Ironically, Stan Lee was hospitalized this week.
Ironically, Stan Lee was hospitalized this week.
I grew up in Manitoba in a neighbourhood of mostly Jewish and Ukrainian kids. The Ukrainians didn't like us, because they thought we killed Jesus Christ [[who ironically, if there was such a person, was a Jew!). There were other ethnic groups in the area, mostly Scandinavians, Finns and Icelanders. We hung out with our Jewish friends and also the non-Ukrainians. My best friend was a Norwegian, who lived next door. We stayed good friends all the way till his untimely death in 2005. Everyone was a Caucasian. Maybe there were one or two Chinese kids during my entire school time there.
Just before high school, we moved to Chicago [[South Chicago, near its boundary with The South Side- an area which was almost exactly half African-American and half Caucasian. Almost all my friends there were Black. I also worked a few miles up the road on The South Side, which was 100% Black. I made a lot of friends there as well. For whatever reason, I felt more "at home" among The Black Community. In high school, The Caucasians and African Americans were not tremendously integrated, but there was some mixing. As small amount of the opposite group were "accepted by" and hung out with each of the 2 groups. Just before my senior year, we moved to a "Lily-White" suburb [[Homewood), which had a fair amount of prejudiced people [[who didn't like Blacks or Jews). Worse yet, Homewood-Flossmoor High School had kids from Flossmoor, which was a suburb full of very rich people [[most of whom [[HS kids included) didn't want to associate with us "poor peons". I still had friends from the old neighbourhood and the area near my father's store, as I still went to work.
Last edited by robb_k; 02-07-2018 at 11:00 PM.
This is me in my Senior year in High School. This is from October, 1977. My school was approx. 99 % black:
This is me in my Freshman year in College. This is from October, 1978. My college was approx. 99.9% white:
Marv,you had some fine chicks at your high school!
You guys hitting on girls from the past now eh? LOL
The one on the left in the blue jeans. Her name is Brenda. Her older sister use to post here on SDF. All of us are still friends to this day. That's how important relationships, friendships are to me and all of us. I am still friends with the first kid I met outside of my family when I was 4 years old!
Thanks to Facebook, I'm in contact with my two best friends from junior high and high school. One lives in DC and the other in Minnesota and it's years between the times that we see each other in person. I remember things that happened 40 years ago as if they
happened yesterday.
I know what you mean Jerry. It's like 40 years tonight or around this time we would all head out to the University of Toledo after the basketball games for a party in the multi-purpose room there. Kids from other high schools would be there too. They'd be scared of us LOL!
I was still friendly and in contact with my next door neighbour in Winnipeg, from age 1-15 [[1946-1961)until he died in 2005, despite my having moved first to Chicago, and to The Netherlands in 1972. But, I always returned to Manitoba for a few months each year to visit family, and saw him there, until he moved to Lake Okanagan, British Columbia [[where I visited him). He was my age. Went through elementary and junior high school together. He was my only friend from elementary school that I have kept in touch with into my old age, other than seeing a few from time to time, when I returned to visit my sister. I also see a few friends from my Junior hockey teams when back there. Otherwise, I still keep in touch with a few friends from college days. Lifelong friends are a very good thing to have.
First of all let me say I am sorry for the lost of your friend Robb. I know it has been some time now, but losing a lifelong friend is tough. Friends that I have made and had for decades I sometimes forget that they/we age. I feel blessed that I can contact a friend I have not seen in 30 years and they are happy to hear from me and vice-versa. I am lucky, like you to have friends just about everywhere I have been in life so far.
Last edited by marv2; 02-12-2018 at 04:46 PM.
Very jerry,very funny that pic takes me back to my own high school days,when the chicks were fine and the music was flowing.
Things were way different when we didn't have to throw on a suit and splash cologne to try to impress them. The funny thing is, i used to hang out in places that wrinkled the suit and made the cologne worthless. Smoke, sweat and booze tended to make sure that I took a shower before I left and another when I came back. In high school, they didn't care if your clothes were crumpled or your hair was messed up from PE because most of the girls you hung out with were your friends anyway. Such a difference when the little fish leaves the pond to swim in the ocean.
