Posted on 07/14/2004 8:20:15 AM PDT by Ditto
John Edwards seems to be pushing his major qualification for office as being his endlessly repeated "rags to riches" story that: "I come from a family where my father worked in a mill in rural North Carolina. I was the first person in my family to be able to go to college."
I would think that in post-WWII America, that resume is not even close to being unique. It fits my background (except for the rural part), and it fits the backgrounds of probably most of my friends and similar aged co-workers.
I propose an informal survey of Freepers who fit that same description.
I managed to get myself into college and pay the tuition myself while also working pretty much full time. Some semesters I carried a full course load and others I switched to part time when class schedules did not meet my work schedule. I finished my degree with evening/weekend classes. It took a long time but I was the first in my immediate family to attend college although my older brother actually ended up earning his degree before me. Nether he, nor I ever took a cent from our parents for our education nor did either of us take out student loans. Sadly, my father did not live long enough to see either of us graduate, but my mother did and was very proud of both of us.
You are a fine person. You are not a grape rolling, tax evading ambulance chaser as is the running mate.
His father was the supervisor of the mill. He wasnt doing manual labor and probably made a pretty good living. What do you expect from a greedy, lying ambulance chaser!!
Yes, I said sarcastically, and I'll bet you didn't know that John Kerry served in Viet Nam?
This is all John "my daddy was a millworker" the Wheelchair-chaser Edwards and John "Purple Heart" the Gigolo Kerry have to run on. The rest of their message is a total bomb. The American people will grow weary of this act real soon.
My father worked in a meat factory.
I was the first person in my family to complete the Leaving Cert (Ireland's High School graduation), and subsequently the first to go to college.
My older brother, returned to education when he was 21 (having left school at 15), and is now a qualified accountant, having also completed his degree and professional exams.
My dad was born during the Depression in a family of Arkansan dirt farmers. He dropped out of school in the 10th grade. After getting back from the Korean War, he got a G.E.D. and eventually spent 31 years as a mailman, wearing out his hip joint in the process. My mom was a housewife, and they raised 5 boys together. I was the valedictorian of my 330-strong high school class, and I went to college with no money from my parents except some help paying for car insurance. I am the first person in my dad's entire extended family (his 10 siblings plus their descendants) to graduate from college -- with a degree in chemical engineering.
Do I get to be Vice-President yet?
He then went on to add...
"Then I made tens of millions filing frivolous lawsuits against hospitals and obstetricians based on what I knew to be junk science."
My dad sold ice cream from a vending cart in his teens during the Depression years when his family had almost nothing. He joined the Air Force and became a pilot in WWII, came back and became an engineer. Went on to become a CEO of a major computer corporation. Rags to riches is not unique in the US because our system rewards hard work, determination, and vision. Unfortunately, with the rise of the Nanny State, it also rewards leeches on society like many lawyers such as Edwards who add little to society but suck the life blood out of our productive communities.
My dad drove a truck and thought college was a waste of time. My acquisition of two degrees (BS & JD) is due to my good fortune of being born in America, the GI bill, and my marriage to a saint.
My Dad served in the 101st and was at the "seige of Bastogne". Wounded two weeks after the breakout, 14 months in European and US hospitals, he then used the GI bill to get a college education and Law Degree. Raised 10 kids to be good Republicans.
As pointed out, Edwards' father wasn't just a mill worker, but ended up as part of the management, supervising the rank and file workers. They weren't poor, but solidly middle class. I am not impressed that he was a successful trial lawyer. I have been a trial lawyer and I have worked with trial lawyers. Success is more a matter of marketing and acting ability than intelligence if you have a decent support staff (Edwards is proof of this. The man is not the sharpest knife in the Democratic drawer).
My father was a manufacturer's representative for a major bedding company. My mother a secretary. She stopped working after they were married. Some years, my father made middle class money, some years, next to nothing. It depended on the economic cycle and the market.
