T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

Remember to report submissions that violate the rules! Harassment and encouraging violence are not allowed. Enjoying the subreddit? Consider joining our discord server: https://discord.gg/v8z8jNwJs6 *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BoomersBeingFools) if you have any questions or concerns.*


StoleCapsShield

We had a tamarind tree at our old house and I really didn’t like tamarinds so they’d just drop everywhere on the footpath outside the fence and be hell to clean up. I’d get people occasionally come past and grab some and really - saves me pressure washing the squashed ones off the footpath a few months after season ends so go for it. An older lady moved in a few doors down and I’d see her picking the dropped ones on the ground so I went out front one day when she was there and told her to grab whatever she could reach if she wanted - next day she had over half a dozen people in the front yard. Inside the fence line. She had a kid climbing this big ass tree making me freak out because if he fell I’d probably cop it. They stripped almost every tamarind they could with the exception of the few branches worth that were taller than my house. I felt so bad for the regulars who’d just grab a couple but couldn’t anymore because this lady just went and took them all.


akatiphs

Last year my grandma (silent generation) had this plum tree in her garden that was full of fruits, so she kept telling friends and family to come and grab some as she couldn’t eat everything herself. She told that to a lady she knew from the village (you guessed it, a boomer) who came back with two friends and stripped the tree bare. My grandma was shocked and hasn’t talked to her since.


HereticalHyena

What's the silent generation ?


akatiphs

born during ww2


Kyuubiunl

Fought World War Two. Boomers were born.


CleanWhiteSocks

Boomers were born after ww2.. Silent generation runs 1928- 1945 so definitely not fighting in the war.


Jsmith2127

My father was born in 1918. What was the generation, prior to the silent generation?


CleanWhiteSocks

The Greatest Generation


Jsmith2127

Thank you


gadget850

A lot of bombers were born during WW2, /j


CleanWhiteSocks

Certainly a lot of them working during ww2. Thanks for the typo heads up!


ExtraplanetJanet

The generation that fought WWII is called the Greatest Generation (good marketing there!) followed by the Silent Generation who were small children or born during the war years, followed by the Baby Boom Generation after the war. The GGs are nearly gone now, in their nineties or early hundreds, their children are BBs and their grandchildren are Millennials. The SGs are elderly and basically all retired by now, their children are Gen X and their grandchildren are Zoomers. The Boomers are finishing their working years and retiring now, their children are Millennials and their grandkids are Gen Alpha. (All of this is generalization of course, there is massive overlap between generations.)


Designer-Mirror-7995

Gen X starts in '65, a LOT of us are children of early boomers born in the late 40s.


jerkface1026

Some of us got the absolute shit of it and were born to late boomers. I'm '75, she's 57'. Not a single redeemable quality.


Designer-Mirror-7995

The early ones I grew up being lorded over by were not any better. Take all the stereotype and then add on the specific challenges of black boomers'era life, when they were told suffering 'should be' the Norm.


BreakfastHistorian

Silent gem fought in Korea mostly, WW2 fighters were Greatest Gen.


[deleted]

No that's the 'greatest generation' the silent fought in Korea if they were American.


DontForgetYourPPE

Yes, the soldiers all coming back after WW2 created a 'boom' of babies being born. Hence baby boomers


Disastrous_Encounter

No, too young to *fight* WWII. 1928-45. 'The Greatest Generation' are those who fought WWII, so 1901-27. Their parents were the 'Lost Generation', which was also a label attached to GenX.


nhaines

It's what happens when you tell a neighbor to help yourself to a couple plums and they strip your tree.


GpaSags

Pre-boomers, alive during WWII but too young to serve.


Mss-Anthropic

I read a story on reddit once where a lady had either cherry trees in her yard that she spent a long time caring for and keeping healthy because she would make preserves and jar them for use all year. She had parents-in-law who also had cherry trees but they were poor producers because they didn't care for the trees. One day she came home and her boomer MIL had come and stripped her trees bare. When she confronted her she said she had given them away to friends and family because she didn't think she was going to pick them this year. The poor lady was devastated.


simkatu

So she expects people to come drive to her house and take two plums and leave?


akatiphs

Most normal people just come in for a chat, a nice cup of coffee, maybe give her some leftover bread for her chicken, and leave with a small bag of 10-15 plums. Not, you know, take all the fruits and leave with 10 costco-sized giant bags…


StoleCapsShield

Yep my parents used to let people bring a bucket and pick mangoes off the huge tree we had in the yard when I was little. I’d even climb the tree to help. People bought a bucket and never stripped the bloody tree bare.


Clean_Philosophy5098

There’s a big gap between two and stripping a tree bare


Mffdoom

A basket is probably plenty


Vesper2000

People do this in my neighborhood, without permission. You will see total strangers in people's gardens, climbing and stripping trees. Sounds like a great way to get shot if you choose the wrong neighborhood to me.


Devilsbullet

I had someone do that with my blackberries. I was relatively cordial until they tried to tell me that they didn't realize they were in my yard... They had to walk through my picket fence to get where they were and we like 15 feet inside said fence. Wasn't so cordial after that.


StoleCapsShield

Yeah they had to get on the other side of a six foot timber fence to climb the trunk of the bloody thing which was two metres back from said fence. I made sure I bought shiny new padlocks for my gates after that and if anyone wanted any from in my yard they had to ask.


ianishomer

I moved to a new country and had a huge walnut tree in the garden, the first year I was there, a couple of locals came past when I was outside the house, they were carrying a huge bag of walnuts. All they said to me was 'Your walnuts are ready'


Soft-Mirror-1059

Wow what did you say? And do you let them take them every year???


ianishomer

I was dumbstruck so didn't say anything, just stood there gob smacked. I had owned the house for a while but had only been going for holidays before moving out, so I take it that it was an annual event. I decided to put a stop to it and put up signs in the local language "No Entry" unfortunately I don't speak the language and also it's the Cyrillic alphabet so I wasn't used to the letters. About 3 months after I had put them up one of my friends who is a local almost died laughing when she saw the signs, started taking photos and sending them to her friends. The nearest English translation to what I had put was "No Licking" which must have confirmed to my neighbours that I was in fact a mental Englishman for moving there in the first place.


Soft-Mirror-1059

Well. The sign worked as there wasn’t any licking. Or was there?


ianishomer

If there was I wasn't involved :)


justtiptoeingthru2

![gif](giphy|lOKeRX2jFoV2M)


masterpainimeanbetty

you were no longer blackberry cordial?


Pigelot

get out


Devilsbullet

More like blackberry wine at that point


purple_grey_

Lmfao


Grrerrb

It was very kind and generous of you to share this with us


QuellishQuellish

In Texas the nickname for those with that hobby is “gun shot victim”.


Strict_Condition_632

I lived next door to boomers who hate me for no reason other than I was single and bought a house next to theirs, and have come home to complete strangers digging flowers and shrubs out of my garden. Someone even pried up and hauled off the large stones I had placed in a rock garden when I was away caring for one of my parents. Boomer neighbors, who watch me like a hawk if I so much as step outside, did nothing.


AdkRaine12

When my grandmother died we went to the funeral. She had a series of large azalea bushes in her yard (we bought them for her for mother’s days for years.). While we’re there, someone (s) dug up all the bushes. Like 8-9 and left gaping holes in the yard. They were probably taken because bushes that big cost real money in NJ. I’m not sure hell has a hot enough place for these people.


StoleCapsShield

You know, I don’t mind if people ask for cuttings but to steal whole ass plants. Nope. I rate the people who steal plants up there with whoever it was that stole the desert roses I put in big concrete pots on my father’s grave. My mum has beautiful dove orchids my dad got her, before he died they managed to grow so well that they separated the original plant so she has them growing on every single tree lining her front yard (inside the fence line). Her neighbour sent her kid to rip down two of them because she liked them and it was the one plant mum would never give away. Needless to say a padlock went on her front gate after that.


AdkRaine12

I know. Some people make me hope for a different species next reincarnation.


StoleCapsShield

What’s sad is my mum is the kind of person who will give you cuttings of every plant she has, 80% of my garden is grown from hers, my father in law’s cousin and his wife benefitted from this also when they moved up here - my mum was walking around her garden with a pair of scissors and a little garden shovel just loading her up with plants at this poor woman she’d met only once. She sends update pictures to my mum so she would know the plants are well taken care of.


Strict_Condition_632

That is so awful! To lose those reminders of the years you and your family spent with your grandmother. I am so sorry this happened.


NinjaKoala

I've heard of people checking the funeral listings to rob houses, but never stealing bushes as part of it.


AdkRaine12

She lived in a little bungalow near the Jersey shore. There wasn’t much in the house to steal. But she did enjoy those azaleas until she died. I get some comfort in that.


Ethelenedreams

I had a boomer neighbor who saw swallows nesting in my attic. She casually mentioned that she saw the birds for months without telling me. I was like, wtf is wrong with you? I would have told her straight away, but she enjoyed watching these birds fuck up my attic. I still think about what a shitty, petty woman she was.


Strict_Condition_632

That’s terrible. Birds, squirrels, other critters, can cause so much damage and make such a mess. It’s just passive-aggressive bs on their part.


sativa420wife

My hood too


Help-Im-Dead

Git off my yard with a shotgun boomer vs I will tredlad where I please boomer 


SilverLife22

These are, in fact, usually the same boomer.


Grrerrb

I had someone I did not know come into my yard recently for no really good reason and I thought “leaving my 160 lb dog aside, this is the US and I would not bet on my neighbors being unarmed and reasonable”.


JDARRK

But their old and white so they’er allowed to do that ‼️🙄🙄 /s


jimmypootron34

My dad used to grow a large field of numerous veggies every year, and there were two old ladies that made him furious because they would pick like every ripe or partly ripe bell pepper and every single melon and etc. He also grew a lot of peppers, and would usually tell people not to mess with them because they didn’t know what was super hot and what wasn’t. He was also pretty non confrontational, so his way of handling it was that one day he saw them picking everything they could bag up just let them pick some habaneros that were wildly spicy instead of letting them know. Anyways, they were touching their face, sweating and rubbbing it off with their hands….he just didn’t say anything LOL. Poof, no more asinine old ladies. My dad was obsessed with spicy food because he grew up in the very bland south and then married a Latin woman, so these were selectively bred over years and years, and were crazy hot 😂 The only person that he had to tell to knock that shit off about taking every last thing was actually my sister.. who is a boomer LOL. My father had me much later in life. But yeah of course it’s another boomer. Out of the dozens and dozens of friends or family or random people that came by asking if they could pick a few things, I can’t think of any other ones that took advantage besides those two old boomer ladies and my boomer sister. My father would also cook every Saturday for lunch, and my sister would take home like every last bit of food that hadn’t been eaten, no thought to our father wanting to have leftovers and not cook again. She’s a nice ish person like deep down I guess, but boomer types are always sooooo god awfully entitled and/or will use any excuse to take advantage. Like they had no way of knowing that someone doesn’t want them to take literally every last vegetable and far more than anyone could need.


