You Know You Are Old When

[WinterDeere]

Words are more powerful now then ever except when they are not…

I see what you did there, Winston.

...NC which is a right to work state... Very easy to get terminated without cause down south than it is up north from what I've seen.

PA is also a RtW state, and we're north of the Mason-Dixon. Employers expect and try to extort 2-3 weeks notice, but usually show employees the door with no warning or severance, when they're no longer deemed necessary.

Despite the opportunity for abuse, I actually thing the system has more pros than cons, and I'd hate to live and work in any place where useless or troublesome employees are retained for the simple reason that it's less costly than getting rid of them. We see too much of that in Europe, and to a lesser degree, even some of the more liberal US states.

 

[ultrarunner]

My brother worked for UPS and had another job lined up…

Standard practice is when you give 2 week notice they send you home and pay your 2 weeks so my brother thought a nice 2 week paid vacation.

His supervisor said we are short so making exception where you have to work your last 2 weeks… :-(

 

[MossRoad]

No one in the family had the build of my grandfather who was amateur gymnast in his youth.

In his 70’s still spry and wiry able to do handstands and hop fences with the grandkids…

I see fewer men with this build today… grandfather was born 1896 and I remember every day he would have 1 small glass of beer with supper… never 2.

Breakfast 2 poached eggs and I have not heard of poached eggs in 30 years…

In the family home growing up I would run up and down the stairs skipping steps… don’t know when that exactly stopped but I hold onto the banister now!

Even with my spine fusion a few months ago I still take the stairs two at a time, just slower. It's a habit I picked up in my youth. We had about 150 steps down to a lake in our back yard. If you took them one at a time, it was way more tiring than two at a time, and a heck of a lot faster.

I won many a race against much older/bigger kids that would visit our house. Down and back was the race. Most had to stop before they made it back up.

Then I'd grab two oars, an anchor, a life jacket, a tackle box and a fishing pole and run down and back again. For a tiny kid, I was in pretty good shape!

 

[MossRoad]

I actually don't have a problem with this type of bottle.

Me neither, but plenty of folks do. Especially with arthritis.

 

[MossRoad]

That was what Moss posted, which I replyed to.

There's a pill for that.

 

[MossRoad]

That’s a term of my parent’s generation (born 1940), I remember hearing it as a kid. But having looked it up at some point as an adult, I never really understood the point of the word, as it literally means “any spirit with any soda in a tall glass”.

Maybe there are regional assumptions, such that it’s always a Scotch and soda in one part of the country, bourbon and ginger ale in another, and even a gin and tonic somewhere else? They’re all highballs, and I’d hate to order a highball, wondering which I’m going to get.

I do enjoy gin and tonic, but you might lose a finger if you pour soda into my Scotch, or ginger ale into my bourbon.


A former boss of mine was into body building when he was young, and still in good shape at age 60-something, when he wiped out running up a spiral staircase one day. Showed up at work on crutches, and we all took our turns jabbing at him about getting old.

I was probably only in my late 30’s at that time, and I still remember when he looked at me and said, “someday you’re going to look in the mirror and wonder who the eff that old guy looking back at you is.” He went on to explain he still felt and thought of himself as 18 or 20 inside, and seeing the wrinkles and gray hair in the mirror made him feel like he was looking at a stranger.


Eggs Benedict! You know, the slightly less healthy sibling, served with ham and Hollandaise sauce.

Wine highball at our house meant wine with some seven up to make it fizzy.

 

[MossRoad]

My brother worked for UPS and had another job lined up…

Standard practice is when you give 2 week notice they send you home and pay your 2 weeks so my brother thought a nice 2 week paid vacation.

His supervisor said we are short so making exception where you have to work your last 2 weeks… :-(

No money, no work. No work, no money.

It's a business transaction. That's how I ended up not being bitter when we all got let go at my last job when they outsourced production. They paid me. I worked. The end.

 

[Sigarms]

PA is also a RtW state, and we're north of the Mason-Dixon.

Having started working in Pa after I graduated from college, and years later when I found the career I was looking for and moving back to Pennsylvania you made me look. I think you are incorrect that Pa is a right to work state as I looked.

Pennsylvania is a "non right to work state".

