Guest Post by Realestatepup
When I was young, my father delivered potato chips for a living. He worked for a small, regional chip-maker (long gone, I believe bought out by a larger company). When he took the job, he did so with one thought in mind: expand his route by his own initiative in order to make more money on commissions for new routes.
He did exactly that. We were not poor nor rich, but we lived in a modest 2-unit house bought for $21,000 via a Yankee Mac loan, the precursor to today’s VA loan. Interest rates at that time were high, and I believe my parents were thrilled they were paying something like 12% on that loan.
My dad drove an old, used Chevy Vega. I don’t remember my mother having a car, she worked close to home and walked to work, but didn’t even work when my brother and I were little.
We at good meals three times a day cooked by my mother, and eating out was a rarity.
We went to the drive-in, camping, swimming. Friends came over to our house and we rode bikes and played outside. Parents played cards.
Our first “real” vacation was when I was 12. My father at that point had taken a job with the State of CT Department of Corrections, given preference due to his veteran’s status. He was making more money than ever but still not a huge amount. I would say probably 25,000 a year, maybe a little more. But the benefits were good, vacation, sick time, over time, pension.
My mother drove bus and so had the summers off. We went to Disney World. In July. We drove. In a tiny hatchback car, no AC, standard. We stayed in a cheap hotel not in the park. I remember it very well and it was wonderful.
My mother’s uncle gave her some land in another part of town and my parents built a very plain, simple cape. We got an above ground pool. We had a dog.
Some of my parent’s friends had more money than they did, but it was never an issue. We weren’t taught to be jealous, or think that somehow we were wronged. We were just happy and content and that was that.
I knew some black families. Most of them were just regular people, the father was around, and had a job, and provided. The mom sometimes worked too. It was never a case of anyone being “oppressed”. I never remember any racism, they were just another family.
My mother did have a friend. A single mom with 4 kids, her husband took of to California one night and that was that. She had to go on welfare because she had 4 young children at home. She hated welfare. It sucked. You got just barely what you needed to survive and not much more. She didn’t have more kids. Or a live in boyfriend. She took the postal exam instead and got out of poverty and off welfare. She didn’t want to be on welfare. No one did.
What is the point of this story? The point is that wealth now is an obsession. It’s an accumulation of things. It’s not about building anything real, or actually helping anyone. Charity is just another status symbol, to be bragged about and flaunted all over social media.
Success is not valued, not real success. We can see this obviously by the way small business owners are and have been treated. From “you didn’t build that” to onerous taxation and regulation, anyone with the gumption and drive to sacrifice and make something from possibly nothing is vilified. Called Deplorable. Or racist.
Now crony capitalism, nepotism, lobbying, and cheating are the way to go. That’s rewarded. Child slave labor overseas? Check. Replacing US citizens with cheaper imported visa holders? Check. Wide open borders of more cheap labor? Check.
In the meantime, welfare has become a way of life for generations of Americans. Public housing grows and grows. SNAP, free phones, free health care. They are given enough to keep them distracted but not enough so they can go get all that shiny stuff. They make no plans to change because they cannot imagine a world where they have to give up their free phone, their free apartment, their SNAP cards, and actually take a risk and save, scrimp, and not have children at 15 years old that they cannot ever hope to support on their own. They believe they are owed this and $15 an hour to flip burgers. But it will never be enough because they do not know how to invest in themselves. They do not understand how to have a goal and reach it. It is all in the day, the moment. It’s not what have you done for me lately, but what are you going to do right now and then right after that?
Sure, inner city schools suck. But if you can read, and you actually want to learn, there is not a bad teacher out there that can take that away from you.
That is the beauty of America. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Debt is slavery, but so is getting “free” stuff. Because it’s never free and it robs you of your humanity.
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Excellent post. State sponsored welfare and the destruction of the family will be (have been) the downfall of this country.
That’s a fact ……..Jack!
You must have listened to Paul Harvey’s astounding 1970 Brigham Young University commencement speech.
https://tinyurl.com/ybh9z9ja
At 84 I remember those good old days too! Those days are never coming back!
Jesus is coming back.
