07-07-2026, 05:53 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-07-2026, 06:29 PM by HereOnThePrimalEdge.)
Kids on KP duty
Boomer here. I mowed the lawn since I was 9 years old. Raked a full yard of leaves in the fall for a shiny Kennedy 1/2 dollar. Had a paper route. Collected used newspaper and sold it for pennies a pound. Grew gourds and sold each bushel basket full for $1.00.
I walked a mile to school, yes in the snow.
Grew up with the adage “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” As well as another saying in that era, generally used by the big kids who may have been held back a grade, “give me your lunch money.” This was because school lunches were not a free lunch, there was no such thing, which created an innovative entrepreneurial spirit among the smaller students who received A and B grades on their report cards. They wanted to buy their lunch and needed their lunch so formulated work arounds. Like “decoy” brown paper lunch bags so the big bullies would think they brought lunch, wouldn’t buy lunch, and therefore had no change. Or organizing a playground group defense that outnumbered the bullies, with a side benefit that included discussion of the previous night’s Twilight Zone. Then there was the athletic approach, always staying 2 steps ahead.
Great companies from the ‘80’s onward were helmed by CEOs who had started life with a paper route and who learned to navigate lunch money obstacles so they never went hungry. Unless later in life while creating personal computers, internet businesses, the Palm Pilot, DiscMan, cell phones, or tackling one insurmountable problem after another they simply forgot to eat.
Where does that leave subsequent generations, who have benefited from these boomer struggles and innovations? With million dollar proposals to create a free lunch rather than throw away perfectly good food? Is it really a waste of money to provide our children with food? Maybe we could divert the billions of dollars blowing up children in other countries to the fund? The billions and billions that Hawaii taxpayers paid part of and which accomplished nothing, other than loss on all sides.
If we’re going to throw money away, maybe we could use some to stop throwing away food?
Boomer here. I mowed the lawn since I was 9 years old. Raked a full yard of leaves in the fall for a shiny Kennedy 1/2 dollar. Had a paper route. Collected used newspaper and sold it for pennies a pound. Grew gourds and sold each bushel basket full for $1.00.
I walked a mile to school, yes in the snow.
Grew up with the adage “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” As well as another saying in that era, generally used by the big kids who may have been held back a grade, “give me your lunch money.” This was because school lunches were not a free lunch, there was no such thing, which created an innovative entrepreneurial spirit among the smaller students who received A and B grades on their report cards. They wanted to buy their lunch and needed their lunch so formulated work arounds. Like “decoy” brown paper lunch bags so the big bullies would think they brought lunch, wouldn’t buy lunch, and therefore had no change. Or organizing a playground group defense that outnumbered the bullies, with a side benefit that included discussion of the previous night’s Twilight Zone. Then there was the athletic approach, always staying 2 steps ahead.
Great companies from the ‘80’s onward were helmed by CEOs who had started life with a paper route and who learned to navigate lunch money obstacles so they never went hungry. Unless later in life while creating personal computers, internet businesses, the Palm Pilot, DiscMan, cell phones, or tackling one insurmountable problem after another they simply forgot to eat.
Where does that leave subsequent generations, who have benefited from these boomer struggles and innovations? With million dollar proposals to create a free lunch rather than throw away perfectly good food? Is it really a waste of money to provide our children with food? Maybe we could divert the billions of dollars blowing up children in other countries to the fund? The billions and billions that Hawaii taxpayers paid part of and which accomplished nothing, other than loss on all sides.
If we’re going to throw money away, maybe we could use some to stop throwing away food?
