Community Chat

[hckynut]

@CrazyDaisy 

Never saw any lady gas pumpers in our area. Almost all stations that had a serviceman(exclude women because I never saw one ) also repaired vehicles. There were a few "island type gas stations" that were open 24/7, but they were very rare.

That was another of my early jobs, think I was 11 at the time. It was a Texaco Gas Station Garage. Got my start working on cars there. My sister knew the owner as they both were horse owners. It was a summer only job.

@CrazyDaisy  What part of the country were you working at the pump? Most of my travels took me mostly around the flyover states.

ETA:  Really like your "statement" at the end of your post(s?). Now it is more pertinent than ever. I see it/read it, and hear it by way too many now. 

hckynut 

[GenXmuse]

I don't remember my parents being overly distrustful or fearful of things. They had day to day worries but nothing that really sticks out in my mind. 

[Group 5 minus 1]

The truth is my folks (parents) did not trust anyone. 

[hckynut]

@Pearlee 

Raised only by my mother. She worked at a big department store in our city. It was the "jewelry department", and it was in a square. She could not keep all customers in front of her as one can at a frontal counter.

She trusted no person that seemed to come around often and not purchase an item. Those she made sure to always keep in her line of sight, for obvious reasons.

Others she didn't trust were other single mothers living in the same Public Housing Projects where we lived. Not all of them, just the ones that never had a job, and somehow kept being "with child", as she used to word it.

Women without a spouse were not supposed to have any male guests spend the night, but daytime hours were fine, but only when all their children became school age. But, kids only 14-16 months apart?

Yes, they got some type of ********** support back then. What it was called, beats me. What I do know is this. If my mother, raising 3 of us, made more than $23 a week we would get booted out of the Public Housing Projects.

I could list familial individuals but that would involve a post longer than any of have ever written here, and how often are my posts 1 or 2 words or sentences?

hckynut

[chrystaltree]

My mom was a wonderful woman with many fine qualities, I loved her dearly.  But she was, as my dad would say, "uppity".   She came from a very old New England family that way, way back had money.  Gone before she was even thought of.  My mother didn't trust anyone she thought of as "common" or anyone from the south.  Which was weird since my dad was  from GA.  I think since he left the south for good when he was 17 and went on to serve in the army and was a war hero; he got a free pass.  If people didn't behave, speak, dress, live in the way she thought was appropriate, she didn't trust them and we could not associate with them.  When I was about 8, my best friend lived across the street from us.   I was not allowed to play in my friend's home, we had to stay in the yard or at our house.   My friend's mother was divorced and on top of that, she had boyfriend.  My mom didn't trust divorced women.  When we grew up, we would tease my mother about all this.  She loosened up over time and she would say that she was never like that, we were confused.  

[ALRATIBA]

Politicians and celebrities - held in equally low regard.  It "rubbed off" on me.

[Porcelain]

I remember my parents put the fear of God into me about matches. They wouldn't let me light a candle as a little girl. I got the impression it was a very dangerous enterprise.

To this day I have real trouble using matches to light a candle. It's a hangup. It takes me at least four or five matches to get one to ignite. And anyone else could take those same matches and light one right away.