Then and now

[Nomad]

Thinking of inflation , peoples struggles, can’t pay their college loans etc. got me thinking of my upbringing . I was born in ‘59 two sisters two parents who built a 1100 SF ranch house in Webster ,on a triple lot they bought off my Moms dad , who had a vineyard there . Dad worked at Kodak, Mom stayed at home till I was in like 4 or 5th grade and could take care of myself then she got a job .

Mom cooked from scratch , made my sisters dresses and patched my jeans . When you got a hole in your socks ,she put a light burb in it and sewed up,the hole , she reused tin foil , lunch bags and so forth . Hand soap ? You know when it’s down to a sliver and you throw it out ,she saved them ,put them in a mesh bag, tied off the end ,and then you washed with that. She never bought cookies ,she made them , snacks well popcorn ,an apple or orange , and an occasional half gallon of ice cream , and kids weren’t  fat imagine that .

We had a garden 150x70 feet , Dad took vacation time come harvest , mom canned and froze a lot of food, dad took a deer every now and then. 
 

oh our house had a stone driveway for many years , paved ones were a luxury . Dad would cash his check and give my mom some money which she put in labeled envelopes, one was “ fish fry “ so after a few weeks we could go  have a fish fry dinner . Today people eat out on a whim a couple times a week .

We weren’t poor, dad made good money , but people knew the value of it . Dad built our addition , painted the cars did all the mechanical work though .

During the ‘70s gas crisis he car pooled with two,other guys ,and continued that for many years . I had a total of three bikes my entire upbringing , a baseball glove bat, football , basketball and a BB gun , can’t recall much else .

Fast forward to,today, young folks can’t repay their loans …. But they have iPhones , three steaming services, gym membership , a jet ski , take vacations ,new sneakers a few times a year oh and craft beer of course  .

[Versatile_Hunter]

1 hour ago, Nomad said:

Thinking of inflation , peoples struggles, can’t pay their college loans etc. got me thinking of my upbringing . I was born in ‘59 two sisters two parents who built a 1100 SF ranch house in Webster ,on a triple lot they bought off my Moms dad , who had a vineyard there . Dad worked at Kodak, Mom stayed at home till I was in like 4 or 5th grade and could take care of myself then she got a job .

Mom cooked from scratch , made my sisters dresses and patched my jeans . When you got a hole in your socks ,she put a light burb in it and sewed up,the hole , she reused tin foil , lunch bags and so forth . Hand soap ? You know when it’s down to a sliver and you throw it out ,she saved them ,put them in a mesh bag, tied off the end ,and then you washed with that. She never bought cookies ,she made them , snacks well popcorn ,an apple or orange , and an occasional half gallon of ice cream , and kids weren’t  fat imagine that .

We had a garden 150x70 feet , Dad took vacation time come harvest , mom canned and froze a lot of food, dad took a deer every now and then. 
 

oh our house had a stone driveway for many years , paved ones were a luxury . Dad would cash his check and give my mom some money which she put in labeled envelopes, one was “ fish fry “ so after a few weeks we could go  have a fish fry dinner . Today people eat out on a whim a couple times a week .

We weren’t poor, dad made good money , but people knew the value of it . Dad built our addition , painted the cars did all the mechanical work though .

During the ‘70s gas crisis he car pooled with two,other guys ,and continued that for many years . I had a total of three bikes my entire upbringing , a baseball glove bat, football , basketball and a BB gun , can’t recall much else .

Fast forward to,today, young folks can’t repay their loans …. But they have iPhones , three steaming services, gym membership , a jet ski , take vacations ,new sneakers a few times a year oh and craft beer of course  .

That’s an important perspective. Thanks for sharing. It’s also important to consider the cost of a university degree in the ‘60s vs today. We were fortunate - my sib and I had merit scholarships and our education debt has never been burdensome. That said, reigning in tuition costs should be as important a consideration as our ability to own ARs at the ballot.  

Edited June 8, 2022 by Versatile_Hunter

[Lawdwaz]

1 hour ago, Nomad said:

Thinking of inflation , peoples struggles, can’t pay their college loans etc. got me thinking of my upbringing . I was born in ‘59 two sisters two parents who built a 1100 SF ranch house in Webster ,on a triple lot they bought off my Moms dad , who had a vineyard there . Dad worked at Kodak, Mom stayed at home till I was in like 4 or 5th grade and could take care of myself then she got a job .

