Technicalities

May 23, 2005

It Boggles the Mind

I had no idea what how to categorize this post until I thought about it for a few minutes and decided it certainly belongs under "education" of which many people seem to have none...

I was over at Homefront Six where she is posting about meeting a woman who had no idea what a "pliers" was! At first I had to reread it and was trying to figure out how in the world this happens... when I remembered a little tidbit of information my sister threw out at me once - a number of years ago.

My sister was married at one time to a guy in the Air Force. They were stationed in Okinawa when Desert Storm rolled around. There were a number of troops deployed from Okinawa to the Middle East. The next time my sister and her husband were home on leave, she was telling some stories... the one that sticks in my head to this day...

The military bases set up classes for wives of deployed service personnel... why? Because they needed to learn how to write checks and pay bills! Yes folks - these women had NO IDEA how to write a check to get money for living expenses - no idea how to pay even basic bills!!! So, I guess I'm not quite so shocked when I think about someone not knowing what a pliers might be... I would think someone could manage to go their entire life without needing to use them... although how they manage to open some of those soda bottles is beyond me!

Posted by: Teresa in Education at 05:45 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 267 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Yup,
They have those classes. I have heard of them. Have never gone. I have heard of "these women". I too find the idea insane.

Posted by: ArmyWifeToddlerMom at May 24, 2005 02:13 AM (WlbCN)

2 I would imagine that they are "older" women? Cause if they were younger women they have some serious issues.

But some women go from daddy to husband with both taking care of everything and the women just birthing babies and cleaning the house.

That's just crazy.

Posted by: Machelle at May 24, 2005 07:38 AM (ZAyoW)

3 Open the soda bottles? That's easy... just hit the end where it comes out with one of them hitty things until it either breaks off or blows up!

Posted by: That 1 Guy at May 24, 2005 03:55 PM (HoSBk)

4 There are younger women in them! (I've seen them) Women marry military right out of high school, sheltered from everything at times. So when "their men" leave for deployment, they are stuck! Finances, health benefits, car stuff, etc.

It's sad, but I'm glad they at least realize this is an issue and do stuff to help.

Posted by: Sissy at May 24, 2005 04:39 PM (uXS+O)

5 I'm almost afraid to admit that it was years and years before I knew what to call those things I used for just about everything. I called them wrench. Y'all call them pliers.

Oh - I could use them, just didn't know what they were called.

**I'm so ashamed**

Posted by: Tammi at May 25, 2005 12:56 AM (+ZaqT)

6 My ex-mother-in-law once had her current spouse cut off 5 feet of the hose to the sprayer on the sink, and then reattach the nozzle. When I asked her why, she said to save water.
Less hose, less water. Uh huh.
I went to one of those classes only once, just to see what all the hoopla was about. I kept waiting for the punchline but it never came.

Posted by: LeeAnn at May 25, 2005 03:50 AM (v9jcm)

7 Let's not forget the foreign nationals that some servicemen marry, not realizing the gap between what is common knowledge in our country and what a young alien may know. We'd be the same in another country, if we didn't know the language or culture.

Posted by: Linda F at June 01, 2005 05:58 AM (gtjHT)

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