Posted on 06/24/2006 11:14:12 AM PDT by Incorrigible
My grandfather told my father that if there was anything left (to inherit) it would be the result of a serious miscalculation. He had a pretty sharp pencil. The only thing recovered from my grandfather's estate was my dad's old .22 bolt action rifle. I have that now. My #2 son will have his grandfather's sword. It's the sword of a naval officer. My son is a Marine. He will have to buy his own when the time comes.
When my mom decided to sell the family home last October, my sister went on a "cleaning rampage". By the time I could travel 900 miles from Idaho to San Diego, there was nothing left of the furniture and household effects present when I last visited in July 2003. My sister sold, gave away or trashed nearly everything. If my mom hadn't spoken up, she might have been left with nothing but her clothes and some toiletries. She managed to keep pots, pans, dishes, a sofa a comfortable chair and her TV set.
"a rifle behind every blade of grass" isn't just a historic quote.;-)
Every thread of this type is loaded with vitriol from the Gen X bunch. I've paid maximum limits on social security and other related a taxes for 20 years and pretty close to max for 30 years. Every dime was disbursed to pay OTHER people.
I turn 50 at the end of August. I fully expect to work for another 20 years. I would be bored to tears in a retired state.
I have my rifle behind the blade of grass - maybe you missed it in my post.
A century ago, we had workhouses for the indigent elderly. My grandmother's father died in one. Don't know what they had him do for work in the Sussex Workhouse, but he probably wasn't sitting on his elderly ass waiting for a check to arrive. There used to be one right across the field from our house (the site is now a strip mall) - a combination sanitarium/workfarm. The old County Indigent Hospital building was just knocked down last year.
A census record search turns up a lot of these county or local institutions. You can read the lists of the names of the folks who didn't plan smart by saving enough money, or by getting injured, or by getting TB or something. If they didn't end up in the spare bedroom of a family member - something that happened a lot, according to the censuses I looked at - they went to the workhouse. I guess we'll end up with some system like that.
One thing that always struck me was the number of elderly women at these places, often classified as "widow" or "spinster." For whatever reason, they didn't seem to have any place else to go.
Maybe more young people should do a little genealogical work, and they might get a sense of how different it is today with the so-called "safety net" in place. Bad luck, bad choice of parents, ill health, economic downturns, the collapse of different industries, bank failures - all these things had real consequences 100 years ago. If the "safety-net" is gone, and the grasshoppers DO have to rummage through the ants' garbage cans for dinner, they will appreciate finally the way human beings have had to live for centuries.
Yeh, I can be sorta dense at times. Interal political upheavle? Won't happen without external thermal-nucs. Or a conspiracy to go to e-money based on all our paper being counterfiet, not that that could ever happen:-/
sort of a bad place to be.
That explains why I've always thought my sister ('61) grew up in a different generation. ;)
>Yeah, you left out the Depression and WWII...and the Indian Wars...<
Because, like other boomers, I did not experience them.
You must have slept through that part of history class.
I'm happy that you're proud to be a selfish, disgusting, self-centered dolt that would post such foolishness on an open forum. What a hoot.
>Other then them, however, I owe no money to any Baby Boomer.<
You and your age-cohorts owe nothing when you repay me & other boomers, with interest, all the bucks I have contributed for decades in property taxes to support the schools you attended.
Do you take the rinds off?
>LOL, I can still see Ed Begley wandering around in his acid-induced haze...<
You can see him do it now on DVD, if you wish.
What a great, bizarre movie.
Yea, I was born in 1961...and I always wondered why I was considered a Boomer, I have absolutely nothing in common with Boomers or GenXers.
Seems like wasted money, doesn't it?
Maybe more young people should do a little genealogical work, and they might get a sense of how different it is today with the so-called "safety net" in place. Bad luck, bad choice of parents, ill health, economic downturns, the collapse of different industries, bank failures - all these things had real consequences 100 years ago. If the "safety-net" is gone, and the grasshoppers DO have to rummage through the ants' garbage cans for dinner, they will appreciate finally the way human beings have had to live for centuries.
Truer words were never said!
I heard Michael Barone, on Mike Reagan's show the other nite. He was talking about the sorry state of education in this country, in which we teach illiterate latin american's in poor Spanish, rather than in proper English. Barone said, that what education in this country needed was the Administrators that ran the NYC school system in 1910--its all about assimilating and developing your own plan...if the plan fails, go to relatives or charity, just dont come TAKE it from me!
I applaud you. I do the intake education interviews for a juvenile correction facility. I can't get over the youth who can't spell their own mother's name and who in their teen years can only say they have a sixth grade education. Sad.
>Seems like wasted money, doesn't it?<
I know it's wasted. I attended packed classrooms in old buildings, and came away with a pretty decent education before going to college. The 20something degreed people I've worked with don't understand my spoken vocabulary --words like 'banal', for example, they cannot write, and I had to explain Stonehenge to one 28 year old.
I would love for my Mom to win the lottery even if I never saw a dime of it. Even though you may not inherit that much, it could be a lot worse.
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