Things Your Parents Said

Our electric was 248 in July, for June. It seems a little cheaper than last year?

Quote: petroglyph

Our electric was 248 in July, for June. It seems a little cheaper than last year?

I think Drich needs to walk through with a candle and a caulking gun and look for air leaks. Or move out of that barn.

I live in Florida (too broke to move) where the power is very expensive. I got a letter from them awhile ago telling me I was 'eligible for shutoff'. What a strange phraseology. Anyone know how to operate a microwave on a battery? I'd send a letter on this matter but I still can't get my wireless printer to connect though I did just watch a video on youtube and think I will be able to tackle it on the morrow.

Quote: Fleastiff

I live in Florida (too broke to move) where the power is very expensive. I got a letter from them awhile ago telling me I was 'eligible for shutoff'. .

You live in a state full of old
people barely making it. There
has to places that can help
you. Call the power co, they
would know. They make no
money when the meter stops
spinning. Don't let it get shut
off or they'll hit you far a big
deposit when it's turned back on.

Quote: Evenbob

You live in a state full of old people barely making it.

Well, I used to be a young person barely making it but something seems to have happened and now I'm an old person barely making it. And a few attempts on my life sure did not help my brain functioning, that's for sure! Trouble is I got an electric bed, an electric clock, an electric tv, an electric fridge/freezer, electric lights and of course electric air conditioning. I'd go trap one of those slightly tamed squirrels and put them in a wheel attached to a generator but I doubt the poor thing could keep up with re-runs of that childish Veronica Mars show which is just about all I can get on Comcast Cable without paying far more money. So I sort of need electricity. It ain't no luxury item here.

Quote: Wizard

My father was a man of few words.]

Mine too, he was not a conversation
starter. He would rarely ask us
anything, unless he was unhappy
about something. My dad was a
reader, he sat in his chair in the
evening and read paperbacks
for hours.

Never had a heart to heart with
my dad, that would have been
weird. He was always there, but
nobody was close to him. He was
in WWII in the Pacific, I know
almost nothing because he never
talked about it.

Quote: Evenbob

He was in WWII in the Pacific, I know almost nothing because he never talked about it.

That happened to quite a few but it was particularly common in the Pacific Theater. I knew one auto mechanic who did talk but his most commonly used verb was "Japped". Few soldiers in WWtwo carried a final cartridge in their pockets elsewhere but in the Pacific Theater it was fairly common.

During the Pearl Harbor attack all females knew of the Rape of Nanking where Western observers witnessed massive numbers of Japanese troops raping everything female from 3 to 83. That may have helped them act as nurses for three days straight while almost being exsanguinated by desperate medics. There was a tv series Tanko (Roll Call) and while it depicted some gruesome things about life for female prisoners of the Japanese, it was very tame. One author commented that when the Japanese arrived, husbands were shot and the wives imprisoned and that the husbands were the lucky ones. In Ceylon one group of women were marched around the island for two and a half years. They were comparatively lucky.

Quote: Evenbob

My dad was very money conscious.
Better not waste something, woe
unto you. My mom wanted a dish
washer, nope said my dad, he's not
paying for the water and electric to
run it.

The fights over utilities when I was a kid, oh my God. I did not want to move back as an adult, but the alternative was bankruptcy and near homelessness. When I did move back he was screaming about a light being on, and I was so fed up I explained that the cost was about a penny for the entire night. Didn't help one bit. As much as I hated all the screaming, and I mean screaming, as a kid, when I learned how little in dollars we were talking I really fumed. Water was just as bad. Food just as bad. Drove him nuts when he visited my place and I left a light on. I'd sometimes leave one on just to do that.

Quote: AZDuffman

he was screaming about a light being on, .

That whole generation was like that.
Electric was expensive when they
were kids and the parents didn't
let them waste a penny of it. Use
the lowest watt bulbs, turn off
when leaving the room. Ditto for
a fan or a radio. I read older people
would unscrew the bulbs every
night, put tape over unused wall
plugs so the electric woudn't
'leak' out.

One of my parents was constantly
yelling "You kids are leaving every
light in the house on!" I have an
old house (1854) and it's dark inside
because there aren't enough windows.
I have LED bulbs in 3 locations on
24/7. My dad would go crazy if
he lived here.

I understand, when he was a kid
they made dresses out of flowered
flour sacks and handed down clothes
until they fell apart. It's the principle
of not wasting anything, even electric.

Many people were permanently influenced through living through the depression.

"Not have two nickels to rub together"


I actually can't find out where that expression came from. Maybe it's not very old at all.