What made you smile recently (2023)?

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rascal said:
I know your dad was a top executive and you prolly grew up with all that stuff.
We were at the opposite end of the spectrum to you. 3 boys in one room. TV didn't arrive until late 60s. Then it was black and white. Prolly supplied by my grandparents? I'm certain they contributed a lot. My parents split when I was 4. My best friend growing up was prolly like you. His father worked for himself ( sparky) and gary had everything.
I always saw the difference. I grew up wanting my kids to have stuff I never had.
We didnt have a car until 73? And then it was a sidevalve morris minor.
I wouldn't change anything.

Russ
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Dad didn't hit the big time until I was out of college and living on my own dime. But, he did have a good job, and we lived a normal middle-class life. Our house is still there. Here is a GoogleMaps Streetview picture of it. Not a mansion, by any means.

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CD
 
karadekoolaid said:
I

I can relate to that. We grew up in a council house till I was about 10. First car was a green Ford van, secondhand, about 1965. First colour TV in the 1970s. Best time of the year was summer because my dad grew potatoes, carrots, green beans, celery, beetroot, onions, spring onions, radishes in the garden. Tomatoes came at the end of the 60s when he built a green house. Then we got cucumbers and peppers.
I wouldn't change anything either!
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Ours was a state house subsidized by government. For less fortunate people. First holiday at 13 when a mate asked me along for a week in Nelson. 5 hrs away.
We bussed everywhere. I still have friends I went to kindergarten primary school and high school with.
I had a good life growing up.
All good honest people around us.

Russ
 
karadekoolaid said:
I

I can relate to that. We grew up in a council house till I was about 10. First car was a green Ford van, secondhand, about 1965. First colour TV in the 1970s. Best time of the year was summer because my dad grew potatoes, carrots, green beans, celery, beetroot, onions, spring onions, radishes in the garden. Tomatoes came at the end of the 60s when he built a green house. Then we got cucumbers and peppers.
I wouldn't change anything either!
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Even though my dad has a brown thumb, we did have a nice veggie garden in the backyard. He drilled a well to water the yard and garden (I still have the human powered auger he used). We grew tomatoes (oh, they were good), and rhubarb, and other things I can't remember.

CD
 
rascal said:
I grew up wanting my kids to have stuff I never had.
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That’s always a common thing on feel-good TV shows, where the parents (especially the dad) tell the kids, “We want you to have all the things we didn’t! We love you!”

My dad’s version was a little different: “I didn’t have that, and I don’t see why you should have that, either!” - then we’d get cuffed a good one to drive the point home. :laugh: 😣

Here’s the house we lived in when I was born. Moved when I was 5yo:

IMG_5047.jpeg
 
TastyReuben said:
That’s always a common thing on feel-good TV shows, where the parents (especially the dad) tell the kids, “We want you to have all the things we didn’t! We love you!”

My dad’s version was a little different: “I didn’t have that, and I don’t see why you should have that, either!” - then we’d get cuffed a good one to drive the point home. :laugh: 😣

Here’s the house we lived in when I was born. Moved when I was 5yo:

View attachment 102343
Click to expand...

Even though I laughing emoji, I share your pain with your dad. Shes a hard knock life.........
Russ
 
TastyReuben said:
That’s always a common thing on feel-good TV shows, where the parents (especially the dad) tell the kids, “We want you to have all the things we didn’t! We love you!”

My dad’s version was a little different: “I didn’t have that, and I don’t see why you should have that, either!” - then we’d get cuffed a good one to drive the point home. :laugh: 😣

Here’s the house we lived in when I was born. Moved when I was 5yo:

View attachment 102343
Click to expand...
Cool house. So I was forced into work at 14 to bring some extra money in the house. I started work 6 weeks short of my 15th birthday. I lied to get the job. You had to be sixteen at the time to work. I was kicked out of school 4 weeks earlier due to my disruptive attitude.

Russ
 
rascal said:
Cool house.
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We had to move due to the size - three small bedrooms, with parents in one, sister in another, and the four boys all sharing the last one.

