How Dumb Are The Americans ?

[rubydazzler]

Who said it was a hovel ?? We had it done up real nice and were very happy there.

Sorry for misinterpreting your post 442. It was just the way you made it sound, obviously.

[USUK]

No I wasn't trying to make it sound like anything, just laying down the way it was.

 

I guess I could have said that we lived in a realy nice 2 up / 2 down on the banks of the River Sheaf, but with no hot water,Bathroom, or toilet. :-)

[USUK]

I'm not critcising you, obviously, but why did you rent a hovel for so long? You could have either bought a modernised house or even rented something a little less primitive, if you couldn't afford to buy?

 

In 1974 after four years of living in a rented flat, we bought a three bed detached new build in Dronfield Woodhouse with a 100% mortgage. Although it was a bit desolate there at the time, no buses or shops and we only had one car between us, we managed. We realised later that we'd have fared better staying in Sheffield, maybe even a renovation project. But you can't put old heads on young shoulders, we had a lot of friends out there and we wanted to be in the swim, and the inducements offered by the developers were so tempting!

 

 

 

Just a hunch Ruby, but I'm guessing you didn't have any kids early on either.

[rubydazzler]

No I wasn't trying to make it sound like anything, just laying down the way it was.

 

I guess I could have said that we lived in a realy nice 2 up / 2 down on the banks of the River Sheaf, but with no hot water,Bathroom, or toilet. :-)

mmmmm, I suppose you could have

 

But you made it sound like something out of Dickens. The rats scavenging in your dustbins were an especially atmospheric touch. Bears, cougars and mooses (meese?) in your garden can only be an improvement on that

[USUK]

mmmmm, I suppose you could have

 

But you made it sound like something out of Dickens. The rats scavenging in your dustbins were an especially atmospheric touch. Bears, cougars and mooses (meese?) in your garden can only be an improvement on that

 

Well you certainly got that right :-)

[rubydazzler]

Just a hunch Ruby, but I'm guessing you didn't have any kids early on either.

I can see that whatever I post now is going to look bad, so I'll keep my tongue between my teeth on this one.

[Harleyman]

When I arrived in Montreal in 1968, I was paid $2.96 an hour, a little under $120.00 a week. With some overtime, and there was always some to be had I could round out to $200.00. My apartment rent was $100 a month, and groceries about $20 a week eating very well. I could have bought a new VW Beetle for $1800 but opted for a 2 year old one for $800. When I left UK I had been making $30 a week, had a company car and all the petrol I needed paid for by the company. But I still struggled, taking holidays in a tent. I bought the VW three weeks after I arrived in Canada, then bought a new Vauxhall Viva a year later. This was the biggest nistake of my life, because it was crap. This is not a condemnation of British cars, because American cars were no better in those days. The Vauxhall was never meant to face a Canadian winter. I replaced it with a Ford Galaxie made in Oshawa, Ontario which was a lovely car, big, armchair comfortable and quiet. Who cared how much gas it used at 30 cents a gallon.

 

 

 

 

When I went up to Canada House in London to see about emigrating they asked me what I worked at. I told them I was a carpenter

 

"Oh there's plenty of work in the construction trade. You shopuld have no difficulty in finding work" I was told

 

They even paid my fare one way, 175 Canadian dollars it amounted to I think.

 

When I landed in Montreal via BOAC ( Now British Airways) my suitcase got mislaid. It went on to Toronto. They located it a day later and delivered it to the address I was stayng at along with a couple of old army pals also from England who had arrived in Montreal a few months before me

 

I found work pretty soon and with overtime was making good money, around 500 dollars a month in 1965.

 

As soon as winter arrived and the snow started we were all laid off. Maybe they told me at Canada House that construction was seasonal but if they did it didn't sink in and I must not have been aware of the ramifications but for whatever reasons I was out of a job.

 

I ended up doing janitorial work, sweeping and buffing floors, cleaning windows for about 300 dollars a month. By the time spring arived I had made up my mind to go south.

 

My foreman Gilles Racicot suddenly called me and offered me work on Ile Sainte Helene where they we'e going all out to get the Expo site ready for it's scheduled opening in April 67. I turned it down my mind already made up.

 

In retrospect I could have moved to Vancouver but it never occurred to me.

