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Where Johnny Cash came from

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Re: Where Johnny Cash came from

#81

Post by mynameisnoone »

Merry holidays, HN:

JC's story reminds me a bit of my late grandfather. GF was a hustler, social, progressive, and had a heavy Texarkana accent. He grew up in the Dustbowl era and didn't have money or enough to eat. Then WW2 came around and it was a hard fought and interesting time for him. He was his CO's bookie and his company's loanshark. Post-WW2 was a bit difficult but there was continuity and security of remaining a professional soldier as an NCO. Rarely spent money on themselves, but moderately generous with friends and family. Never financially-insecure and had triple retirements. I have their pristine Telefunken radio console they had in Germany which held several Johnny Cash albums (vinyl). They're not in VG shape, but they're playable. In closing, one thing I think JC and GF shared is they smiled a bit smugly, defiantly, and warmly, something the world can never fade or take away and something that emanates from within.

Re: Where Johnny Cash came from

#82

Post by chrisco255 »

bsder wrote: post #55
chrisco255 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The window where labor unions made mill, mine, and factory jobs something livable was quite short--1960 to 1980, roughly. I'm sorry, what? What do you think 2023 mills, mines, and factories look like in the United States? Here's a tour of a wheat mill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYP6AnNQjNo Here's a modern coal mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwo3slH1wsk And here's a modern factory: https://www.youtube.c…

However, those quite a bit better places only employ a small fraction of the number of people of yore and require quite a bit more education thanks to automation. For example: the Natrona Heights steel mill now employs roughly 100 people on a shift vs when it employed somewhere between 5000-10000 on a shift. Automation killed a ton of employment. Those are the kind of jobs I am talking about. Don't get me wrong. I do…

Ok, OP's argument was about workplace conditions, not low employment numbers, and they claimed that conditions stopped being good around 1980 with no evidence to back it up. We are at less than 4% unemployment so it's a very good thing we don't need 100x more workers to do things the way we did them 100 years ago.

I will say, I'm a 100% knowledge worker, and work from a laptop, but hard labor is good for you (within reason). We have all sorts of illnesses and obesity in modern society because our bodies were built for stamina that we no longer make use of.

Re: Where Johnny Cash came from

#83

Post by lock-the-spock »

ekianjo wrote: post #44
hereonout2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, sounds different and would certainly instill a certain work ethic. I'm similar age and have been in paid employment since the age of 13, a lot of different things through farming, manufacturing, retail and catering before I started in tech. I was always grateful for the work ethic but also important was the experience of being the most lowly employee being made to do the grunt work. I think that gave me the c…

> And in all honesty, don't really think those opportunities would be there for them now anyway. Modern governments actively endure that working before 18 is like chilf exploitation or something which is ridiculous as you learn much more by doing than by watching videos or reading books

I'm quite astonished to see people promoting intense child labour. No government in the world completely prohibits light child labour (in the household/farm, and from usually around 14 also light work outside as long as it doesn't affect school hours). Anything beyond this can and will affect them negatively as established by pretty much all research out there. You seem to have luckily made it through that, but many kids never recover from intense childhood labour.

> All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, > All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.

Re: Where Johnny Cash came from

#84

Post by graphe »

ninjin wrote: post #73
shove wrote: post #56

Prior to reading this, my only insight into Cash’s upbringing had been the recording from Folsom Prison in which the warden does a cringe-inducing introduction of Ray Cash, Johnny’s father.

As you mentioned Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, it is hands down the best live album I have ever listened to. Why? Because the recording captures Cash, the audience, and everyone else there in such a way that you can feel what a truly extraordinary set of circumstances that took place that day and Cash's personality is right there in the recording. Highly, highly recommended, even if you are not into his music in gene…

This is a good explaination of why I like certain live performances better. It feels more alive with the crowd and it's less sterile.

Re: Where Johnny Cash came from

#86

Post by hereonout2 »

ekianjo wrote: post #44
hereonout2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, sounds different and would certainly instill a certain work ethic. I'm similar age and have been in paid employment since the age of 13, a lot of different things through farming, manufacturing, retail and catering before I started in tech. I was always grateful for the work ethic but also important was the experience of being the most lowly employee being made to do the grunt work. I think that gave me the c…

> And in all honesty, don't really think those opportunities would be there for them now anyway. Modern governments actively endure that working before 18 is like chilf exploitation or something which is ridiculous as you learn much more by doing than by watching videos or reading books

That's not quite true. The EU, US, UK, Japan all have legal minimum ages for employment ranging from 13-15.

I don't think the laws have changed that much from when I was young.

There's more focus on remaining in education sure (which is generally a good idea but often poorly implemented) but I think there's wider societal explanations as to why you see far fewer kids working outside school hours than you once did.

Re: Where Johnny Cash came from

#87

Post by KeplerBoy »

lotsOstuf wrote: post #7
User23 wrote: post #3

I highly recommend his autobiography. It gives some detail on his time growing up picking cotton, among many other interesting anecdotes.

Just seconding this as it was one of the most compelling biographical books I’ve ever read. I binged it during a holiday shopping trip to the mall 20-ish years ago. Couldn’t put it down, just followed along with the group as they went from store to store with my face in a book. We sure don’t live life like that anymore.

Nice story.

Sometimes one has to miss the days of physical books instead of constant screens.

Re: Where Johnny Cash came from

#88

Post by Bayart »

ninjin wrote: post #73
shove wrote: post #56

Prior to reading this, my only insight into Cash’s upbringing had been the recording from Folsom Prison in which the warden does a cringe-inducing introduction of Ray Cash, Johnny’s father.

As you mentioned Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, it is hands down the best live album I have ever listened to. Why? Because the recording captures Cash, the audience, and everyone else there in such a way that you can feel what a truly extraordinary set of circumstances that took place that day and Cash's personality is right there in the recording. Highly, highly recommended, even if you are not into his music in gene…

In the same vein, I recommend BB King's concert at Sing Sing [1], although that's only been partially captured.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v4GV5dxOkI

Re: Where Johnny Cash came from

#89

Post by [deleted] »

jmspring wrote: post #57
acjohnson55 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's any evidence to indicate that the generations who worked through childhood are any better on average. There are folks who turned that into habits that unlocked productivity and happiness in life. There are others who just got exploited. To me, what's important is building the intuition for the connection between practice and achievement, which is a subtly different thing. It's not hard work for…

I disagree to a point. We see millenials/Gen-Z expecting promotions and large salaries for little to no work history and at most normal productivity. There is definitely a connection missed between effort and reward.

[deleted]

Re: Where Johnny Cash came from

#90

Post by acjohnson55 »

jmspring wrote: post #57
acjohnson55 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's any evidence to indicate that the generations who worked through childhood are any better on average. There are folks who turned that into habits that unlocked productivity and happiness in life. There are others who just got exploited. To me, what's important is building the intuition for the connection between practice and achievement, which is a subtly different thing. It's not hard work for…

I disagree to a point. We see millenials/Gen-Z expecting promotions and large salaries for little to no work history and at most normal productivity. There is definitely a connection missed between effort and reward.

That's simply because the labor market in some industries allowed for this to be commonplace as many millennials hit mid-career in the 2010s. People expect what's empirically common for them. There's nothing right or wrong about that.

If the current economy persists, people will have to adopt new expectations, eventually. Many people already have, as they experience a much tougher time finding new jobs.

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