When I was a Kid I asked my Father why I didn’t get an allowance like my Friends did.
He had always insisted that whenever I needed money, I had to ask him for it and explain exactly what I needed it for.
There was no expectation that he would hand me a dime.
When I asked about getting an Allowance, he simply looked up and asked me what he was looking at. I didn’t realize what he was referring to, so he told me “that’s the roof over your head that I’m paying for”.
He then told me that if I wanted Allowance Money, I had to work at his Gas Station every other Saturday. It would have been every Saturday, but my Mother nixed that idea.
He got me up at 6 A.M. and I was there all day. Sometimes I got off work at 6 P.M., other times at 10 P.M., depending on my getting a ride Home with my Older Brother who also worked there. Can’t recall what Child Labor Laws my Father ignored. I probably made $.50 an hour back then.
One time I was complaining to a Guy that worked for my Father that I didn’t want to be there that day because my Friends were doing something and I couldn’t go with them because of Work.
I get a tap on my Shoulder. Turns out my Father was standing behind me listening to me whine and he told me this, “Nobody owes you a living, so shut up and get back to work”.
Never forgot it and lived my entire Life following his advice. Too bad People in this Country don’t seem to agree with what my Father told me. They want to get paid by the Government simply because they can breathe.
Hey! I know...I worked at a gas station in 1996 before fear from the draft ran me into the Air Force. Little did I know at the time it was a “life changing” experience that feeds me up until this day and beyond.
Too bad today’s generation will never know the responsibility of actually providing a day’s work for a day’s pay.