A friend of mine who tends to fall for every bleedin chain letter going has sent me the one with the “poem” of the dying girl. Something to do with a drink driving accident, I believe (I don’t read chain letters).
I can’t find the dirt on it on Snopes or urbanlegends.com, and I’m sure somebody here debunked it recently (but can’t find it on the search engine).
Any ideas?
It’s kind of hard to find when you don’t know exactly what the poem is. Is it this one?
Jenny was so happy about the
house they had found.
For once in her life it was on the
right side of town.
She unpacked her things with such
great ease.
As she watched her new curtains
blow in breeze.
How wonderful it was to have her
own room.
School would be starting, she'd
have friends over soon.
There'd be sleep-overs, and
parties; she was so happy
It's just the way she wanted her
life to be.
On the first day of school,
everything went great.
She made new friends and even
got a date!
She thought, "I want to be popular
and I'm going to be,
Because I just got a date with the
star of the team!"
To be known in this school you had
to have a clout,
And dating this guy would sure help
her out.
There was only one problem
stopping her fate.
Her parents had said she was too
young to date.
"Well, I just won't tell them the
entire truth.
They won't know the difference;
what's there to lose?"
Jenny asked to stay with her
friends that night.
Her parents frowned but said, "All
right."
Excited, she got ready for the big
event
But as she rushed around like she
had no sense,
She began to feel guilty about all
the lies,
But what's a pizza, a party, and
moonlight ride?
Well, the pizza was good, and the
party was great,
But the moonlight ride would have
to wait.
For Jeff was half drunk by this
time.
But he kissed her and said that he
was just fine.
Then the room filled with smoked
and Jeff took a puff.
Jenny couldn't believe he was
smoking that stuff.
Now Jeff was ready to ride to the
point
But only after he'd smoked another
joint.
They jumped in the car for a
moonlight ride,
Not thinking that he was too drunk
to drive.
They finally made it to the point at
last,
And Jeff started trying to make a
pass.
A pass is not what jenny wanted at
all
(and by a pass, I don't mean
playing football).
"Perhaps my parents were right ...
maybe I am too young.
Boy, how could I ever, ever be so
dumb.
With all her might, she pushed Jeff
say away:
"Please take me home, I don't
want to stay."
Jeff cranked up the engine and
floored the gas.
In a matter of seconds they were
going too fast.
As Jeff drove on in a fit of wild
anger,
Jenny knew that her life was in
danger.
She begged and pleaded for him to
slow down,
But he just got faster as they
neared the town.
"Just let me go home! I'll confess
that I lied.
I really went out for a moonlight
ride."
Then all of a sudden, she saw a big
flash.
"Oh God, Please help us! We're
going to crash!"
She doesn't remember the force of
the impact.
Just that everything all of a sudden
went black.
She felt someone remove her from
the twisted rubble,
And heard, " Call an ambulance!
There kids are in trouble!"
Voices she heard.... A few words at
best.
But she knew there were two cars
involved in the wreck.
Then wondered to herself if Jeff
was all right,
And if the people in the other car
were alive.
She awoke in the hospital to faces
so sad.
"You've been in a wreck and it
looks pretty bad."
These voices echoed inside her
head,
As they gently told her that Jeff
was dead.
They said "Jenny, we've done all
we can do.
But it looks as if we'll lose you
too."
"But the people in the other car?"
Jenny cried.
"We're sorry, Jenny, they also
died."
Jenny prayed, "God, forgive me for
what I've done
I only wanted to have just one
night of fun."
"Tell those people's family, I've
made their lives dim,
And wish I could return their
families to them."
"Tell Mom and Dad I'm sorry I lied,
And that it's my fault so many
have died.
Oh, nurse, won't you please tell
them that for me?
The nurse just stood there -- she
never agreed.
But took Jenny's hand with tears in
her eyes.
And a few moments later Jenny
died.
A man asked the nurse, " Why
didn't you do your best
To bid that girl her one last
request?"
She looked at the man with eyes
so sad.
"Because the people in the other
car were her Mom and Dad."
If so, it is at Snopes, in the glurge gallery.
Geez, Iola, could you warn us first? Some of the Dopers might be diabetic. As a side note, does anyone think this sort of thing would be more effective in stopping drinking and driving if it were less…is cute the word?
Less cute might help. Less long would certainly help.
Is this the same Jenny whose phone number was 867-5309?
Vomits in terror
Ugh. Well, at least I don’t have that Creed song in my head anymore.
Who can I turn to?
Hey, HEY! Whydja have to do that. Chronos and I have to read this thread daily until it dies. We’ll have that damn song in our head until next year!
Sheesh!
GEEZ! shades of the dead teenager songs of the 50’s. (Last Kiss, Leader of the Pack, etc.)
manhattan, if you’re afraid that reading this thread will get a song stuck in your head:
Relax! Don’t do it!
