Stories from older folks....

[bbowser]

On 10/31/2021 at 6:07 PM, Classicgas said:

Now that's funny and very true. 

I find it kind of sad, how uneducated society has become.

[bbowser]

I often think of my grandparents, born c. 1900s.  They saw us go from horse & buggy to the moon in their lifetimes.  

[bobthehobbyguy]

I remember reading an interesting article about a study of why in some people why so many people to live a long time. In various places there were reasons like diet and exercise. However there was  a more common thread. It seems that in the places where people achieve longevity it was those societies that valued the wisdom of the elderly and didn't consider them a burden.

[slusher]

2 hours ago, bbowser said:

I often think of my grandparents, born c. 1900s.  They saw us go from horse & buggy to the moon in their lifetimes.  

I think about how much have changed and how technology and things have changed since I was a kid in the mid 60s. I told my wife this weekend all the stores my parents shopped at is gone or will be soon..

[peteski]

48 minutes ago, slusher said:

I think about how much have changed and how technology and things have changed since I was a kid in the mid 60s. I told my wife this weekend all the stores my parents shopped at is gone or will be soon..

True, but not just that. Just look how far the technology has advanced from the '60 to now.
Rotary-dial phones and calling long distance collect, to smart phones that are more powerful than all the computers from the '60s combined.
Payphones - when was the last time you have seen one of those?  Who needs printed maps? GPS is built-in into many cars.
Who needs cash? Just wave your credit card or even smart-phone at the checkout.
Interactive CATV where you select what you want to watch on-demand.
Self-driving cars (well, almost here).
Electric cars that have a decent range and all the luxuries of IC powered cars.
Self flying drones capable of taking video or delivering payloads.
Remote controlled military drones capable of striking remote targets.
Libraries and encyclopedias? Who needs that with the Internet and Google.
Computer storage, from Kilobytes in the '60s, to very inexpensive Terabytes now

Air travel which was considered a big thing back then is more like a tightly-packed cattle-drive nowadays.  Social media networks allowing your ideas (political, or otherwise) to be instantly broadcast to millions of people.  Music distributed online as files, instead vinyl records with cool artwork and on the sleeve. Not everything is for the better . . .

This is just a small selection of things that changed from the '60s to now.

[Classicgas]

8 hours ago, bbowser said:

I find it kind of sad, how uneducated society has become.

Yep.  It's amazing how many college students don't even know what the 4th of July is about. 

[peteski]

16 hours ago, Classicgas said:

Yep.  It's amazing how many college students don't even know what the 4th of July is about. 

Isn't it about eating grilled food, and watching a fireworks show? 

[Tom Geiger]

A funny story.. Last week at work a guy in his 20s and I were cleaning up a storeroom. As we were crushing some old boxes by stomping on them, I remarked that I felt like Lucy and Ethel stomping on the grapes!  He just looked at me with a blank stare.. 

So I said, “On the old show, “I Love Lucy”?  “Lucille Ball?”   Nope! He had never heard of it!

[peteski]

11 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

So I said, “On the old show, “I Love Lucy”?  “Lucille Ball?”   Nope! He had never heard of it!

A sure sign that you are getting old Tom!   Ask him about 3 Stooges, or Little Rascals.

[slusher]

11 hours ago, peteski said:

A sure sign that you are getting old Tom!   Ask him about 3 Stooges, or Little Rascals.

He wouldn’t know who shot J.R. Ewing of Dallas..

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 hours ago, slusher said:

He wouldn’t know who shot J.R. Ewing of Dallas..

Or who George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were and why they're important either, most likely.

[peteski]

I agree on both counts.  The whole world is going to hell in a hand basket! Good thing that we don't live forever.  I can barely stand the way the world is now.  Time to go down to my workshop and immerse myself in a modeling projects to forget the crazy world around us.

Edited November 11, 2021 by peteski

[Tom Geiger]

8 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Or who George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were and why they're important either, most likely.

