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american born kids and their work ethic

I learned to drive at 13
Not by choice
My father had a business in Manhattan ny
I used to go in with him and work over summers as delivery boy and stock boy
I'd get the workers lunch coffee I was a gofer

Anyway one night during peak rush hour
My dad says you drive I'm too tired
I laughed at him and he said I let you drive in parking lots it's the same thing
So at 13 I got behind the wheel of a 1965 bel air station wagon with manual steering and drove thru the queens midtown tunnel
Probably the heaviest trafficked tunnel and entrance on this planet during rush hour or at least back then

And that was it
Next summer at 14 I was doing his deliveries by car if he didn't have anyone else
The fact that my father didn't worry about insurance or anything else still bothers me today
 
I didn't learn to drive early, my dad was too much of a controller to allow that... I was allowed to pull cotton with a 3 yard sack behind me, pick purple hull peas for my uncle, hoe cotton, cut persimmon sprouts in the pasture, gather eggs and clean the chicken house, I also got to kill the chickens for Sunday dinner and skin them (I hated the feel and smell of wet feathers so would skin them rather than pluck them) ... my parents separated just before my 13th birthday and I moved to town with my mother who opened a laundry mat... I swept the floor and cleaned the washers, kept the grass in the back mowed.... I went back to live with my dad in my sophomore year and kept grandma's grass mowed, and a couple of the neighbors... got a little spending money from the neighbors... when it came time to learn to drive, Dad the controller wasn't much of a teacher... he let me drive a few times and then when I was 16 took me down to get my license... he drove a 1949 Ford that would stick in gear if you stopped and parked it in high, so the gear shift on the column was bent up at about a 15 degree angle from him slamming it out of high gear.... the accelerator would stick sometimes so you had to kind of stomp on it, not always but when I took my license exam it stuck and I was trying to back up as per instructions from the tester.... it came unstuck, we roared backwards and jumped up on the curb.... the instructor was very calm, but said "You know I have to fail you", then got out and walked back to the courthouse. I didn't get my license for another 2 years... learned to drive in a 1954 Plymouth Savoy owned by my 70 year old landlady who made me drive anytime we went together.
Summer of my senior year after graduation, I worked for a fellow who owned 4 movie theatres as his driver... we made weekly trips from Teague, TX to Dallas to pick up film, candy, popcorn etc for the theaters... he was legally blind from cataracts, so riding in a car was dead time to him...so he would sit on the passenger side and wave his hand to get on down the road.... we drove everywhere at 80-90 mph. Took me a long time to learn to drive at proper speed limits.
 
Makes me wonder what the youngsters today are thinking. Grandson 17 doesn'j have or want to get license or learn to drive Have 2 nieces don' or won't drive. Know several young people who have no desire to drive. Whats that about?
I was driving tractors at 11 when dad said get on and get going. Had drivers license at 14 . Driver license lady said, I know you here's your license. Nice to grow up in a tiny town.
David
 
Leo Voisine said:
Why is it somewhat necessary to give the employer a 2 week notice of quitting - but on the day you get laid off you get escorted out the door with ZERO notice.
Click to expand...
Back in the late '70s I was a service tech. I've worked on machinery that was damaged by laid off employees. It can be cheaper to send an employee out the door with 2 weeks pay in his pocket than risk damage to a machine. A moment's damage can cost more than 2 weeks pay.
 
I always taught my kid, a college degree will give you more choices of a career, but a good work ethic keeps ie even more important... In their 50's now and they both agree. I am proud to say, they have and are teaching their kids the same.
 
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