Frank Elder Posted December 30, 2020 Report Posted December 30, 2020 (edited) About 1970 I was old enough and responsible enough to get my Grandpop to open a simple pass book savings account for me with the caveat that I did not withdrawal only deposit. So the odd jobs of my youth started lawn mowing, raking, gutter cleaning, trash hauling, snow shoveling, grocery getter, dog walker.....I also picked yards clean of poop, later on as I got older real jobs came along. Grocery store boy, house and garage painting, garage clean out,ticket taker at the movie house, newspaper boy, baby sitter, washing cars at the local car dealers, job at the hardware store, Napa parts fetcher and cleanup....these were all part timers because I still had school, feed the cows and pigs, milk goats, feed chickens, gather eggs, walk beans, detasell, bale hay-straw-alphalfa, cut stalks of corn or sorghum, butcher livestock and keep my room clean....lol.....with Sunday school and Church every Sunday. So after 5 years of busting my ass I bought a 1966 Dodge Coronet of dubious condition.....2 more years of mechanical work, rustbusting and my first paint job.....bright red! We were on the road! I STILL HAVE THAT SAME ACCOUNT 50 YEARS LATER. Wish I had the car. I understand that go fund me originated for emergencies........now if some one wants a pair of gucci loafers they start one.....Save your money don't spend it like water and there you are......A Go Fund Me! Edited December 31, 2020 by Frank Elder 3 1 1
Frank Elder Posted December 30, 2020 Author Report Posted December 30, 2020 Now the things given to me until I became an adult I will always cherish.......a roof over my head, a blanket at night, food in my belly and clothes on my back, shoes on my feet and taught how to save money but not to cherish it above all else. Being raised by my Depression Era Grandparents was truly a blessing......salt of the earth and I miss them so much. 4
T120 Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 20 minutes ago, Frank Elder said: Now the things given to me until I became an adult I will always cherish.......a roof over my head, a blanket at night, food in my belly and clothes on my back, shoes on my feet and taught how to save money but not to cherish it above all else. Being raised by my Depression Era Grandparents was truly a blessing......salt of the earth and I miss them so much. Amen. 1
plymouthcranbrook Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 (edited) You know Frank you gotta watch that common sense talk. It might catch on and then where would we be? Had to come back and go counter to my nature to be serious for a second. I was raised to be a helping hand to those less fortunate. Donate to Salvation Army, Scouts, Churches etc. But at some point in the last 30 years or so it seems that a percentage of the populace has become more willing to beg than ever before. Even having $1000 cellphones and hundred of dollars worth of tattoos doesn’t seem to make any difference. My Father would have died rather than take”Charity”. I do recognize that times are hard as is said for a lot of people but the idea of working and saving is foreign to some. And the idea of doing the varied types of labor Frank was talking about. No. That is a big reason immigrants often do well here. Not afraid of hard work and have no pretensions about who they are. Edited December 31, 2020 by plymouthcranbrook 3
Frank Elder Posted December 31, 2020 Author Report Posted December 31, 2020 I am only 4th generation, my grandparents that raised me immigrated from Scotland in 1901.
