Karen here, also from Pgh, PA. Grandfather-immigrant, coal miner at age 12 from Hungary.
Great grandparents-immigrants from Hungary, great-g-ma (15 yrs old) sponsored by upper middle class Hungarian Jewish family living in Squirrel Hill as a nanny. After she’d worked off her obligations they saw to she married a good man and remained life-long friends.
My great-grandparents had 5 children. All participated in the war efforts (WWII). Their only son served in Europe, injured in France.
Once the miners began unionizing, great-grandma made moonshine to support the family until they saved up enough to open a very nice department store. Included a butcher shop and fabric department. She didn’t want great-grandpap going back into the mines. The miners were looking for worker protections that could save their lives. Just like the ones FL and TX stripped away.
I came from immigrants looking for a better life, and willing to work hard for it.
The people coming today are looking for work. Looking to take care of their families. The same reasons they’ve always come. Mel Brooks movie, “Blazing Saddles “ says it best after Asian railroad worker faints in the dessert;
Lyle; “Come on, boys! The way you're lollygaggin' around here with them picks and them shovels, you'd think it was a hundert an' twenty degrees...! Can't be more than a hundert an' fourteen! [Asian railroad worker collapses from heat exhaustion] “Dock that Chink a day's pay for napping on the job.”
I recently watched Blazing Saddles again. It was a “date” movie when I was in HS. Fifty years later I wonder what was so funny, though it was clearly satirical even at the time. Mel hit every group; women, African Americans, Chinese, cowboys even the military.
I know what you mean about movies. Everyone’s a critic. However my post wasn’t concerned with whether or not you liked Blazing Saddles.
Maybe I wasn’t clear, totally my fault.
50 years ago Mel Brooks made a movie about the racism that pervades our nation. It is called Blazing Saddles. Some people liked it some didn’t, who cares? The scene with the fainting Asian man for lack of water was exactly what I envisioned the TX and Fl legislature dreams about. It pretty much verbatim shows how white supremacists think. Hence the reference.
Why thanks. While I lived through the turbulent 60’s with the advent of civil rights, women’s lib (and all its accoutrements), the “make love not war” hippie movement and finally the murder of 3 political giants the application of such profound progress (other than the assassinations) was slow to take hold in the Midwest. It wasn’t until college that I truly understood the meaning and consequences of equality. Maybe Mel Brooks bemoaned that slow integration with Blazing Saddles; or maybe he believed we’d never really get there. He may have been right. As it appears today a backward trend toward the 1950’s is all the rage for a few million of our fellow citizens.
Florida saying to Texas, hold my beer.
Karen here, also from Pgh, PA. Grandfather-immigrant, coal miner at age 12 from Hungary.
Great grandparents-immigrants from Hungary, great-g-ma (15 yrs old) sponsored by upper middle class Hungarian Jewish family living in Squirrel Hill as a nanny. After she’d worked off her obligations they saw to she married a good man and remained life-long friends.
My great-grandparents had 5 children. All participated in the war efforts (WWII). Their only son served in Europe, injured in France.
Once the miners began unionizing, great-grandma made moonshine to support the family until they saved up enough to open a very nice department store. Included a butcher shop and fabric department. She didn’t want great-grandpap going back into the mines. The miners were looking for worker protections that could save their lives. Just like the ones FL and TX stripped away.
I came from immigrants looking for a better life, and willing to work hard for it.
The people coming today are looking for work. Looking to take care of their families. The same reasons they’ve always come. Mel Brooks movie, “Blazing Saddles “ says it best after Asian railroad worker faints in the dessert;
Lyle; “Come on, boys! The way you're lollygaggin' around here with them picks and them shovels, you'd think it was a hundert an' twenty degrees...! Can't be more than a hundert an' fourteen! [Asian railroad worker collapses from heat exhaustion] “Dock that Chink a day's pay for napping on the job.”
Mel wasn’t joking.
I recently watched Blazing Saddles again. It was a “date” movie when I was in HS. Fifty years later I wonder what was so funny, though it was clearly satirical even at the time. Mel hit every group; women, African Americans, Chinese, cowboys even the military.
Maureen I didn’t find Blazing Saddles funny when ZI first saw it and even less funny when I watched it again some years ago.
I know what you mean about movies. Everyone’s a critic. However my post wasn’t concerned with whether or not you liked Blazing Saddles.
Maybe I wasn’t clear, totally my fault.
50 years ago Mel Brooks made a movie about the racism that pervades our nation. It is called Blazing Saddles. Some people liked it some didn’t, who cares? The scene with the fainting Asian man for lack of water was exactly what I envisioned the TX and Fl legislature dreams about. It pretty much verbatim shows how white supremacists think. Hence the reference.
I was 16. Still a work in progress😊
Maureen You clearly progressed while Blazing Saddles degressed.
Why thanks. While I lived through the turbulent 60’s with the advent of civil rights, women’s lib (and all its accoutrements), the “make love not war” hippie movement and finally the murder of 3 political giants the application of such profound progress (other than the assassinations) was slow to take hold in the Midwest. It wasn’t until college that I truly understood the meaning and consequences of equality. Maybe Mel Brooks bemoaned that slow integration with Blazing Saddles; or maybe he believed we’d never really get there. He may have been right. As it appears today a backward trend toward the 1950’s is all the rage for a few million of our fellow citizens.