It's Not About the Lights

This blog entry is about inheriting jobs. Most boomer women know about babysitting because that used to be our job of choice. First of all, there were lots of big families in our growing-up years. Lots of babies to babysit. Second of all, we were also from big families, so at least some of us (typically, more than half...) had the opportunity to inherit babysitting jobs from our older sisters.

The timing had to be right. My sister had to start dating while her charges were still young enough to need a replacement sitter. That was the case for several families that started out with my sister and ended up with me. I benefited for years, having the longer run with these families and also still being in the picture when the parents wanted to start going away for whole weekends. By then I was old enough to be the overnight sitter. These better-paying jobs permitted me to work just one weekend a month. Ah, those were the days.

Well, the big families have shrunk. Babysitters are still needed but not for so many years. Teenagers still sit but I suspect the number of inherited babysitting jobs has dropped. And yet, as the photo above documents, younger relatives can still inherit jobs from older relatives. Our tree man moved to the west coast, perhaps not on his profits from our occasional jobs of fence-building, tree-chopping, and Christmas decorating. In fact, like a huge proportion of young people in the U.S. today, he works for a humble wage in a restaurant. But it's OK! His younger cousin is still in the neighborhood and interested in these small jobs. (He, too, works in a restaurant. Another post, another day.)

OK. Just a small note about the lights. At our absent tree man's imploring, I set the solar collectors out in the sun at the start of November but they never charged. I found some replacement solar LED lights at Target, but only enough to cover the short pillars on the porch and a short arc of short bushes. What's not covered this year: the tall pillars. Tom Bold took apart the old solar collectors for the longer strands of lights and discovered large lead batteries that cannot be re-charged. This explains why it took weeks to get any light out of the strands last year. They were on year 3 and that obviously was the max life of their batteries. Now, I have a year to locate long strands of lights with, I hope, replaceable batteries. Because, you know, we have the new worker who is willing to carry on the tradition of getting the house in order for the holidays.

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.