Raking Leaves - All is Not Lost for Today's Youth

If the mods think this belongs somewhere else please move it, but I think this true incident that happened today to me will spark a conversation that fits the Social Issues category.

Just a few hours ago, Stephie and I finished up our errands for a Saturday, including looking at appliances to upgrade our small kitchen and half bathroom. I was chopping some onions and jalpenos that we have stored from our garden harvest this year to make chili this evening (which is on the stove as we speak) when a rap, rap, rap came on our door.

My first thought was, "Lemme grab a Beer and a smoke and answer the door. Those Jehovah's Witnesses never read the "No Solicitors" sign on the door." Answering the door with a beer in one hand and Marlboro in the other usually wards them off quickly. I looked out the window and saw a young man about the age of 15 holding a rake and a pair of worn work gloves.

Since I didn't want to battle our dogs for control of the door, I went out the back patio and walked around front, depositing the beer and smoke on the way.

Before i could say hello, he approached me and stuck out his hand.

"Hello Sir, my name is Gerald and I'm a student at Williams High School right down the road. I was wondering if I could rake the leaves from your lawn. I want to make some money so my Mom can have the Christmas she deserves."

I said, "So you are looking to buy your mom a present?"

He replied, "No Sir, I want to make some money and give it to her before Christmas so she can use it for our family."

I looked at my front yard, all 7000 sq ft (about a quarter of an acre) of it covered with leaves.

"OK, how much are you asking?", I inquired.

"Ummm...5 Dollars?", He replied.

"5 bucks, sure! Go at it!"

This kid did go at it. He started raking leaves like his life depended on it. I was immediately impressed with his work ethic. I went back in the house and periodically looked through the windows to see his progress. Stephie watched him too and said to me, "You aren't just going to give him five dollars are you?"

"Hell no, just look at him work. He is so undervaluing himself."

He cleared my quarter acre front yard of leaves in under 45 minutes. I'm 41 and in shape, but I could not do that. This kid saved me alot of work.

When he was done, I went to meet him out front and handed him a 20 dollar bill, which I think is a fair amount for clearing a quarter acre of deep leaves. Since Stephie also has a business hand knitting scarves, hats, and other stuff I don't pay attention to, we let him pick out one for his mom out of her inventory.

Before he left, I asked him to stop by sometimes and keep in touch since I would love his help (paid of course) in our expanded garden next year. LOL...turns out his high school project next year is Organic Gardening....which is what I do! I will pay him for his work and the mentoring will be free. ;-)

Apparently, there are still young people out there willing to work for something, and what I mean is to do actual work to better themselves and their family, by looking for opportunities and working hard to achieve a goal.

I met one of those young people today. He wasn't looking for a handout, he saw an opportunity and worked hard for my cash.

Like I told him, "I wish more young people would do what you are doing and make some money by working hard like you did today instead of just wanting someone else to take care of them."

All is not lost with our Youth. I witnessed that today.

Good to know that there are still some kids that know how to work.

It's also good to know that some people can still afford to pay other people to do their work.

It's good to hear a nice story like that for a change, you could of sent him round my place a week or so ago as I would of loved someone to do the leaves.
Kudos to you for offering to keep in touch and more importantly kudos to the kid for having the gumption to do what most wont. He should have a good future with that type of an ethic.

I wish there were leaves to rake in the city.
Or lawns to mow.

That was an awesome story!
Thank you for that.
There is still hope for our future.

I have a kid next door that would do the same,work his arse off with what ever help I needed with.
He has since grown up and working.

I miss that boy.

reply to post by pazcat


Hey if you are in negihborhood, I'll send him round to you.

I remember when I was his age, around 1983-1985, I would mow lawns, rake leaves, shovel show, dog sit, even as a guy, babysit, just to make money. It was hard work, at least I thought so then since it took me away from my friends and hanging out and stuff, but my parents taught me that if I worked hard I would do well.

Well, I have done well. Not rich, not poor, but somewhere that when he came to my door, it was a no brainer to hire him to do the things I used to do when I was his age. I hope he learned something.

Being someone who worked in landscaping with big huge leaf blowers and proper equipment to make the job easy, I can say such a yard (depending on leaf coverage) would take an entire "work day" to clear without said equipment (1000 dollar leaf blowers, truck with mulcher and vacuum, tarps, etc etc) and usually brings in about 300-600 dollars. By hand rake we are talking more than triple the hours.

You paid the dude 20? he asked for 5? He got it done quick and you tipped him 15?

Sorry bro...there is so many holes in this stroy I have to wonder why you invented it in the first place.

A yard a quarter of that size would take more than 2 hours to clear...so you are basically trying to sound like a saint for ripping off some poor kid (one I suspect you fabricated due to seeing the details of the story) by paying him less than ANYONE deserves for hard work.

Great...

20 bucks! Sweeeet!

He asked for 5? Sure...sounds right...quarter acer of land covered in leaves, and alls he wanted was 5 bux...yup...sounds legit.

Cool story bro...But I call BS.




EDIT TO ADD: 7000 sq feet COVERED with leaves, would take more than 30 hours to clear with a one-man team with a hand rake...gee wiz man...really. For real, anyone who has raked even one yard in his life would know 100% that this story is fabricated. Now I wonder why you would do this...hmmmm...I can guess.