As I found out many years later during a visit it is a really great city and I could have probably made as good a life for myself there as I did in USA

 

 

_______________________________________________________

 

Takes a well aimed shot at spitoon, settles back in rocking chair, lights corn cob pipe and reaches for jug o'whusky

[USUK]

I can see that whatever I post now is going to look bad, so I'll keep my tongue between my teeth on this one.

 

Didn't mean to make you look bad Ruby. Just making a point that the difference between one wage and two back then was significant especially throwing in the cost of bringing up a family.

 

And yes, I was working two jobs (Tending bar at the Smithywood WMC)

[USUK]

When I went up to Canada House in London to see about emigrating they asked me what I worked at. I told them I was a carpenter

 

"Oh there's plenty of work in the construction trade. You shopuld have no difficulty in finding work" I was told

 

They even paid my fare one way, 175 Canadian dollars it amounted to I think.

 

When I landed in Montreal via BOAC ( Now British Airways) my suitcase got mislaid. It went on to Toronto. They located it a day later and delivered it to the address I was stayng at along with a couple of old army pals also from England who had arrived in Montreal a few months before me

 

I found work pretty soon and with overtime was making good money, around 500 dollars a month in 1965.

 

As soon as winter arrived and the snow started we were all laid off. Maybe they told me at Canada House that construction was seasonal but if they did it didn't sink in and I must not have been aware of the ramifications but for whatever reasons I was out of a job.

 

I ended up doing janitorial work, sweeping and buffing floors, cleaning windows for about 300 dollars a month. By the time spring arived I had made up my mind to go south.

 

My foreman Gilles Racicot suddenly called me and offered me work on Ile Sainte Helene where they we'e going all out to get the Expo site ready for it's scheduled opening in April 67. I turned it down my mind already made up.

 

In retrospect I could have moved to Vancouver but it never occurred to me.

As I found out many years later during a visit it is a really great city and I could have probably made as good a life for myself there as I did in USA

 

 

_______________________________________________________

 

Takes a well aimed shot at spitoon, settles back in rocking chair, lights corn cob pipe and reaches for jug o'whusky

 

 

 

LMAO Harley.....It's not what they tell you, it's what they dont that counts. :hihi:

[Harleyman]

Harley-Davidson: Yesterday's technology at tomorrow's prices :hihi:

 

Better than a tin can though.

 

 

 

A motorcycle cop in my town rides a Yamaha Police Special. I asked him once during a conversation what he thought of it. He answered that it was a good machine and great for the job he did. When he turns in his Yamaha at the end of his watch he mounts up on his Harley and heads for home

 

Back in the 90s I was working on a building upgrade project at a large engineering company located in Pasadena.

 

There were parking places reserved for the senior executives right in front of the main entrance. Every morning a guy mounted on a Harley roared up, parked in the slot reserved for the VP, removed his ridiing gear, combed his hair and strode into the building dressed in what was probably a 1,000 dollar business suit

 

If you cant understand what I've just said I wont bother explaing it

 

Sitting on a machine with all the latest gadgets and technology doesnt do anything to me

 

Nothing looks like a Harley or sounds like a Harley . That great big ragged roar when you open up the throttle sounds like anarchy man. It means to hell with everything, show me the open road and get outta my way.

 

Yes I know Harleys are for us older dudes, the slower brothers of the motrocycling fraternity. Our owners club used to take trips along Highway 2 from La Canada-Flintridge all across a mountain range to Wrightwood.

There are open stretches and blind curves and we'd enjoy the scenery, the fresh air chugging along at our own Harley pace. The young uns liked that Highway too. They'd roar past us on their highly tuned Jap bikes give us a fraternal wave as they passed and disappear into the distance in a NY minute

 

There isn't a two mile stretch along that Highway where you wont see a little home made cross and a bunch of flowers next to it

 

I'm 5 ft 11 ins and weigh around 180 lbs. Harleys suit me for that reason amongst many others

 

A neighbor up the hill bought a 1957 vintage BSA Gold Star for his daughter to ride . It was cherry and blew my mind when I saw it. He told me to give it a try out. When I got back to his house he and his daughter were grinning their heads off.. I asked them what was funny and the guy said

"You looked like a bear riding a circus bike"

 

In return I let him take a spin on the Harley. He wasn't impressed at all

"All the manouverability of an elephant" was his opinion

 

We all ride or drive what suits us, what pleases us visually and mechanically, what we like to think in our vanities is the image that people see us as

 

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Takes a well aimed shot at spitoon, settles back in rocking chair, lights corn cob pipe and reaches for jug o'whusky