If it walks like her mom and talks like her mom...

Children are a great comfort in your old age -- and they help you reach it faster, too.

-- Lionel Kauffman

The common wisdom of my high school locker room was that if you wanted to know what your girlfriend would look like in the future -- you'd look at her mother.

Sure, the love of your 11th-grade life might be lithe and lean with flawless skin. But check out the old woman whose station wagon dropped her off each day.

I remembered that last week because I took my 15-year-old to his high school registration.

I let him drive, ducking low in the seat so it would appear Mr. Learner's Permit was driving alone. Then I hung back as he went about collecting his new textbooks and getting a locker assignment. That's why I was leaning against a pillar in the corner and watching people.

And that's where I saw the mothers and their daughters.

Now. I don't know for sure that they were mothers and daughters. They weren't wearing name tags. But you could just tell.

Not only do they sort of look alike. They walk alike. They talk alike. They use the same hand mannerisms.

Now there were a few dads lurking about, but nobody, I decided, seems to look like their dad.

But just to make sure, I avoided walking near my son until we got back to the parking lot. If teenage girls share a common wisdom on what boys will look like in the future, I didn't want any to see me and ruin my son's prospects.

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MAILBAG: I'm behind on your post card reports. These were from June.

Mike , Julie , Jessica and Stephanie , of North Augusta, were watching geysers in Yellowstone. Visiting the Devil's Tower National Monument were: Butch and Jackie Murdock , Martinez; Glenn and Dianne Clements , Lincolnton; Bob and Jewell Crowley , Aiken; and Charles and Marianne Gay , Blythe.

Curt Wilcher , of Louisville, said the temps were cool in Oregon. Jennie , Philip and Carsen Palacz , of Martinez, enjoyed Edisto, says Mary Ann Bragg .

Joan Ashley , Pat Cole , Pat Christensen-Taylor , Clemmie Penn , Ina Vincent and Mike Shaw , of Hephzibah, saw Alaska.

And Derryl and Anita , from Hephzibah, and Sara from Beech Island, had a great time in Idaho.

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TODAY'S JOKE: While making his rounds, a doctor points out an X-ray to a group of medical students.

"As you can see," he says, "the patient limps because his left fibula and tibia are radically arched."

The doctor turns to one of the students and asks, "What would you do in a case like this?"

"Well," ponders the student, "I suppose I'd limp, too."

Reach Bill Kirby at (706) 823-3344 or bill.kirby@augustachronicle.com.