mountain man primitive, other primitives, reminesence about Carter years

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4758192

Oh my.

ThomWV  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jan-03-09 08:54 AM
Original message
 
When they repossessed our car I gave them the keys, why argue with the inevitable?

This was from an earlier recession and is intended only to give hope.

When they came to repossess our car I just handed over the keys. The fellow who came to get it didn't seem too surprised that I made it easy, he told me that very few people even bothered to come outdoors when they had to tow cars away, but he'd see them peeking out the curtains. When they came to take our house we were already gone. I drew unemployment until it ran out and then I briefly considered robbing 7-11's before finding a minimum-wage job mowing grass at the state University. It was hard for my wife and I, our son was too young to notice.

What I wanted to tell you was that within five years things had changed. Five years later I had a middle class job, my wife had returned to college, and we had bought our second (now paid for) home.

I'm telling you all this just to inspire a little hope for those of you who are having a hard time. I know how it is, but I also know it will get better. You'll be OK.

Jackpine Radical  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-03-09 09:04 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. In the fall of 1979 I was sleeping in my car.

I had a newly minted PhD and there were no jobs. Yeah, whatever it is, "this too shall pass."

dixiegrrrrl  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jan-03-09 03:51 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
9. In the fall of 1979 I was broke and living with a friend.

I had a newly minted Master's Degree and no job.

No money either. Not a dime.

And really grateful that I had been raised in a poor family. Knew survival skills.

2 years later I was an organic gardener with 15 acres, helped start a still thriving Farmer's Market, and living on the proceeeds, something my friend is still doing after all these years.

The degree finally got used, and now I am retired, in a fairly ok financial situation, no debts.

It passes, one way or the other.

Yeah, it passed with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.

bigtree  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-03-09 09:07 AM
Response to Original message
 
2. yep
 
I remember raiding a neighbor's vegetable garden to fill out our dinner. Things do change - sometimes for the better.

Crisco  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-03-09 09:31 AM
Response to Original message
 
5. Ouch

Thanks, Tom.

Shall I share?

In the last recession, I was fired from a job I had a love/hate relationship with. I was #2 on the totem pole and my boss was a prick of unbelievable proportions. Anyway, budget cuts ...

I took a part-time job at another company where I had an hour's commute and ended up with a bunch of scrappers, eventually going full-time and making the move. Together we went on to achieve national recognition. Almost everyone who was at the core of that little business went on to much bigger things.

Somewhere between the part-time and the full-time job, I totalled the first new car I'd ever bought - two days after the grace period expired on insurance payments. SUCKED. But I got through it. Now, I never spend more than $3500 on a car - and pay cash.

Yeah, the good old days, the days of Jimmy.

[LC EFA]

Jackpine Radical  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-03-09 09:04 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. In the fall of 1979 I was sleeping in my car.

I had a newly minted PhD and there were no jobs. Yeah, whatever it is, "this too shall pass."

That's where you should have realized that a PhD in Guatemalan Basket Weaving, is worth nothing in the real world.

[miskie]

That's where you should have realized that a PhD in Guatemalan Basket Weaving, is worth nothing in the real world.

The point of the useless degree is not to get a job (God Forbid!) but to stay in taxpayer funded institutions for as long as possible. Its an endless cycle - Go to school for a useless degree, get your bill paid by taxpayers, come out of school with useless degree, stay unemployed and get govt assistance, then go back to school to get another useless degree with government funding since you are too poor to do it otherwise.

Keep working until you get enough useless degrees to become employed by the college you are attending, either as a librarian, or a professor of (insert useless degree here).

[Airwolf]

Why Bother? They are about to get Jimmy Carter Part Deux as it is.