60 Minutes With Homeless Kids

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Why I missed #blogchat on March 6, 2011

Over the past nine months I have regularly participated in a Twitter #blogchat, Sunday evenings at 8:00PM CST. That is, I join in if I am in town and not busy with family or friends. I learn a lot from this Twitter chat, which I then apply to my business and share with our clients. I have met many interesting and talented people on #blogchat. In fact, this very blog exists because of a #blogchat that took place on June 6, 2010. But today I want to tell you why I didn't join #blogchat this past Sunday.

60 Minutes is a Sunday night tradition

60 Minutes has been a part of American Sunday evenings since 1968. CBS 7:00PM.  I started college in September 1967, so really all of my adult life I have been a fan of 60 Minutes. Now that I live in Arizona 60 Minutes comes on at 6:00PM MST. This is a little hard to get used to, sort of have to plan dinner hours and family time around it. It becomes even more complicated when Daylight Saving Time kicks in everywhere, but Arizona(certain areas) and Hawaii. That is the time of year that 60 Minutes conflicts with #blogchat and I have to set the DVR! But this Sunday I was all set to watch 60 Minutes and then sign in to #blogchat. But instead I was so taken by Scott Pelley's report Hard Times Generation: Homeless Kids that I found I just had to take a night away from #blogchat.  I invite you to watch the segment here and I'll catch up with you on the other side.



I have talked about homeless children before on this blog. You might remember last July I wrote about Twitter being a fashion consultant; however, I closed that blog by suggesting that we all take time to watch the HBO Documentary - Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County.   It doesn't matter whether you are in Orange County, CA or Seminole County, Florida, homeless is painful and scary. And even more so, if you are a kid.

It is still All in the Family

If you are wondering what I did after 60 Minutes, well, I'll tell you. I was numb. I had the remote control in my hand and I just kept clicking through the channels until suddenly I came upon an October 1974 episode of All in the Family. It was Season 5, Episode 89 and it was titled: The Bunkers and Inflation (4) (aka Archie's Raise).  I stopped and watched. It felt as if I were sitting down with old friends. Here they were  dealing with unemployment, a recession, a strike and inflation. Take a few minutes and watch a bit of this episode. Right around minute 6:30 you will see Archie and Edith talking about the economy and being scared. Archie says (thinking about his childhood and hardships): "We were kids, we didn't know any better."  Edith replies: "We ain't kids no more." Archie responds: "You're damn right we ain't!"



Hmmm...1974 to 2011. I am wondering how much has really changed in all these years. We have a lot of new technology and social media. But how social are we really? Maybe the biggest change is that now kids know homelessness and hardship when they see it.

I would really love to hear from you. Any thoughts?


[By the way, I can get the #blogchat transcript. @mackcollier is really good about creating it and my other friend @allison_boyer almost always captures the best chat nugget and you can read a few of her observations here.]

Related articles

• Overheard on #Blogchat: Have Something to Say (@CC_Chapman) (blogworld.com)
• Overheard on #Blogchat: Blogging is Hard (@griner) (blogworld.com)
• Homeless children: The hard times generation (cbsnews.com)
• Hard Times Generation: How You Can Help (cbsnews.com)