people from other planets
Jan. 24th, 2009 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaI don't know W*ill Sh*tt*rly from a hole in the ground, and have no interest in bringing out the rabid fandom hordes to my non-fandom LJ, but I just gotta say.
(The following is quoting a post of his at his blog; see coffeeandink's LJ for a link and context):
"a) My "class", no matter what you mean by the term, changed enormously when my grandfather's money became available to me in my mid-teens, and changed again when it was gone. The newspaper article here explains my father's class background as well or better than I could.
b) People who see the world primarily in terms of skin color or gender may not realize that class can change. So they may have been confused by noticing that I've lived more than one lifestyle, and concluded that I must lie."
CLASS DOES NOT CHANGE LIKE THAT. His family's income changed, and/or his access to financial resources changed. (The newspaper article he references talks a lot of about his father's political activism and some about how he earns his living, but does not mention his upbringing, whether or not he attended college, etc. I see nothing in the newspaper article that references his father's class background - did I miss it? Edit: I re-read; his father is described as a "self-educated high-school dropout." Now, that could mean a lot of things - were his parents sharecroppers, or was he the rebellious child of priviledge? Note also he is described as a "businessman" operating a theme park, restaurant, and gas station. He has the resources to send his children across the country when they are threatened at school. End edit.)
S. may have lived in poverty and as a social outcast in his narrow-minded community as a child, but he came from people who had heard of Choate, and inherited the money to send him there. That alone means he was upper-middle class. His parents, had they chosen to do so, could probably have lived a much different life (i.e. one of suburban middle-class comfort) from the one they chose. I've been richer or poorer in my life, though I've never been destitute or hungry. I have always been the child and grandchild of upper middle class people, which fact alone means I know how to behave in polite society (though it took a little time to get used to the Actual Rich when I attended Choate, in the late 1980s), it was always assumed I could and would attend college, and it was always assumed I could be almost anything I wanted to. It sounds like S.'s class background is not actually much different from mine, although our life experiences are vastly different.
(The following is quoting a post of his at his blog; see coffeeandink's LJ for a link and context):
"a) My "class", no matter what you mean by the term, changed enormously when my grandfather's money became available to me in my mid-teens, and changed again when it was gone. The newspaper article here explains my father's class background as well or better than I could.
b) People who see the world primarily in terms of skin color or gender may not realize that class can change. So they may have been confused by noticing that I've lived more than one lifestyle, and concluded that I must lie."
CLASS DOES NOT CHANGE LIKE THAT. His family's income changed, and/or his access to financial resources changed. (The newspaper article he references talks a lot of about his father's political activism and some about how he earns his living, but does not mention his upbringing, whether or not he attended college, etc. I see nothing in the newspaper article that references his father's class background - did I miss it? Edit: I re-read; his father is described as a "self-educated high-school dropout." Now, that could mean a lot of things - were his parents sharecroppers, or was he the rebellious child of priviledge? Note also he is described as a "businessman" operating a theme park, restaurant, and gas station. He has the resources to send his children across the country when they are threatened at school. End edit.)
S. may have lived in poverty and as a social outcast in his narrow-minded community as a child, but he came from people who had heard of Choate, and inherited the money to send him there. That alone means he was upper-middle class. His parents, had they chosen to do so, could probably have lived a much different life (i.e. one of suburban middle-class comfort) from the one they chose. I've been richer or poorer in my life, though I've never been destitute or hungry. I have always been the child and grandchild of upper middle class people, which fact alone means I know how to behave in polite society (though it took a little time to get used to the Actual Rich when I attended Choate, in the late 1980s), it was always assumed I could and would attend college, and it was always assumed I could be almost anything I wanted to. It sounds like S.'s class background is not actually much different from mine, although our life experiences are vastly different.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-07 12:09 am (UTC)When word was out that the Klan would burn down our little roadside attraction, Dad and Mom drove us to Minnesota in a station wagon. Whenever we made trips with Dad in summer time, we would park by the side of the road and sleep in back of the station wagon, but this would've been in the winter and I think Mom came along, so I'm sure we either stopped at a couple of cheap motels, or Mom and Dad took turns driving all the way there. (I don't know why I remember the trip back, but not the trip there.)
My mother's father, a small town druggist, invested in Polaris, a snowmobile maker that did well, but my family didn't see any of that while I was young because Dad believed Mom's parents looked down on him and his pride would not let him accept their money. When I was in eighth grade, Grandpa offered to send me to a private school, Dad went to the library to research what was available and came back with a few possibilities. He wanted me to apply to Choate because John F. Kennedy went there.
As for Dog Land, it was a little roadside attraction consisting of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, a gift shop, and a hundred dogs on display, almost all donated by breeders. Not exactly a theme park. The "gas station" was a pump by the gift shop.