That "green thing"!

[aphantomvaper]

Fortunately, the earth is blessed to have mechanisms in place that regularly cleanse and recycle things. The forests, when old trees fall, are returned to the soil because of fungi...

I've been returned to the soil many times because of fungi, hee hee

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Hey I resemble that remark and “Pot, Kettle….”

I wasn't accusing you of derailing THIS thread. I was just putting you in the room with myself, Alan, Scott and of course, the king of random, Candid Picker. The room purpose would be amusement. I didn't want to leave you out.

 

[Tony M.]

This thread has not been derailed and is an excellent read.

Pay attention.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Excuse me. I was joking. I'll see myself out.

 

[veinbuster]

I don’t advocate buying new stuff for the sake of having new stuff, but peer pressure is real. When my brother moved to a more affluent area (new job), his boys were teased mercilessly for starting school in spring Nike colours.

His eldest got the last laugh by striking out 15-18 batters per game in Little League.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I wasn't accusing you of derailing THIS thread. I was just putting you in the room with myself, Alan, Scott and of course, the king of random, Candid Picker. The room purpose would be amusement. I didn't want to leave you out.

Just teasing H, I know I’m a loon! And proud of it!!

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Just teasing H, I know I’m a loon! And proud of it!!

Of course! And, that's why you were in the mythical room!

 

[bodia]

In the spirit of a good natured "then and now" topic, I had an interesting conversation with a client yesterday. After my strong instructions to not use her credit card while in the mortgage process, she informed me that "she spent $300 on school clothes for one of her children, and was taking the other one shopping tomorrow."

I did not grow up rich, or anywhere close to it. But we weren't poor. I can remember getting 1 new pair of jeans and a couple shirts when school started. I remember my parents buying the jeans at least one and maybe two sizes too big, and me having to roll them up, because I was growing fast and would outgrow them far before they ever wore out. I remember as we got older, my brother was shorter and thicker than I (football player vs. basketball player) and the concern my parents had when my "hand me downs" were not going to fit my brother. NOT because they couldn't afford new cloths for him. They could. But it was considered "wasteful" not to pass the clothes that were in good shape from one boy or girl down to the next. My tall slim jeans wouldn't fit my brother. My parents made sure to find another family who needed them and give them all away when I outgrew them.

For reference before I get to part 2 of the story, we owned a home, and boat, a camper, had an inground pool and 5 acres.

My borrowers mother was in my office when I had that conversation and after hearing it, she started discussing the things above, and how that's how it was in her family, and as far as she knew EVERY family back then. Then she said... "my daughter doesn't own a home yet, but her 12 year old has an iphone. She just spent $300 on new clothes for her 8 year old daughter for school. Everything she wears is new and name brand. She's never had one used or hand me down item of clothing in her life. She has already asked for her own iphone for Christmas this year, and will probably get one... yet you're telling my daughter her debt ratio is so tight to buy a new home that she can't put $300 on a credit card to buy those clothes. She (mother) is the youngest of 3 girls and said "only every once in a while did I ever get any new clothes, and if so, it was usually a Christmas present. " She said she gave the 8 year old grandaughter a very nice and expensive dress for Christmas last year and she opened the box and said "oh, it's just clothes."

You can form your own opinions about what is right and wrong, but when people have two teens with iphones that aren't yet 13, and their debt ratio is the only reason they can't buy a home, I think we can agree that the changes in priorities and trying to keep up with the Jones' are causing a lot of financial trouble and I'm sure other issues.

Remember patches on your jeans when you wore a hole in them?

 

[dmatthews]

Remember patches on your jeans when you wore a hole in them?

We were so out of style and didn't even know it.

 

[Deadloak]

My wardrobe is so old, it's the height of fashion again!

 

[alantig]

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Remember patches on your jeans when you wore a hole in them?

Absolutely... and the funniest part of all this is, people with less money than we had would never even consider doing the things we did (like buying them large to grow into, or patching the knees if you were hard on them) but we considered that the “standard” for not being wasteful. When I “wore out” my “inside” basketball shoes, then I wore them outside on the blacktop courts til they had holes in the soles. THEN, I threw them away. Many more examples.

 

[Moondog Wily]

Absolutely... and the funniest part of all this is, people with less money than we had would never even consider doing the things we did (like buying them large to grow into, or patching the knees of you were hard on them) but we considered that the “standard” for not being wasteful. When I “wore out” my “inside” basketball shoes, then I wore them outside on the blacktop courts til they had holes in the soles. THEN, I threw them away. Many more examples.

You didn't tie the laces together and throw them up to try to get them strung on a electric wire along or over the streets? I guess that's a Philly thing from what I understand, but I think that is how all fully used sneakers should be disposed of! I still save the rubber soles of old shoes to use as a pad, or bottom of furniture leg nub, vice soft binding material, or buffer (low voltage electrical stuff), etc. I guess I am a bit pack ratty, but I love it when I need something that I know I saved . . . and I remember where I stashed it!!!

The Patch Quilt Life!
MW

 

[Deleted member 5962]

You didn't tie the laces together and throw them up to try to get them strung on a electric wire along or over the streets?

LMAO! No offense, but around here, I think that’s mainly a redneck thing.... I’ve seen that many times, but was usually... uh... out in the country.

 

[AP515]

... out in the country.

past the city limit sign...?

 

[Tony M.]

LMAO! No offense, but around here, I think that’s mainly a redneck thing.... I’ve seen that many times, but was usually... uh... out in the country.

Nope.
There are old sneakers hanging off power lines everywhere in NYC.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

past the city limit sign...?

I live in a small town 45 minutes northeast of Cincinnati. I have only seen it one time within 5 miles of where I live. But When I cross the state east, towards my daughters house, I see it on 4 land divided highways... in the counties that are a little farther out.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

“We used to get up before we went to bed, eat a handful of gravel, work 28 hours in’t Mill and when we came home our father used to murder us in’t cold blood!”

 

[Tony M.]

“We used to get up before we went to bed, eat a handful of gravel, work 28 hours in’t Mill and when we came home our father used to murder us in’t cold blood!”

We used to walk 7 miles to and from school, uphill both ways, on our hands
because we had no feet, through stampeding herds of raging tornadoes.

 

[dogrocketp]

My parents could only afford to buy my next brother and I one pair of shoes. Hr would put on the right one and I would put on the left one. We tied our other leg together and then hopped off to school in the snow. By the way, the podunk reference was to tweak the elitists. My best friend and his wife live in a town of 850 people in Maine, I go almost every year for as long as humanly possible. I love it.