Mom cooked from scratch , made my sisters dresses and patched my jeans . When you got a hole in your socks ,she put a light burb in it and sewed up,the hole , she reused tin foil , lunch bags and so forth . Hand soap ? You know when it’s down to a sliver and you throw it out ,she saved them ,put them in a mesh bag, tied off the end ,and then you washed with that. She never bought cookies ,she made them , snacks well popcorn ,an apple or orange , and an occasional half gallon of ice cream , and kids weren’t  fat imagine that .

We had a garden 150x70 feet , Dad took vacation time come harvest , mom canned and froze a lot of food, dad took a deer every now and then. 
 

oh our house had a stone driveway for many years , paved ones were a luxury . Dad would cash his check and give my mom some money which she put in labeled envelopes, one was “ fish fry “ so after a few weeks we could go  have a fish fry dinner . Today people eat out on a whim a couple times a week .

We weren’t poor, dad made good money , but people knew the value of it . Dad built our addition , painted the cars did all the mechanical work though .

During the ‘70s gas crisis he car pooled with two,other guys ,and continued that for many years . I had a total of three bikes my entire upbringing , a baseball glove bat, football , basketball and a BB gun , can’t recall much else .

Fast forward to,today, young folks can’t repay their loans …. But they have iPhones , three steaming services, gym membership , a jet ski , take vacations ,new sneakers a few times a year oh and craft beer of course  .

So who or what has caused things to be the way they are today in your opinion?

[SpacemanSpiff]

9 minutes ago, Lawdwaz said:

So who or what has caused things to be the way they are today in your opinion?

The internet. 

[moog5050]

50 minutes ago, Lawdwaz said:

So who or what has caused things to be the way they are today in your opinion?

Good question.  I am sure it’s a combo of many things.  Values have changed for the worse and technology has led to less parental influence and more peer influence.   Not necessarily a good thing for youth.  Then again, some parents should not be parenting.   

[Lawdwaz]

50 minutes ago, SpacemanSpiff said:

The internet. 

Yes and see above.

[SpacemanSpiff]

8 minutes ago, Lawdwaz said:

Yes and see above.

Also the breakdown of the family unit. Most folks dont even have time to eat supper together these days. 

[rob-c]

Not all kids young adults are irresponsible, I have a feeling most of the folks on here that their kids are successful. I look back and sometimes think we/I were a bit too hard on our boys . But then I look at them and see how successful and independent they both are . One thing I’ll never forget is when both boys had gone to college and they both were shocked at the amount of kids that didn’t know how to wash their cloths. I had the boys washing their clothes since about 9-10 years old , parents are doing no favors to their kids now a day by babying them . 

Edited June 9, 2022 by rob-c

[Pygmy]

When I was a kid at home and acted up, I got my ass kicked....

When I acted up on the school bus, I got my ass kicked....

When I acted up at school I got my ass kicked....

When I screwed up in the service, I got my ass kicked...

After awhile I decided that  following the rules was easier than getting my ass kicked...

Possibly a general lack of respect  for authority has something to do with today's problems..

[Lawdwaz]

16 minutes ago, Pygmy said:

When I was a kid at home and acted up, I got my ass kicked....

When I acted up on the school bus, I got my ass kicked....

When I acted up at school I got my ass kicked....

When I screwed up in the service, I got my ass kicked...

After awhile I decided that  following the rules was easier than getting my ass kicked...

Possibly a general lack of respect  for authority has something to do with today's problems..

1000000000%

[Versatile_Hunter]

1 hour ago, rob-c said:

Not all kids young adults are irresponsible, I have a feeling most of the folks on here that their kids are successful. I look back and sometimes think we/I were a bit too hard on our boys . But then I look at them and see how successful and independent they both are . One thing I’ll never forget is when both boys had gone to college and they both were shocked at the amount of kids that didn’t know how to wash their cloths. I had the boys washing their clothes since about 9-10 years old , parents are doing no favors to their kids now a day by babying them . 

Meh, I too did my laundry from a young age. But I wouldn’t uphold that as a formative life skill. The same goes for anything that can be learned on YouTube in under 3 mins. 

I feel kids today are better served exercising discipline via high skill tasks, such as learning how to code at a young age. Or learning to track deer. Running a lemonade stand or selling Girl Scout cookies are a veritable waste of time. 

I suspect a lot of the general nostalgia has a whiff of historial negationism.  

[Jeremy K]

3 hours ago, Versatile_Hunter said:

That’s an important perspective. Thanks for sharing. It’s also important to consider the cost of a university degree in the ‘60s vs today. We were fortunate - my sib and I had merit scholarships and our education debt has never been burdensome. That said, reigning in tuition costs should be as important a consideration as our ability to own ARs at the ballot.  

So should giving students loans to get a degree that literally has zero job openings available. 

