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Whirled Views 5.8
Morning!
Today’s quote is from a movie: “If you can’t sing good, sing loud.”
Topic: Watercooler Chatter, WorldMagBlog
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back to top44 Comments to “Whirled Views 5.8”
A special thank you to all who conversed about painful mother experiences yesterday. Your comments were gracious and helpful. It was especially comforting to know that others bear the same burden. To end on a happy note, I praise God that he made it up to me by giving me the best husband a woman could dream of, two wonderful sons who adore me, and a dil with whom I am very close and for whom I got to be the mother she always wished for and never had. Blessings, and HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY to all.
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“Blue collar workers”
What impression does this give you?
From what I’ve read & heard in the various media, the impression you should get is a man, probably with a beer belly, who bowls well but isn’t necessarily too bright. A “blue collar worker”, the thought seems to be, doesn’t take the time to read in any depth about the various issues facing our nation.
At least that’s the impression I get from all I’ve read & heard, from the “tone” of the media concerning them.
I suppose some do fall into the stereotype, but I know many (my hubby included), who do read & do think things through. Whether or not Hillary can throw back shots or Obama can bowl well has nothing to do with their choices.
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My Dad was a blue collar worker all his life and I would put his intellect up against any of these media bozos on his worse day.
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Karen, thanks for your words of wisdom and support. I haven’t attended and ACOA meeting in over 15 yrs. I just didn’t fit. I was too young to relate. I very rarely indentify myself that way unless it has something to do with parenting. I have read some wonderful books that have helped me immensely. I just don’t want anyone to feel guilt because their relationship with their mother wasn’t a Hallmark Moment. I am doing everything I can to be the best mother Chloe could ever have.
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Mommy,
I too have been blest with a wonderful family. My husbands parents have been a real blessing to me. I do not even like to introduce them as my in-laws because of the negative connotation it may give.
We come from dysfuction, but with the help of God, we are able to stop the cycle and start healthy families. The future starts with us. The past can be used as an excuse or it can be used to learn from and make a better life for those we hold dear in our hearts.
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Karen O,
Right on, we have a very good friend, Filipe, who is an auto mechanic. He is very keen politically (Hillary should have had him on staff–she’d have done better) and he in poetry is one of the most well read men I know.
But he is not a “White” blue collar worker. He is half Italian and half French, but by way of Argentina so his Spanish accent apparently makes him “Hispanic.”
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Karen O,
I’ve seen two definitions of blue-collar: one is someone without a college degree (lots of flaws and exceptions to that one–I can think of a few blue-collar millionaires using that definition), and someone who works at an unskilled job.
I think it’d be pretty dangerous to extrapolate assumptions about knowledge, intelligence, experience, etc. based on one’s socioeconomic label. That’s obviously not what you’re doing, but I see it in every election cycle.
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It’s a very simple, probably over-simple, distinction but I think of white-collar as people whose jobs are primarily about information and data, and blue-collar as people whose jobs are mostly about handiwork.
That definition doesn’t factor in education … my father was white-collar computer programmer with only a high school education (he learned programming in the military and got into the field in the days when a college degree wasn’t required) and while I’ve not known any college-educated plumbers or construction workers, I’m sure there are some.
This is obviously an imperfect approximation, but it works for me.
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#8 …and while I’ve not known any college-educated plumbers or construction workers, I’m sure there are some.
Yes, there are quite a few. Many of them are hiding in out-of-the-way places because they can’t pay the college loans they got for useless degrees in stuff like philosophy.
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Oh, yeah the quote. I think it might be from “Forrest Gump”.
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I think SteveG nailed it, white collar is about info and blue collar is hands-on. Time spent in school doesn’t factor into it [didn't Bill Gates drop out of college?] The MSM tends to speak of blue collar workers with a somewhat disdainful tone because they’re white collar and think people who work with their hands aren’t capable of doing anything else, so they need to educate them.
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is it ELF?
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Kayvee nails it. I’ve known quite a few blue collar workers that could educate those white collars…
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Kim – It’s kinda scary to me how many women I know have had bad relationships with their mothers. God has used my own struggles with my mom to teach & encourage me to build a solid relationship with my own daughters (being mother first, friend second), & to learn from my mom’s mistakes.
