Way Too Much Stuff

I realized the other day that a few things had changed in the forty years I have been paying attention to society (before that I was a teenager and pretty much in my own navel). I looked around and here's what I saw - you see if you can guess what it means.

Lots and lots of storage facilities.
Very big houses being built on tiny plots of land.
Rent-to-Own places everywhere.
Ditto for Title Loan establishments.
Lots of stores, and inside them, lots of stuff.

We have so much stuff we have to rent spaces to stuff it. Didn't happen back a while ago. Wonder what started us thinking we had to have all this stuff?

Could blame the advertising on television, telling us we "deserved" that new color wide screen TV.
Could blame the people who made all the stuff and got it put on the shelves for us to want.
Could blame the neighbors, those "Joneses" we all have to keep up with so our stuff won't look raggedy next to theirs.

But the bottom line is, WE fell for it. They put it out there, all shiny and tempting, but we bought it, lugged it home, and plugged it in.

It didn't seem like a bad thing at the time. Didn't we deserve these things? We worked hard for them! We thought it would make us happy!

I'm not any less guilty than anyone else, but I did realize a few things.

Those big houses are way too much to dust, especially if you are both working to pay for it.
Storage facilities separate you from your stuff, so if you have to put stuff there, you don't need that stuff.
Stuff can own you. You have to do the aforementioned dusting, as well as repairing, maintaining and yelling at the kids to get off it.
Rent to Own places charge way too much interest. It's a tax on the impatient.
If you have to pawn your title to the car, you are in debt way too deep.

Going through a mall now makes me dizzy. Who ever asked us if we wanted this much choice? Choosing toilet paper alone is a several hour affair.

And buying clothes? Please! If I end up getting dizzy from playing "Ring Around the Display Racks", someone will pay.

You spend your first fifty years getting stuff, then at some point you spend the rest of your life getting rid of it. Why get it in the first place?

Yeah, I know. I did it, too. I'm in the process of unloading most of it onto my kids, so I can live the Simple Life.

I'll just go to other people's houses if I feel the urge for stuff; look at their stuff.

Then I'll go home to my simple place and not dust.

I Have Had It With You Politicians

Being President, a Senator, or a Representative used to be a very respectable job. Mothers told their children that if they studied hard, they could grow up to be President. Now? Not only is it not true that anyone can be President, but most mothers are not so sure they'd want their kid to become President.

It's because you politicians are not doing right.

Now, I'm just a simple old woman, but even I know enough about human nature to tell you many of your schemes are just plain stupid. You write bills and laws up there in Congress and we have to live with them. You act like you do not have a clue what will happen.

As long as it looks good on paper, and plays well on television, and GETS YOU RE-ELECTED, you'll pass anything and damn the consequences.

I'm on to you people. It's not about being a public servant, it's about what you can get for yourselves.

Sure, there may be some of you who are sincere and smart - I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the rest of you. Either you can't think your way out of a paper bag, or you're crooked.

Here's an example: In 1990, Congress passed and the President signed into law a 10 percent luxury tax on yachts, furs, jewelry and expensive cars, hoping to raise revenue from the rich. The yacht portion was repealed in 1993, because while it did raise revenues, it also sent a few yacht makers in the United States into bankruptcy, and forced them to lay off hundreds of workers, which cost the government a lot of money in unemployment compensation. Why? Wealthy purchasers simply did not buy, or bought overseas. You couldn't have seen that coming?

You people love to pit us against each other, rich versus poor. We didn't have the kind of class envy we have now until you changed laws that let the wealthy predator types cash in. More on that in another post.

You demonize "the rich" as if they are not major creators of jobs. But they are, not only by financing companies and hiring workers, but - because they buy stuff! Thereby giving the middle a lower class people jobs making and selling that stuff.

I will talk about the rich ones with no social conscience later.

In a puzzling move, the current President proposed a tax on corporate jets. Either you are not well-read or advised, sir, or you have another agenda. Creating jobs and reducing the deficit will not happen by soaking the rich.

