(It’s really apartment 12AG, but no one understands this. The 13th floor is renamed 12A floor in our building. My apartment is G, on floor 12A, hence, 12AG. Don’t go to the 12th floor — they hate to get my visitors.)

7:00 PM

Russell Baker, who used to write for the New York Times, says this about his youth in rural Virginia:

“I spent my growing up years performing a variety of odd jobs. These jobs were supposed to help me develop grit, a mysterious susbtance which my mother felt I lacked.”

Interesting how all of these completely menial and thankless tasks are just waiting out there for mormon youth! I wonder though, if it’s a hallmark of lower middle class mormons to have their kids in these types of positions. I can’t believe that Dave Checketts sends his kids out to paint Ms. Donner’s fence for $10 or something.

Now, that I’m a certified project manager, I realize the term for this is “gold plating” and it really is a bad thing to do because your customers will always expect extras for free. I guess this is one case where the super work ethic doesn’t transfer well into the business world.

I babysat kids too. In rural Idaho you were apparently considered trustworthy enough to take care of other people’s children by 3rd grade–an age that might seem young unless you consider that you started driving tractors on public roads in second grade. I would regularly take care of Sister Cartwright’s three children AND clean the house. Since I never put anything where she usually kept it, however, she soon began asking me to just watch the kids and forget the cleaning. Doing the cleaning herself was easier than looking through the closests and cupboards for missing items.