REALITY BITES INTO THE TOFU GENERATION

I went onto ancestry.com and learned a great deal about my family heritage. It was quite fascinating. I learned that my great-grandmother came to the United States in 1902 from Norway on board the SS Majestic. The SS Majestic was built in Belfast Ireland in 1889 by the Harland and Wolff company. It was the same company that built the Titanic. The Majestic it turns out is a famous ship because the Titanic was built to replace the SS Majestic. The captain of the Majestic from 1895-1904 was Edward Smith, the captain who went down on the Titanic in 1912. My great-grandmother though wouldn't have known Edward Smith because she traveled steerage in third class. When she arrived in the United States she became a maid in the Bronx, NY and eventually took care of the elderly as a nurse so-to-speak. When she was 75-years old she was still working taking care of the elderly walking a mile to work everyday. When people asked her what she did she would respond, "I take care of an old woman." Being that she was 75 they would ask, "How old is she?"

My great-grandmother would respond, "68." She had a sense of humor. Today having a sense of humor would get you fined. People today in generation zero don't know what hard work is. My great-grandmother worked 52 weeks a year and then saved the money she earned instead of splurging it on ridiculous nightclubs and party drugs. Her husband, my great-grandfather worked as a building superintendent and in 1932 worked an average of 72 hours a week, 52 weeks a year for an annual wage of $1,500. These people worked hard. It doesn't seem like much but they didn't buy all the expensive toys that nobody needs and encourage our kids to shoot up schools. They were able to live comfortably and my grandmother was even able to travel back to Norway periodically. It is also a fact that cost of living back then was still more equal to what they were earning so they could have a life. Today with the "minimum wage," and the "labor unions," cost of living is through the roof and the average family needs to earn around $200,000 a year to keep from having to eat Thanksgiving in the local soup kitchen. Not only that people today want $200,000 given to them by the government because they don't know what putting in a full day's work is, and they think they are entitled to a high salary despite having no skills and then they want to watch T.V. all day. If they are at work they want their "breaks" and "long lunches" and "holidays off." These lazy bums today think that they should be able to retire at 39 and receive a six-figure pension. They don't know what it is like to wake up at 4:30 in the morning every day and then work until the sun goes down. Then after the kids are put to bed a couple more hours of work until you do it all over again. My great-grandparents are the kind of people who should be looked up too!