Just curious, any of you raised in a blue collar family that now work in a white collar job? I was raised on a ranch, with a cop dad and nurse mom. Sometimes I wish I had a blue collar "honest" job but it could just me getting old and wishing for the "good old days". Where I grew up a new pickup truck was the status symbol of choice and you wore your "clean" cowboy hat to church. Sometimes I just miss that way of life...
I understand...I've been working on a volunteer project in my hometown, only one county from here but what seems like lightyears away. If nothing else, it has made me aware of and very grateful for my life as it is.
I came from a lower income blue collar family. I am now a national service director. My brothers and sisters are a mixed bag.
I have seven generations of military in my family, and my little brother is the only male who didn't go that route. After Viet Nam, my father became a house painter/handyman and my mother worked in the local school kitchen. They both come from a long line of low income blue collar people from the mid west and San Francisco. I was the first in my family to go to college. My little brother is transferring to San Jose State University in about a week and he will eventually be going after his PhD. in Physical Therapy with an emphasis in sports rehabilitation.
My dad was and still is a contractor. My mom was a waitress, lanscaper, construction worker, and various other odd jobs. I am a chemist (crime lab analyst) in a state forensic laboratory.
My dad was a bus driver, fireman, policeman, cook. My mom was a housewife. I am in the upper middle class (as defined by income). I was the first to complete college in my family. My youngest sister (with a Teacher's College MA) married well, and my middle sister is an Xray tech, living on the edge of lower middle class.
I'm a happy little grubby aircraft technician. But....but.....I do fly for free and have seen alot of neat places. Even flying in first class and staying in fancy hotels.
Sorry, not white collar now but probably have white collar pay, upper middle class income. I don't believe anyone in my family is a blue collar worker. All have always seemed to work in offices. One bro is a CEO of a railroad company. One bro is a professional bumb. I don't put him in white collar nor blue collar. He's no collar.
My Father was a truck driver and my Mom a house-wife and later a Realtor. Not sure if I would be considered white collar or not (I'm a professional, but not in management), but I'm doing well. Also, I'm the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college.
I was raised on a dairy farm, most definitely lower income. Out of 8 kids, two went to college. My youngest sister got a nursing scholarship after high school and got a two year RN degree. Recently she earned her BSN through an online program and is now working on her Masters. I started college just before turning 30. Before that, I was married to a truck driver, sometimes farm hand. I was a stay-at-home Mom. I became a teacher, but now I am a college professor with a Ph.D. My husband is mostly a blue collar worker though he has taught vocational school, been a director of vocational programs, and is currently a supervisor in a manufacturing plant. He still has less than two years of college education and no college degree. My son did not opt to go to college is and is a truck driver, blue collar worker like his father. My oldest daughter has a Ph.D. and is a researcher at MIT. My second daughter got married two days ago. She and her husband both graduated from Princeton and they are working on their Ph.D.s, working toward careers that will most definitely not be "blue collar." Please see the attached pictures. The little one in the red boots is the oldest one that works at MIT now. I absolutely love the picture and love sharing it. The other is the daughter who recently got married, about 18 years old in the picture, I think. In the picture, she is helping on my brother's dairy farm over a break from college.
My Dad was very much blue collar and wanted all his children to be white collar and have a better life than he did. Most parents want their children to do better. Why the guilt over your success? Plus, if you do not like the job you are doing right now then do something else. Blue collar people know what hard work will get you. White collar people complain a lot. The grass is not always greener on the other side.
I guess that makes me the bourgeoisie here, then. My dad went to Brown and I was raised in a D.C. suburb with a pretty high average family income. (My parents worked for non-profits, so we were somewhat below that average, but not in a way that anyone would cry over.)
Comon now. Blue collar people complain alot too. It's ok to complain, at least we all know where you stand. It's the quiet ones that burst like that punk out in Colorado the other day.
My family went from well-off white collar to blue collar in an instant. Let me explain why and clear things a bit. :smile: My family emigrated, legally I might add, in the early 80's from Nicaragua to escape the Sandinista/communist regime. My brother and I were very young then, I was 10 and my brother seven. My parents were business owners, and we were well-off, had several houses, traveled extensively, had maid, drivers, cooks and so forth, and in an instant everything disappeared. I remember it all too well, the government confiscated everything, the businesses, the houses, and the bank accounts, everything, including cars, clothes, everything. The government deemed that it was too much. So my parents went to the US Embassy and we became political refugees. My mother began working as a seamstress in a clothing factory in Miami, my dad became a janitor, both earning $3.75 an hour. That was the minimum wage during the 80's I believe, so from well-off to just below the poverty line, for a family of four, I think. You would think that they (my parents) would be bitter, on the contrary, my dad was thankful for this country that we are allowed to be here. My parents never collected food stamps, unemployment, never collected anything, years later I asked him why, and he said that the greatest gift this country ever gave him, and in his eyes a hand-out, was to allow him and his family to come over and start anew. From that point on, we became blue collar, and he always ingrained in us the importance of hard work and education. Both of my parents are retired now, my mom went on to open a small business, and my dad eventually worked as an independent handy man, doing odd jobs. He retired about five years ago, still not bitter to this day. My brother became a bus mechanic and now works for Dade County transit system in Florida, he never liked college, he always liked to work on cars and with his hands. I went on to college, grad school, served in the US Army, worked for the NSA, and now work as a consultant and freelance writer, definitely white collar jobs. :laughing:
