Thoughts while washing the car...

[Bettyboo]

There I was washing the car on a peaceful Sunday afternoon when it suddenly appeared to me that something was very wrong... Being a bit slow, it took me a while to work out exactly what, as I scanned the surburban scenery...

The thing was, me: only I was washing a car. Surrounded by 3 and 4 bedroom detached house with shady carports and water hoses, I could hear the people around (horrible screaming children, etc), see some older folk gardening, some other folk chatting away in their gardens and on their terraces, but no car cleaning; although lots of dirty cars.

So it got me thinking. I've never seen a kid clean a car or mow the lawn or anything. How do the parents teach these kids about responsibilities, the value of money, pride in doing a job well, etc. When I used to ask me dad for pocketmoney he'd say: "Okay, come down in five minutes and it'll be ready for you." And it was: the mower had been rolled out of the garage; the bucket and cleaning kit had been placed by the car; the hoover was waiting in the living room. Only after I'd done the work would I get the pocketmoney. This way, and working in a butcher's shop on Saturday mornings, I still managed to buy meself a car at 17 (Fiat Mirafiori sport; orange, as below). At 18, I started working hard 7 days a week to put meself through university a couple of years later (the parents could probably have afforded it - little brother was at Haileybury at the time..., but I wanted to sort my own life out.).

I don't accept the excuse of "it's too hot", it isn't. Pasty old me managed it okay; they've all got shady car ports, as I said. They're just crap parents. Maybe going too far, but Thai kids (same when I was in Korea, very different when I was in Mongolia) get everything they want without doing a damn thing, especially the Sino-Thais... No wonder society is struggling cause no basic character has been injected into the population when they were young; no pride instilled into them... Now, I've not been back to the UK for 10 years, so it might be exactly the same; maybe this shouldn't be a localized whinge, but a global one?

Just some thoughts while out washing me car on a Surburban Sunday afternoon (even if it is Satuirday).

[Mid]

How do the parents teach these kids about responsibilities, the value of money, pride in doing a job well, etc.

any evidence that they actually do ?

[Marmite the Dog]

^^ Spot on (not the rust bucket).

[Nostradamus]

So it got me thinking. I've never seen a kid clean a car or mow the lawn or anything. How do the parents teach these kids about responsibilities, the value of money, pride in doing a job well, etc.

They don't. That is one of the reasons everything in this country is a mess, the people are shallow, immature and irresponsible and a job rarely gets done properly.

[Johnny Longprong]

I agree BB. I sent my kids out working at 11. They didn't like it much but they all now appreciate the lesson. If the little bastards didn't do their chores I used to string them up on the rotary clothesline by their feet and spin them around until they were ill. If they dared complain I would put the hose on them - even in winter.

I'm not bloody joking either.

[baldrick]

mair , my mee satang

[Bettyboo]

I sent my kids out working at 11. They didn't like it much but they all now appreciate the lesson. If the little bastards didn't do their chores I used to string them up on the rotary clothesline by their feet and spin them around until they were ill. If they dared complain I would put the hose on them - even in winter.

[Bettyboo]

any evidence that they actually do ?

Rarely. But, Thais are very capably; society fuks em up, IMHO.

Spot on (great car).

Thank you. I loved it for several weeks before writing it off. Great way to pull 6th form girls, too; remember, I was only 17!

mair , my mee satang

Yeah, I might be forced to kill my kid, if I ever had one, and if it ever came out with shite like this... Arrgggghhhhhhh.

That is one of the reasons everything in this country is a mess, the people are shallow, immature and irresponsible and a job rarely gets done properly.

Yes. But, they can do jobs really well when and if they try. But, they always take the easy route: when is lunch, I'm hungry? When can we stop? Can we start later? Can we finish earlier? And, society says yes! The bloody government gives additional holidays in the blick of an eye for any reason at all.

[Humbert]

After big snowstorms I would go from house to house to see if I could shovel the owners sidewalks. I would work all day long until my arms ached digging through 4 foot snowdrifts. I would be thankful if I had $10 at the end of the day. In the summers I would mow lawns for pocket money. Seems like kids today just sit around playing video games.

[Johnny Longprong]

After big snowstorms I would go from house to house to see if I could shovel the owners sidewalks. I would work all day long until my arms ached digging through 4 foot snowdrifts.

Yea, and in the old days it would snow right after you were finished. They were the days.

[Bettyboo]

^^ No "seems" about it Humbert - they do! Adds nothing to life, but takes a lot away.

Seems like kids today just sit around playing video games.

[Mr Earl]

Yep I recall buying my first car myself.
My parents not being affluent didn't buy it for me.

I worked. Making sorbet with a guy from Paris. Started part time while in high school when I was 16. Mind I'd been working delivering newspapers since I was 13.
Buy the time I was 18 I was able to buy a beat up old Peugeot 403.