Ulu Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 My parents grew up during the great depression. It really is important to have good parents. We were so lucky as kids. I was amazed to find out that my ancestors all came to this country about 1840. I did not know that we were that well established. Family history and genealogy we’re not a subject when I was growing up. I think this was because both of my parents grew up in difficult situations on the edge of Appalachia. My parents were very thrifty when I was growing up, and because of that we never suffered from want. I mowed a lot of lawns and I had a very successful newspaper route, plus I fixed and sold broken bicycles and televisions. I fixed a lot of cars on the side during my working years. We moved around a lot with the United States Air Force and I have very few possessions, these days, from those years. I’ve surely opened and closed 12 bank accounts. My first car was a nice straight ‘66 Ford coupe with a frozen engine and a 2” rust hole in the quarter panel. It came off a North Minnesota junkyard. I graduated high school one month after I turned 17, and I was the top of the class. I had only been at that school for about a year and I think it caused some hard feelings among the locals. There might have been one or two fist fights behind the wood shop. Anyhow, dad was proud of me and he gave me a brand new “crate” 289 for that car, & I rebuilt everything else on it myself. After I got the body patched and repainted I was very proud of that car, but it got smashed into by three different drivers. I put the engine in a used mustang for my sister, and sold that Ford off cheap. I did put a good 35,000 miles on it driving to work and college in the Rocky Mountains. One thing that I never owned was a camera, and I don’t have a single picture of any of the cars or bikes I fixed up and customized before 1977. 1
keithb7 Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 This thread stirred up some feelings. The older I get, I am able to look at the changes in the world that have evolved in my lifetime. It seems scary sometimes when I think about what has developed. My Great grandfather I can't say for certain. Probably 1900 I'd guess. My Grandfather born in 1920, my father 1942, myself 1971. Times indeed were hard for those before me. I was given great opportunities to make a living for myself. I was raised in the "school of hard knocks" style. Like many here, I figured out my way. I never took charity. I left home at 19, (surely late, compared to many here) with nothing. Very fortunate to have a good young woman at my side. We carved our way and raised a family. We worked and worked and worked. Still to this very day. Right now, I kid you not, she's sweating copper pipe, installing a new sink. I'm still too cheap to pay anyone for any vehicle maintenance. Been doing it myself since I began learning at 16. My Father drilled into me, independence. Everything. "Figure it out. Cause ain't nobody going to look after you." He was right. I do prefer to see people go and find a way to earn what they need. I think I figured out when I was 8 or 9 that if I collected enough empty beer and pop cans from the ditch I could buy my own comic books. Then it was delivering newspapers. Babysitting. Picking vegetables at a local farm until finally... I was of legal age to work at 14. I got my social insurance number and started working a real, formal job. It took many years of part time wages to keep my old jalopies on road while in high school. Whatever I had left over from buying parts and gas I spent on my girlfriend. A good investment. As mentioned, she'll installing a sink tonight! lol. Sometimes I too think about the salt of the earth people I knew in my youth. Friends and family of my parents. I had the 70's, and the memories are very good. Family was everything. Friends a very close second. Today if people added up what they spend on a cell phone, a home internet package, perhaps a TV subscription bill, Netflix, all the Starbucks coffee each month, it might add up to our parents monthly mortgage payment. Unbelievable, but none of those costs existed 50 years ago. 2
sidevalvepete Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 https://youtu.be/VKHFZBUTA4k Who would have thought........forty years ago....... 1
plymouthcranbrook Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 Monty Python, classic for the ages.
MackTheFinger Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 My father was born in 1908, grandfather in 1870, my great-grandfather was born in 1837, died in 1913, and served in the Confederate Army. What do I deserve for that? Nothing. That's what I expected and that's what I got. I've paid my own way since I was 16, no help, no handouts, nobody paying for my education, housing, meals, nothing I couldn't grab for myself. I didn't even feel like I could afford a phone until 1980. I borrowed money on a new vehicle in 1978 and never borrowed for one since. Ditto for housing, had a 20 year mortgage on my first house, paid it off in 10 and it's a rental now. My current home was built out of pocket. The biggest evil in the world is debt. Even so, I have sympathy for people coming of age in these completely weird days.
Tooljunkie Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 When i left home,with pretty much nothing, same deal, work for everything i have. The last 15 years financially have been the best years. With this covid i have not worked for a couple months and im not panicking yet. 15 years ago we would be screwed. But i would have figured something out. On another car forum there was a young lad that claimed he was broke and figured the members should donate to him so he could build a car he always wanted. The amount of people that instructed him to go earn his own money was staggering. same forum, a member’s wife passed away. The support and donations from members was overwhelming. many of those people can tell lazy from hardship too... 3
Sniper Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 When I was my son's age the guys who were my current age were all WWII vets, or of that age. A few years ago when I was running a wind farm I was talking with a couple of the manufacturer's reps about some issue or other and the thought crossed my mind, "we (my age group)were running the show". Then I remembered those guys who were running things back when I was a kid and my next thought was "we are screwed". We were winging things without much of a clue, then I wondered if those guys back then had a clue or were they just good at looking like they did? lol.