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A guy in the research department at work once referred to a freind as too white collar for the production department. When I reminded him that most of us went to college he started calling us open collar.
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Green collar is going to be the job of the future I think. That would be jobs in renewable energy and technology. It will be the people both designing and physically installing things like windmills, solar panels, and “greening” office buildings and other businesses.
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The big problem today is that even the so-called blue collar jobs in the states require a lot more intense training in a narrow tech field than are most Americans capable of doing.
Gold collar was coined a few years back for those whose tech jobs hadnt been outsourced, off-shored etc.
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Eddie Arnold.. R.I.P.
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This talk of collars reminds me. A doctor’s office catering to upper-class women is sometimes called a “silk panty practice.”
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In 1955, Eddie Arnold wrote, (with Cindy Walker) what I consider to be one of the best love songs of all time – “You Don’t Know Me”.
Covered by hundreds of artists, Ray Charles (’62) did the definitive version.
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Stubob,
That is quite a picture–but almost TMI!
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White collar workers are managers and blue collar workers are not managers. White collar managers make salaries andBlue collare workers are paid some other way – not necessarily by the hour. White collar managers tell blue collar workers what to do and how to do it. It has nothing to do with education since many white collar workers do not have a college education.
Oddly, most white collar workers were at one time blue collar workers just like most of the rich were once poor. Some people tried management and it wasn’t for them and they are completely happy to be blue collar workers again. Some white collar workers hate being in management but they stay there anyway because it pays more money. Many blue collare workers would make great managers and do so while others, who would, do not. There are all kinds of folks in both categories – some good, some bad.
It is best not to read anything else into it. Media types, politicians and others who are ideologues with agendas, will try to convince you with their propaganda) that white or blue collar workers are good or bad in some way. But, they are just swilling slop to piggies so, like always, pay them no attention.
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Sawgunner!
I was shocked to hear from you that Eddy Arnold has died. So, I googled it. He was 89. Almost nobody here will remember Eddy Arnold, but he and Hank Williams dominated the country music charts in the late fortys and early fifties.
Eddy Stubbs, in introducing a song, once said, “Lets flip his number one hit “Anytime”, over and play the backside. Actually, it charted too, rising to number four on the charts, “I Couldn’t Believe It Was True.”
Everything he did charted.
They’re talking about him on the news now. Said he took country music to the masses.
That was back when the music was music. Now it’s the show.
Someone once said that Eddy Arnold owned half of Tennessee. Roy Acuff owned the other half.
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We were wondering the other day but I believe that Star Jones has it right when she commented today about Barbra Wawa’s new book by saying -
“It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character,” Jones told Us Weekly magazine.
More pointedly, it speaks to the lack of her good character attributes as well.
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If you’re curious, you can hear Eddy Arnold on http://www.youtube.com
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If you listen to any Eddy Arnold, Chuck Wagon Gang, Anita Carter, etc. you have to remember that they were using carbon mikes. Remember the input source is not optimal.
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Chas,
Even fewer people remember Arnold’s TV Show. Wish I wasn’t one of them
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Chas,
Just don’t tell me Tom Arnold is his son
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StuBob,
A friend of mine is an internist with a practice in Phoenix. He only works Tuesday – Thursday and in the winter time, six months a year for him, taking Friday and Monday off while still makes a ton of money working less than 30 hours a week for half the year.
I asked him how he managed such an easy living for 6 months and he said there were two reasons. Half of his clients were only in Phoenix during the winter because they were snow birds which made sense but he still claimed that he earned every penny of his good living for then another reason.
He said his practice, winter and the rest of the year, is made up almost entirely if crazy women who think they are sick with something horrible that they really are not afflicted with and do not have in the least. He claims that putting up with them and having to prove them wrong is worth more money than he makes but without these hypocondriacts he would be out of business almost entirely. he says his livelihood is based almost entirely on crazy women.
I never liked the guy, thought he was sexist and fibbing fibbing but your post made me wonder if he wasn’t telling the truth.
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White collar, blue collar. I suppose Victoria and her gang are pink collar?
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Now we’ve been branded a ‘gang’.
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Cute Joke
A 5th grader asked her mother the age-old question, “How did I get here?”
Her mother told her, “God sent you.”
