Earlier Economy

Just saw this photo on the internet and oh, the memories :)

This was my lunch when I was in school--one of these four cracker and processed cheese handi-snacks. Didn't get one every day. Most days, I only had

[url]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2280/2129209481_f71f900ed8.jpg[/url]

No beverage--couldn't afford a 15 cent container of juice or a 25 cent soft drink. A beverage other than drinking fountain water was a luxury. The family had to save money for gas--it was nearly a dollar a gallon and then it hit a dollar...

Breakfast? It was a piece of toast, some butter, but no jam, and a glass of milk.

Let's hope that things don't return to the bad old days.

Actually, the economy was bad, but life itself was pretty damned good back then in mid-1970s. And being skinny was in :)

We got granola bars and a pint of milk.

Loose change was hoarded for the occasional pack of trading cards and a horrible litre of artifically sweetened orange soda which came in a glass bottle and tasted like stewed Japanese beetles for our walk back across the undeveloped fields between the house, highway, and deli.

The soda might have been tainted though. We burnt beetles with looking glasses and mashed them up into buckets of marigold heads then threw the pulp at one another as a game.

Hah! A geezer thread!

Okay, so we didn't ever drink soda either, and it was a REALLY big deal to go to McDonald's for a burger and fries. I used to make lemonade using lemons from a tree in our back yard every morning... I still remember how the lemons burned every little cut in my fingers. I ate peanut butter on a slice of toast for breakfast, and a bologna or valveeta cheese sandwich for lunch. And I was the queen of hand-me-down clothes. I got my first job at 12 years old so I could buy a "cool" outfit. Otherwise, i would have to make do with the ONE new outfit I would get for going back-to-school or for my birthday.

Wow, times have changed. You "poor" people have NO idea.

EDIT: Doc - we used to burn ants with a magnifying glass!

Moth cocoons were prized...

Doc... i am pretty sure you are older than me, and I don't remember granola bars in my childhood. Were your parents hippies? :D

how i miss cheap school lunches.

raverboy

A progressive Catholic School lunch program for its day.

We had no subs, perogies, pizza, tator tots, burgers, hot dogs, or anything which made us jizz our checkered little pants (or skirts, respectively), Vashti.

Although we sold plenty of subs door to door for fundraising drives and got to eat the unpaid for orders. :)

Twice a year, it was bliss.

it's a good thing that i never went to these sorta schools, i'd be a complete rebel at age 4.

raverboy

My first job was delivering newspapers in my neighborhood without a bicycle. Nowadays, they use cars.

My second job was selling flowers on a corner. Every pervert in the city would come by and try to hit on me. One guy actually grabbed my boob as he reached in for a bunch of flowers.... jackass.... I was 12.

I raked leaves, sold lemonade, sold playing cards, fed pets, hoisted hay bales, shot barn pigeons, mowed lawns, picked asparagus, duped my younger brothers out of their grandmother contributed greeting card savings, and gophered drinks at family shindigs for tips.

I wish some girl would have grabbed my crotch at least once.

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Originally Posted by Illusional [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

it's a good thing that i never went to these sorta schools, i'd be a complete rebel at age 4.

raverboy

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They teach you how to become a rebel when you get out of these sorts of prisons. :)

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Originally Posted by Doc Durian [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

I wish some girl would have grabbed my crotch at least once.

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A girl, yes. A creepy middle aged man? I doubt it would hold the same appeal. :D

I'd have settled for a middle aged woman crotch grabber. :)

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Originally Posted by Doc Durian [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

I'd have settled for a middle aged woman crotch grabber. :)

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Yes, I suppose perspectives differ, depending on gender. lol :)

My first job was to sweep and mop and six car garage and then sweep, mop, and wax the floors of my dad's showroom in his shop. A three hour job for which I received a quarter. If the floors turned out especially good, I got an extra dime. If the job wasn't satisfactory, I was made to do it until it was right or get no compensation.

A good lesson in hard work.