[terry57]

Started an apprenticeship at 16 and owed my own car at 17. Went on to buy my first gaff at 23.

Best thing I ever done was to leave school and start my working life early.

Sitting pretty now whilst some of the guys I know that studied through to uni and never earned a wage until they where 22 odd years old are still mired in Debt.

[Katana]

So it got me thinking. I've never seen a kid clean a car or mow the lawn or anything. How do the parents teach these kids about responsibilities, the value of money, pride in doing a job well, etc.

They don't. That is one of the reasons everything in this country is a mess, the people are shallow, immature and irresponsible and a job rarely gets done properly.

Birds are nice though ....



Mark

[blue]

After big snowstorms I would go from house to house to see if I could shovel the owners sidewalks. I would work all day long until my arms ached digging through 4 foot snowdrifts. I would be thankful if I had $10 at the end of the day. In the summers I would mow lawns for pocket money. Seems like kids today just sit around playing video games.

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.ALL:They won't!

[Perota]

As soon as your born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,

A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules,

A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,

A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasents as far as I can see,

A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

There's room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill,
A working class hero is something to be.
A working class hero is something to be.

A working class hero is something to be.
A working class hero is something to be.


My favorite cover is by Marianne Faithfull , a true working class heroe

[Marmite the Dog]

Started an apprenticeship at 16 and owed my own car at 17. Went on to buy my first gaff at 23.

That's as gay as a butcher's cock, boasting about how you could buy your own gaff at 23...

[taxexile]

[Marianne Faithfull , a true working class heroe

her working class roots as described by wikipedia.

Faithfull was born in Hampstead, London. Her father, Major Dr. Robert Glynn Faithfull, was a British military officer and college professor inpsychology.[2] Her mother, Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso, was originally from Vienna, with aristocratic roots in the Habsburg Dynasty and Jewish ancestry on her maternal side.[3] Erisso was a ballerina for theMax Reinhardt Company during her early years, and danced in productions of works by the German theatrical duo Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.[4] Faithfull's maternal great great uncle was von SacLeopold her-Masoch, the 19th century Austrian nobleman whose erotic novel, Venus in Furs, spawned the word "masochism".[5] In regard to her roots in nobility, Faithfull commented in March 2007 prior to beginning the European leg of her tour, "I'm even going toBudapest, which is nice because I'm half English and half Austro Hungarian. I've inherited the title Baroness Sacher-Masoch—it comes from one of my great uncles who gave his name to masochism."[6]

[Bettyboo]

^ Irony is a beautiful thing.

Quote: Originally Posted by terry57 Started an apprenticeship at 16 and owed my own car at 17. Went on to buy my first gaff at 23. That's as gay as a butcher's cock, boasting about how you could buy your own gaff at 23...

No, not true. Terrance is explaining how having a work ethic installed at a young age enabled him to fully support himself, and with some success, in a way that most Thai teens never could or would; they'd be telling mom and dad to give them a house, as per:

mair , my mee satang

[kmart]

Thai daughters seem to be able to cope with chores and stuff, but the sons are spoilt to bits seemingly by both parents, who seem unable to burden the poor little Emperors with anything approaching responsibility or discipline.

[dirtydog]

I'm suprised your even allowed to use the word "PRIDE".

I still managed to buy meself a car at 17 (Fiat Mirafiori sport

[Bettyboo]

^ That was some kinda car back then, let me tell you; Fiat made some crackers, remember the Ferrari Dino?

Me little orange beauty had a lovely 2 litre twin-cam, and a saweet 70's suede interior. Class.

[Marmite the Dog]

No, not true.

OK, so you've mastered irony. Now what about sarcasm?

[Nostradamus]

A young Thai from down the soi was paid 500thb by our builder a couple of days ago to clear all the old wood from the front of the house. He took almost two days to do a job which should have taken a couple of hours max. Afterwards, he had the cheek to demand another 500thb from the builder, and was refused.

I heard him talking in Thai to his mate that he wanted to steal something from the house for extra payment, and all day yesterday he was drifting into the house trying to catch either myself or my g/f off guard so he'd have the opportunity to pinch something.

When he was meant to be 'working' he was watching our TV through the doorway, smoking cigarettes, chatting with friends and generally passing time without actually doing anything. As the builders were upstairs he thought no-one could see him. I was however watching him closely indeed.

Needless to say I am now expecting him to turn up and start demanding money from me to which I will respond with a simple "fuck off."

[Cujo]

Started an apprenticeship at 16 and owed my own car at 17. Went on to buy my first gaff at 23.

That's as gay as a butcher's cock, boasting about how you could buy your own gaff at 23...

How's it gay?
What a fucking dickhead you are marmite.