Guideposts on the Rocky Highway of Life – 2-24-2012
“The screwing you’re getting is not worth the the screwing you’re getting.” – High school Centralville boys sharing their insights about girls and sex.
“Remember, Sarah. Everyday, you must take another little bite of that shit sandwich.” – Advice from brother Bob to his niece, Sarah Thurston
“When my ship comes in.” – Mom and her friends would laugh about life’s becoming easier and even good after a great piece of good luck came to them unexpectedly.
“It’s a dog-eat-dog world.” – Welcome to Lowell
“Shoveling shit against the tide.” – A reflection from the steaming bowels of Lowell, Massachusetts
“It’s not worth a piss hole in the snow.” – Teenager insight
“Eat shit and die.” – Ricardo’s message from a poor Mexican locale.
“Manges de la marde (merde).” – A favorite French-Canadian expression.
“Fou comme un balai.” – Dad and Mom might say.
“Do you like peaches? Kiss my ass, it’s a peach!” – Dad in a moment of happiness.
“It’s tough on Tarzan’s feet in the Valley of Broken Glass”. – Me, at seventeen
“Go shit into your crash helmet and pull it tightly over your ears.” – A Sandia Labs technician, years ago, told me about this all-purpose response he liked to use when some asshole disagreed with him on an important issue or question. It might be the best answer to them all, but he never told me how others responded to him when he used it on them.
“Don’t bury me in the lone prairie.
Don’t bury me beneath the cherry tree.
Don’t bury me in the flower bed.
Don’t bury me, because I am not dead.” – A funny tune from the 1950s.
A reflection on success in life: “Cream floats to the surface.”
Anther reflection on success in life: “Shit floats to the surface of a cesspool.”
“Shit rolls downhill.” – Sandia Labs technicians reflecting on fact that upper management sends all the shitty jobs that need solutions down the management chain to the bottom of the barrel.
“Life is a gurgling, overflowing, fucking cesspool of piss, vomit, bile, shit, blood and gooey entrails bubbling with warmth and anticipation.” – Paul, after many life experiences ~ 2012
“Beulah, the boil sucker, sucks boils, carbuncles and cysts for a living. It really sucks, but it’s a job and it pays the bills.” – A Saturday morning, Ludlam Street observation in ~ 1957 regarding the career choices that people make and the long-term consequences of such a decision made so early in life. The question remains: Is Beulah any better off than many of her brothers and sisters living deep in desperate, hopeless situations found Lowell’s mills and rat holes? Who enjoys a brighter future? She or her mill rat relatives?