For extra money, some of the guys at my high school used to swindle old guys out of their baseball card collections and then sell the best cards for cash. It was a private religious high school,except I wasn't religious. My classmates were, though. Nice "Christian" boys who steal from old guys. Wonder where they'll end up later, huh?

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Originally Posted by Doc Durian [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

We got granola bars and a pint of milk.

Loose change was hoarded for the occasional pack of trading cards and a horrible litre of artifically sweetened orange soda which came in a glass bottle and tasted like stewed Japanese beetles for our walk back across the undeveloped fields between the house, highway, and deli.

The soda might have been tainted though. We burnt beetles with looking glasses and mashed them up into buckets of marigold heads then threw the pulp at one another as a game.

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We used to get old binocular lenses from a factory that replaced old lenses. We'd use the lenses to play "laser tag" with ant colonies. Laser tag was focusing a beam of light from the lens onto the ants and watch them roast to death or spontaneously combust. One guy actually used a lens to focus light on one of the school's nuns habits and ended up catching her head scarf on fire! He got expelled, of course.

Did you ever play solar chicken? Two kids focus the bead on each others arms. The first to retract lost whatever was up for grabs, usually change, trading cards, or smurf figurines.

No, didn't do that. We used to put rocks in the middle our mud balls, let them dry hard all morning and pelt the living shit out of each other. One time, I caught one of those mudballs right between the eyes and was unconscious for about 30 seconds. When I came to, my friends and I made a pact to never tell our parents that it had happened.

heh..

We used to gather up as many paper matchbooks as we could find, cut the heads off into a bowl, and mix in grindings from sparklers so we could pack it into steel tubes (sawed off lil red wagon handles were preferred) then shoot each other with the flames.

Except the one time our screen door mesh safety grill on the end disintegrated and hundreds of sparkling matchheads stuck to some kids synthetic jacket. He might have been the first breakdancer I ever saw.

LOL :) Sounds like you had fun in school.

You know what's funny? A few years from now, Americans are going to be the ones working in the sweatshops earning 1 yen per day, lol.

Check out parts of the US midwest. It's not too far off from that now. There are kennel sweepers with doctorate degrees.

I'm in the midwest and I don't know what you're talking about, buddy.

There are professionals so desperate for work in some towns, they've been resorting to shovelling shit at vet kennels and delivering pizzas so as not to lose their homes.

Source?
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Originally Posted by Doc Durian [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

There are professionals so desperate for work in some towns, they've been resorting to shovelling shit at vet kennels and delivering pizzas so as not to lose their homes.

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Yeah there's stuff like that everywhere Doc. A lot of Engineers around here doing multiple jobs just to get by.

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Originally Posted by CAM [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

My first job was to sweep and mop and six car garage and then sweep, mop, and wax the floors of my dad's showroom in his shop. A three hour job for which I received a quarter. If the floors turned out especially good, I got an extra dime. If the job wasn't satisfactory, I was made to do it until it was right or get no compensation.

A good lesson in hard work.

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hey, atleast you weren't mopping floors at a peep show.

raverboy

Okay... I saved up my dimes for Mexican Jumping Beans! I think they were 0.30 a box when I was little.

Please tell me I'm not the only one that played with those... or hit them with a rock to see what was inside!

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Originally Posted by Doc Durian [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

Check out parts of the US midwest. It's not too far off from that now. There are kennel sweepers with doctorate degrees.

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Dunno about kennels sweepers, but there are way too many PhDs graduating for the jobs that are available. Blame the universities, whose business model depends on cranking them out.

There are jobs, tho one has to be willing to relocate and that's hard if you have to uproot a family and home.

i bet you now know the reason why those beans actually jumped right??

damn you worm killer.

raverboy

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Originally Posted by doppelgaenger [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

Source?
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Friends and family doing similar sorts of jobs to get by.