I was the first in the family to go to college. I did it with loans and scholarships. I went on to law school and business school, so I do have a JD and MBA. I started working in public service law, rose to receive recognition for my appellate work, was nominated for Who's Who in American Law, became the supervisor of a solid crimnnal appellate staff and taught at two law schools. I am now an adjunct professor for a local college and write treatises for lawyers on business/corporate subjects.
Thanks for posting this - as I have been giving a lot of thought to my parent's lives over the past few days:
My father never finished High School, and started working as a railroad construction worker in upstate NY at age 15 - he enlisted in the USN at age 17 during WWII. He was assigned to the Navy Sea Bees (Naval Construction Battallion) and built weather stations at Pt. Barrow, Alaska and along the Aleutian Island chain.
My mom grew up in rural Connecticut (no running water, outhouses, etc.) and lived in upstate NY in her teens - she started working during HS and held a series of clerical jobs.
They got married in 1948, had my brother, and moved to California in 1951 with $39.00 in their pocket but with the desire to make a good life for their new family. My dad got a job as a garment cutter in the garment district in LA and my mom stayed home to bring up my brother (and me - who was born in 1959). When money got tight my mom would work part-time as a clerk or at the movie house for a while.
My dad went to school in the evenings to learn electronics and later opened up his own business repairing televisions. This allowed him the luxury to close up shop at a moment's notice and come watch me play baseball/football/basketball.
My brother joined the Air Force during Viet Nam and learned how airplanes worked. When he got out he was hired by a large aerospace company, where he climbed the ladder and became a mid-level manager. He recently retired at the age of 55.
I was the first in my family to go to college. I had my choice of a sports scholarship or an academic scholarship - and I took the academic one. I got my degree and became an econometrist and have enjoyed a successful career.
My father died in 1985, my mother is now on her deathbed and close to being reunited with my father and the Lord - hence the reason for my reflection on their lives.
My father worked in the family's flour mill, but he did go to college -- U.S. Naval Academy (class of '65), so I was second-generation college-bound.
Ditto, I love the idea of this thread.
You're exactly right; his story is not unique!
Let's list them.
You come from good stock my friend. God blessed you with them and it seems they were blessed with you.
all 4 of my grandparents came off the boat from eastern europe. my grandmothers cleaned houses for a living, my paternal grandfather worked in the steel mill in pittsburgh and my maternal grandfather was a coal miner. My dad and mother didn't go to college, had only HS educations, but my brother and i did go to college and i went to law school and he is a petroleum engineer (formerly worked for the EVIL halliburton ; ))
My grandfather died at the age of 42....Left my grandmother (with a six grade education) and seven children to raise....Because of the depression, they had nothing....Grandfather made the three oldest promise there would not be a marker on his grave until they were all educated....Six of the seven have multiple degrees from Indiana University....the seventh has her two degrees from Ball State.....
All of the grand children have educations....All are conservative.
You're also the first person in your family to make a fortune raping OB's. So what's your point.
My parents were both the youngest in large families. My dad the youngest of 9, my mom the youngest of 5.
My dad's father worked in the "tannery" until he was no longer able. If you remember the Waltons, my dad's early life was much like that except that the Waltons were rich ~they had indoor plumbing, a five bedroom house, a truck and land~ Anyway...
My dad left high school early to join the army. It was after the end of WWII, but his older brother convinced him to serve. He was later in Korea.
My mom's dad was exposed to nerve gas in WWI. He came home and alternated between being a successful carpeneter and drinking his life away. He died when my mom was a senior in high school.
Out of high school my mom went to work as a laborer at a local textile plant. She retired from there some 45 years later as an executive secretary. Then she got another job.
My parents married in 1952, after my dad returned from Korea. My dad worked construction, owned a garage for a while and then went to work as a laborer at a local textile plant.
I seriesly doubt their combined income was ever over $30,000.
My brother managed to borrow and work his way through a state university. I was four years behind him and started to do the same thing. I went to a private college.
I was able to finish at my school of choice because my dad died between my sophomore and junior year. The VA and SS benefits were how I got thru.
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