Family myth.
My family's exciting line of business is shoe-shops. My grandfather, who took over the business from his father, was notoriously right-wing.

There is a story - how true it is I don't know, but it has the whiff of plausibility at the very least - that at some point in the 50s, one of the people he employed as a shop assistant finally managed to scrape together the money to buy himself his first car. It was second-hand, and nothing special, but it was still a car.

According to the story, my grandfather's response was to cut his pay, on the grounds that shop assistants who can afford a car are clearly paid too much. We can't have the proles getting above themselves, can we?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 27 Mar 2014, 9:40, 6 replies)

There's prolly a germ of truth in this
except the version we heard as kids related to Lord Pilkington out of off of glass.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 27 Mar 2014, 10:39, closed)

I wouldn't discount the possibility
that my grandfather wasn't the originator of this, but heard about someone else doing it, and took that as inspiration. He was a man who refused to set foot in a Co-op because of its socialism...
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 27 Mar 2014, 10:55, closed)

i imagine the two of you would have gotten along just great over a pint....

( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 27 Mar 2014, 11:21, closed)

I think that we probably would, oddly enough.
From what I remember of him, he liked a decent argument more than he disliked lefties. Shame he didn't drink, really.

Except cider, which didn't count for some reason. A peculiar person.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 27 Mar 2014, 12:41, closed)

What a load of
cobblers.
(username failed moderation, Thu 27 Mar 2014, 11:03, closed)

Owned a car outright???
That's wealthy right there.
( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Thu 27 Mar 2014, 11:47, closed)