MM[

reply to post by tsawyer2


You are very very lucky indeed to know of such a good soul.

Keep in touch with him, mentor him and I wish him and you the best.

Nice story, I hope this kid goes far and life treats him kind.

Keep an eye out on that kid. I bet he goes places.

There are kids like this all over the place, unfortunately, they get drowned out by the idiots and trouble makers.

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Keep an eye out on that kid. I bet he goes places.

There are kids like this all over the place, unfortunately, they get drowned out by the idiots and trouble makers.

Hate to be the jerk who debunks this feel-good story of holiday goodness...but its a lie.

The story is false. No one man/boy could rake 7000 sq feet COVERED in leaves (by hand) in under a full day's work. With proper equipment it would take a whole day of sweat and hard labor being rushed. A standard quote for the job would be 300-600 dollars for a three man crew (at least).

Sorry man...I can't help but debunk by saying "this is impossible and a lie".

As for 20 bucks?! Holy crap...that's worse than slave labor. Leaves are heavy creatures and demand at least minimum wage to remove. The story is bunk...and I still wonder why nobody sees this.

Guess its the "happy thoughts" taking over the logic.

Merry Xmas!

MM

reply to post by tsawyer2

reply to post by tsawyer2


Much of todays youth also is putting their energy and support into Ron Paul and politics rather than video games and other mindless materialistic activities. Freedom and respect for the Constitution really seems to resonate with the younger crowd nowadays. Maybe not junior high schoolers, but definitely lots of high school and college students. To be fair though, that's just a minority of the more intelligent and mature ones, not to sound condescending

All had better not be lost for the youth, because they are the future. The older crowds who fell for the establishment candidates that the media has shoved in their faces put our country and the world into the mess that we're in, so the youth had better try to make the world a better place and focus on things that are important rather than wasting their time with a bunch of meaningless nonsense.

I know that's a little off topic, but talking about hope for the future generations made me think of that.

I tried that around here even though there are not that many leaves on the ground since it is Florida so not much falling leaves, especially since almost all the trees are Southern pine. But I gave it a try in the subdivision down the street everyone said “no thanks”, it turns out there is a lawn care company that does all the lawns in that subdivision. So I was walking through there a few days later when the lawn care workers were out there, only a couple actually spoke any English and they were just sitting around.

This is part of what happened to this country’s youth, every job we could have is taken by some company. I am glad to not actually work for a corporation anymore, I worked at McDonald’s and all those bastards can burn. We need to let people actually have a chance today; tell those lawn care companies and adult paper delivery people to take a hike.

reply to post by Mr Mask


Dude, I said covered with leaves....that doesn't mean all of it was 3 inches thick....and he is not made up.

reply to post by Mr Mask


You work in the landscaping business and it would take you the WHOLE DAY to clear an area 100ftx100ft? With tools and all? Do you even know how much an acre is? Its not that big.

If it takes more than an hour to clear a 1/4 acre of land free of leaves than you're slacking,,,sorry to break it to you chief. Maybe you should go work for the government as you obviously like to over exxagerate and make a very hard job out of something very easy.

reply to post by tsawyer2


Mr. Mask - 7000 Sq Feet is 70 feet by 100 feet....that is not that large. If it takes you all day to do that, well then it does. I think this 15 year old kid with a rake has a commercial advantage over you then.

It wasn't covered 3 inches thick, it just had leaves all over it.

I'm going to take a picture tomorrow morning (since it is night here) and show you what he did in 45 minutes.

It's impressive, and prompted me to post this thread.

reply to post by godfather420


Thanks for coming to my defense Godfather...I figured I would be called out on whether or not some kid was asking for work rather than the size of my front lawn.

I am a maintenance tech here in Washington..

I have 89 properties i take care of..

I raked leaves all week and hauled them away...

I did 7000 sq, feet by myself in an hour many times last week..

Some properties are even bigger than 10,000 sq. feet....

did them all by myself...

I am 51 years old......no problem here....

Originally posted by baddmove
I am a maintenance tech here in Washington..

I have 89 properties i take care of..

I raked leaves all week and hauled them away...

I did 7000 sq, feet by myself in an hour many times last week..

Some properties are even bigger than 10,000 sq. feet....

did them all by myself...

I am 51 years old......no problem here....

Thank you...now that should seal that issue. The point is that I'm impressed that there are some young people out there who actually do value the experience and rewards of hard work, and fortunately for me, he may be willing to be paid and get mentored in the process of working with us on our organic garden next year. It's a fortuitous event that happened today and I wanted to share that with you. Hard work pays off.

reply to post by tsawyer2


Lol no problem.

This story is great and it should be appreciated. It bugs me when trolls try to ruin a good thread. There is alot of hard working respectful kids still out there, we just tend to focus on the bad ones all the time.

One of the reason's I know it doesn't take that long is because I did it in my neigborhood for money....when I was 7, without a leaf blower, or a team. This dude needs some lessons.

Either that or he mistaking 1/4acre with 1/4 hectare? lol

Cheers, thanks for the good story.