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Author Topic: Things that tip a baby boomer over the top.  (Read 3600 times)

Offline biggles

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Things that tip a baby boomer over the top.
« on: August 30, 2011, 07:26:50 pm »
At 57 and growing up working class in Australia I believe I earned my dues.

Back in the 60's free love and flower power were only seen on television, read in the papers and listened to on the radio, none of it was happening in my suburb.

If we were lucky enough to have tv and allowed to watch a current music show it was usually when the old man wasnt around and mum wanted us out of her hair.

Having a mother who got married late and had us late for that era meant she had all the lessons of the depression she grew up in tightly under her belt.

If we dared to ask to go to a church dance when we were 13 or 14 we usually got a long sermon and then the answer was no.  The sermon was about not going out until you were in gainful employment and close to 21.  :-[

We had to go to the local Catholic school where the nuns in situ there were expected to go into this discipline from their strict Catholic families and then took it out on us because they were so frustrated and angry.......yes we're talking cane, strap for practically nothing, except getting something wrong.  :'(

So by the time I was an adult I was totally dysfunctional and pissed off at the world.  We were taught that if we found the right person, fell in love and got married we would be happy every after........(well gee that didnt work for my mum, so why did I expect it to work for me) it didnt.

We didnt have the policies set down in law now where a spouse was not allowed to abuse his partner, so we heard and saw the abuse growing up and also got the same in our partnerships.

Enter our beloved children .............Generation X for me.

Oh if I dared to back answer my mother and throw in a swear word I would have got badly damaged, so we didnt dare.  When the old man was at home we stayed out of the way..........that was the best, you didnt want to be around him.

But no, my kids berated me if we didnt give the most expensive shoes, take them to the concerts, get them this, get them that and then we thought if we did they might just about love us............................Bad mistake.

The answers I got when trying to reason with my kids were...........we're not back in the old days now..........thrown in with a few, in fact a lot of bad swear words intermingled. 

I had no hope, no chance, as I said to my sister, we got it coming and going in our generation.......we got in from our parents, our teachers and whoever in the street......and then when we had kids.............we get the same from them, we couldnt catch a break.

And then to top it all off, yesterday I looked up yellow pages online to find a health food shop that was closest to me.   I found one and so I drove the 14 kilometres to the suburb that had the listing.  After roaming around everywhere with a growing concern that said health shop wasn't in existence I then went to Centre Management to confirm.  Yes she said it was here two years ago but then closed two years ago. >:( >:( :(

WTF  your joking, again I have once been had by yellow pages online which I rely on heavily to find something I am after.  This is now the third time I have travelled to a place to find it has been closed ages before but is still listed in the bloody yellow pages.

Why didnt I ring before, with the two companies I had and I just got nothing, so stupid me still went to see if it was there.

The generations have closed in on either side of ours and before you say oh but you had it better financial wise, yes in some respects but most of us didnt hock ourselves up to the never never getting what we couldnt afford and second when a lot of us got divorced, we got screwed by the lawyer and everyone else.  >:(

Maybe your kids are different, if they are I am sort of happy for you I suppose.
I know that I know nothing - thanks Capricorn.

Offline zorgon

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Re: Things that tip a baby boomer over the top.
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2011, 11:01:30 pm »
We came to Canada in 1958. I was 7 at the time. My dad had a job waiting at Sears at the time and he bought our first TV



It was color, but there were no stations transmitting in color. The only shows I recall were Disney, Leave it to Beaver, and My Favorite Martian.  :o Even back then was already exposed  ;D I do remember the Ed Sulivan Show and saw the Beatles first live performance  ;D

Kids turned out alright, my son learned quickly if he wanted those fancy race cars he would have to go and get them himself. When he was 16 I took him along on security installations and he learned the trade. By the time he turned 18 (legal age to install systems) he was an expert and was snagged up by my contractor. He never bothered with college after that because he was making so much money he didn't need it.

One day we were putting a system into a rich person's house. ( I won't name him om here) Well this person had a personal security chief that was x M5 British intel. Big guy spoke with that heavy accent.  So we get to the house and he sits us down in the staff kitchen and reads us the rules.... "One does NOT speak to the principal (the owner), one parks over here... one comes in through the side door..  etc"

Yeah sure who cares we were there to do a job. So one day my son has his new Apple Green Mini Cooper parked outside and the owner comes home and bellows "Who owns that car?"  So my son nervously says "I do" kinda wondering what he did.... The owner comes up to him, slaps him on the back and says you have the only other one of that color in the world. Turns out he had the match.  So they got to talking, the owner even took my son out to PF Chang for dinner.

Well the M% dude was pissed at this fraternizing after we were warned, so he calls the office and has my son fired... we were all like WTF?  So next day they sent someone else to replace him and the owner asks about my son.

