I would trade mytime of coming up as a youth with

(19:04):
these, absolutely Now, if anybodywould ask me, would I trade my
relationship issue for a health issue?Absolutely not. All right, this is
one of those days. You know, I felt very creative, very energetic.
Today. It's a rainy Saturday whereI am, and I've been full
of energy all morning, between youknow, doing things musically, between doing

(19:26):
some things on the computer and nowrecording this podcast. But I'll tell you
what. You can catch me liveon Saturday mornings on my radio show,
because not only do. I hosta podcasts. I host a radio show
that's heard on the radio as wellas Welsh web streamed around the world.
On Saturday mornings from six o'clock amEastern Time to nine o'clock AM Eastern Time,
I am live on the air.You can catch me there by logging

(19:48):
on to go brave dot org.That's g O b r a vee dot
org. Also in northern New Jerseyit is on eighty eight point seven FM
radio. So it's web streamed aroundthe world on go brave dot org,
goob r ade dot org, andit's also heard on the old school FM

(20:10):
radio eighty eight point seven FM Radio. But I tell you what, if
you really want to get in touchwith me, go to my website.
That is the hub that takes youto everything that I do, whether it
is my musical CDs. The musicthat's playing in the background right now is
original music written by and played byme. So whether it's my musical work,
whether it's my blog, whether it'sthe podcast, whether it's the radio
show, whether it's what I doin my day job as principle of a

(20:33):
school, my YouTube channel, mysocial media sites, anything that you want
to learn about me. You cango to my website and that is the
gate, that is the portal toanything that you want to know or if
you want to get in touch withme or to contact with you again.
That's my name. M A RC A M E D l e y
dot com. Go to Markamadley dotcom. That gives you access. You

(20:56):
can contact me. There as acontact number in there. There's some other
things, some various samples of guestswho have been on the show, worldwide,
multifamous just and then folks who arenot known at all, got a
combination of all of it. Goto the website Mark Amedley dot com.
You can catch me live on Saturdaymornings from six o'clock am to nine o'clock

(21:17):
am on go brave dot org andeighty eight point seven FM. And as
always, it has been an excitingtime to share with you here on the
Mark Medley Show.