That’s plenty good enough for me.
Great post. Buying votes by appealing to the darker side of human nature, what could possibly go wrong?
Am 64 and had a similar youth as the one you describe. Dad worked his ass off so that we could have what we needed.
Neighborhood had all races and religions and we didn’t think about our differences. We watched in awe when the moon landings happened and cried when we saw the beginnings of the civil rights era bring violence to the nation.
Was that regional chip company Charles Chips by any chance. I remember that outfit when I was a kid. We kept that big chip tin long after the company disappeared.
State Line Potato Chips. The sad part was my dad built a great route and then the owner’s son came and said “I want that guy’s route” and that was that. My dad was out the door. Thankfully he got the job with the state not long after. My mom talks about that dark time. She remembers crying because they had literally $1 in the checking account an unemployment was only 8 weeks then. No extensions, nothing. Both of their parents were either retired (dad’s side) or blue collar and tight on finances too. They never ONCE thought about going on the dole.
I had a similar upbringing. I was great. Church, friends, naked swimming in the crick, tobogganing ect. Dad would have NEVER gone on the dole and he even cut his big toe clean off as a logger in Michigan. The past seems like a dream. What son of a bitch killed it?
The Great Society springs to mind.
Great post!!!
Yup, LBJ-and his soul rots in hell.
Realestatepup – one of the perks of owning a business is you can hire your family. Blood is thicker than water and all that. It was a bad situation for your father, but in my business if it came to it I would pitch an employee in favor of a family member without so much as a second thought. My family comes first. Usually just how it is.
The really bad bit is that sometimes family members are worthless as dogshit. I have had that a time or two.
… Almost as bad as a father who did NOT want you in his business! I tried for years , working with him, but other than menial “entry-level” work, I never got any encouragement or opportunities to participate. So I said, “adios” and became a commercial pilot. Thanks, Dad.
You sound like someone I grew up with.
Did you and a friend ever come home from out in the rain and your Mom insisted that she dry are wet jackets and she found a small bag of pot? She then went ballistic and called all the Moms and we got in some serious shit.
Great essay.
No but I do remember all of us kids were terrified of all the adults. We knew they could yell at us and get us into trouble same as our parents. But yes, the Gathering of the Mothers was a scary thing indeed when us kids pulled some stupid shit.
Why does the state take care of you? None of the people forced to pay $ billions every year want to. Just because you can’t take care of yourself, it becomes my obligation?
In the past it was your families responsibility. They would do a far better job of keeping you on the straight and narrow than any govt agency can.
I’m more than happy and willing to assist someone with a disability or severe medical situation through no fault of their own. But as far as providing you a cushy life because your lazy, stupid or both, I’m not interested. Further, I don’t give 2 shits about your plight or incredibly poor decisions.
Sink or swim baby.
Word!
“Just because you can’t take care of yourself,”
Change the “can’t” to “won’t” and I will agree 100%
Welfare shouldn’t be the responsibility of government. Religious and charitable organizations traditionally supplied relief to disabled and disadvantaged people until Uncle decided to get involved.
The American public is the most charitable and giving people in the world. We don’t need DC wasting hundreds of billions of tax dollars every year propping up deadbeats and welfare cheats.
Steve says: “ I’m more than happy and willing to assist someone with a disability or severe medical situation through no fault of their own”.
Not me. That is the responsibility of their families. Only if they have no families am I happy and willing to assist. Not. My. Problem.
Take care of your own. You said it yourself.
If very unfortunate situations befall families, through no fault of their own, I will help. But honestly, that is very, very rare.
Sounds like 1864. Slaves got free food and free shelter. All they had to do for it was work 7 days a week. These days, you get the free stuff and don’t even have to work.
Slaves begat slaves and they was born tired. The only way to be free is to be free in your mind. These poor bastards have been kept slaves by their indoctrination handed down from the slaves. I remember a cartoon I was going to draw; a black man hits another black and tells him, The white man hit you.