I won't lie, I always get confused by the definitions but having worked for years up north and then coming south, and the biggest difference I can tell you as a layman is that down south, you don't really need a reason to terminate someone, where as up north, there seem to a lot of rules what a company can and can't do if they want to let someone go.

That said, luckily never been fired or terminated, so I can't speak from first hand knowledge.

 

[MossRoad]

I always note that whenever I have to take a online ****** harassment class, EVERY woman they show is smoking hot. The men look like models as well LOL

Generally women in a trade industry can throw it around just as well as the men.

I once said "SH**" in front of a female worker. I looked at her and apologized for my language. She asked me what the F*** was my problem?

Glad I don't work in a hospital.

My mother in-law had a job on the assembly line at AM General making army trucks. All the guys had centerfolds in the lids of their toolboxes. So my mother in-law brought in her centerfold of Burt Reynolds and put it up in her tool box. Only a couple guys gave her crap about it. Everyone else had a good laugh and said fair is fair.

 

[Sigarms]

My brother worked for UPS and had another job lined up…

Standard practice is when you give 2 week notice they send you home and pay your 2 weeks so my brother thought a nice 2 week paid vacation.

His supervisor said we are short so making exception where you have to work your last 2 weeks… :-(

I never knew a company to send you home and pay you two weeks if you gave a 2 week notice and you didn't have 2 weeks of vacation accrued to cash out.

You give two weeks and expect to be let go, but...

I didn't give two weeks notice, but one boss I had was very good to me. I wanted to leave, and I just told him he should be looking at someone to replace me (I had another job lined up but didn't say anything). He looked at me and asked if I had anything lined up, and I just told him that he needed someone capable to fill the position and I knew it would take time on his end and he should find someone.

I worked there for another 3 months to help my boss out. I loved him, but I absolutely hated all the rules and regulations from corporate (located halfway across the US) and couldn't wait to leave that company, but I did stay for HIM and not the company.

I was blessed that the company hiring me could wait and they understood the position of what I was doing.

 

[Sigarms]

My mother in-law had a job on the assembly line at AM General making army trucks. All the guys had centerfolds in the lids of their toolboxes. So my mother in-law brought in her centerfold of Burt Reynolds and put it up in her tool box. Only a couple guys gave her crap about it. Everyone else had a good laugh and said fair is fair.

I miss the Ridged tool calendars. Can't seem to find them anymore. Wish I would have kept a couple for old times sake.

May need to order a Dillon precision calendar.

 

[MossRoad]

I never knew a company to send you home and pay you two weeks if you gave a 2 week notice and you didn't have 2 weeks of vacation accrued to cash out. ....

The last company I worked for would just take your word that if you gave notice, you'd leave on the day you told them was going to be your last day.

That all changed when the family owners of my generation took over and turned it corporate...

If you gave two weeks notice, they'd kick you out within the hour and pay you the two weeks.

You could usually tell when someone was planning to leave because they'd use up all their sick and vacation pay within a couple months.

 

[bigtiller]

I miss the Ridged tool calendars. Can't seem to find them anymore. Wish I would have kept a couple for old times sake.

May need to order a Dillon precision calendar.

 

[MossRoad]

I miss the Ridged tool calendars. Can't seem to find them anymore. Wish I would have kept a couple for old times sake.

May need to order a Dillon precision calendar.

When I was a little kid, maybe 5-6 years old, my dad was having one of his VW's worked on at a local dealer. The mechanic took us back into the shop to show my dad what was wrong with the engine and that's when I saw my first extremely graphic photo of a female as it was posted on a toolbox. My dad saw me looking at it, slowly put his hands over my eyes and turned me around while never breaking conversation with the mechanic.

 

[MossRoad]

Yep! That's the one. She had it hanging in her basement after she retired.

 

[WinterDeere]

Having started working in Pa after I graduated from college, and years later when I found the career I was looking for and moving back to Pennsylvania you made me look. I think you are incorrect that Pa is a right to work state as I looked.

Pennsylvania is a "non right to work state".

You're right! PA is technically an "at-will employment" state, which in the context of what we were discussing, I think has most of the same characteristics as a RtW state. Basically, you can be let to at any time, without notice and for any reason that's not illegal.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

You're probably old if you remember seeing 50s pin-up girls & know who the one is. Last one is a modern girl as a 50s pinup. Wow!