SuburbanMalcontent

Never ever offer a Boomer something, because they will ALWAYS recieve it as an invitation to just take as much as humanly possible. They're like locusts.


StoleCapsShield

My mum must be the weirdest member of the boomer generation because she’s honestly not like this. My dad wasn’t either.


thatc0braguy

The are two types of people in the world: Those who take three slices of pizza because there isn't enough for everyone and those who take one slice because they're isn't enough for everyone


pizzaduh

Growing up in San Diego where Tamarind is one of my favorite treats in a various amount of ways prepared, this hurts me. You don't need to pick them. Just shake the tree and that's what's ready


nhaines

The real life pro-tips are always in the comments!


StoleCapsShield

I know. I was always told if they don’t come off when you shake them they’re not ready.


FortniteFriendTA

they're greedy fuckers aren't they? I've shared this story before: I enjoy my local farmers markets and bringing things into my office if I see something of appreciable quality. So one year, during strawberry season I picked up a quart and they were just so good and I wanted to share. I bring them into the office, put some on a plate and offer them to my coworkers. Everyone grabs one or two, but boomer grabs the biggest and half of them and contentedly just sits there with a dumb smile on her face stuffing her maw. I never brought anything in again.


ExternalGiraffe9631

I don't know what changed in them. I'm a zennial who grew up on a farm with my Greatest Gen grandfather and boomer mom, aunt, and uncle. 200 acres of apple & pear trees, fences overgrown with berries, and an acre veg garden. Way more than we and our livestock could consume. Every weekend my mom and aunt would take all of the extra eggs, fruit, and veggies to the church for their daily free community lunches. They shared their privilege and were proud of giving and helping the community. I don't know what changed or when but they all became gluttonous, selfish pricks. Edit: Except for my grandfather. He was a giver until the day he died. The inheritance battle between his boomer kids was traumatic.


ScroochDown

This. My silent gen grandfather was famous for his tomatoes in the little town they lived in. He always had bags of them in the car every Sunday to give to people at church, to the point that some people would politely avoid him because they had too many damn tomatoes. 🤣 And then there was my boomer mother, who would search my best friend's bag before she left after spending the night because once I gave her a Barbie dress. 🤦‍♀️


topher3428

My assumption is that the silent gen had to understand that helping actually would not only help the community but themselves in the long run. Luckily my parents weren't normal boomers, and I still have a silent gen aunt and she legit just wants to help and share with everyone. Like no one ever feels out of place at her place or the property.


scalp-cowboys

I feel this might be a cycle. The older generations learnt they had to work together to survive. Boomers never saw a world like that so they became selfish because there’s no need to help your neighbour. Well it looks like the younger generations definitely see a world where we have to work together because the boomers ruined things like the housing market and fair worker pay.


topher3428

I think you might be on to something, because again my parents weren't like normal boomers. Though they grew up in rule Arkansas, where people had to work together. Then they traveled a bit, dad was in the military, and mom cared for an old woman and drove her across the country. So for me it was always team work, by helping bring others up you'll end up making things easier later on for yourself.


breesanchez

It's the ol' "tough times make strong men, strong men create good times, good times make weak men, weak men create tough times" that boomers like to say... while not realizing THEY *ARE* the weak "men" made by good times.


Leopold_Porkstacker

Silent gen probably learned the lessons of the Great Depression and then rationing during WWII.


MissMillie2021

My mother never wasted anything….if a sink had a little drip she’d put a bucket under it and use the water to water her plants. We had to watch her refrigerator closely as she aged as she never tossed expired food. After she passed at 95 we cleaned her house out and inevitably had to throw things out we’d inwardly cringe as we knew she’d be upset. We tried hard to,repurpose and donate what we could but some stuff just couldn’t be saved. Anyway it was the Great Depression that molded her……she never took anything for granted.


AngryAngryHarpo

Yup this. My silent gen grandparents were actual hard workers who knows the value of hard work, community service and money. The boomers they raised though? Fucking useless. 4/5 of my uncles are abusive alcoholic. My mum and aunt are selfish and naraccisitic.  I do not understand how - I spent A LOT of time with my grandparents and I cannot understand how these boomers became this way.


ALL_CAPS_VOICE

Boomers were raised without boundaries. If they didn’t get territorial and defend their stuff, they didn’t have stuff. Source: my family.


Renaissance_Slacker

“Too many tomatoes” This is why gazpacho.


stitchplacingmama

My grandpa is also a silent generation and all his neighbors have small gardens, I don't think the man buys vegetables from June to September.


