Sad story of a 85 year old man

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by Johnny Cashflow, 1st May, 2016.

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  1. Johnny Cashflow

    Johnny Cashflow Well-Known Member

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    Long.

    My dad and his family migrated over here in the early 70s from Calabria, Italy.

    They soon bought a share in chicken shop. Then sold that and focused on pizza shops.

    My dad has owned and run pizza shops for over 35 years.

    Pizza shop was once a very profitable buisness as much as 60% profit of the turnover. The hours were long 12 hours 7 days a week. There was serious money to be made.

    My dad always tells me the amount of money he used to waste gambling over the years.

    I started working in my family business in 2005 when I finished school.

    My dad has since semi retired. He owns his own home outright and a couple others bringing some decent rent.

    Dad always told me they were one of the only shops around in 1970s

    The only other one was another pizza shop called Johnnys Pizza.

    I had heard a lot about Johnny over the years from my Dad mostly and other people in the area. Mainly that ;

    -He was Italian
    -He had been there since 1970ish
    -He once owned 10 pizza shops at one time and was once offered $2m for all of the stores from investors but didn't sell. This was the 70's so $2m was serious $$
    -He had no family or wife
    -He was hard worker
    -Pizzas was the only job he knew


    Last night at work a little old Italian man came through the door. We were almost closed.

    He said in Italian accent "I want to speak to the boss I have some important buiness to discuss"

    A regular customer came through the door and started talking to him. I then realised the old man was Johnny, the legend himself!

    He started telling me how he was the 2nd pizza shop in SA!

    He told me about his many pizza shops.

    He told me he is still very busy man and is on the Italian radio once a week

    He started quizzing me to prove how good his mind is. When was South Australia founded he asked? What does the word Austalia mean?

    I guessed a couple of things that were wrong.

    He shook his head.

    He then started telling me I still have lots to learn and even though his body is old his mind is not much older than mine!

    I couldn't help but laugh not out of disrespect but I was actually excited to see this man in person.

    He then said that even though he is retired now he is still a very busy man and that he travels around to pizza shops helping them. And that was what he wanted to speak to the boss about.

    I asked him about his acerage and he said he had to subdivide and sell it to get out of debt.

    I asked him where he live and he said Elizabeth.

    It then came to me.

    This man is 85 years old. Had worked HARD for over 40 years. Had no family and had no money. And the reason he was here was to talk to someone, to feel appreciated and to possibly make some money.

    I felt suprised and sad at the same time.

    I dont know where it went wrong for this man.

    He was still healthy looking for a 85 year old!

    He still seemed happy despite his situation. I admired that.
     
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  2. Biz

    Biz Well-Known Member

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    See if he can go and help Dominoes make something edible.
     
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  3. Xenia

    Xenia Well-Known Member

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    Make him feel useful.
    Take his advice. You may be surprised what you can learn by keeping in touch
     
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  4. Dan Donoghue

    Dan Donoghue Well-Known Member

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    You would be surprised how little someone needs when they have memories like that and a sharp mind to be able to recall them.

    I get where you are coming from but don't feel sad for him, just give him the time and respect you feel he deserves and see how many of those memories you can get him to relive :).
     
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  5. Sonamic

    Sonamic Well-Known Member

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    Must have been a good chat meeting a legend in your field. With the elderly I personally try to take some time to listen to their stories, show interest and you may just learn something new. Once they're gone their stories and memories die with them. Respect for elders is also dying off as the generations progress. THAT to me is sad. We will all be in their shoes one day, that's an unstoppable fact.
     
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  6. R377

    R377 Well-Known Member

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    Where abouts where his pizza stores ?
     
  7. datto

    datto Well-Known Member

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    While he had you distracted with his story he didn't have an accomplice go behind your back and pinch something?

    An old Mt Druitt trick.
     
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  8. See Change

    See Change Well-Known Member

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    There's an property investing book around ,Ordinary Millionaires - Jim McKnight , released about 10 years ago , which interviewed ' Successful ' investors.

    Read it and they had been financially successful , but I didn't feel inspired by most of the lives they lead and what they had done . Worse case scenario was an immigrant who had ended up with around ? 7 mil , but had no family , not much in the way of an outside life and he was so grateful to Australia that he left his money to the government ...

    Cliff
     
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  9. Johnny Cashflow

    Johnny Cashflow Well-Known Member

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    His pizza shop was in Munno Para.

    He sold it about 5 years ago to a young girl who ran it into the ground in 12 months.
     
  10. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    Those from the 'Cool Breeze' will have a knife strapped to his leg, so his 'mate' won't get too far ;)
     
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  11. datto

    datto Well-Known Member

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    A bogan won't consider the consequences till it's too late.
     
  12. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    @datto - That requires planning not just opportunity.