Things Your Parents Said

My parents and everybody talked in
old sayings and cliche's when I was a
kid.

'Better straighten up and fly right.'

My dad called us 'stump heads' when
he was angry.

My mom's fave: "You kids will drive me
to Kalamazoo!" There was a world famous
insane asylum there.

'Turn out the light, we aren't made of money.'

'Clean your plate, kids are starving in China.'

'Your bedroom is a pigsty.'

We heard this stuff every day. What do
parents say now, I have no idea.

Quote: Evenbob

We heard this stuff every day. What do parents say now

I have no idea but it falls on ears that are just as deaf.
Only now I think the kids know how much it costs to run an electric light bulb particularly an LED one.

Quote: Fleastiff

Only now I think the kids know how much it costs to run an electric light bulb particularly an LED one.

My parents grew up in the 30's
when utility bills were no joke.
In Detroit the average electric
bill was $4 a month, but the
wages of a factory worker were
$23 a week in 1933.

The electric was 5% of your monthly
wages. Today it's a fraction of 1%
of earnings.

Quote: Evenbob

My parents grew up in the 30's
when utility bills were no joke.

They still aren't a joke to me. My electric bill was $603 this month.

Quote: DRich

They still aren't a joke to me. My electric bill was $603 this month.

Mine was $110. I don't live on the
surface of the sun. There were 2
days last week when I didn't even
turn the air on.

My father was a man of few words. He didn't say the usual cliches because he didn't say much at all besides swearing. I do recall him quoting the price of our house whenever I or one of my brothers did anything to damage it. The price he quoted was $30,000. You can't conceive of numbers that big as a kid, but today the same home is worth close to a million. I've compared him before to Jack Rebney, known as the angriest RV salesman.

My mother mentioned how the starving kids in Ethiopia would be grateful to have whatever food I didn't care to eat. I always wanted to say, "I'd be happy to give to them," but she would have smacked me. She called me and my middle brother a brat hundreds of times. Usually preceded by the adjective "spoiled." She was a tough woman.


Direct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDQQfBrSUs0

Whenever he thought I wasn't doing enough to help out, he would say, "don't just stand there with your teeth in your mouth." Never made sense to me.

Quote: JimRockford

Whenever he thought I wasn't doing enough to help out, he would say, "don't just stand there with your teeth in your mouth." Never made sense to me.

My aunt had 6 kids and one bathroom.
Every time I was there she would yell
at the bathroom, which was off the
kitchen, "Piss or get off the pot! People
are waiting!"

I was in HS before I knew what the pot
was. Growing up they still used chamber
pots.

Quote: Wizard

My father was a man of few words. He didn't say the usual cliches because he didn't say much at all besides swearing. I do recall him quoting the price of our house whenever I or one of my brothers did anything to damage it. The price he quoted was $30,000.

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.

He drilled it into my head that you
get a job after HS and pay him rent.
I was taking home $65 a week and
he took all but $20 of it. It was 1967,
$20 went a long way for gas and
beer and McD's. A case of Bud was
$5.

Quote: DRich

They still aren't a joke to me. My electric bill was $603 this month.

You running a grow house?