I’m sorry. I owe everyone an apology. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I copied the poem and posted it without even looking at how long it was. I have to admit, I just skimmed the thing. I have to watch my blood sugar level. On further consideration, perhaps I could have just posted the link?
Anyway, sorry again. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Am I the only one who thinks this “poem” has a happy ending?
Jenny dies never knowing her parents had died.
Jenny’s parents dies without knowing she had died.
and (most importantly),
Damn - I actually thought for a minute that we were talking about this particular piece of glurge.
You mean that there’s more than one of these vomit-inducing things out there? I am truly shocked :rolleyes:
and that’s when I fell for…the Leader of the Pack (BTW, tell Laura I love her…)
Well, no, you could close the thread.
LL
I didn’t even realise the song until you mentioned it and I went back over the number… and I don’t know what the song is called! I need relief! Once I hear the song it should get rid of it. So what’s it called?
[/really bad hijack]
I’m not sure what you’re asking for, mattk. In what sense is it possible to debunk this poem? I think we’re all agreed that it’s a really lousy poem. I think we all agree that it would have to have been made up by someone else, not Jenny herself, even if there was a Jenny. (In the version lolagranola posted, Jenny is almost dead as she thinks this. In the version linked to by reprise, the girl is supposedly sending back a message after she’s already dead. Well, duh, of course we can’t know about this.)
So what is there to debunk? Have things sort of like this happened? Of course. Will reading this poem convince a single teenager not to speed, not to drink or smoke dope while driving? I suspect not. I think that this kind of poem is like the film Reefer Madness, the sort of thing created by parents too clueless (or maybe just too arrogant) to realize that it would never influence a single person to quit doing drugs or drinking while driving or whatever. (I think Reefer Madness, when it’s shown at all, is only seen at college screenings where everybody is smoking dope themselves.)
I think poems like this produce nothing except orgies of self-righteousness. The parents who give their teenagers copies of this poem (or circulate it among themselves) get to feel self-righteous about how they’re persuading their kids not to drink or smoke dope or speed while driving, even though their kids are laughing at them behind their backs. (And I suspect that in some cases the parents are conveniently forgetting that they smoked, drank, and sped when they were teenagers.) The teenagers get to feel self-righteous as they laugh at their parents for making up such stupid poems.
Meanwhile, the people on the SDMB get to feel self-righteous when they read the poem and laugh at people stupid enough to think that this is a good poem. And, finally, I get to feel self-righteous when I ask the people on the SDMB what’s the point in posting and making fun of this poem.
…When nobody needs me?
My heart wants to know
And so I must go
Where destiny leads me…
[sub]I’m in an Anthony Newley mood today.[/sub]
THERE’S a poem.
Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to
You give me something I can hold on to
I know you’ll think I’m like the others before
Who saw your name and number on the wall
Jenny I’ve got your number,
I need to make you mine
Jenny don’t change your number,
Eight-six-seven-five-three-oh-niiiiiiiiieeeinnne!
Kudos to anyone who has the balls to rhyme “before” with “Wall.”
Well, here’s a little debunkery that you may feel free to insert into Jenny’s last words if you want to sabotage this sick-inducing spam a bit. I apologize for the lack of gross metrical irregularities and inadequate rhymes—the saccharine glurge poem isn’t really my best genre.
"And tell my Mom and Dad that as I faced the world to come,
I suddenly started wondering: well, why was I so dumb?
You know, in lots of ways this whole setup is just crazy,
And we never really notice, 'cause we’re mentally too lazy.
Maybe we would realize, if we took the time to think,
That it’s stupid to expect that teens will never toke or drink,
And if we really wanted fewer kids to lose their lives,
We’d have some better answers than this sanctimonious jive.
The only thing I really learned from schmaltzy horror stories
About teens who drink and die in ways lamentable and gory
Was that booze and drugs have got to be such awful things to do
That I’d never dare confess about them, Mom and Dad, to you.
If I hadn’t been so brainwashed, then I might have had the spunk
To call you to come get me when my date got stoned and drunk.
But I was so convinced that it was terrible and wrong
That I’d rather die than tell you—which didn’t take me long.
And maybe if we really cared about more kids’ surviving,
We’d talk less about the drinking and more about the driving:
Would a tipsy seventeen-year-old be all that big a deal
If he didn’t have to navigate three thousand pounds of steel?
How different this whole tragedy might be for all of us
If our wonderful new neighborhood had a decent public bus!
Or if houses, stores, and movies weren’t all sprawled out so far
That there’s no way to get anywhere unless you’re in a car.
But all these things require actual thought and honest teaching,
And it’s so much more convenient to fall back on weepy preaching;
So write my tragic story full of grief and fear and pain,
But be careful not to show it to anyone who’s got a brain."