Well he picks up the phone, calls our office and says if they don't hire him back he will pull ALL his accounts. So Richard, the Jr Partner, calls his bluff and doesn't (DOH!!!)

So within a week this guy pulls the accounts, bought a small company in Vegas that has a Reno office, and puts my son in charge. Richard was fired, despite being a partner... this was a LOT of accounts. 

During the course of installing systems, my son bought a house, before it was built. Well before he took possession the prices sky rocketed and the realtor made it almost impossible for him to get it, always demanding more down payment, more fees etc. (wanted to sell the house for more and my son was still young. He was frustrated and really down in the dumps because he just couldn't meet that last deadline. Seems the rich guy caught wind of it and made a phone call. So now my son has that house, a Mini Cooper, Land Rover and a Lotus and he just turned 23. Last year he spent 6 months in Turkey with the 'family'

All because he had that car at the right time and place.

A spot of good luck eh?

 ::)

While the rest of us poor slobs need to drag our feet through the mud :P

Offline Sgt.Rocknroll

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Re: Things that tip a baby boomer over the top.
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2011, 09:01:42 am »
Ok, here goes...lol.
Born in south Louisiana in 1950. My dad worked in the oil fields, mostly as a roughneck. Very hard work for little pay. We were poor, but we really didn't know it at the time. My mom and dad made sure we had a roof over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs and most importantly lots and lots of love. My mom and dad worked their butts off too make sure we were brought up right regardless of our lot in life. God, family and country were our mainstays. My dad was for Goldwater, my mom was a Kennedy fan..so it was interesting in our house.

I've never, ever been without a job. From delivering newspapers at twelve, to working at a gas station pumping gas after school, to working at a Stop-n-go at night while trying to stay in college. (the college thing didn't work out, because I lost my diferment and was drafted in the Army in 1970). The thing that really gets me are these people that literally live off of government handouts. There is absolutley no reason why someone should be out of work. There is always something to do. It maybe might not be what you would perfer or it maybe something you hate. But there is no reason to sit on your butt and wait for a handout. In 1982, the Cadd company I was working for in Houston, due to the oil market crashing decided to close up shop. I had just bought a house on the G.I. Bill and suddenly I  was out of work and no one was hiring in the area. I lucked out and found a job in Baton Rouge building a Cadd system and designing an ISOMETRIC drawing program for it. Unforunately we had to lose the house and move. My wife and I had two small children and one on the way, so it was a very difficult time for us to make ends meet. The job was also considerably less in pay but it was the only thing I could find without moving clear across the country and leaving family and friends. While I worked during the day, at my main job, I also worked at night, once again pumping gas on the weekends at a gas station to make extra money for the new baby expenses.

So that's what tips this baby boomer over the top.....whew,,,I hadn't talked about that in awhile....refreshing.. ;D
P.S. I just want the government to stay out of my life and leave me alone...
(I also have some stories about Katrina as the eye missed my house by 2 miles)... ;D
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini Tuo da gloriam

Offline Dood

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Re: Things that tip a baby boomer over the top.
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2011, 11:54:33 am »
Hello Sarge!
Thanks for the post about being a Boomer Kid.
Let me also welcome you to the forum as well.


I miss those days gone by.
My parents were both Goldwater and Nixon supporters.
My Father was a stanch conservative.  Old School wise.  ;)
If he were alive today I know he would be appalled at how the Republican Party has turned out.


In fact I remember him telling me how the United States was not always such 'Good Guys'.
He would tell me how imperialistic the country was turning out to be.
And this was in the mid-1980's before he passed on too...


It took me years to finally get him to tell me about his WWII days.
He spent 4 years in the service as an infantry officer.
He was 1st generation German/American and as a lot of people with parents from the 'Old Country' back then all he wanted to be was simply an AMERICAN.
He told me how he offered his help to translate German for the European theater.
The army did not trust my Father so they sent him Island Hopping instead.  ::)


Offline simon_alex0327

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Re: Things that tip a baby boomer over the top.
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2011, 07:33:05 pm »
Here goes.... sounds like I'm at a seminar and introducing myself to everyone!  :P
At 45, wouldnt call myself a baby anything??!! LOL
Worked in England all may life in a factory environment from the age of 16 after leaving school. Worked my way upto a Factory Manager of a printing company. Met my now wife from the USA online ( yeah conventionall I know!! ) She moved to England with me after being married, We had our son there who is a dual citizen. Decided to move to the USA 8 years ago ( last week was the anniversary funny enough )
Now own our own house out right... yes those years of hard work and crazy UK  property prices paid off!! My wfe works full time and I am left at home to run my own web design business and do laundry and all the other fun things that make a household tick!
Life is good!
I guess it is booming... it is after all what you make of it!
Catch you all around sometime!
Simon

 


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