“Did God send you, too?” asked the child
“Yes, Dear,” the mother replied.
“What about Grandma and Grandpa?” the child persisted.
“He sent them also,” the mother said.
“Did he send their parents, too?” asked the child.
“Yes, Dear, He did,” said the mother patiently.
“So you’re telling me that there has been NO SEX in this family for OVER 200 years? No wonder everyone’s so grouchy around here all the time.”
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Is nitrobob related to stubob & tombob?
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Hurrah! Today’s my birthday!
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Llama — I’m guessing you knew this guy a while back. Nowadays, all of those old ladies would have Medicare, and your friend wouldn’t be able to make a living if he gave the crazy ones the time they deserved/demanded.
Your assessment of him (sexist, blowhard, possibly fibbing) sounds about right. “Silk panty practice” is a term of envy, mostly — spoken by those of us for whom it would be an improvement to have a “clean panty practice.”
Mommy — I’ve never met NitroBob. But when TomBob was little, he did cause a certain amount of destruction…
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Stubob you need a better clientele. One of my first jobs was at a bank. One of the women was pregnant. She used to bring a clean white wash cloth in a ziploc bag to work with her so she could freshen up before each one of her OB appointments and I think she may have even changed her panties. I, never having had a mother explain these things to me, thought she must know what she was doing…
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Kimberly!
Congratulations.
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SteveG writes: “It’s a very simple, probably over-simple, distinction but I think of white-collar as people whose jobs are primarily about information and data, and blue-collar as people whose jobs are mostly about handiwork.”
Handiwork? You think a construction worker building a skyscraper does “handiwork?” How condescending.
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KIM:Stubob you need a better clientele.
Boy, that’s the truth!
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NJLawyer … siiigh. Is it possible for me to say anything you won’t find a way to take offense to?
I was making the distinction between work that includes a significant amount of physical skill and work that is primarily about sitting at a desk.
There was nothing condescending about it at all. Good grief.
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SteveG-
I agree with your distinctions between BC and WC. And considering the tone of other comments we could say That NJL has her “undies in a bunch over nothin’!” Please Forgive me NJL!
Yesterday they had an “Employee Appreciation Day” at the insitution where I work. All employees were supposed to go to the administration building and tour trade booths, visit with the mucky-mucks, have great conversation about our jobs, hear great appreciative things about ourselves and have a dinner of fried chicken, polish dogs, salad and a big Appreciation Cake.
Before noon when we were to be there, I had artificially inseminated 3 cows, assisted in the birth of two calves, given intervenous treatments to a very sick cow, given oral treatments to sick calves, and was on the receiving end of a cow with severe digestive problems. I was actually covered with blood, afterbirth and manure and smelled the part.
If I would have gone in to have lunch with the White Collars they would have lost their chicken, polish dogs and Appreciation Cake with the first whiff.
I got a call this morning and was informed that I won a door prize and should stop and pick it up at the HR Office. I will go and get it on my day off when I can be more presentable.
That is the difference between White Collar and Blue Collar. I often have red collar and green collar but it all comes out in the wash. We all have vocations that serve a purpose in our lives and in the lives of others and we need to be thankful for all.
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Stubob,
My occupation is similar to yours without the silk panties!! Or even clean panties! SCEPTER BONNK!! OW!! STOP!!
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My impression is that the distinction between blue collar and white collar used to be much clearer, prior to the technology that has changed both office and factory so dramatically in the past fifty years or so. White collar workers had education and had desk jobs. They could wear white shirts because their work didn’t get them dirty. Blue collar workers had less education and were either skilled or unskilled labor, and generally got their clothes dirty. Today factory workers are using computers and often require specialized skills that most office workers don’t have.
Growing up, I had never heard of the terms blue collar and white collar, but when I did learn about them I realized that my parents’ friends the Smiths were a blue collar family. (My father was white collar, an actuary.) The Smiths all wore jeans, which none of us did. They drank beer. (My father occasionally drank wine.) Their grammar wasn’t as good as ours, and they were more likely to use coarse language. They didn’t have books lying around the house.
As I said, today it’s different. My co-workers in the IT department wear jeans, drink beer, and make grammatical mistakes that surprise me, since they all have college degrees.
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