Teen Commandments

In the world of pop music--which is bluesy and sometimes boozy, rocking and often shocking--Singer Pat Boone, 24, stands out as an exemplary type. While earning a reported $750,000 a year, he lives modestly in suburban Teaneck, NJ. with the wife he married at 19 and their four daughters. While recording such jukebox hits as Lone Letters in the Sand and Friendly Persuasion, he attended Columbia University (majoring in speech) and last June graduated magna cum laude. Though a Tennessee-raised descendant of rugged Daniel Boone, he does not drink, smoke or cuss. On occasion he gives guest sermons to Church of Christ congregations across the country.

Last summer, while shooting his third movie (Mardi Gras) in Hollywood, Pat wrote a sun-drenched book: 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty (Prentice-Hall; $2.95). By last week its call for healthy-mindedness among "my friends out there in Teen-age Land" was influencing so many of them (or their Lolita-stunned parents) that the book had become a major bestseller.

Milk & Jam. "I didn't become a good Christian overnight," Pat advises. "In fact, I got my last spanking when I was 17." It was administered by strong-willed Mama Boone with her ever-ready sewing-machine belt, "both of us leaning over the bathtub." For this walloping and many before, Pat is grateful: "We all thought Mama the greatest, and I tell her now that she can spank me any time she likes."

Mama began taking Pat to church when he was six weeks old, later gave him a daily cross: milking the family cow. At first, chasing Rosemary across plusher neighbors' lawns was an excruciating embarrassment. But Pat soon learned "that people were not as interested in what I had or what I wore as in what I was . . . It healed me of a lot of insecurity to find out that if my cow gave people a laugh, I was doing them a favor."

To help restless kids enjoy the present ("Jam Today"), Pat soberly urges them to act their ages. They can become "useful, happy, well-adjusted individuals," he says, if they make out a check list of "maturity" goals that he uses himself. Its divisions: Spiritual (follow the Bible, "the best, truest--the only"); Social (follow the Golden Rule, or "treat Joe the way you'd like him to treat you"); Mental ("New ideas and theories, new inventions, new concepts, new knowledge itself, come from thinkers. You might think about that for a while"); Physical ("I can remember that Daddy always smelled great after he'd showered and shaved and was ready for work"); Financial ("Right now is the time to start developing sound financial practices").

Give & Get. As for what Boone calls "April Love" (the title of one of his big record hits), he concedes that he himself played spin-the-bottle at 13 and, perhaps too impetuously, eloped at 19. Currently he takes a sternly parental view: "We all know that indiscriminate kissing, dancing in the dark, hanging around in cars, late dates at this early stage can lead to trouble. And that you miss a lot of fun with the nicer play-by-the-rules crowd . . . Kissing is not a game. Believe me ... Kissing for fun is like playing with a beautiful candle in a roomful of dynamite!"

In his own "Happy Home Corporation," Parent Boone expects his kids to be friendly friends--"sincere, honest, loyal, trustworthy, good company, consistently thoughtful and dependable." He hopes they remember that "You cannot get to heaven on your parents' ticket," and that money is only "a symbol of gratitude" for services rendered. "If you're not getting enough," says Teen-Age Philosopher Boone, "try giving a little more."

Another effort by pop-music makers to improve their teen-age fans: a bestselling disk featuring assorted rock 'n' roll stars and entitled The Teen Commandments as sung to a funereal rock 'n' roll beat:

1) Stop and think before you drink.

2) Don't let your parents down; they brought you up.

3) Be humble enough to obey. You will be giving orders yourself some day.

4) At the first moment, turn away from unclean thinking--at the first moment.

5) Don't show off driving. If you want to race go to Indianapolis.

6) Choose a date who would make a good mate.

7) Go to church faithfully. The Creator gives you the week; give him back an hour.

8) Choose your companions carefully. You are what they are.

9) Avoid following the crowd. Be an engine--not a caboose.

10) Or even better--keep the original Ten Commandments.

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