The Goat Pen

hedge wrote:I think it's good for teens to work. I put in tobacco every summer starting the summer after 8th grade. Graduated to the warehouse by the time I was a junior, that was a bit easier. Also kept score for men's league basketball down at the rec center on week nights during the season. Of course, by then, I was dealing a little weed as well. Helps build a good work ethic...

The best part of working at the tobacco warehouse was the time that I was sitting on a pile of tobacco sheets one day and Stu was walking towards me. Stu has an inordinate fear of insects (and birds), and I saw some type of huge cicada-like flying bug hovering around behind him. Somehow this bug went up the back of Stu's shirt and he went into convulsions of terror, took off running and screaming while simultaneously ripping his shirt off. I've never seen him move so fast...

I don't think its bad to work but I just don't see the need to be in a hurry to do it. Although its probably something the boy needs - exposing him to a world of people outside his circle might be a good thing.

I gave him a few pieces of advice - mainly that there is nothing there he needs - I don't care if its a grape being thrown out in the trash - you don't take anything -food, candy, Oak Ridge Boys CD, whatever and also, he's going to be working with people that have made bad choices in life - right now they are on a different life trajectory than you are, but if you listen to them, or emulate their life, you're going to be on the same trajectory they are. They are probably good people, but look at them as a cautionary tale for not making yourself more valuable to society. You are there to get spending money, some of them are there to pay the rent and survive.

I started working on farms during the summer around 8th grade and looking back it might have been the most fun I've had at work continually in my life. The farmer I worked for was a functional drunk but generally a great guy and he kept me laughing all the time, plus I had some decent pocket money to blow on girls.
My junior year I went to work at a pizza place and overall I'd say the bad of it outweighed the good. I worked with some truly scummy people that influenced my views on life because I just didn't have any context to anything else...hence my advice to the boy.

Probably everyone on here worked in their teens and through college because we pretty much had to for spending money, car, etc. and even for tuition. Our parents weren't exactly upper class, financially. I am a little envious of some colleagues who had a chance to take a summer and drive across the country, backpack Europe, do an exchange program or hang out by the pool until you figure things out like Dustin Hoffman in Mrs. Robinson.

Now, a lot of us are in a better situation than our parents and can give some luxury to our kids and I'm not sure what is better, to tell you the truth. At first, I wanted to make sure they had a work ethic so my oldest started at McDonald's at 16. Now, I can't get him to back off of work. He is taking a full engineering load at college (I pay room board, and tuition) and working 30 hours by his choice. He likes to make money, but he doesn't take time off to travel with friends or family. I had to do it out of necessity and wish he could enjoy life a little more than I did.

my biggest worry is he's going to get used to having a hundred bucks in his pocket and can't let it go when he needs to focus on other things.

He's taking a pretty heavy workload in school next year, French III, Calculus, Physics, Honors English and ROTC (not difficult but he likes it and its got some structure to it) and I don't want him thinking he needs to be washing dishes at 10pm on a school night.

I worked 40 hours a week my senior year of school. Just because I wanted that $113 a week paycheck. I thought I needed it. What I needed was something more constructive in my life than making a goddamned pizza.

"Chuck is fairly modest and I truly believe he would say "Bruce win" if that were the case. "

So he would say it like a chinese person speaking english?

"I don't care if its a grape being thrown out in the trash - you don't take anything -food, candy, Oak Ridge Boys CD, whatever"

LMFAO at "Oak Ridge Boys CD" thrown in that list...

Loved the ORB CD line, too. Awesome work.

I actually hated Alabama, as they seemed to win a Grammy every year.

Chuck Norris is much bigger than Bruce Lee, so I wouldn't be surprised if he gave him a good go in a sparring session. Bruce was quicker and probably more "deadly" in a regular fight. I would still put my money on Bruce if they squared up in an old acropolis, of some sort.

I worked at the Carolina Inn one summer, washing dishes and busing tables, etc. It sucked and I was also losing money, b/c I made more off a gram of blow than working a full shift doing that shit, and all I could think about while I was at work was how many people were coming by my room to make a purchase that I was missing out on because I was sitting there busing tables. So that didn't last long. My mom knew something was up with my financial situation when she called me a few months later and said the Carolina Inn had called her and told her that they had a paycheck for like $300 that had been sitting there since the summer that I had never picked up...

My only other attempt at a real job in college was delivering pizza for Gumby's. I showed up for my first delivery, got the pizzas in my car and then said fuck it and drove home and ate them and never went back. Also, I did go to apply for a job at some new hotel that was built outside Chapel Hill, but when they went to get the application, I fled...

And I definitely ate my ass off at the Carolina Inn, anything left on the plate that looked good, if I was hungry, I ate it...

Chuck was a beast. 183-10 record or some such.

Small guys have a huge disadvantage. Especially if the small guy isn't an exceptional grappler (and I believe Chuck is also blackbelt in BJJ). So, I think I'd go with Norris. Would love to see it, nonetheless.

LOL

so the idea of work sounded good until you had to do it?

I actually did that with a good paying job(for the time and location I was in) right out of college. Not my proudest moment but I had already accepted a job with a large corporation but they didn't want me to start until the end of summer, so I called up this guy in my hometown I kinda knew and pestered him to get me a job at the local IT group. The pay was shit but still much, much better than flipping burgers and the job was horrible but I was able to live at home with my mom.

That was a pivotal moment because it determined whether I was going to stay in my hometown, most likely for the rest of my life drinking beer with friends and marrying some ole country gal, saving every penny to live in a 3/2 ranch or get out of that town and see where the journey took me.

My second day on the job they put me in a room with a guy I went to school with and this other woman. She spent the day on the phone calling companies to see if they were hiring - right in front of us, and I asked the guy I went to school with if he wanted to split a $9.00 pizza with me for lunch and he told me he couldn't because he was on a budget.

At the end of the month I left an envelope on the bosses desk and told him to mail me my check. I just walked out - and knowingly blew my chances of ever working for the only IT company in my home town again. I spent the rest of summer just living off that paycheck,drinking beer with friends and porking country girls.

Wouldn't recommend that route to anyone but looking back it was something I had to do. I have never regretted it and seeing those people on facebook only confirms it to me daily.

I have to admit, a few years back, to purchasing a HeeHaw DVD while waiting for a table at Cracker Barrel.

"so the idea of work sounded good until you had to do it?"

Sounded good until the profits from drug dealing made it a poor alternative...

my mom just bought elvis's greatest country songs last week when I took her to CB in greenfield IN last week. luckily I was leaving for Kansas immediately after breakfast and didn't have to listen to it.

Just bought me some cheesecloth...

My oldest graduated high school tonight. Proud of her. 4 more years till the next one does. Then, if I'm still alive I'm outta here.

Congrats, Rat.

Thanks. Wasn't sure she was gonna make it. A few kicks in the ass this year woke her up.

Congrats, Rat.

Ditto

Thanks