 

[masseyrider]

When I was a little kid, maybe 5-6 years old, my dad was having one of his VW's worked on at a local dealer. The mechanic took us back into the shop to show my dad what was wrong with the engine and that's when I saw my first extremely graphic photo of a female as it was posted on a toolbox. My dad saw me looking at it, slowly put his hands over my eyes and turned me around while never breaking conversation with the mechanic.

Just a bit older for me. Used to be a customer that came to the farm for fruit and veg that he sold at his market.
He drove a van like the UPS trucks. The walls were papered with centerfolds.
I always would help him load up.
My eyes got a good workout trying to stare but not make it too obvious.
Pa never said anything.
Next step I was about 14. A friend of my father's grew stuff for a number of the local restaurants but Nick didn't drive. Pa would help him deliver couple times a week.
We stopped at a place I knew was a bar but didn't realise was also a strip club (Oh the days of innocence)
Pa told me to help Nick take in his produce.
We didn't go in the back but through the main entrance. Did I get an eye full.
Some scantily clads walking around and the girl on the stage. She was gyrating to Midnight at the Oasis.
That left me with many a daydream and stories to tell my friends.
Pa never said anything, not even a wink.

 

[ultrarunner]

I never knew a company to send you home and pay you two weeks if you gave a 2 week notice and you didn't have 2 weeks of vacation accrued to cash out.

You give two weeks and expect to be let go, but...

I didn't give two weeks notice, but one boss I had was very good to me. I wanted to leave, and I just told him he should be looking at someone to replace me (I had another job lined up but didn't say anything). He looked at me and asked if I had anything lined up, and I just told him that he needed someone capable to fill the position and I knew it would take time on his end and he should find someone.

I worked there for another 3 months to help my boss out. I loved him, but I absolutely hated all the rules and regulations from corporate (located halfway across the US) and couldn't wait to leave that company, but I did stay for HIM and not the company.

I was blessed that the company hiring me could wait and they understood the position of what I was doing.

United Parcel Service Oakland sorting center…

Company policy is once on your way out no reason to delay…

As long as proper notice given the last 2 weeks pay paid out…

Also, as a rule rehire not an option…

Companies have varied company cultures…

A very good friend was senior VP for a National well known company…

When the President retired the board brought in a new President and accepted the demand he have full authority to restructure the executive team…

My friend arrived at work in his company Jeep Grand Cherokee and his access card did not work..

Security came over and said I’m so sorry but I have been instructed to give you this envelope…

He along with the other two VP and their admin assistants terminated…

The letter said he would receive a year severance, continued medical until 65, his years of service would be extended to full 30 year retirement, the title of the company car would transfer to him, the personal content of his office would be delivered to his home that day… it did require he return his brick cell phone to the company along with company ID

I guess if they are going to give you 30 years service for 24 years, a car, a years pay, health insurance, etc it could have been a lot worse for someone 50 years old…

His secretary was older and she got a years severance and medical to 65..,

 

[MossRoad]

United Parcel Service Oakland sorting center…

Company policy is once on your way out no reason to delay…

As long as proper notice given the last 2 weeks pay paid out…

Also, as a rule rehire not an option…

Companies have varied company cultures…

A very good friend was senior VP for a National well known company…

When the President retired the board brought in a new President and accepted the demand he have full authority to restructure the executive team…

My friend arrived at work in his company Jeep Grand Cherokee and his access card did not work..

Security came over and said I’m so sorry but I have been instructed to give you this envelope…

He along with the other two VP and their admin assistants terminated…

The letter said he would receive a year severance, continued medical until 65, his years of service would be extended to full 30 year retirement, the title of the company car would transfer to him, the personal content of his office would be delivered to his home that day… it did require he return his brick cell phone to the company along with company ID

I guess if they are going to give you 30 years service for 24 years, a car, a years pay, health insurance, etc it could have been a lot worse for someone 50 years old…

His secretary was older and she got a years severance and medical to 65..,

Man, when we were all let go, we had to stay 6 more weeks in order to claim our severance package. It was meager, but fair, so no tears, just sad state of affairs. Never looked back.