Remember the snowy days of winter? It seems we don't see them much anymore. This has been a fairly mild season with maybe just a coating of snow on your sidewalk or enough to be brushed off your windshield, but nothing significant.
But when the snow does come, what happened to all those boys and girls and teens who should be out there making money? Yo kids, there are a lot of elderly and disabled people out there along with others who would rather have someone else do the shoveling. Don't you want to make some extra cash? If you hustle, you can bring home a good bit on the right days.
It wasn't always this way, and the youth of today disappoint me. Ask your dad, grandfather, uncle, or older brother. They were probably like the rest of us. We were those who hit the street as soon as there was a significant snowfall and tried to reach as many homes, looking to shovel the sidewalks/pavements (or as some older South Philly folks say, payments) before the other kids. We were always happy with what we made, going out ourselves or with a buddy or two and splitting the take for the day. Today when it snows, there's hardly ever a knock on the door with someone asking if they can shovel my sidewalk. Hey, what gives?
Where did things go wrong? What's up with young people today? If someone does come by to shovel these days, they're usually in their thirties or older. Or may be someone trying to supplement income or out of work. Now that more adults are working, it should be young people who are picking up the slack. There should also be more opportunities for teens to earn and to learn the responsibilities of having a job. Back in our day, kids had many different ways of making money to add to their allowances. We worked as paperboys, delivering for corner stores, as busboys or doing the towel drying at the car wash. It was low-man on the totem pole work, but it instilled character. Those jobs aren't out there today. Where did we screw up? We had the chance to earn & learn and the same generation who did those things have denied younger people the same opportunities. The Inquirer should go back to kids with bags on their shoulders or a boosted shopping cart for deliveries, and you grocers out there should make deliveries available again and hire a neighborhood kid to do it.
But I'm afraid that some from our era have ruined your chances. For every few of us who did our work, there was a jerk who messed it up for everyone else. Sure, technology advances didn't help. Some of our crew didn't either. I saw it when I worked at a neighborhood pizzeria when I worked there from 15 to 17 making stromboli. Most of us were good workers, but there were those that caused our boss to fire the teens and hire housewives. Why? Because someone had to spray Mikey M. down with a hose and then coat him with flour, or some sat around while others were cleaning up. The final straw came when someone wrapped a stromboli with a handful of oregano inside, and then later a fistful of pennies. Fun stuff, no? No! Those stooges put someone's safety at risk and they were idiots for doing it. We never found out who. We were told by our boss that we would be called again when we were needed instead of the usual "See you next Saturday" and he never called us back. I found out while watching a fire being fought in a doctor's office just a few hundred feet from that old job. One of my former co-workers was in the crowd and gave me the news. He knew one of the housewives that replaced us and she told him what happened. When you have enough incidents like this, someone's fun becomes costly for all. To those characters, I say thanks, guys. And yes, those thanks are insincere.
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