Me too, Bruh. Me and my buddies used to go out four or five nights a week in the '80s and some clubs were classy and some were such that you didn't want to lose contact with your crew once you got inside for fear of needing somebody to back you up. But it wasn't like today where you're likely to get shot for looking too hard at somebody's woman. A dust up could be tamped down by waiting for the bouncer to break things up.
The other day, I was thinking that I could have been dropped anywhere in the city in the 6th grade and likely found a way to safely make it home [[and I wasn't even a tough kid). Maybe even with no money in my pocket. I wonder sometimes if today's kids are savvy enough to say that? There are suburbs and pockets of Columbus that have every store, restaurant, or type of entertainment imaginable within a three mile area. Those kids have no reason to ever go outside of their side of town. And even if they did, all of them have cell phones anyway. The world has changed.
Good stuff guys,remember when you didn't have to have a car to get a date? A chick would actually ride the bus on a date and depending on you she might enjoy and ride the bus again...try that today and you might get cussed out for not having a ride..and laughed at too,yes the world has changed.
When we were 9 and 10, we would ride our bikes all over our city [[Winnipeg). And when we visited The Netherlands in Summers and Christmas Vacation we even went from city to other cities without adults. We went from my grandparents' house in The Hague, to Amsterdam, as 9 and 10 year olds, possibly with the eldest grandchild being 12 years old, taking the train, and walking the streets of that cosmopolitan city. And our parents had no problem with that. These days, parents wouldn't let their kids do that. Similar thing when visiting family in Chicago in summer when I was 7-14. Every year, I went regularly with cousins a few years older, from Chicago's south suburbs on The Illinois Central Railroad, all the way to Chicago's North Side to Wrigley Field, to see Cubs' games, with the oldest cousin being 12 or 13, with no adults. I don't think many parents would allow that now.
I walked a mile and a half to junior high school with my friends and later, I'd walk two miles to high school at age 14. My brother is two years older than I am and we walked several miles to go to the swimming pool a few times every Summer. We'd take the bus downtown to buy comics and go to the movies. Also in the Summer, we would walk a mile from our uncle's house to go to the Ohio State Fair and there we'd be, four of us [[all under 14 years of age) having a great time at the most populous fair in the nation from 9:00 AM until we walked back at 10:00 PM at night.
A couple of times, we rode our bikes 20 miles to go see our cousins on the north side of town. No cell phones. No mace. No whistles. Just our parents' trust that they'd taught us how to take care of ourselves when we were out of their sight. I've since heard of parents being arrested for letting their kids walk home from school. The world is a scary place now.
Last edited by Jerry Oz; 02-15-2018 at 01:58 AM.
It sure is,hey jerry did you hear about the[hood]that was so tough dogs had to catch the bus coming indoors from their doghouse in the backyard?
I didn't hear about that neighborhood. I did hear about one that was so old it presented problems for my friend, Mark. One night as he was taking out his trash, he heard his name being called from somewhere nearby.
"Mark!"
"Who is it?" he asked, wary about the fact that nobody in the area knew his name.
"Mark!" It was repeating and it sounded urgent. He was now alarmed. "Mark! Mark!"
"Stop playing," he said, thinking that something strange was going on. "I have a knife, mutha f***a!"
"Mark! Mark!"
He walked toward the sound of the voice, wishing that he had a knife. It was getting louder as he progressed, so he knew he was walking in the right direction. Finally, he was near the fence between him and one of his neighbors. The voice was right beyond the fence. He said a quick prayer and forced himself to look over it.
"Who is it?!" he said in a loud voice but all he saw was an old dog. He noticed it was staring at him and its tongue was hanging out of a mouth that had no teeth. Curiously, he noticed a pair of canine dentures on the ground near the dog. Nobody else was around. The dog opened its mouth to growl and he saw its gums gleam in the moonlight. Then their eyes met and he knew it was about to bark at him. And then he heard it:
"Mark!"
One of my dad's old jokes. Only instead of an old dog, his had a hare lip. My Pops really screwed his baby boy up with old jokes like that [[and a lot of off colored ones). But I knew a few people with cleft palates, so I don't make hare lip jokes.
But from a "remember when" standpoint, I feel sad for the 60% of black kids born out of wedlock, knowing that a lot of them won't have good times to share with their old man like I did. My old man taught me a lot about life and he's still my hero. Wonder how many boys and young men can say that these days?
