<p>Everyone around we live uses a landscape service, as well. My S once said he’d like to try mowing our lawn, but I wasn’t about to go out buy a mower for him to try it!</p>
<p>Bay, you need to buy an edger too. We need those nicely trimmed lawn edges. Otherwise, its like staring at Jon Hamm sporting a Hagrid look.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl et al: True story. In elementary school the kids learn about the settlement of the west. I was one of the moms who was in the classroom helping. Our little group was making a log cabin. We had a picture of a family *husband, wife and 4 or5 kids.</p>
<p>One of the boys in the group was astoundingly wealthy. He studied the picture. I, told them about self relience…pointing out crops, cows, chickens etc.</p>
<p>“Where are the servants?”</p>
<p>They didn’t have servants. They relied on their family to keep themselves fed, dressed…etc.</p>
<p>Where are the servants?</p>
<p>I tried two more times. All the kids in the group were quiet. They were interested as well.</p>
<p>Fourth try: Where are the servants?</p>
<p>I took a deep breath and said, “Cleveland”.</p>
<p>He was satisfied with my last answer.</p>
<p>I think we still have a gas edger, but since I removed all my lawn, we don’t need it anymore, I use the line trimmer for the strip down the middle of the driveway.</p>
<p>One of my sister in laws grew up in another country where she lived in a compound that consisted of homes for her parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles.
Not sure how many live in staff they had though, but it was very common for the middle class to have help.</p>
<p>ellebud, that’s hysterical.</p>
<p>We live in a comfortable middle to upper middle class neighborhood. I can recall at most 2 to 3 teenagers mowing the lawn ever. One industrious teenager practically cornered the lawn service market. He even mowed lawn in the rain while the homeowner’s teenagers are inside surfing the web! He is now in college. I predict a great future for him with his work ethic.</p>
<p>We were reminiscing of jobs we did as teenagers. One of these was newspaper delivery. Our newspaper is now tossed out by an adult in a drive by car. The other day, on our way to the coast, we stopped at a small town to look for lunch and I did a double take when I saw a woman walking down the street with a newspaper canvas bag draped over her. I have not seen an actual walking newspaper delivery person in a long time. But alas, it’s also a grownup, not a teenager.</p>
<p>People still take the newspaper?</p>
<p>We rarely read the delivered newspaper anymore, only on the weekend. But we are still buying it for nostalgic reason and to support the only newspaper left in town. I consider it a public service!</p>
<p>
That brought a smile to my face, for you, PackMom. </p>
<p>When my kids were little and I had a cleaning person, and other friends had different kinds of household help, we always referred to them as our “helpers”. I am much more comfortable with the idea of being helped than served. (Now I am completely “helpless”.)</p>
<p>I can always appreciate a beautiful garden but for me half the fun is getting my hands in the dirt and sweating a little.</p>
<p>My husband grew up in a low-income family and delivering the paper was the only way he could afford the catholic high school he wanted to attend. Of course, NOW, no kid with a PT job could pay for it as it’s more than $10k a year. In college he worked nights FT at the paper’s call center and that’s how he paid for college. We’ll probably always get it delivered if only on weekends like we do now-he feels a debt of gratitude to them.</p>
<p>But this: "Fourth try: Where are the servants? I took a deep breath and said, “Cleveland”.</p>
<p>One of the saddest things I’ve read on CC. It helps explain why the 1% does what it does to the rest of us though. And it reminds me of my D’s elementary classmate who came from a very wealthy family. They were studying slavery and this girl was just SO SAD for the slaves because they couldn’t afford designer clothes. Smh.</p>
<p>“It helps explain why the 1% does what it does to the rest of us though.”</p>
<p>^ Which one percent is that? </p>
<p>Moving on; I stopped taking the newspaper; newspaper went out of business. Well, almost. Editor was my patients mother.</p>
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<p>We do - we get the WSJ every morning and faithfully recycle it every night! In the spirit of saving the planet, I read the NYTimes via online subscription, though there’s nothing like a lazy Sunday with a cup of coffee and a paper NYTimes.</p>
<p>We dropped our daily delivered newspaper and switched to the Kindle version Costs less and more convenient when on the road. We make 5 hour car trips across our state at least once a month.</p>
<p>We still get the LA Times everyday. I can’t imagine not reading a paper while drinking my coffee. But the Times is SO mediocre that I do toy with the idea of stopping delivery. Our “paperboy” are two women who deliver by truck. One drives and one throws. </p>
<p>What does the !% do to you? Just curious…I do suspect that many of the people are in that 1% on this board. Do they have businesses that employs people? Do they provide goods that we need for survival?</p>
<p>We still get our newspaper as well as an online subscription to the same paper. Our S enjoys reading about local HI news, wherever he is and uses our subscription. We are a dinosaur and still have a landline as well. I guess these are “splurges.” To counteract these, we have the most basic cable (about $20 a month), otherwise, you get NO reception at all; no hulu or netfliks or other streaming video but H did splurge on amazon prime (cheaper than postage for the lawnmower he bought online).</p>
<p>We still have a subscription to the Dallas Morning News, 7 days a week. DH reads it faithfully every day. He doesn’t like the online version.</p>
<p>A Sunday NY Times subscription is my luxury. It is home delivered, if from a car. This gives me online access to the rest of the days. Sometimes it takes a full week to finish the Times, so it is plenty. I believe in the importance of journalism in a democracy, so try to support it. Sometimes this feeling carries over to the local paper, other times I can’t stand the idiocy and cancel my subscription.</p>
<p>No cable, no TV watching here. I’d rather read.</p>
<p>bEVHILLS—we stopped the LA times (since it STINKS) and we currently get the NY Times. Give it a try. Even the NYTs articles on California are more insightful than anything the LA Times puts out these days.</p>
<p>bevhills-I’m SURE there are many 1%ers on this board. Maybe I was a bit harsh, but I truly believe there are people of means who have no clue-at-all what life is like even for the middle class, never mind the low-income people around us. Kids who think everyone in the whole wide world has servants, who don’t think children have chores, etc. sometimes grow up to be adults who think everyone everywhere can just snap out of a difficult financial situation.</p>
<p>My boss is exhausted from 2 solid weeks of trying to help this low-income, immigrant family get settled in their new residence while also helping a mentally disabled adult child of theirs who has nowhere to go. At all. There are simply not enough resources for any of them, and plenty of people who think they should just be shoved out into the streets. Then add in those who grew up thinking everyone, everywhere has servants and lawn guys and whatnot, and you get to thinking that if people came down into the real world sometimes, people like the family we’re helping would have a better chance.</p>
<p>Just rambling-hoping the young man in question won’t be sleeping in a park somewhere tonight.</p>
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<p>Probably includes some of the “middle class that won’t receive financial aid” posters on these forums.</p>