...My father, my grandfather came to America in the late 1890s along with all the other Europeans through Ellis Island impoverished, seeking a better life, worked for anything they could get and had children around 1915 and 1916 before World War I, and they had nothing. And those children mostly -- Frank Sinatra was born in 1915, my -- and Dean Martin, both of my parents were born in '16 -- none of them graduated high school, I think, to speak of. And they never had a good day. They were too young for World War I. They went off to fight in World War II or work in defense industries. But they came of age in the Great Depression, and that generation of Americans that are the parents of the baby boomers basically hadn't seen a good day in their life until after World War II in 1945. And they came home to bump into the greatest period of expansion in American history. And they worked hard and they were entrepreneurial, and they got a taste of the good life. And they were the first ones in all of their family trees to have anything like disposable income of any size. And what did they want? Cadillacs, diamond rings, mink stoles. They wanted to go to Miami, they wanted to see casinos, they wanted to see Frank Sinatra and Abbott & Costello and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. They wanted the good life because they had heard about it and dreamt about it, and for the first time in life they could find and experience the good life. Casino gambling is colorful and dramatic and theatrical. It was part of the good life. And that generation, my father, my ex-wife's dad, they were all gamblers. They shot crap and bet baseball and football and were rather cavalier about their income for a solid reason: they made it themselves. Money was whatever they thought it was because they created their own wealth or their own income. And if they wanted to dispose of it in a way that other people might think was a little free, too bad because they could always go and make more.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-wy ... z2Hr4h6IiG

Replies:

Posted by: Goddess on January 23, 2013, 11:30 am

Both my parents came through Ellis Island from Russia, but they have a different story to tell. They didn't gamble, and my mother didn't want diamond rings or mink stolls. My Dad always drove an Oldsmobile. THey thought a Cadillac was too ostentatious. My Dad was 13 years old when he arrived. He was put in 2nd grade because he didn't know English, but he quickly progressed to his own grade level. His first job was carrying umbrellas when it was raining for men arriving at the train station in the Bronx after work. He charged 10 cents. After awhile, his business grew, and he hired his younger brother to help him.

As an adult, he had his own advertising business on Madison Avenue in New York City. He put himself through college at CCNY at night. He impressed upon us that education was the most important thing, and sent his two daughters to college without any loans. I went to Boston University School of Nursing, and my sister went to Tufts. We went on one vacation a year as a family. When my Dad's oldest brother lost his business, my Dad took him into his own business. My mother was a stay at home Mom in the 1940's and 1950's while we were growing up.

We were lucky that my Dad was so successful, and I am extremely proud of what he accomplished, all on his own.

Goddess

Posted by: ACPA on January 23, 2013, 4:43 pm

And I wonder if our grandkids today have the opportunity Steve and Godness's grandfather had.

Noah

Posted by: Scan on January 23, 2013, 8:58 pm

Goddess great story. My only comment is you stayed he was lucky and he became successful. I bet the harder he worked the "luckier" he got.