Fred's ramblings

[Sheilajeanne]

They really need to bring back Home Ec. and shop classes - only make them co-ed!! Girls need to learn how to used tools, and guys need to learn to cook and sew! I am ever so grateful to my father for teaching me basic carpentry skills. He also showed me simple car maintenance tasks, like changing tires, checking tire pressure and the engine oil, etc.  

When I blew a tire one day on the Don Valley Parkway, in early rush hour traffic, I was able to get the car safely to the side of the road, and change the tire myself. No one stopped to help me, either. The one casualty that day was the hubcap, which popped off when the tire blew, and was never seen again. 

Thanks, Dad! 

Edited May 19, 2024 by Sheilajeanne

[fredk]

I was of a generation that changed how our school did things. We boys campaigned and won the right to do Home Ec and for girls to do Engineering.  An older sister taught me how to sew when I was 9. An older bro-in-law who had been in the army showed me a special way to sew on buttons. So when I went into the RAF training at 12 I knew how to sew, polish shoes to a high shine, how to get a knife-edge crease in my trousers, how to open tins without a tin opener and more. It gave me instant promotion, and a position of training other cadets

 

[Sheilajeanne]

That's great, Fred! My dad also taught me how to polish shoes, and of course, sewing on buttons was part of what my mother taught me along with using her sewing machine.

[billybopp]

17 hours ago, fredk said:

I was of a generation that changed how our school did things. We boys campaigned and won the right to do Home Ec and for girls to do Engineering.  An older sister taught me how to sew when I was 9. An older bro-in-law who had been in the army showed me a special way to sew on buttons. So when I went into the RAF training at 12 I knew how to sew, polish shoes to a high shine, how to get a knife-edge crease in my trousers, how to open tins without a tin opener and more. It gave me instant promotion, and a position of training other cadets

 

In my school, in 7th & 8th grade, boys were required to take a half-semester of home-ec, and the girls were required to take the same of shop class.  It wasn't a lot of training, but I learned how to read a recipe, how to measure ingredients, and some basic cooking.  I also learned how to sew a button and a hem on trousers, and how to iron clothes and fold laundry and wash laundry.  Not a lot, but it served well to get a good start on things throughout my  life.  I've become a pretty darn good cook, and have managed to sew Halloween and cosplay costumes. 

-Bill 

[SUP]

Nice to hear about all that children learn here. Where I come from, a different culture, growing up if I wanted to do anything myself, my parents explained that if I, for example, repaired my slippers, I would be depriving the mochi (Hindi for Cobbler) of his earning. So I went to the cobbler. The same for everything else. Those of us who could afford to buy their services, did so, in my family, for the reasons stated. (at one point, we  had more maids than we needed, because one needed a job!) I did learn sewing though but not cooking. That I disliked and still dislike.  I learnt cooking from my husband who cooks very well and did, from his childhood. I still hate it, he still enjoys it.  In the US, I can learn everything without any guilt but when I visit family, I still will go to the mochi or call the carpenter for repairs. 

[Sheilajeanne]

We had a Hindu tenant in the apartment building my husband used to own. He said that when he was living in India, if he blew his nose, he'd just drop the tissue on the floor, and one of their servants would pick it up. 

His apartment was the worst disaster my husband had ever seen in his 35 years of owning the building. There was not a square inch of floor that wasn't covered with debris, mainly newspapers. He lost his first wife and two children in the Air India crash, caused by a radical Sikh faction planting a bomb on the plane, and I strongly supect that's what caused him to not care about the state the apartment was in. 

It was unbelievable - you'd be sorting through newspapers and other rubbish, and you'd find a beautiful silk scarf. He would also take the change out of his pocket, and throw THAT on the floor of the bedroom his children used when they came to visit. (He was separated from his second wife.) I picked up over $200 in coins off the floor of that room! That was a real head-scratcher, as he was having trouble finding a job that made use of his education and experience, and was working as a parking lot attendant for the City of Toronto. You'd think he'd value every nickel and dime he earned, with a low-paying job like that! 

We've never been so glad to have a tenant leave - we'd actually been looking into how we could evict him, due to the state the apartment was in. 

[SUP]

 Everyone in India has  servants, not just Hindus. The Christians and Muslins, the Jews and Sikhs and Parsis have just as many servants. We have cooks and chauffeurs, cleaning staff and sweepers. With that population, it just makes sense. It ensures everyone is working and earning

 None of us in India throw things on the floor and expect servants to pick it up. It is just an exaggeration -  I have heard people say that too but never seen it.  Indians are very materialistic and money minded - saying that they have people pick up after them is a way of indicating how wealthy they are. After all, it is not routine in the West to have maids in middle-class and lower middle-class neighborhoods like it is in India, so they have no idea how routine it is for us.

Your tenant probably had some mental issues and sadly, no one realized it and helped him.

[fredk]

Ethnic Minorities are call BAME in the UK. And in NI they are a rarity. Some move  here and soon leave, not to prejudice but basically 'loneliness'. When there are so few its hard for them for their special events an cultural things, eg, in whole island of Ireland, (population, 5.1 million + 1.9 million = 7 mil) there only 800 Jews, but some will say there are up to 2400. They have to get a Rabbi over from Scotland, their special foods have to be specially imported. And its much the same for Muslims  

[fredk]

2 minutes ago, SUP said:

. . .

After all, it is not routine in the West to have maids in middle-class and lower middle-class neighborhoods like it is in India, so they have no idea how routine it is for us.

It was normal in the UK until at least the mid-1960s. Then it petered out until there was just 'a woman who does'* - a semi-maid who called in on a daily basis, then it became weekly, to tidy up and do a bit of shopping

* that was she was called; When asked the employer would say ' I have a woman who does' and the woman when asked would say, 'oh, I do for Mrs xx and Mrs yy' Such are foibles of British society

We (then my ex-) had a 'woman who does' up to 2017

[SUP]

I can imagine, especially when people are very connected to their own communities. When we first came to the US, except in the largest cities on the coasts, everywhere else, it was difficult to get anything at all.  In some places, we were the only non-whites. Many thought that non-white meant  Hispanic and I had to explain that that is not so. Most people were surprisingly friendly and welcoming but others were hmmm. My family is luckily very adaptable and had no trouble but I know of many who were very unhappy. Especially when people treated us like the denizens of a zoo  - I once had a white woman tell me that I and my Irani acquaintance reminded her of a 'colorful flock of birds'. Very condescending.  So yes, we have to put up with a lot. I suspect people always have, through the centuries, whenever they have migrated. I was timid at first... now, as I think is evident, I'm not.