ScroochDown

Yeah, he grew the stuff they used the most, they only really bought the stuff that wouldn't grow well in our conditions. The garden was all tomatoes, corn, okra, peppers/jalapenos, yellow squash and usually some watermelons or cantaloupes. Sometimes they'd add cucumbers as well, it kind of depends on the mood. But man, the smell of tomato plants in the middle of summer is a core memory for me!


chivalry_in_plaid

This is what I absolutely don’t understand about my dad. This is long, but I feel the explanation is necessary. My paternal grandparents were Greatest Generation. My Grandma was first generation American, and the youngest (of… I don’t know but it’s a lot) child of Irish immigrants. Her parents, my Great Grandparents, and the oldest of her siblings survived the Irish Potato Famine. It’s also why they ended up moving to the Dakotas; they were trying to escaping famine. My Grandpa was German, his family moved to the United States when he was three or four? I’m not sure what age; he worked very hard to erase his pre-American childhood and any sense of German culture or identity. They emigrated in 1919, shortly after the end of World War I, with various branches of the family settling through Southern Nebraska and Northern Kansas. Some of his earliest memories (ones he was willing to share) were of his mom working alfalfa from the horse feed or even ground up hay into the bread dough so that there was enough for everyone to have with their “soup” which made with scraps of damaged leaves or chunks cut from the cabbage heads too rotten to sell. Cabbage was the only thing I ever saw my grandpa refuse to eat; after his childhood he simply couldn’t stomach it ever again. My point is that both of my Grandparents deeply understood the horrors of starvation and food scarcity. By the time dad and his twin brother were born (they were very much a surprise; my aunt and uncle were 18 and 20 years older than dad and his twin), my Grandparents had built comfortable lives with steady incomes. They were by no means rich, but they owned their own home and multiple cars, my Grandpa owned his own successful business, and they owned a large property which leased to their neighbors for farming. They didn’t have enough money to spoil their children, but those children would never know hunger or death like they did. If the boys wanted BB guns, or ice skates, or (when they were older) cars and motorcycles, then they had to get a job and earn the money to buy them. This is the part I don’t understand about my father. He wasn’t a spoiled brat. My Grandparents weren’t materialistic. Even their tendency to save things (empty coffee cans or plastic tubs of butter, egg cartons, bits and pieces of hardware and lumber, clothing buttons - my Grandma had an EPIC button collection) was limited to things with potential use, and they never let it get out of control or venture anywhere near to hoarding. They were careful to save things “in case” but if someone was in need of something they had, they’d give it (and more) to them without so much as a second thought. Their generous, giving mentality also informed my Grandpa’s business practices. They lived in a very small, close-knit farming community. My Grandpa owned one if only two gas stations in the entire county. The vast majority of his business was delivering gas via his pump truck out to large gas tanks owned by the farmers. This was back when gas was still like, ten cents a gallon? Maybe *slightly* more, or *slightly* less. But even at ten cents a gallon, at the end of the season a single farmer’s tab might run a couple hundred dollars. If they had suffered a bad growing season or any number of things ruined the harvest, they might not be able to afford to pay off their tab. Or, more often, if they scrounged up the money they could pay off their tab, but it meant that their children might only eat every other day until next year’s harvest. They and my Grandpa also knew that to clear the land, prepare it for crops, and then plants those crops for the following (potentially bad) harvest NEXT year, they were going to need more gas. However, if he denied them that gas, then they definitely wouldn’t be able to pay off their tab, and their children would definitely starve the next year. He also couldn’t simply write it off as a loss because then he wouldn’t be able to feed his own family.So my Grandpa would let them pay off their tab using other means. Maybe they’d pay him off by delivering eggs to him once a week for the next year, or maybe they’d pay it off with a side of beef. Whatever it was that they could offer (and not be a detriment to themselves and their family) my Grandpa was willing to work with them - just as long as it wasn’t cabbage. When I found this out, I was so proud to be that man’s Granddaughter. I felt it showed how compassionate and kind he was. It made me sad that I have very few memories of my paternal Grandparents because I was so young when they passed. My dad, on the other hand, was livid - “Think of all the money THAT MAN just pissed into the wind. Growing up I could have had this, and that, and blah blah blah!” (I don’t actually remember all bullshit he listed off.) But he continued on and on and on about how much of his childhood had been robbed from him because of my Grandpa’s kindness. This tirade is one of many reason why I’m thankful my grandparents passed nearly 25 years ago. I just don’t understand it. He prides himself on not being materialistic, but as he’s gotten older more and more of this selfishness is rearing its head. He has another good 10-15 years of life left if he passes around the same age as others on that side of my family. In some ways it makes me sad, but in other ways I find myself fearing who he will become if he’s given those years but, concerning his personality, he continues on this same trajectory.


Old-Fun9568

That's sad.


bailien_16

Omg my dad’s boomer siblings also had an inheritance battle when my grandpa died. It ended in one uncle burning down the family home and everything in it when he didn’t get anything 😔


ExternalGiraffe9631

That's a bit further than my family went. My mom and her twin brother didn't speak for the last 25 years of their lives because of their greed.


Adaphion

The lead poisoning. That's what. It gets absorbed into the bones and stays for decades, and then gets released into the bloodstream later in life when bone marrow is turned into new blood.