I told my Dad when I turned 14 that I was almost grown and should NOT have to do yard work and stuff. He took me with him to one of his hang outs "The Tiki Lounge". It was a hotel, showroom and bar. He ordered two martinis and gave one to me. I tried to drink it, but after one good sip, I started choking and coughing. He and the bartender laughed their asses off at me. hehehehehehe!
Last edited by marv2; 02-16-2018 at 01:30 PM. Reason: left out not
Dad and his buddies went to the Grenadier Club, which was affiliated with his lodge. I remember the match books with the naked ladies on them that he'd bring home after spending Friday and Saturday nights there. My big brother and I had the idea that it was some sort of high class joint with a particular clientele. One day, Pops told us that we were ready to visit his haunt and we were both excited.
Man, we got in there and it was a shock! The hard-wood floor was all splintered, there were lights that needed to be replaced, and the pool table was leveled on a phone book. Music was supplied by an old jukebox. Talk about a let down; we looked at each other with unspoken disappointment. We never went back again and never wanted to.
With that said, as a young man, I went to a variety of clubs and one of them [[the recently closed C&S Club) wasn't much better than the Grenadier Club. It was on a scary part of the city and was definitely a come-as-you-are joint. People came through in work uniforms, overalls, tennis shoes, brogans, and any way they wanted. The fish was really good, so that made it interesting. The Thursday night talent show was a flipping hoot; somebody used to tape it and put it on public access TV. I stopped going when the third person in about a year got shot in the parking lot. We used to call it the "Chop & Slice" or "Cut & Stab" Club because it was notoriously dangerous. My two dudes kept going though and the week after I stopped, they witnessed a guy get shot in the parking lot so they stopped going to. It still stayed open for another 25 years.
One of the other clubs that I attended was so stuffy, you had to dress better than if you were going to church. The girls were snotty as heck and if you asked one to dance, you could expect them to act as if you wanted to take nude photos from their reaction. But there were just enough really cool chicks to make it worth the rejection. We went to three other clubs at the same time that were somewhere between the C&S and Point 3. You didn't have to wear a tie but I wouldn't recommend wearing an extra large white tee shirt, either. You had to dress like you had some level of respect for yourself and you'd have a great time. Chicks were eager to dance most nights. I met my wife at one of them and have seldom been to a bar without her since.
Man Jerry so many similarities. There is a Grenadier Club that is associated with the Elks on Junction Ave. in Toledo. That is a pretty rough area of town as well. What you described sounds like any random Union Hall in Ohio or Michigan. They had them all around Detroit. They served the strongest drinks for the cheapest prices to factory workers and UAW members. It is nothing now compared to the 1950s,60s and 70s since there are much fewer factory workers.
And there will be fewer, thanks to the Moron. The Supreme Court is expected to gut unions' right to collect dues from non-members in this session, which will result in the death of many unions. Of course, it will also mean that raises will decrease and benefits will shrivel up. And sadly, many of the people who will be most affected by it voted to "Make AmeriKKKa Grate Again". I'd say it serves them right, but it's not fair to everybody else.
That is a sad fact, a reality. I remember the UAW would have this huge Christmas shows and parties for kids of their members. We'd get lots of candy and more toys to go with the ones you got Christmas. They'd have huge family barbeques,etc etc. They are now 30% of what they were when my Dad was a member back in the day.
My father was a union man too,and got paid back in the day,as you guys say unions are in trouble and a union buster is in the white house.
I worked for a grocery store that wasn't organized in the '80s. I made it up to $10.77/hour, which was pretty good money back then. I thought I had it pretty good until another larger chain relocated in town and to make themselves competitive, my company cut all of our pay by a dollar an hour. They gave us $500 to soften the blow but it came out to about $350 after taxes. Later, I was about to buy my first new car, which I could afford based on the 25-40 hours per week I'd worked for the previous three years. The day before I was going to sign for it, I went to pick up my pay check and saw that I was scheduled for two days and nine hours the next week. I asked my boss why I only had nine hours after I'd worked there for six years and he shrugged and basically let me know that if I didn't like it, I could quit.
Anybody who scoffs at unions needs to experience the harsh side of not having a contract when you need one.