Easy! George Washington is famous from being on the dollar bill!  And Thomas Jefferson was on that TV show “The Jeffersons” with Archie Bunker

Edited November 11, 2021 by Tom Geiger

[peteski]

1 hour ago, Tom Geiger said:

Easy! George Washington is famous from being on the dollar bill!  And Thomas Jefferson was on that TV show “The Jeffersons” with Archie Bunker

LOL!  While the first example is spot-on, I suspect that not many young people know anything about "All in the Family" or its spinoffs.

[slusher]

9 hours ago, peteski said:

I agree on both counts.  The whole is going to hell in a hand basket! Good thing that we don't live forever.  I can barely stand the way the world is now.  Time to go down to my workshop and immerse myself in a modeling projects to forget the crazy world around us.

I do the same I go in my model room work on something model wise and watch on demand or dvd or listen too something and forget everything about the world . ? I’m feeling like a kid again when I’m in there..

[Tom Geiger]

7 hours ago, slusher said:

I do the same I go in my model room work on something model wise and watch on demand or dvd or listen too something and forget everything about the world . ? I’m feeling like a kid again when I’m in there..

Which is the whole point of having a hobby!  ?

[GLMFAA1]

I had work partners that one told me Philadelphia was a state and another spelled it starting with an 'F'.

Last few years I worked, my partners would ask me what the town was like when I grew up.

greg

[bobthehobbyguy]

20 hours ago, peteski said:

I agree on both counts.  The whole world is going to hell in a hand basket! Good thing that we don't live forever.  I can barely stand the way the world is now.  Time to go down to my workshop and immerse myself in a modeling projects to forget the crazy world around us.

The biggest cause of things degrading is the over reliance on technology.  For example thinking that spell check will find all your eerors. If you type the wrong word and its spelled correctly you aren't going to get an error.

Also studies using MRIs have shown that phone usage is changing the way the brain works. If you don't use a skill then you will lose the ability to use it. Would you be call someone without the aid of speed dial.  Do you even know their numbers. How many people know how to read a paper map?

[TonyK]

I like how it's called a "paper map" these days when it used to be a "map".

[Zippi]

I'll share this story.  When I was a kid and old enough to push my grandfathers reel mower (no engine) he let me start cutting the grass for him and would pay me 2 dollars a week.  Now granted the yard was pretty small but to me 2 bucks was 2 bucks.  Now my grandfather was set in his ways and had some rules about cutting the grass.  Rule #1 was to tell him when it got to hard to push the mower because that meant he needed to sharpen and oil the blades.  Rule #2 was never cut the grass down the middle of the rock driveway.  Now rule #1 among the other rules he had it gave my grandfather time out in the garage, chicken coop, or the loom room so he could nip on the bottle so to speak.  He had whiskey bottles stashed everywhere thinking my grandmother didn't know about them.  Rule #2 was a little odd, he told me that the old 57 Studebaker leaked a little oil and by leaving the grass tall down the middle of the driveway would wipe the oil off the bottom of the engine while driving down the long driveway to the garage.  Did it work....I couldn't tell you.  Just never crawled under the car even though it was my first car when I turned 16.  Moral of the story I guess is I always keep the blade on my lawnmower sharpened and check for any leaks on our vehicles and last but not least, although I don't hide whiskey bottle around the house I do hide money from the wife.  Guess I learned something from my grandfather.                 

[JollySipper]

On 11/11/2021 at 11:56 AM, Zippi said:

He had whiskey bottles stashed everywhere thinking my grandmother didn't know about them.

I had a Grandad like that..... He liked 'Old Crow'. Whenever he would make his run to the ABC store, she would always say "There he goes, going to Anna Belle Cook's...."

[Tom Geiger]

4 hours ago, JollySipper said:

I had a Grandad like that..... He liked 'Old Crow'. Whenever he would make his run to the ABC store, she would always say "There he goes, going to Anna Belle Cook's...."

My grandfather was a good old guy who always took me places as a kid.  Those trips always included random stops in bars.. I’d wait outside while he ran in to use the restroom. I’d look in and see him standing at the bar having a drink.. he’d say, “You can’t use their restroom without buying something!”  Sounded reasonable to young me. At eight I knew enough not to tell my grandma! ?