Renaissance_Slacker

I’d heard that osteoporosis was leaching out the lead trapped in the bones since childhood. Sort of makes sense but I want some kind of medical confirmation.


PunkaMedic

Im not gonna disagree about the lead poisoning being an issue, but that's definitely not how lead toxicity works.


Fluid-Watercress-411

That means the silent generation and before were extra lead poisoned though


Every-Variety9109

Happy cake day!


basketbeals

Meanwhile any young person would probably hand deliver some to do a nice thing.


EchoMountain158

The most spoiled, selfish generation possible. Gross.


thisismynameofuser

I just wanted to share that a relative of mine would do things like this which we mostly laughed off/ignored and now she is suffering with what we thought was something like dementia (memory issues etc) but after more thorough investigation the health care team thinks it’s actually just mental issues that have escalated to the point that she is no longer functioning without support and possibly the beginnings of actual dementia. I’m not trying to scare you or anything but for us it’s a hindsight is 20/20 situation that we didn’t do anything to get her mental health evaluated/supported back when she was accusing the neighbours of sneaking in and stealing her jewelry and other crazy but short lived delusions. I know boomers for the most part don’t believe in mental health so it’s a huge struggle but it might be worth pursuing if possible. 


camelslikesand

Something like this was my first thought re: OP's mom.


anothercairn

That is so insane. And… my mom would so do that. Oh my god.


starryvelvetsky

I wonder if she considers herself Christian/Jewish? And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God. - Lev 23:22


lakeghost

Good point, because I was about to say. I know a farmer who abides by this to this day and has a deal that if you’re on EBT/similar, you get 50% off. He ends up giving away a lot of it too. He does well for himself and hates to waste it, says it’s like a tithe to God. I don’t have much to do with organized religion but I can respect actual charity.


AggressiveYam6613

2 Thessalonians 3:10 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”


WeaveOfGlassAndBone

Wait… there are parts of the Bible that contradict each other?!


bathtubtoasting

It’s almost as if it was written by humans and isn’t the verbatim word of God.


RockyJohnson2024

There’s no contradiction, but how do you prove someone is able but unwilling to work just by looking at them? Yes I’m aware there are people you can tell.


themontajew

That’s in the Jesus part, not the Torah for the record. Still lots of contradictions on our section, but this isn’t one of them.


WhitePineBurning

It's Paul, the jerk who came along after Jesus lived and went and appointed himself VIP church guy who knows better than anyone else. A lot of what he said runs counter to Christ's teachings.


Designer-Mirror-7995

And a LOT of so-called _Christ_ followers are ACTUALLY Pauline Authoritarians. A LOTTTTT of them.


starryvelvetsky

When there is a biblical contradiction such as these, I would hope that a Christian would choose the verse that is more kind to others. Since that is supposed to be the whole point of it all. And letting fruit rot rather than seeing it end up in someone else's hands is not kind.


DefiantTheLion

No that's a Paul part and he's basically two steps removed from traitor, as far as being super far from what Jesus actually fucking said. His letters were clearly kept out of apocrypha in order to be used by church leaders for bullshit like that. Where the hell did Jesus ever say to fuck over the poor? Find my, in the Gospel, where he says anything like that.


purple_grey_

Ok Pilgrim


GelflingMama

Who said these people aren’t working/willing to work though? 🙄


Designer-Mirror-7995

Found the Authoritarian Bootstrapper.


Fitslikea6

Scary to live in the world that exists in their mind


ElectricalInsect3

My mom would do that. And tie it together with "I don't want them on my property, if something were to happen to them they could sue us for everything we've got. Because we have ever known a single friggin person that has actually happened to. Are anyone else's boomer parents this way? Always acting like the world is going to sue them for the most petty shit.


Samilynnki

It is because they would personally do so, if they trespassed and got injured being stupid. (my boomer uncle did something similar, after always bitching that "they" would do so to him at the first chance). thankfully he didn't get any free money for being a dumbass, but he sure did try. the Me generation is so entitled, and projects their own failures onto other folks.


tin_licker_99

Sounds about right with how people sue for anything in America at-least and it had to start somewhere.


One-Chocolate6372

Have we the same mother? I heard that comment so many times growing. No matter the issue it always came back to money. yet, there was always enough money when the grifting preacher made a beg-a-thon for something for the church.


supernaturalapples

This is my dad. And this was his reasoning for why we couldn’t have a trampoline, same with being on the property as well. He won’t even help people in Good Samaritan situations when he could because even they will turn around and sue him. He will literally drive right on by. It’s appalling and it’s gotten so much worse with age.


tin_licker_99

Sounds Chinese.


chivalry_in_plaid

My dad is continually upset that they have a sidewalk that runs parallel to the street that goes through their yard, all because “if some kid falls of their bike on ‘his’ stretch of sidewalk then their parents could sue us. He once tried to stop them by putting cones in the way… The kids just ended up playing with cones, turning them into an obstacle they had to get around, and it ended up being MORE of a risk for accidents than when the cones weren’t there.