My room was the living/front room, and my bed was the sofa if no one was sitting on it, or Mom would make me a little pallet on the floor. I can still remember crying because I was so tired I wanted to sleep, but my older brothers wanted to stay up and horse around in the living room.
 
TastyReuben said:
That’s always a common thing on feel-good TV shows, where the parents (especially the dad) tell the kids, “We want you to have all the things we didn’t! We love you!”

My dad’s version was a little different: “I didn’t have that, and I don’t see why you should have that, either!” - then we’d get cuffed a good one to drive the point home. :laugh: 😣

Here’s the house we lived in when I was born. Moved when I was 5yo:

View attachment 102343
Click to expand...

That's very similar to the house my wife grew up in. They owned it. My wife would often tease me about living in the "settlement ".
I had a rich aunty that lived in a 2 story house a minute from the sea like that as well.

Russ


Russ
 
rascal said:
I started work 6 weeks short of my 15th birthday.
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We worked around the house, of course (we moved to a homestead/smallholding), but Dad got me my first paid job when I was nine. I was paid in cash, so I’m assuming it was illegal.

There was a Christmas tree farm near us, and they always sold out of three fields, rotating different fields each year. Each field had a little shack for customers to pay.

My job was as a cash runner. I’d run from the main house out to each shack and back, grabbing the money from shacks, bringing it back to the house, and running change from the main house to the field shacks.

I’d have hundreds of dollars at a time, pretty responsible for a kid.

After the Christmas season, I was pretty happy that I had a few bucks saved up, but even happier to have my time back. As soon as the snow melted, though, Dad made me go back, and I started doing odd jobs around the farm in the off-season.

At first, it was mainly mowing around the house, barns, and pond, then I got big enough to bush-hog the fields - you could mow the rows pulling the bush-hog behind a tractor, no problem, but the worst was you then had to mow acres and acres on foot with a walk-behind Gravely, going perpendicular to the rows, to mow between the trees.

I cut stumps, both with a chainsaw and a stump-cutter, planted new stock, learned out to trim/shape growing trees, everything. I ended up working there until I left home at 19.
 
caseydog said:
Dad didn't hit the big time until I was out of college and living on my own dime. But, he did have a good job, and we lived a normal middle-class life. Our house is still there. Here is a GoogleMaps Streetview picture of it. Not a mansion, by any means.

View attachment 102342

CD
Click to expand...

I couldn't find it.
I grew up at 49 manurere st chch.
You might be able to, ? I'm not too good on puta?

Russ
 
TastyReuben said:
We worked around the house, of course (we moved to a homestead/smallholding), but Dad got me my first paid job when I was nine. I was paid in cash, so I’m assuming it was illegal.

There was a Christmas tree farm near us, and they always sold out of three fields, rotating different fields each year. Each field had a little shack for customers to pay.

My job was as a cash runner. I’d run from the main house out to each shack and back, grabbing the money from shacks, bringing it back to the house, and running change from the main house to the field shacks.

I’d have hundreds of dollars at a time, pretty responsible for a kid.

After the Christmas season, I was pretty happy that I had a few bucks saved up, but even happier to have my time back. As soon as the snow melted, though, Dad made me go back, and I started doing odd jobs around the farm in the off-season.

At first, it was mainly mowing around the house, barns, and pond, then I got big enough to bush-hog the fields - you could mow the rows pulling the bush-hog behind a tractor, no problem, but the worst was you then had to mow acres and acres on foot with a walk-behind Gravely, going perpendicular to the rows, to mow between the trees.

I cut stumps, both with a chainsaw and a stump-cutter, planted new stock, learned out to trim/shape growing trees, everything. I ended up working there until I left home at 19.
Click to expand...

I feel your pain brother. Mum got me a gardening job at 12. I had to bus 30 mins away and burn rubbish and cut plants back for 4 hrs on a Saturday morning.
And pick shrooms from local paddocks to sell to the grocer up the road.
My kids: daughter went to uni and has a teaching degree.
Son started delivering pizzas at 15. Came to work with me at 16.
They had it easy.

Russ
 
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