who is the biggest prole on lix

you all = pwnz0r3d!!!1

I don't know why, it just struck me somehow, how tough yet simple and wonderful a life it was--like when you're little you might think about being a soldier or a fireman someday, and he did that, and built houses and cars too! Also he helps keep things in perspective for me; he lived through the depression and WWII and Vietnam and the cold war. He's very quiet, I wish he would tell more stories. He surprised me a while back, suddenly grumbling about how it broke his heart to see the US sending kids off to war again. He absolutely lives at the American Legion building, although a lot of his contemporaries have passed and it is more the Korea and Vietnam vets who are there now.

I'm pretty proud of this sort of working-class background, and also sad that this sort of dignified working-class life is fading away. That's change, though.

Dad's parents were *common people*. My mum's parents were okay. Her mother thinks she's a reincarnated (?) countess - I kid you not. It's hilarious... in a way. My parents run a shop. We're not exactly swimming in money but are doing fine. :-)

thanks pete, i wasn't even going to bother replying to that crazy idea. well put.

The lack of kids was the shadow that loomed over The Good Life.

It's change for the better surely? Working-class dignity in the face of poverty is obviously something to be proud of, but at the same time something to be angry about, ie angry that such reserves were called upon.

i'm still not much of a prole, but i can pass

No, the point was that they weren't poor. (Poor was my other grandfather, who was too drunk to hold down a job.) My mom's family weren't totally comfortable all the time, but a union factory job allowed you to keep your kids in food and clothes at least, and you didn't have to worry about retirement.

was it ever established jerry and margot didn't peel back their heads when no one was looking to free their real hermaphrodite, alien selves, then go out and implant their extraterrestial eggs in tom and barbara's pigs? no, but it's an unlikely plot twist.

well the school they've been working at will be closed this autumn, eventually :(

my pathetic life-story answer just deleted itself

but that's all the likes of me deserve

http://www.saint-dennis.org/history/images/mcmullen.jpg

a tale from his life:

"...the next phase of their journey was undertaken on John McMullen's behalf. Needing a baptismal certificate the boys moved to Ballynahich http://www.storyfest.com/ire.ballynahinch.html McMullen's birthplace. While being too young to remember anyone when he left, many townsfolk flocked around John reminiscing about the times before his family uprooted.

The return to Dublin following their success at Ballynahich included a final briefing with Archbishop Cullen. More letters of introduction, one to Cardinal Fransoni, another to the rector of the Irish College, Doctor Kirby, were dispensed. The final blessing was given. James McGovern and John McMullen were on their way to the ancient city of Rome.

While traversing England, with nothing out of the ordinary occurring, the voyagers were about to experience a potentially disastrous event. Leaving towards Europe from Dover, the young acolytes arrived at Calais to find a dragnet in place by the port authorities. Their passports were viewed with the utmost scrutiny. As the authorities conferred it was decided to remove James and John to another room for further interrogation. John was extremely nervous by these developments. Prior to leaving Chicago his older brother had presented a loaded double-barreled pistol to him. It had been stowed within John's baggage during the transatlantic excursion, but before leaving Dublin John removed it from its resting-place and stuffed it in his jacket.

Inevitably, the French authorities discovered the pistol upon searching the young men. They were immediately placed into custody. Since no common language could be established between the English-speaking Americans and the French officers a call was sent out for a Latin-speaking French priest to mediate the predicament.

With the help of the priest the detainees were allowed to leave, minus the 'McMullen Special'. The reason for their detention rattled the young men as they set off for Paris. Apparently the French police had received word from their counterparts in London of a conspiracy to assassinate the French ruler, Napoleon III. The word was spread through the ports to be on the lookout for a young man and a boy traveling from England and believed to be involved in the intrigue..."

also:

October 1871

In October 1871, Holy Name and St. Mary’s are destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. Holy Name Pastor and Rector, Fr. John McMullen, finds all the parish buildings in flames upon his return to the campus from elsewhere in the city. He retrieves the Blessed Sacrament; all else is lost. Later that month, he visits New York and New England, seeking donations to help rebuild Holy Name and give relief to Chicago’s fire victims.
1871-74 Chicago Bishop Thomas Foley and Fr. McMullen criss-cross the country, raising funds for the reconstruction of churches, schools, hospitals and orphanages. Holy Name parishioners worship in a makeshift "shanty Cathedral," a boarded-up, burned-out house on Cass Street (now Wabash Avenue).

My other grandfather was the only son of the founder of the northernmost hospital in Minnesota, a doctor who was what used to be called 'lace-curtain Irish'. He didn't really discuss his family much and I think fell out with them after university.

Despite some of my advantages, when I was a kid we were totally shit-poor most of the time. I remember being instructed not to answer the door in case it was a process server with forclosure papers, and the blocks of Reagan cheese and food stamps my mother qualified for when she got too sick to work. A lot of kids from the first wave of divorcing parents might have similar stories to mine.

"I know I aint common.. I gots class I aint never even used yet."