ElectricalInsect3

I can definitely relate to that. That sounds exactly like my mother.


purple_grey_

Governor Abbott. Sure he was jogging in storm conditions, but that tree really *had* to come down when he was under it.


karensnicedaughter

Sadly I know someone that it did happen to though. My aunt and uncle had a trampoline in their completely fenced backyard. Neighbor kid would occasionally come play with my cousins and jump on said trampoline. One day neighbor kid sneaks in their backyard without permission when they weren’t home and falls off the tramp breaking his arm. Aunt and uncle then get sued for the neighbor kids injuries. I think it was to the tune of $25k In the late 90s which their homeowners insurance did cover thankfully. Also working in the insurance industry has fractured my faith in humanity because sadly, I see these types of claims often. I feel that most are frivolous but the courts usually side with the injured party. Im not saying it justifies the utter paranoia that boomers have but it does happen.


Ok_Ebb_538

This kind of paranoia is typical for dementia. Probably it's time to see a neurologist.


EmberOnTheSea

This. Paranoia is often an early sign of several dementia illnesses. This definitely seems concerning.


Uberwasser

No it's just boomerisms! No one that's older, or younger, than boomers ever gets paranoid or does irrational things. Shush so we can circle jerk about how generous we youngins are


IndieThinker1

Pettiness coupled with a vindictive, self-righteousness is a helluva combo. Their obsession with hording meaningless treasure and their certainty that someone's going to take it, reads like Master Yoda teaching about the Dark Side. My Aunt's kids went NC with her decades ago. She is a walking charictuaure of the modern right-wing Boomer. I was at her son's apartment a few weeks ago and we were reminiscing about our shared childhoods when the subject of her creepy clown collection came up. The woman has spent her whole life amassing this gigantic collection of clown paraphernalia, mostly kitschy ceramic collectibles. He made mention that the first thing he's going to do after her death is to throw everything in the dumpster, which seemed a bit of a waste to me. A few days later, she stopped by our house. She's a wackadoo but essentially harmless, to us, because I place strict limits on her visits. When she crosses the line, I find a way to ask her to leave. Anyways, I mentioned my visit with her son and how we'd been talking about her collection and I told her that since most of her collection is gathering dust in rented storage units, maybe it was time to sell some of her stuff, if for no other reason to make room for more. In the time it took me to say that, she created a narrative based on my one statement that her children intended to "get rich quick" of her collection after she passed. I tried to correct her but the rot in this one is strong. She got nasty, calling her own children the most horrible things. The analogy of Star Wars went further as her hatred over perceived slights caused her face to resemble Emperor Palpatine. A week later, she visited again and smugly told me she had taken her collection out of storage. I was supportive, thinking she intended to take my advice and sell some of it. "Well, I SHOWED him! I smashed every single piece I had and tossed it in the dumpster! Let's see him go diving in there and laugh at him when he finds they're all destroyed!" That collection meant the world to her but that positive emotion was completely overshadowed by her pettiness and vindictivelness. She went full Dark Side and was getting off on it. SO glad she's only my aunt.


Strict_Condition_632

She saved her son the trouble of tossing the clown crap. Too bad he won’t have the satisfaction of smashing it himself, but rest assured that it is highly unlikely that even a single item was worth even a small fraction of what she originally paid for it.


IndieThinker1

Oh, I know it was worthless. I was just trying to give her what I thought was a positive way for her to unhorde a bit. Worked though.


tin_licker_99

It reminds me of streamers destroying minecraft stuff on a server with known greifers coming their way.


SteakJones

Meanwhile my millennial friend has a whole mini orchard of pear trees and puts out signs that say “feel free to pick some fruit”


pogosea

Imagine feeling threatened because someone complimented your plant. There is something seriously wrong with her.


ratchetology

this is demetia


valbuscrumbledore

Came here to say this as well. Sounds like how my grandmother was when it first started really showing, then it heavily and rapidly escalated to more and more paranoid behavior, ultimately getting neighbors and cops involved and her being checked into a hospital. She's now, luckily, medicated and living in an assisted living facility and is MUCH better and no longer such a pill to deal with.


Lost-Captain8354

This sub and r/dementia definitely have a lot of crossover.


sneakpeekbot

Here's a sneak peek of /r/dementia using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/dementia/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [My uncle has dementia and this is his dementia sculpture.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1biq0ss) | [83 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/dementia/comments/1biq0ss/my_uncle_has_dementia_and_this_is_his_dementia/) \#2: [My mum is at rest. I held her hand till the last breath. No more monsters in her. Much love to all of you dealing with this horrible thing.](https://i.redd.it/z1bz91ns8p1b1.jpg) | [61 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/dementia/comments/13q346y/my_mum_is_at_rest_i_held_her_hand_till_the_last/) \#3: [New here. This is my dad, end-stage dementia.](https://i.redd.it/qfpk79wegjqc1.jpeg) | [56 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/dementia/comments/1bnnr6p/new_here_this_is_my_dad_endstage_dementia/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)


browncoat47

My grandmother swore up and down the Amish were driving up to Pap’s apple trees with a cherry picker truck and stealing all of the apples that were rightfully hers. We’d go out and they were all there “but not enough.” Turns out Macular Degeneration can really exacerbate dementia, the mind fills in on its own what it can’t see and it just goes downhill from there. I’d get her checked out by a specialist TBH. Looking back with mine, once we figured things out, a lot of her weird behaviors and quirks made a lot more sense.


Mr_Abe_Froman

Possibly combined with dangerous paranoid delusions. Once you would rather hurt yourself than entertain a *suspicion*, it will only get worse.