So, I teach...I tell the students, "Papers due tomorrow." Thirty percent of the students come to class without the completed assignment. They should all be failed, right? Oh, not according to the "system" which tells me that I have to be "reasonable" and accept the papers late, but with a minimal penalty. Don't be "reasonable" and they teaching evals (which are considered God's Holy Word by administrators) won't be good...student retaliation against authority. Students blatantly cheat and the "system" tells me to give them another chance.

My point is that the system, currently controlled by the 1960's and 1970's crowd, is broken. The joblessness is a function of the ruling elite generation's arrogance and near-tyrannical grip on US society. We live in deeply troubled times and they will get worse. Everyone's comment is dead on right. The US employment situation is horribly reported, fabricated and swept away from the news so as to shield Dear Leader. The US is so financially destroyed at this point as to be near impossible for recovery to occur, barring a miracle of near Biblical proportions. And, the "children" as noted above offer little hope. there are good and smart kids but they are far-outnumbered by lumpen proletariat who only suck of the teat of society and will offer little in return.

At this point, I am just trying find a perch, high enough so the rising waters don't reach me. Hopefully, there will be some good students on that perch as well.

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Originally Posted by CAM [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

So, I teach...I tell the students, "Papers due tomorrow." Thirty percent of the students come to class without the completed assignment. They should all be failed, right? Oh, not according to the "system" which tells me that I have to be "reasonable" and accept the papers late, but with a minimal penalty. Don't be "reasonable" and they teaching evals (which are considered God's Holy Word by administrators) won't be good...student retaliation against authority. Students blatantly cheat and the "system" tells me to give them another chance.

My point is that the system, currently controlled by the 1960's and 1970's crowd, is broken. The joblessness is a function of the ruling elite generation's arrogance and near-tyrannical grip on US society. We live in deeply troubled times and they will get worse. Everyone's comment is dead on right. The US employment situation is horribly reported, fabricated and swept away from the news so as to shield Dear Leader. The US is so financially destroyed at this point as to be near impossible for recovery to occur, barring a miracle of near Biblical proportions. And, the "children" as noted above offer little hope. there are good and smart kids but they are far-outnumbered by lumpen proletariat who only suck of the teat of society and will offer little in return.

At this point, I am just trying find a perch, high enough so the rising waters don't reach me. Hopefully, there will be some good students on that perch as well.

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It's divide and conquer from the inside out. There will be no recovery, just collapse as intentionally engineered.

There aren't many perches high enough to escape it and it's fast approaching.

Most are happy to pretend otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Doc Durian [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

It's divide and conquer from the inside out. There will be no recovery, just collapse as intentionally engineered.

There aren't many perches high enough to escape it and it's fast approaching.

Most are happy to pretend otherwise.

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Well, considering that Dear Leader is a Kropotkinite anarcho-communist, it is tempting to agree that it is "intentionally engineered." Accepting that idea would mean giving them too much credit for competent planning. And, they can be blamed only insofar as we are willing to accept the blame for acceding to the regular demands of the Me Generation folk. They have done a stellar job of destroying our social and political institutions through their shabby treatment of all and everything. They don't plan these things...it is more like the giant who crushes everything without knowing or caring or even comprehending. They speak of "sustainable" society and yet every choice they make is entirely unsustainable, unrestrained in its pursuit of hedonism in various forms. That generation had a song that fits them to a tee--Live for Today. And, to hell with the consequences because someone else will have to deal with that. And, they'd pretend that they aren't greedy evil bastards...their music did what they like...lied to them about their greatness and humility...phony commies. For them, it was trendy to pretend they care when in fact they care only about themselves.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFZsrs32Co]YouTube - Grass Roots - Let's Live For Today[/url]

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Originally Posted by CAM [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