[Dinsdale]

these dang kids today with their automobiles and dancing the lindy. why you can see a girls knees now and ladies can vote!

back in my day a horse was just fine and it’d plow the back forty; could get me a sassparilla at the country store for a penny.

[Shoots100]

54 minutes ago, Versatile_Hunter said:

Meh, I too did my laundry from a young age. But I wouldn’t uphold that as a formative life skill. The same goes for anything that can be learned on YouTube in under 3 mins. 

I feel kids today are better served exercising discipline via high skill tasks, such as learning how to code at a young age. Or learning to track deer. Running a lemonade stand or selling Girl Scout cookies are a veritable waste of time. 

I suspect a lot of the general nostalgia has a whiff of historial negationism.  

To your parents, you learning to do the laundry was an affirmation that you could be trusted to do something and that they could teach you to do other things that required higher thinking and skill levels.

Kids now a days want to start everything at the top tier pay scale, without doing the ground work in the trenches to get there. 

Maybe parents should let their kids be kids first, before they're sent to code school and become boring pasty skin nerds that get beat up by girl scouts ?

 

 

[Splitear]

16 minutes ago, Shoots100 said:

To your parents, you learning to do the laundry was an affirmation that you could be trusted to do something and that they could teach you to do other things that required higher thinking and skill levels.

Kids now a days want to start everything at the top tier pay scale, without doing the ground work in the trenches to get there. 

Maybe parents should let their kids be kids first, before they're sent to code school and become boring pasty skin nerds that get beat up by girl scouts ?

 

 

I agree with the first part of your statement, but I don’t see anything wrong with kids learning valuable work/life skills like programming and codling. One of the most successful programs we have in our county 4–H is our Robotics program, and 3 members of the team we just sent to world championships live on dairy farms and have every intention of staying in agriculture. However, they can see that technology is and will continue to play a huge role in agriculture and beyond. Problem solving is problem solving, whether it’s fixing a carburetor or sniffing out a bad piece of code. 
Don’t get me wrong, I find a lot of value in manual skills, but I’m thankful for those “pasty skin nerds” who have made my life easier through technology. Sure it has its downsides, but when you think about it, what we have today is pretty amazing. 
“Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days”. 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Splitear

[rob-c]

9 hours ago, Versatile_Hunter said:

Meh, I too did my laundry from a young age. But I wouldn’t uphold that as a formative life skill. The same goes for anything that can be learned on YouTube in under 3 mins. 

I feel kids today are better served exercising discipline via high skill tasks, such as learning how to code at a young age. Or learning to track deer. Running a lemonade stand or selling Girl Scout cookies are a veritable waste of time. 

I suspect a lot of the general nostalgia has a whiff of historial negationism.  

Formative life skill,  no. But  a basic life skill , yes. And as Shoots 100 said it teaches kids to walk before they can run . And do a Google search of  U.S. millionaires/ billionaires that ran lemonade stands  etc. when they were kids, you’ll find lots of them that wasted their time. 

Edited June 9, 2022 by rob-c

[crappyice]

Don't parents always want things better for their kids? Maybe "our" definition of better is not the correct way. Better should not mean easier or without struggle. If kids don't struggle when the stakes don't matter (fixing their bike, fight with their friend, nothing to drink and no $.25 for a quarter water, etc) when they do matter (need a job, difficulty with boss or spouse, serious illness, make mortgage payment, etc) they quit!
Lack of GRIT, lack of communication (just ask Google instead of talking it out, debating, bantering), lack of family UNITY cause it's easier and more accepted to walk away than figure it out an COMMIT.
Constant fingerpointing of "us vs them"


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[Paula]

We had rules, summer time tv was not allowed on and we had to be outside by 9am. We could come back for lunch but we had to go back outside and we better not have been late for dinner.

We got our ass beat for everything that we did wrong. I had my own apartment at 16 because I got sick of getting my ass beat.

We had rules growing up and got in trouble if we stepped out of line but our parents were always there to stick up for us if need be, and that included School and or neighbor bullies

[Jeremy K]

58 minutes ago, Paula said:

We had rules, summer time tv was not allowed on and we had to be outside by 9am. We could come back for lunch but we had to go back outside and we better not have been late for dinner.

We got our ass beat for everything that we did wrong. I had my own apartment at 16 because I got sick of getting my ass beat.

We had rules growing up and got in trouble if we stepped out of line but our parents were always there to stick up for us if need be, and that included School and or neighbor bullies

Well we have 97 different genders and counting .