We too lived simply. Milk from powder in reusable containers, cloth diapers, simple meals from simple ingredients, Dad out providing, Mom staying at home when we were young. One or two channels on the TV. Everyone played out on the street and everyone watched out for everyone else’s kids. Everyone knew everyone else in the neighborhood. There was nothing unusual about people of color, they were just other people who lived on our street. Crazy people were put in bona fide institutions and actually enjoyed real care. There were no homeless. Cross dressers kept it inside for fear of being institutionalized. No trans or even anything like it. People had values and taught their kids to respect others and their elders. Money just wasn’t nearly as important in terms of social status. Few had their boot on another’s head to get ahead. There was a lot less ability to compare yourself to others as you were more limited in scope and awareness of the rest of the world. People were far kinder to each other then as a result. People rallied around others that had experienced unfortunate events. I remember families in trouble being showered with food and offers of help to get back on their feet. It’s a shame we’ll never see this again. It will take generations and a dramatic reset to ever get back to those values.
Yep. I remember one time a small traveling circus came to town and the Moms all locked down the kids and neighborhood, afraid the “gypsies” would kidnap the kids. My Mom was as sweet as apple pie, but you didn’t want to endanger her kids.
Our idea of “rich people” was TV shows like Silver Spoon and Diff’rent Strokes. We knew it was fantasy and never had any thought we would, could, or should live like that.
Bus drivers rock!
The good old days was summer when I showed up at home shirtless and barefoot on my Huffy Cheetah bicycle with the banana seat, and to my horror, my year past third grade teacher was talking to my mother. My parents purchased a set of 1968 World Book encyclopedia from her (summer jobs for teachers back then). By the time I was twelve years old, I had read every volume from cover to cover…
Knowledge comes from reading, wisdom from experience…
Like listening to Leave it to beaver but in written form. It reminded me of how out of touch people are with the reality people live in. Most of our Government is like this.
The author sounds like a Boomer. Boomers are familiar with this story. The new generation is not, they grew up after Reagan and Clinton when the market went nowhere but up and the purpose of wealth is to flaunt it. Young folks rented fancy cars to keep up with appearances. Broke ass blacks wore shiny baubles to look hip. They spent their welfare cash on Kanye’s latest and BBall tickets. They drove fancy wheels bought with liberal credit and getting them repossessed after a few months for non-payment.
They were looking pretty prosperous until you saw them looting Walmart for a boxful of diapers. That’s when we saw the copper under the gold overlay. When unmasked, they whined like bitches that – slavery and shit. Slavery is the gift that keeps on giving. I wonder if they would really sell their slave birthright for a check from Trump? I’d like to see the fuckers on their knees when they accept that check. Trump should put a stipulation on it, a promise to leave the country or some shit like that, or renounce their citizenship and all appertaining rights.
But we’ve been down this road. LBJ offered them lifetime welfare in exchange for their self-respect. He just required them to vote Democrat. Welfare has been reparations all along. He should have told them to shut up about slavery because he was paying them to not work.
I’m actually a Gen-Xer. Just fortunate enough to have good parents that gave a shit to not be wealth hounds. My parents were very much anti-credit card, you saved if you wanted something and that was that. If we borrowed money from them, we paid it back. I was always astounded by parents of my friends that just bought them a pretty fancy car for nothing more than graduation. My dad was befuddled by this too. “Isn’t graduating high school what you are supposed to do?” My mom was a very very religious lady, and while I have since moved on from her flavor of religion, it did instill values like do not covet, do not steal, all the big ones.
I’d say slavery is the new holocaust; we need reparations!! They
have been brainwashed that they are so ” special” despite being illiterate and every one of them deserves a prize so here’s what you get.
REPARATIONS. http://www.truthtopowernews.com/reparations-average-white-american-over-lifetime-will-transfer-384109-black-americans-n3600
The Irish Savant posted the figures for how much the average white american will transfer to black americans over a lifetime. $384,000.00 just in federal money’s paid out. State and Local make it worse.
https://www.lucianne.com/2020/06/04/wealth_transfer_is_exactly_whats_neededbr_bet_founder_calls_for_14_trillion_inbrreparations_to_42_million_african_americanbrincluding_a_350767_one-time_payment_35659.html