Personally, I say lets keep the Mexicans and send them the dregs of our society for a change
Personally, I say lets keep the Mexicans and send them the dregs of our society for a change
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones"
Albert Einstein
Q/A for President!Originally Posted by quercus alba
P-hole, you're correct about the pot-stirring. Jail ain't the answer.
Much the same here Hidey-Ho. We had 6 kids and a stay-at-home mom. Looking back now, I realize we were kinda poor ... or at minimum, the lower echelon of middle class I guess. I didn't know it then and thought we were pretty much "normal' and the others were "rich people". I started a lawn service when I was about 12 years old and grew my "business" to include probably 20 yards that were steady income (mowing weekly). When I came home from the hospital a few years back after my health episode, I could no longer mow my own yard and approached a few of the neighborhood teenagers to see if they might want to do it. No, it's too hot ... they'd rather stay inside in the a/c and play video games. I talked to the mother of one kid and she said there's no way her (high school aged) kid can do that as he might hurt himself! I "jokingly" said it was no problem as I have homeowner's insurance. (She didn't see the humor in it)
I remember as a kid, mom would buy us all 1 pair of new shoes and a couple pairs of pants (dad called 'em "britches") before the new school year was to start. My grandmother would make our shirts with her old Singer. I kinda hated those shirts as SHE was the one who'd pick out the material. (not to mention each shirt had a tag inside the collar that said something like, "Lovingly made by Grandma"). I made my bicycles from old parts I dug out of the trash heap behind the GoodYear tire store (they also sold new Schwinn bicycles and the bike repair shop threw away old parts). I bought my first ever brand new bicycle from the money I made cutting grass. My first skateboard was a piece of 1" X 8" lumber with one of my sister's old roller skates nailed to the bottom. I built a "go-kart" (no motor), to roll down the hill by our house, out of an old ironing board with wheels and axles borrowed from an old rusted out Radio Flyer little red wagon.
The point of all this is, if I wanted something nice ("store-bought clothes, bicycles, skateboards, whatever), I had to work and BUY them myself. Mom and dad fed us and gave us the basics, but anything more than that had to be earned. We had our list of chores, but I never recall receiving an allowance. I suppose the "allowance" was a roof over our heads.
The brother I mentioned above? I have no clue where he went wrong. People tend to blame the parents. That may be true at times, but we were all raised in the same household and by the same set of parents (they were divorced after we were adults and had moved on). My sister and BIL are self-made millionaires (literally). My other brother has done VERY well for himself and recently sold his business to retire. He bought a new (Mercedes) motorhome and he and my SIL are now touring the US and Canada. They just returned from a trip up the Alcan Highway after touring Canada and Alaska. In fact, they accompanied Lynn and me on our Panama cruise a few months back. What I'm saying is, we were all raised exactly the same way and the kids in the family range from a multi-millionaire to a homeless fuck.
Back when I came home from the military, my twin brothers were still at home and were total bums. One was constantly getting in (minor) trouble. Nothing serious, but just had no direction or plan. One night he was out in my dad's car, got stopped for something stupid (traffic stop) and they ended up hauling him to jail and towing the car! We found out he'd let a frigging jaywalking ticket go to warrant! I remember my dad calling me in the middle of the night asking me to go with him to bail my brother out of jail and help him drive to get his car out of impound. He also said he wanted me there to keep him (my dad) from killing him (my brother)! The other twin wasn't getting into trouble, but was a total waste ... worthless ... did NOTHING but sit on his lazy ass and watch tv.
The next day (after bailing my brother out of jail and helping dad retrieve his car), I woke both brothers up early and LITERALLY dragged them kicking and screaming to the local military recruitment center. I told them they were NOT leaving that place until they'd signed up for the military and I think the look in my eyes put the fear of God into them. I figured they were worthless and the military would straighten their asses out. (Drill Sargents will NOT put up with any crap!) One (the one who was in lock-up the night before) ended up joining the Army and the other joined the Navy. They both did their time and got out. The one who was in the Army has led a decent life ... always held a job, raised a family and now has grandkids he loves. The other (Navy dude) came out as worthless as he was when he went in. He's the one who's spent the last almost 40 years thinking the world owes him something. He had a couple of menial jobs shortly after leaving the Navy, but he'd always just walk away from them. He'd simply go to lunch and never return! I could write a book on him. EVERY family member has "helped" him along the way, and we've ALL been burned! Some worse than others.
It's through him that I learned there's a system in this country that makes it possible NOT to work. Once he learned that system, he was "set for life". I'm tellin' you, there's something inherently wrong with a system like that.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness" - Mark Twain
+100
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"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Raoul Duke
Ha ha ha! Not a bad idea at all .... like Castro did to us with the Mariel boatlift!
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness" - Mark Twain
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