Stupid Netscrape
When I was a stagehand in Dallas, that job often took me to less savory parts of the city. It actually had a net positive effect, I think. Various panhandlers would hit me, just as they hit everyone. Ya never know who’s gonna pay off. But with me, instead of getting money or a “no”, they got, “Can’t afford ya, but here’s a couple of numbers where you can get some decent paying work.” Stagehands are contract labor, they hire em as they need em. If you can make a good impression, you can make some money.
On a positive note, I actually got a few takers, people who thanked me more sincerely than they would have if I’d merely given em some change. On a negative note, that probably won’t help you any, Drew. I’m pretty sure New Jersey is all one great big union shop. In Texas, we can still pick up new hands as we go.In my misguided yoot I got suckered onto one of those “magazine crews.”
Those kids are being abused, are thousands of miles from home and trapped.
The ABSOLUTE best thing you can do for them is call the police.
DD
Posted by Dedicated_dad
05/29/2008 at 04:10 PM
BTW, nice “Here is some smut” link.
Dedicated - you mean it’s not an actual con? I always thought it was. My mother bought a couple subscriptions that way when I was a kid and got taken. I can’t argue with the ‘thousands of miles away’ part. This guy had a mush-mouth way of talking that I could hardly understand a word he said. Not really an accent that I’d recognize, just very softened enunciation.
Yes Drew the hubby, daughter, and I did the ‘work’ stupid fiberals think that Americans won’t do over the weekend - hubby and I still ache - but we cleaned out the grape bed and re-netted them. We tilled the other 2.5 beds and planted them with our usual - corn, cucumber, dill, potatoes, peppers and carrots. Put mulch down the stairways (2) and weed-ate the 3rd pathway down and the outer back 40. We lost the raspberries to grass - but the deer are up - they apparently loved my backbreaking hours of weed eating to the raspberry patch - and of course no dog to bark at them. We fertilized the fruit trees and have a couple of dead trees and bushes left to remove. All in all a well spent Memorial Day weekend (the only real free one my hubby has had in months). And we will benefit all summer - guess it’s time to get the huge pot and mason jars out and ready to preserve all we will reap. Tomato planting (I’m unable to eat them much - but we do use them cooked) is next. Did I mention I am waiting for 4 dry days to stain the ramp, deck and gazebo. . .
All this while mowing the lawn, laundry, and attempting (and failing) to keep this small house from disappearing under the piles of stuff that 6+ (don’t forget the new grandbaby that is coming in July - I’ve never seen so much for someone who isn’t even here yet) people that is creeping throughout the house (garage and basement are full).
I agree, when I think of all the opportunity - my dad used to hire people all summer long (most especially teens) to help around our 50 acres. Now I see people in our little subdivision (1500 sq feet would be the biggest ones) - who hire professionals to do their yards - what a damn fine example they are setting for their kids! It is no wonder America is going to hell so fast.
BTW, just called my eldest to wish a happy b-day - in Saudi Arabia. Such is the life of retired military people - who passed it onto another generation.
I had an ancient old oak tree lose about a 3 ton branch onto the back of my house 2 weeks ago. Now that the insurance guy has come and gone, this weekend’s project is to clear that away. The fun part is gonna be harnessing myself to the tree about 20 feet up to take off the broken end.
Nah, Americans don’t ever do anything hard, hot or dangerous. At least, not us white folks.Drew,
It’s a scam, a very, very scary one, really. But not for the buyer, for the kid/seller.
Generally, you find that the subscriptions are at the “listed” price—somewhere in every magazine there’s a box that says what the subscription costs. Noone ever pays that price—we all get the “75% off"… Unless you buy from one of these poor kids.
The kids are sharing hotel rooms at the worst fleabag in town. 4 to a room. The “boss” of course gets a discount for booking half the hotel, but the kids “pay” full price.
They put out “help-wanted” ads that say “travel! make money!” They only take kids who are willing to go TODAY as they’re always “recruiting” a coupla-hundred miles from where the “crew” is actually operating, it’s “go home, get your stuff, we’re leaving at 6.” This ensures they only get kids with nothing to go back to. Each person had a foot-locker, the sum-total of his or her belongings. All of this was carefully crafted to select a certain type of kid. Not willing to go NOW, they didn’t take you.
They put you out to sell at ~9AM and don’t pick you up until dusk. You have a “quota” to make, and literal beatings may occur if you consistently don’t make it. Rain, snow, doesn’t matter—you go out when they tell you, and don’t come back until they say you’re done. No coat? Should have saved some of your draw to buy one! I’ve been left out on the street all night in a strange place, wondering if they’d ever come back for me. When they did, I was relieved and motivated to do better/sell more instead of being angry at the treatment.