Non-union employees benefit from unions because if the union can negotiate a fair wage at its shop, other similar businesses have to have a competitive wage in order to attract and keep their workers. If you bust the unions, then it's a race to the bottom of the wage scale and benefits for everybody. Businesses typically do wage reviews for jobs in their immediate area and nobody wants to pay more for wages than competitors. One of the reasons that the stock market checked itself last week is because we're approaching full employment, meaning businesses have to raise rates in order to attract and keep people. That's going to create inflation and affect a lot of company's bottom lines.
If you're approaching full employment, you need to let in more immigrants then.
Yep. And watch the Republicans propose putting welfare recipients to work on farms and in hotels and landscaping to do the hard low-paying jobs that are already being lost thanks to ICE scaring people away. They're already planning on making them pick up trash by the side of the road in Kentucky to collect benefits. There are jobs that Americans don't want to do for any price and they are typically the lowest paying jobs in the economy since only immigrants [[who can't be unionized) are willing to do them. Watch what happens to the price of produce by Fall 2019.
That is EXACTLY what they are planning to do Jerry! It was heading that way under Clinton. Whoever they get to do those jobs, they will not be paying them a living wage. I know on Long Island one time I was going around with my buddy Vinny looking for rental properties. We went to house that had 9-12 grown Latin American workers sleeping in them!
Just another nail in the coffin of USA's middle class, and move by The Billionaires' plot to turn USA into a 3rd World nation, with a massive low class of the majority of the population having no power, no rights and being extremely poorly educated [[and so, ignorant of what possibilities they might have to attempt to better themselves), ruled over by a tiny elite of wealthy people, treating them as slaves. Not a good situation. Privitising education is a related tactic, which will result in most of the population being ignorant. The public school systems are bad enough already. But, with all being private, only the schools supported by the very rich, will have enough money to provide a reasonable education. The very rich will see to that, as a gigantic ignorant underclass will suit their needs.
Exactly. It's easy to see what's going on. Starting with the elimination of the Voters' Rights Act and continuing with Citizens United decision, control over elections has been shifted to those with the power to donate huge amounts of money to representatives beholden to them and not the constituents of their districts. You saw it when their voters showed up in Washington DC to demand they not eliminate the Affordable Care Act. The demands fell on deaf ears with only party line talking points in response, even when the well-educated constituents countered those talking points with facts.
And look at what buying a politician gets you. The attorney general is attacking affirmative action while ignoring the increase in murders committed by extremist white nationalist groups. They're kicking out undocumented immigrants who trusted the government when it said that if they'd register with them and stay employed or in school, they'd be permitted to stay. They've even set a course to kick out Dreamers who served in the military in war zones, ignoring the promise made to nationalize them. Muslims have been ostracized.
With the Moron's election, not only has police accountability become a forgotten goal, cops killed a record number of citizens with few repercussions in 2017. And Jeff Sessions has thrown away dozens of consent decrees that city's have signed with the Department of Justice that called for constructive action to clean up how their police interact with the public and provide more transparent investigations of potential police abuse. Trump has budgeted huge cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. And this week, they're even going after the Americans with Disabilities Act.
So by my count, they've attacked peoples of color, Muslims, immigrants, older people, poor people, and disabled. And don't forget women now that the Moron has trashed Obama's equal rights initiatives and eased up Title IX college rape reporting requirements. Absolutely reprehensible, no matter whose perspective you are looking at it. How in the world does an elected official stay in office when his stated goal is attacking the rights of huge swaths of his electorate?
This isn't the America I was believing in. Things got slowly better as I grew older and then that progress was erased in just a few short years. Remember when the future actually seemed bright?
Someone actually wrote an article for Politico this week that proposed having rich people "sponsor" immigrants, who would essentially be their serfs. Consider that for just a moment. Someone wants people to be allowed into the country to serve at the beck and call of a presumably wealthy "benefactor". Sounds way too much like human trafficking to me.
The author states that if the immigrant didn't appreciate the arrangement, they could "be free to leave at any time". So if they didn't appreciate their "sponsor" for any reason [[pay issues, sexual harassment, changes in employment conditions) then that person could save up enough money on his/her $5/hour salary for a ticket back to whatever hellish circumstances they escaped. The insane ramblings of a privileged mind are something to behold. This article was so offensive, I had to stop reading before I made it to the bottom.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...onomics-216968
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