Nugget - have some humility and know when enough is enough

 


At 16 I wanted a motorbike but mum could not afford to buy me one.

After much begging and promising I would pay for it,  she agreed to co-sign a bank loan and I became the proud owner of a Kawasaki KR50 sports bike.

She  told me to go get a job to pay for it. I figured I might as well get a few jobs if I could as I had plenty of energy.

I worked 5 nights a week in a wholesale pharmaceutical distributor. I was a 16 year old boy amongst about 12 25-40 year old ladies workng the nightshift and also responsible for locking up. Talk about sending a sheep into a den of wolves. Sexual harrassment was not a thing back then and poor innocent teenage me was groped, cuddled, teased and generally treated as a man-god on the evening shift. And I got paid a good wage.

Then I worked weekends at a carnival running the rides.  This was a totally different crown of young men and groupies with their own code of conduct. From waxing the slide first thing in the morning to running the superloop and searching for wallets and sunglasses that people dropped while being spun upside down, payment was in a little brown envelope and always cash and the bosses were mean and tough, meaning you did what you were told and did not mess with them. On the bright side, customers loved us giving them a little extra on the rides and there were teenage girl groupies all chasing the carnival workers.

Later I somehow managed to add a part time 10 hours per week job merchandising putting frozen foods on shelves in the local supermarket. This is where I met Taffy, who taught me something valuable. Taffy worked, earned his weekly money, paid his bills, had one or two nights out a week, looked after his family and repeat. He wasn't ambitious. He was working class and proud of it. He was happy with his life and his family. He wasn't chasing promotions or trying to be better than he was. 

Taffy taught me to be humble and be happy with just enough.  A working class man through and through he embodied the different between the classes. He had a good job, a great family and good friends and was very happy go lucky. He was not chasing anything, not trying to be better, not even trying to be richer. And he was happier for it.



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