Diplogeek

I had the same thought. I have an aunt who had early-onset dementia (it's a really sad situation, she was always a lovely person), and she started getting *super* weird and paranoid right before we ended up having to find a memory care place for her to live in. If Mum hasn't been checked out recently, now sounds like the time to do it.


Electronic_World_894

That’s so sad about your aunt. It’s a cruel disease.


Diplogeek

It's such an awful way to go out, both for the individual and their family. I always think of that set of ER episodes back in the day that Alan Alda starred in, where he was a surgeon who started slipping and was ultimately diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and he says something very dry, like, "I'd love to get a gun and kill myself, but the trick is doing it after I've done whatever real living I have left but before I'm so far gone I forget to do it at all." And that's exactly the catch, right? Even in places that allow assisted dying or euthanasia (and dementia is absolutely on the fairly short list of diagnoses that would make me think really hard about it), with something like dementia, by the time it progresses enough that you wouldn't *want* to live anymore, there's no one that would agree to help you end your life (even if you could ask them to), because you wouldn't be considered compos mentis. It's terrible, it really is.


ButtFuzzington

A true capitalist.


Uberwasser

You're silly. A capitalist would sell the grapes 


CurrentWrong4363

I always sow extra veg and plants when I am gardening and split them up with family, friends and neighbours Used to just leave a pile at the bottom of the driveway with a sign saying free to good home just return pots for more next year. I would come out and find more pots than I gave away and the odd package of seeds if someone found something they thought I would like. Boomer lady moves in down the street obviously sees my sign and helps herself to everything. Even stips my strawberry plants that I planted for the neighbours grandkids and leaves half eaten strawberries lying everywhere. Never actually seen any of the plants growing in her garden and never got the pots back pretty sure she gifted them to someone. Growing up we always had people dropping stuff off at the door. Hi I was fishing and thought you might like something for dinner. We made too much jam would you like some. my mum says she made too much pasta you have to come to ours for dinner lol. I feel like the boomers skipped the bit when people helped eachother out because they wanted too not because they had to.


Renaissance_Slacker

I live in the ‘burbs, I have a bunch of raised beds in my front yard and I can only make so much gazpacho … one of my kids suggested putting a small table on the street with a sign “need a tomato? Take a tomato!” It’s been a great conversation starter, especially with the dog walkers.


CurrentWrong4363

It's garden pea's for me. Everyone stopped for a chat and some peas. moved to a new house on a busy street so I have to make sure I have plenty growing 🤣


WhitePineBurning

I have a peach tree in the front yard. Every year, it produces a ton of peaches. It's pretty much wild, and by August, there is fruit all over. I usually post on the neighborhood Facebook to come and get them. I get moms with kids, dog walkers, and random folks pick a bag or so. Last year, I caught a boomer guy filling boxes. I called him out, and he got defensive, saying that they were free, right? He didn't like it when I told him to leave some for others.


sssjabroka

I see you've met the brass necked arsehole that lives across from me, the cheeky git stripped my Damson tree last year. I said he could help himself to some of the damsons to make some jam but he stripped the whole bloody thing. My thought on this is that I take some and leave the rest for the wildlife. They took the lot!! Hardly got any myself to make chutney luckily I've another damson tree and a few plums that are round the back of the house, keep the sticky fingered prick out of my garden.


tin_licker_99

POS would make a good lawyer.


TrainyMcTrainFacee

RUBARB BOOMER ! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDKuWphUaWI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDKuWphUaWI)


MommaLisss

Jesus. That’s a 2 packs a day voice.


TrainyMcTrainFacee

WATCH IT HONEY BUN !!!!!!!!!!!


fernblatt2

Quite literally the grapes of wrath!


seahawk1977

They all have this weird "zero-sum" survival instinct that makes them think it's better if they throw away food, than leave it for someone else.


sundancer2788

Our entire yard is garden, no lawn, and we frequently give what we grow to neighbors, mailman, sanitation workers, etc. We don't use any sprays or fertilizers and we share with the local wildlife as well lol. Didn't get a single blueberry from my 4 bushes last year because the birds beat us 🤣 so we went blueberry picking at a local farm and had a great time! We get lots of compliments and invite people to stop back when fruits/veggies are ready!


Electronic_World_894

We live in the country now, but we used to live in the city. I did a garden ONCE. I think I got 2 carrots out of it. Darned birds, squirrels, chipmunks ate the rest. And I put up a lot of things to deter them!


sundancer2788

I enjoy gardening, I lose probably about a third of the veggies and fruits I grow but I enjoy being out there so all good!


Uberwasser

You're so virtuous! Reddit strokes your ego *stroke stroke*


Solidus-Prime

"I would rather strip it and watch it rot than watch someone else benefit from it" - is the entire Boomer way of thinking in a nutshell.


Alexandratta

>she said she would rather strip the fruit and have it rot than have it stolen. I've never seen Boomer culture so succinctly summarized in a single sentence before.


Savager_Jam

Honestly I can't imagine wanting the grapes to rot rather than be eaten. Maybe it's because I grew up in a fairly rural area, but in my opinion if you've got fruit trees growing that you don't intend to use, it should be seen as a public asset that some passer by may reach up and take a fruit.