[Versatile_Hunter]

1 hour ago, Paula said:

 

We got our ass beat for everything that we did wrong. I had my own apartment at 16 because I got sick of getting my ass beat.

 

The good old days!

[grampy]

Growing up with a single mom with seven kids, we had to learn self reliance at an early age. These days, too many rely on someone else. Like the government, family members, or any option they can find that's available. We were told to "figure it out" on our own. That was the best thing I learned growing up. When times got bad, I "figured" something out to get us through. Lots of times we may not have had extra money. But we had what we needed. "Figuring it out" seems to be a dying art now days for too many.

[left field]

15 hours ago, Nomad said:

Fast forward to,today, young folks can’t repay their loans …. But they have iPhones , three steaming services, gym membership , a jet ski , take vacations ,new sneakers a few times a year oh and craft beer of course  .

And avocado toast.

11 hours ago, Versatile_Hunter said:

Meh, I too did my laundry from a young age. But I wouldn’t uphold that as a formative life skill. The same goes for anything that can be learned on YouTube in under 3 mins. 

I feel kids today are better served exercising discipline via high skill tasks, such as learning how to code at a young age. Or learning to track deer. Running a lemonade stand or selling Girl Scout cookies are a veritable waste of time. 

I suspect a lot of the general nostalgia has a whiff of historial negationism.  

Quote

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

~ Lazurus Long

 

[crappyice]

Thinking of inflation , peoples struggles, can’t pay their college loans etc. got me thinking of my upbringing . I was born in ‘59 two sisters two parents who built a 1100 SF ranch house in Webster ,on a triple lot they bought off my Moms dad , who had a vineyard there . Dad worked at Kodak, Mom stayed at home till I was in like 4 or 5th grade and could take care of myself then she got a job .
Mom cooked from scratch , made my sisters dresses and patched my jeans . When you got a hole in your socks ,she put a light burb in it and sewed up,the hole , she reused tin foil , lunch bags and so forth . Hand soap ? You know when it’s down to a sliver and you throw it out ,she saved them ,put them in a mesh bag, tied off the end ,and then you washed with that. She never bought cookies ,she made them , snacks well popcorn ,an apple or orange , and an occasional half gallon of ice cream , and kids weren’t  fat imagine that .
We had a garden 150x70 feet , Dad took vacation time come harvest , mom canned and froze a lot of food, dad took a deer every now and then. 
 
oh our house had a stone driveway for many years , paved ones were a luxury . Dad would cash his check and give my mom some money which she put in labeled envelopes, one was “ fish fry “ so after a few weeks we could go  have a fish fry dinner . Today people eat out on a whim a couple times a week .
We weren’t poor, dad made good money , but people knew the value of it . Dad built our addition , painted the cars did all the mechanical work though .
During the ‘70s gas crisis he car pooled with two,other guys ,and continued that for many years . I had a total of three bikes my entire upbringing , a baseball glove bat, football , basketball and a BB gun , can’t recall much else .
Fast forward to,today, young folks can’t repay their loans …. But they have iPhones , three steaming services, gym membership , a jet ski , take vacations ,new sneakers a few times a year oh and craft beer of course  .

And yet you have quite successful children(accountant and nurse I think you mentioned before), assuming they have all those "evils" too.
So the trick/question is:
How to raise the next generation to hold onto values of the past while living in a world of advanced technologies?

Family dinner, unplugging and being physically active, and church/spirituality of any kind has been our hope to hit those values.


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[ApexerER]

I was born in 1973.....My Mom was home until my brother and i were old enough to get off the bus and come home for a few hours by ourselves and then she went back to teaching. We had dinner at the table every night. Going out to dinner, even McDonalds was a treat. So was ordering Pizza....Now we do that all the time....In the summer i was gone with the neighborhood kids from the second I got up until it was time for dinner. Playing in the woods, Army, toy guns etc....Sometimes I could go back out after dinner....

The biggest change IMO is the complete lack of respect for anyone with authority.....From parents, teachers, police etc.  I knew if i got in trouble in school my punishment at home was going to be way worse than anything the school was going to do to me...I never dealt with the police.....I loved but feared and respected my parents.....Still do today...the fear is different, just don't want to let them down...

If i get pulled over, i deserved it and the LEO will never get anything from me other than yes sir, no sir.... 

I have no idea what has caused this lack of respect for parents, elders, teachers, law enforcement etc, or how to fix it but there isn't a bigger problem IMO...

[left field]

1 hour ago, ApexerER said:

I have no idea what has caused this lack of respect for parents, elders, teachers, law enforcement etc, or how to fix it but there isn't a bigger problem IMO...

Let's Go, Brandon?