MackTheFinger Posted December 31, 2020 Report Posted December 31, 2020 Each generation has had to learn their way forward in their own way. Best thing to do is to give them the encouragement and the opportunity to do so. That's an effort at the best of times. Happy New Year to everyone!! Let's hope it's a good one!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgR4SDxBJAo
RobertKB Posted January 1, 2021 Report Posted January 1, 2021 I think each generation has nostalgia for the past and fears for the future of the next generation. This has likely been true for the last few thousand years. Nostalgia is all well and good but you have to remember the bad with the good. Think what incredible poverty and misery there was during the initial Industrial Revolution. We are now in the middle of the Digital Revolution (aka the Third Industrial Revolution) and it has brought its own problems along with a lot good. I love my cell phone, my computer (so I can use this forum), and the medical advances technology has brought just to name a few advantages of the modern day. I think the next generation is doing OK. I'm 71 and have a daughter who is 41 with a responsible job and two grandsons 14 and 12. I believe things will be alright in the future as so far my grandkids are good people and so are their friends. They will have a WHOLE lot of crap to sort out that we, of our generation, have left them with. Gotta be realistic about nostalgia. 1
Frank Elder Posted January 1, 2021 Author Report Posted January 1, 2021 I'm not being nostalgic nor do I think my generation is better.......just making the point that working for everything gives it more meaning than finding suckers to give you money. 3 1
Marcel Backs Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 Frank is right and people who think like him deserve a big two thumbs up. We are now in a "want it now but don't really want to work for it" phase in mankind's evolution (if you want to call it that)which is due to "progressive thinking" and technology. I like my colleague am a dinosaur and proud of it! Peoples today have completely forgotten the concept of accomplishment which boils down to "how can I get what I want now without really working for it". I dug ditches by hand at the local golf course until they bled at 50 cents an hour to be able to afford my first car for 350 bucks at 13 years old. It's a 39 master 85 chevvy (sorry Frank) that I still drive in the summer (since the age of 20) and that feeling of accomplishment is stronger than ever every time I drive it! I try to get that feeling daily which is why I am presently restoring my D 14 down to the last screw at the age of 60. Much of gen X has lost this and sit there mindlessly twittering their lives away telling people what the just ate at Taco Bell...big deal! 1
Frank Elder Posted January 15, 2021 Author Report Posted January 15, 2021 The brand of car is truly insignificant compared to the toiling you went through to achieve your goals ........... Give me a 69 New Yorker 4 door hardtop and I would be truly amazed yet somewhat puzzled, let me strive to earn it through my own accomplishments......blood, sweat and frustrations and I am euphoric! A working man sweats, a working man dies.......A working man is forgotten before his sweat drys.
linus6948 Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 George Carlin summed it up pretty well more than 30 years ago, it`s just worse today. (Warning some adult language used).
Sniper Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 10 hours ago, Marcel Backs said: Much of gen X has lost this and sit there mindlessly twittering their lives away telling people what the just ate at Taco Bell...big deal! I think you mistake the Millenials for GenX there. I'm an X'er.
Marcel Backs Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 George Carlin like Frank Zappa were men ahead of their time. Listen to the song "flakes" by Mr Zappa and he says it all in his own unique way. As for George, he may be gone but left an indelible perspective on human (some of them) nature which will carry on through time! We must keep the idiots from progressing or else they will overrun us like bedbugs.
Marcel Backs Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 You're right Sniper! My apologies.
Sniper Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 20 minutes ago, Marcel Backs said: You're right Sniper! My apologies. Not a problem. You don't hear much from us X'ers because most of us learned long ago how to take care of ourselves and not worry about what other's are up to. We lived thru both gas crunches, Vietnam, 60's hippie nonsense, the Nixon thing, Disco, stagflation, the malaise, both parents having to work and taking care of ourselves because we were latch key kids. But we fortunately did not have to walk to school, barefoot, in the snow and up hill both ways. That was my Dad's generation, the Silent one. lol.
Frank Elder Posted January 15, 2021 Author Report Posted January 15, 2021 64 was the last year for boomers......
Los_Control Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 I was born in 1962 .... never did understand the x y or z crowd ... just considered myself an American.
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