They gave each kid (late ‘80’s) a “draw” of $10 per day, out of which you had to eat (restaurants) and buy cigarettes (if a smoker—most were). $$ are issued daily, in the morning, making sure you never have more than $10 in your pocket and thus can’t “run off” on them. Don’t try to hoard money—someone would notice if you didn’t eat or whatever. The best you could do was “pocket change” and that would get to be a problem if someone heard it jingling when you moved.
Occasionally you get picked up for “soliciting without a permit” but they bail you out if you’re a good producer and don’t make trouble. I got left—sitting in jail—in OK… Needless to say, I’d made some trouble… ;0 )
The rest of your “earnings” are “put in your account”—they’ll supposedly settle up with you if you ever decide to leave. I honestly can’t imagine how I ever believed this, seeing the other crap they pulled, but I did.
Occasionally they’d have a “quota-in” day on a Saturday, where you could come in early if/when you made your quota. Usually on these days they’d have a one-on-one with you and show you “your account” which helped the brainwashing by convincing you that you were saving up $$, making it easier to tolerate all the other BS. “Here’s your total sales, your % commission, less your draws and hotel-costs, leaving this total ‘in your account.’”
The “pitch” we used to sell was that we were working toward a goal of a trip or college $$, “Winner’s choice.” Occasionally someone would go out and not come back. Rarely you’d catch glimpses of someone being taken away, but they were kept away from us—no chance to even say goodbye.
We were never told what happened to them, the “joke” internally was “he won his trip”—black humor, I guess. The sense we were given was that “he couldn’t handle it”—leaving this group was somehow a bizzarre sort of treason—another aspect of the brainwashing…
I got caught sneaking out to fool around with one of the girls—something which was highly verboten—they were usually reserved for the managers if you know what I mean. This one liked me, and we snuck off a few times before finally getting caught. The guy put his hands on me and… well… I beat his @$$.
The next night I learned the term “blanket party”—and not to ever hit a boss, even in self-defense. A few weeks later I got arrested in OK and they left me there with the clothes on my back and ~$4 in my pocket. No way to know where they went or anything else as their travels were always seemingly at random. Obviously I never saw “my money"…
Looking back, I’m amazed I ever fell for it, ever left with someone I’d just met to go g*d knows where, that I tolerated the treatment, all of it… It was a very cleverly designed enterprise which took advantage of the most messed-up of kids, used them for as long as they’d tolerate it, then dumped them if they became a problem or stopped producing.
We travelled in Suburbans or big vans, pulling a trailer containing everyone’s locker. Each vehicle had a “boss”, and he’d be the one to drop us off in the morning to go sell. We’d work an area until someone got arrested (I figured out later) then move to some other town. Our travels seemed random—we’d go 1,000 miles west then later back-track to someplace we’d passed up. All of this (I guess) was to keep the law off of their tail. I’d imagine that’s hard to do in today’s data and credit-driven environment…
I occasionally ran into people who had bought from someone else, they were usually older folks and happy to help some other kid “go to college.” I got “schooled” alright, but I digress—my point was that these people did get their magazines. I only ran into one person who said they hadn’t, and I honestly believe the bosses made sure it got fixed—they were ripping off the kids, not the customers…
I believe the odds are the kid you saw was another victim. (S)He’s the one who needs help. *IF* the bosses are ripping off the customers, odds are the seller doesn’t know—he’s just some poor, homeless, brainwashed kid being abused and putting up with it because he thinks he’s saving up $$ that will help him better his life.
BTW—in my case, the OK Judge helped arrange a bus-ticket home and a few $ to eat on the way. I never did see anything from “my account.” IF I ever see one of these kids, here’s what I plan to do:
(1) Carefully “tail” his boss back to their hotel
(2) Contact the police, and tell them my story
(3) Hopefully arrange for them to “raid” the group, seize their “records” and offer each kid who wants it the cash he’s owed and assistance to get home.The crazy part is that odds are none of them will take it. The brainwashing is very, very effective, and any of them with the sort of doubt it would take are already gone—already “won their trip.” The bosses can’t afford to allow them to pollute the group so they get rid of any “negative” types very quickly…
One last thing: I saw one of the bosses on Letterman once—just turned on the show to hear his name and see him wave as he was leaving the stage. I’ve never been able to find out WTF he was doing on the show, no reference to him in Google, etc. If you can give me any idea how to figure out what he was on there for I would be very, very appreciative. I’d still very much like to have a little conversation with him, 20+ years later…
DD
Posted by Dedicated_dad
05/31/2008 at 05:38 PM
PS: E-mail me @ my user name at yahoo dot com if you’d like…
Posted by Dedicated_dad
05/31/2008 at 05:39 PM
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