I'm wondering why she couldn't apply for loans. I actually had about 100,000 dollars of loans and Pell Grants. I'm still paying them back (well, not the grants) and I've been out of school for 10 years.

I guess it would take out a plot for the show. Or her parents were didn't have that much money and Jo should have gone to a community college first. College was a lot cheaper for an average family to afford then than it was 10 years ago to today.

My college charged $17,000 in tuition when I graduated in 1988. Most American families made at least that much. Not true today.

True. I also thought that they may not want to lend to folks like the Polnacheks (sp) that have below average income and no collateral.

I actually had FAFSA loans and they only lend to poor people like I was at the time. And, they're also government loans and only lend to those over 25. I was 29 at the time. My parents didn't pay anything. I paid it all.

In reality, Jo would have gone to a state or NYC CUNY school back then.

Agreed. I think Langley (is it fictitious?) is supposed to be Ivy League. After all, Blair is going there.

Agreed. I think Langley (is it fictitious?) is supposed to be Ivy League. After all, Blair is going there.

There is a Langley College in the UK and not the US. I think Langley was suppose to be like Bates College (not to be confused with Bates Academy), Hamilton College, Williams College, and other Northeast Liberal Arts colleges. Not Ivy League, but close.

I went to college in the same time frame as Jo and Blair so I did know what it was like then. I did run into girls who were very close in representation to Blair, Molly, Sue Ann and Cindy. I never encountered any girls like Jo, but there were guys like her.

Yeah, a lot of ivy up there, too. Yale, Harvard, Princeton, etc. I grew up 45 minutes from Yale in the middle of CT, so I thought it was something like it.

I'm wondering why she couldn't apply for loans. I actually had about 100,000 dollars of loans and Pell Grants. I'm still paying them back (well, not the grants) and I've been out of school for 10 years.

A bank might not have wanted to loan 100,000 (or some other astronomical amount) to Jo or her mother, considering Jo's lack of credit, and Rose was working as a waitress. The average NYC waitress was making $4.17 per hour in NYC in 1983; (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924078669342&view=1up&seq=74)at 40 hours per week, Rose would have made $8,673.60 per year... not a lot. even if tips doubled her wages, that would only be $17,347. Lang College, a private four-year college in New York which I suspect was what they based Langley on, was charging $19,000 in tuition (in 1998) (https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/tuition-and-fees).

Like you, I received Pell Grants. My undergraduate degree tuition was $19,000 per year, even after scholarships.

Yeah, but tips usually more than double the wages, that's why they get away with paying so low. This is especially true for those in tourist areas like New York ( I'm in New Orleans and worked in a restaurant last year ).

The sad thing is the restaurant wage in neighboring Connecticut was raised to only $4.25 by 2000. Here in Louisiana, it was $2.13 an hour in 2019!

As far Jo's mom, if she didn't claim all her tips ( which most servers don't because taxes come out of your hourly wage ), it wouldn't matter, because her tax forms would show she makes even less than she does.

Yeah, but tips usually more than double the wages, that's why they get away with paying so low. This is especially true for those in tourist areas like New York ( I'm in New Orleans and worked in a restaurant last year ).

But they lived in a bad, crime-ridden neighborhood. Who is going to play tourist in the slums?


The sad thing is the restaurant wage in neighboring Connecticut was raised to only $4.25 by 2000. Here in Louisiana, it was $2.13 an hour in 2019!

As far Jo's mom, if she didn't claim all her tips ( which most servers don't because taxes come out of your hourly wage ), it wouldn't matter, because her tax forms would show she makes even less than she does.

Yep.

Rose found herself in a situation where she was living paycheck to paycheck. It's clear Rose wanted something better for Jo. It's also clear that Jo was worried about the cost. But without a good college education, Jo might have ended up like Rose, struggling to make ends meet.

I'm glad Charlie stepped up.

Yeah, but tips usually more than double the wages, that's why they get away with paying so low. This is especially true for those in tourist areas like New York ( I'm in New Orleans and worked in a restaurant last year ).

The sad thing is the restaurant wage in neighboring Connecticut was raised to only $4.25 by 2000. Here in Louisiana, it was $2.13 an hour in 2019!

As far Jo's mom, if she didn't claim all her tips ( which most servers don't because taxes come out of your hourly wage ), it wouldn't matter, because her tax forms would show she makes even less than she does.

Generally the tips that Rose worked in wouldn't be that great. The prices on the menu probably were not high and the clientele probably came from low income areas as well. I picture Rose being like Alice and struggling to raise a single child ironically both children were McKeon kids.

The prices on the menu probably were not high

As long as there was no hair on the menu! :lol:

As long as there was no hair on the menu! :lol:




I would have had the same disgusted reaction as BLAIR: if i saw a hair on the menu, i'd probably walk out of the restaurant lol!!!!!:eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2:

I would have had the same disgusted reaction as BLAIR: if i saw a hair on the menu, i'd probably walk out of the restaurant lol!!!!!:eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2:

Yes. Me, too.

If I were Rose, though, I'd take the train (subway) to the city (Manhattan). But, then again, I forget that the downtown area, like Times Square, was a dump in 1983. And, Brooklyn certainly wasn't a hipster mecca at that time, either, if they existed at all.

I would have had the same disgusted reaction as BLAIR: if i saw a hair on the menu, i'd probably walk out of the restaurant lol!!!!!:eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2::eek2:

It was on the menu, not on a plate or something.