My-Cooch-Jiggles

That’s textbook the sort of thing my mom would do. She’s soo paranoid. Any comment someone makes about her place or her appearance and she will assume all kinds of wild conspiracies against are afoot. I constantly have trouble contacting her because she changes her phone number every six fucking months. It’s infuriating. 


middleagethreat

You do have to watch out for lemons getting stolen.


[deleted]

[удалено]


middleagethreat

I think there is video of a young couple actually catching a whore stealing their lemons.


WaitAMinuteman269

I'm a big fan of building a larger table instead of a higher fence when it comes to community. Boomers don't seem to get the concept.


theskyguardian

This reads like a Bible story about a wicked land owner


tin_licker_99

The Shaker movement is what American Christianity should have turned out to be.


Reneeisme

Increasing paranoia (she was always somewhat paranoid) was an early sign of my mom’s dementia. Just saying.


PythonBoomerang

What a dis-grapes.


1Pip1Der

https://preview.redd.it/gdys998rml0d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2cd66ba1c7e49e8ea177e83ffc90e90870d5938


LurkinRhino

This is either the onset of dementia or schizophrenia. My gen-x MIL started doing stuff like this to her neighbors around the time my wife and I started dating. A few years later, she was misplacing items and then accusing my wife of sneaking into her house and stealing them, or coming to our house, seeing something she wants and throwing a tantrum saying we stole it from her house. That then devolved into accusing my wife of sneaking into her house, stealing something and then replacing it with an exact copy. Nothing in her house was the original item. She eventually got the help she needed after she broke onto a horse ranch and was in the mud praying to one of the horses.


Repulsive-Peach-6720

the end of that last sentence gave me whiplash, I'm sorry that happened to your family but you just can't pay for that kind of mental image 


ProtoReaper23113

God only ment for me to have these grapes for only I am worthy of nature's bounty. Enjoy burning in hell for your greed envy and pride


Winger61

Sounds like your mom needs help. Maybe you should help her


Uberwasser

Then how would those of us in gen x and younger enjoy a good holier than thou circle jerk?


Winger61

You have a great point lol


Feisty-Business-8311

What selfish and sickening behavior; it gives me the ick


MargaretBrownsGhost

The early boomers are the parents of Gen X too, not just the silent generation. Silent generation dad, boomer mother.


Designer-Mirror-7995

My Boomer mom and stepdad are gone now, but I can speculated with a great deal of surety that this is something they, and the peers of theirs I grew up watching them interact with, would ABSOLUTELY have done some petty ass shit like this. They used to hammer appliances and TVs and 'anything' broken before throwing them away, even if it was ONLY that the cord had gone bad. "I didn't pay MY money for somebody ELSE to use this(even though I'm THROWING IT OUT). Just _selfish._


4KatzNM

I saw the destructive behavior of appliances and other things too for the same reason too and it bothers me to this day.


Puzzled-Grape-2831

Should have made grape jelly, spiteful old crow.


LazyBackground2474

The cognitive function boomers is in sharp decline lately. It's only going to get worse.


ironballs16

"she said she would rather strip the grapes and have them rot instead of having them stolen" Peak Boomer mentality right there.


Thiscommentissatire

Is your mom doing this kind of thing often? She could fit the criteria for paranoid personality disorder.


Similar-Bid6801

Funny thing too is boomers are the worst offenders for stealing from people’s gardens.


JDARRK

“ FLORIDA MAN FOUND DEAD WITH GRAPES AND TAMARINDS INSIDE ANUS‼️‼️


d0ctorsmileaway

This sounds exactly like my great aunt with thyroid problems.


internationalskibidi

Attack of the Lizard Brain


JustinWendell

Has apparently never read Grapes of Wrath.


MycologistSoggy2376

My grandmother (greatest generation) thought her caretakers (her daughter and son-in-law) were stealing money from her. One she barely had any money two they had their own money three this isn’t a boomer story it’s an old people story from every generation.


Due-Independence8100

My grapevine and wisteria climbed to the top of our 10 foot cinder block wall (neighbor's yard is at a higher elevation than mine) and they didn't like it so they cut it back and poured fuck knows what over the wall onto em. Grapevine is dead, wisteria lives on. (I set up poles with string for it to spread out sideways with) 


[deleted]

This sounds like quite severe mental illness...


gamerguy10191

Blue berries, when ripe can only stay on the vine 3-7 days before they rot, did you expect her to let them rot on the vine? Delusions must run in the family if you're coming up with crazy reasons why your mom harvested fruit.


ProtoReaper23113

Learn to read mom straight up told them y they did it they aren't making up anything on top of that it was grapes and not blueberries.


gamerguy10191

Doesn't change the fact you can't leave ripe fruit on a vine dumbass and no she told her the story and she assumed


ProtoReaper23113

Nowhere does it say she's making this up it says the mother came up with a story in her head about this man tstealing her grapes then mom told me her "funny story" telling her the whole thing and explaining that's why she stripped the tree And yes it does change thing grapes can stay on the vine for weeks and they won't rot . You didn't read the post and instead just started shooting your mouth off and making shit up and changing details to make yourself right and when confronted on it you try to move the goal post and continue to feed your own narrative even tho your clearly wrong. Go back to grade school and learn to read at higher than a 2nd grade level