For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 26, 2016

Yeah, getting a job for money seems o’errated.

What’s wrong with the idea of earning money, guys?

Besides, getting a job isn’t something that happens fast, and then there’s always a week’s wait for the pay.

I just came over from reading the comments at my local newspaper. I think I’m supposed to brand these kids “entitled millennials” and shake my fist at them.

Future boomerang generation?

I had a paper route for a year at 14. Not sure which was worse, having to get up at 4:30AM seven days a week or hearing every excuse in the book when I had to go out collecting at the end of the month. All for about a dollar a day, which was not a lot of money even in 1974.

I mowed lawns for money at that age. Paying with MY money to see a movie in theater was a special day.

Back in the early 60’s my friends and I went bottle hunting when we wanted some cash for junk food.10 oz pop bottles were worth 2cents,25oz got you 5cents,likewise did a beer bottle.On a summer Saturday afternoon we could usually find enough bottles for chips,cokes,and chocolate bars for everyone! The adventures we had were priceless!

There are boatloads of odd jobs those 3 boys could do. When my brother and I were their age we did all kinds of jobs for the neighbours and even our own parents, over and above the normal chores we did, a quarter here, 50 cents there and so on. It added to our allowance and we were able to buy toys and candy other kids couldn’t who just sat on their behinds. They should go knocking on neighbours’ doors and ask what they can do to earn some money.

My first job was making model airplane kits. Back in those days, model kits were pieces of wood cut to profile; you had to round the shape yourself. I sold custom-made kits at school. We would agree on the subject, scale, level of detail, and price. Wholesale groceries were shipped in wooden crates of a nice, clear yellow pine and were available for free. This was near the end of WW-II with a new design coming out every week, yet I suddenly found the market was for WW-I aircraft. Being one-off, custom kits, I could hold out against the early commercial plastic models for quite awhile by simply providing what Revell and Monogram didn’t.

Let’s see, how to get money….beg for it, borrow it, earn it, steal it, inherit it, receive it as a gift, find it, sell something, win the lottery. Anything else?

Unfortunately, the paper carrier jobs are no longer available to children. Men in automobiles deliver the papers and the subscriptions are paid by mail or you don’t get the paper. It’s too bad, too. My husband and both of my brothers were paper boys and learned the value of their own money very early.

You should have picked millionaire parents. Then you wouldn’t have all the angst over money. Get a bunch from your parents and then hire others to do the actual work to make even more money. Sort of like Trump has been doing.

Teacher to another teacher:“These kids these days – I asked what the opposite of BUY was and most said STEAL!”“That’s terrible – everyone knows the opposite of BUY is CHARGE!”

I see the beginning of a heist!

That’s where I started earning money. It may not have lasted much further than the store at the local strip mall where I could by brownies, candy, and soda pop. But after I’d had my fun, for a couple months, my folks made sure I saved some for the future.

manzarali1965The only difference between burglary or shoplifting and charge cards is who is stealing from whom.

Unfortunately, it is a lot harder for a 12 year old to get a job now. There’s child labor laws and many of the jobs kids once held are now being done by people whose jobs have been outsourced to India, China and the Philippines.