Well, considering that Dear Leader is a Kropotkinite anarcho-communist, it is tempting to agree that it is "intentionally engineered." Accepting that idea would mean giving them too much credit for competent planning. And, they can be blamed only insofar as we are willing to accept the blame for acceding to the regular demands of the Me Generation folk. They have done a stellar job of destroying our social and political institutions through their shabby treatment of all and everything. They don't plan these things...it is more like the giant who crushes everything without knowing or caring or even comprehending. They speak of "sustainable" society and yet every choice they make is entirely unsustainable, unrestrained in its pursuit of hedonism in various forms. That generation had a song that fits them to a tee--Live for Today. And, to hell with the consequences because someone else will have to deal with that. And, they'd pretend that they aren't greedy evil bastards...their music did what they like...lied to them about their greatness and humility...phony commies. For them, it was trendy to pretend they care when in fact they care only about themselves.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFZsrs32Co]YouTube - Grass Roots - Let's Live For Today[/url]

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They're the current custodians, sure... but they're just pawns on the same chess board you and I must exist on.

The fact that they're self serving hypocrites without enough spine to say it to our face takes second fiddle to the engineered collapse of the Greenback and subsequent tyranny begun roughly 100 years ago.

Keep your powder dry, friend.

You guys should get married.

I agree with them, Lipp. Aren't too many of us out there that can honestly say that most of our day isn't filled with BS that I didn't choose. And its horribly frustrating.

Regarding change, if most people actually contacted their leaders to complain it would be a sight to behold. I play the game, tho I shouldn't have to. Our 'leaders' are supposed to work FOR us, but tell this to the 20-something gatekeepers and bureaucrats living with the daily CYA to feed their families. I don't even bother with them, and have to bypass the whole mechanism that should actually work for us with dinners, cheques, invitations and networking that is much an investment of my time as my stock maturing years from now. The whole system is sick and its just what CAM said: its giants smashing blindly through a china shop. I would be less terrified if I actually thought it was by design, but its not. You young ones should be terrified also, and its distressing to me you aren't.

We need leadership to tame the chaos. But, who will balk the system? There are a thoughtful few who are willing to risk losing their comforts but not enough to make critical mass and oust the blood suckers. But its more than that: there are also many who have bought into the system who are very ready to punish those who would work for change. Real change, not Obama-spew change, BTW. But they are trapped in their own dung heap and cycle of apathy and what it says about them: lack of courage, guilt, apathy, greed or worse... the list goes on.

If anyone here comes up with a viable solution to this, do let me know. For now, I'm with CAM, tho I do think about this a lot and worry for my kids and all of you.

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Originally Posted by IndiReloaded [Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]

I agree with them, Lipp. Aren't too many of us out there that can honestly say that most of our day isn't filled with BS that I didn't choose. And its horribly frustrating.

Regarding change, if most people actually contacted their leaders to complain it would be a sight to behold. I play the game, tho I shouldn't have to. Our 'leaders' are supposed to work FOR us, but tell this to the 20-something gatekeepers and bureaucrats living with the daily CYA to feed their families. I don't even bother with them, and have to bypass the whole mechanism that should actually work for us with dinners, cheques, invitations and networking that is much an investment of my time as my stock maturing years from now. The whole system is sick and its just what CAM said: its giants smashing blindly through a china shop. I would be less terrified if I actually thought it was by design, but its not. You young ones should be terrified also, and its distressing to me you aren't.

We need leadership to tame the chaos. But, who will balk the system? There are a thoughtful few who are willing to risk losing their comforts but not enough to make critical mass and oust the blood suckers. But its more than that: there are also many who have bought into the system who are very ready to punish those who would work for change. Real change, not Obama-spew change, BTW. But they are trapped in their own dung heap and cycle of apathy and what it says about them: lack of courage, guilt, apathy, greed or worse... the list goes on.

If anyone here comes up with a viable solution to this, do let me know. For now, I'm with CAM, tho I do think about this a lot and worry for my kids and all of you.

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They've packed the stock yard and sent in the Blue Heelers... you can smell something, sense something impending...can you not, Indi?

Something most would find unfathomable...

It's all part of cycle which revisits humanity time and time again.

I hope to remain free of those confines for the sake of my line.

I will not and cannot be any more specific than that. Read between those lines.

Hey, I know who's breeding the dogs, Doc. Not sure if that's a pro or con, tho.