Now I'm talking to the voters: People, do your research! Who is lying to us, and why? Follow the money.

Yeah, it's complicated. Use your brains, not your emotions. Or don't complain.

I Was There When It Started Going To Hell

I watched society's standards slip, little by little, starting in the late sixties and early seventies. Little, tiny changes that finally added up to the crap you see today.

The really sad thing is that my sons didn't believe me when I first told them there were no guns in school when I attended in the fifties and sixties. No cops either. They have never known the absence of possible fatal violence in school.

Oh,some of the boys duked it out behind the gym, and the male teachers would come out and throw them into separate corners, then make them apologize. Girls didn't fight physically. No one had a gun. Seriously.

Also in my high school, the restrooms were labeled 'Girls' and 'Boys', not 'Men' and 'Women'. A small thing, you say? Not really. It meant that we weren't adults and we were not in charge.

We had a dress code. Stop rolling your eyes. I see that.

Yes, we were made to wear such awful things as dresses - no shorter than two inches above the knee - and boys had to tuck in their collared shirts. Hair was of a certain length, no facial hair on the boys. Girls couldn't wear low-cut or too-tight blouses.

It started changing, and I'm afraid I pushed for some of it. Some of my friends and I went to see the girl's advisor one winter day. We were tired of our legs being cold as we changed classes (our high school had outdoor hallways.)

So we asked her if there was a rule about how short the dresses had to be.

She replied, "They can't be more than two inches above the knee.."

"No,ma'am," we replied. "The other way. How short do they have to be?"

She flipped through the rules and allowed as how there was no rule for that. We smiled sweetly and left.

The next day, about six of us came to school with ankle length skirts on.

"Why are you girls dressed like that? You look outlandish!"

More sweet smiles. "Our legs are cold, and you won't let us wear pants."

The next week, apparently disturbed by our continuing to wear the Granny dresses, they ruled that we could wear pants. They had to be nice looking pantsuits, now, no jeans....

We were disappointed that they gave in so fast, and a little disconcerted. We had pushed, and they gave in!

A few years later, the dress codes simply fell by the wayside. And so did a lot of adult authority over teenagers. Big mistake.

You ever heard the old phrase, "Give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile"?

People are like that. Kids want what they want. Adults have become pandering ninnies, afraid of hurting feelings, while the kids end up coming to school half-nekkid and with guns.

And you dummies who are now demanding we stuff the kids into uniforms don't even know why you want it. You give all sorts of reasons, but the real reason should be: you need to take charge again and put some order into the chaos you have created.

You ever get a tiny rip in your clothing? Sew it up with a few stitches and there's no problem. Ignore it, and before you know it, the tiny rip has gone all the way up the sleeve.

That's how people work. Let the little things go, and they will keep pushing until you have things going on you never intended. It's called testing.

Grow a backbone, will you? It is just wrong that you don't teach kids how to dress or behave.

Kids know they should not be in charge and out of control. It's time you, the school administrators and teachers, figured it out.

They will be safer. And believe it or not, way happier.

I've Had It With You People.

You know who you are. Or you will soon, because I'm gonna tell you. You are not gonna be able to hide behind the usual excuses.

"I didn't know."
"We are just giving them what they want."
"We are doing what the people who elected us want us to do."
"Everybody's doing it."
"It's normal."
"We did not realize the ramifications."

I have had it with you people. You have stolen, perverted, dirtied, polluted, messed up, spit on, sullied and spoiled way too much of this world, and people have been too polite - or too gradually lulled into complacence - to stop you.

Well, I'm not polite. Not any more. Not since I've watched you mess with my kid's heads and futures, and had to help them recover. Not since now I've got a grandson, and I'm not letting it happen to him, too.

I'ma do my darndest to use my pen to show you and others the error of your ways.
I'ma call you out verbally and dare you to refute my facts.

I'm a mean old woman and I'm not scared of any of you.

I'll tackle you one by one on this blog. You better get ready.

Dear old Andy Rooney is dead. I just became Auntie Ruiny. I may ruin some of your days.

Bless your hearts!