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Interesting evening


Forty  Rod SASS 3935

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I had a couple of young men from my church over for supper tonight.  Nice, well mannered young men in their early twenties.  In the course of two hours I learned that they don't live in the same world I do.

 

Both are from pro-gun, game hunting families, but neither was familiar with single or double action revolvers, bolt or lever action rifles. or double barrel shotguns.

 

Neither could figure out how to work a slide bar manual address book nor had either one had ever been around old metal or plastic slat Venetian blinds. 

 

They were befuddled by a simple dial telephone, cassette and CD players, but both were conversant with DVDs.

 

Both were pretty handy with gas ovens and microwaves, but couldn't figure out a frying pan or stove top pot.

 

I gave up trying to teach them how to load a dish washer.

 

I showed then some antique telescopes and binoculars and they didn't even grasp the concept of making them work.  "How do you focus them without a battery?"

 

They didn't understand how my radiant room heaters worked.

 

It took them five minutes to figure out a mechanical kitchen timer worked.

 

They were amazed at my old pocket and wrist watches.

 

And more.  LOTS more.

 

Earlier in the evening I was at the grocery store and thought it might be classy to take some fresh cut flowers home for the kitchen table.  After going to a Frys, two Walmart's, a Costco, a Sprout's and a pair of flower shops, I found that modern flowers have very little if  any scent, and 99% of them are artificially, VERY obviously artificially colored.

 

I stopped at Hobby Lobby and bought some plastic flowers.  They actually look better and with some aerosol spray I got some passably pleasant scents.

 

I don't have a fireplace, so we put on a yule log DVD with some crappy Christmas music.   (Some pieces should not be played with nothing but woodwinds......said a life long alto and tenor sax player.)  I have a year to find a better one.

 

 

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They have probably never seen or used a cassette tape either. 
 

Do you realize most twenty something’s have probably never seen a pay phone, answering machines, cordless phones, film cameras, cars without remote locks, VCRs, etc.?

 

Dang, I hate it when someone makes me feel older, but I really hate it when I do it to myself. :lol:

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Can you imagine how they would respond to a party line or an actual phone operator??

 

Imagine their response to an old style ratcheting bumper jack!!

 

 I would love to be there when one of them encountered a ‘60 Chevy with a “three on the tree”!!!

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I suspect you would be befuddled with their video game equipment and internet skills.  Make friends with these guys; it will be good for all concerned.

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I’m sitting here watching TV. There’s an X-Box 360 on the shelf below the big screen.  There’s an X-Box series S in one of the bedrooms and two laptops and a desktop scattered around the house.  I can muddle through the game systems and the desktop and one laptop are mine.  There’s a very modern automotive scanner in my shop and I’m assembling a wifi/bluetooth stereo system out there too.

 

 I AM seriously challenged on much of this modern stuff, but I’m NOT completely ignorant of it.

 

My grandson can drive that “three on the tree” and a “granny” four speed too.  Soon enough, both of the grandsons will be able to weld and burn.  Learning is in their DNA!

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2 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I had a couple of young men from my church over for supper tonight.  Nice, well mannered young men in their early twenties.  I the course of two hours I learned that they don't liv in the same world I do.

 

Both are from pro-gun, game hunting families, but neither was familiar with single or double action revolvers, bolt or lever action rifles. or double barrel shotguns.

 

Neither could figure out how to work a slide bar manual address book nor had either one had ever been around old metal or plastic slat Venetian blinds. 

 

They were befuddled by a simple dial telephone, cassette and CD players, but both were conversant with DVDs.

 

Both were pretty handy with gas ovens and microwaves, but couldn't figure out a frying pan or stove top pot.

 

I gave up trying to teach them how to load a dish washer.

 

I showed then some antique telescopes and binoculars and they didn't even grasp the concept of making them work.  "How do you focus them without a battery?"

 

They didn't understand how my radiant room heaters worked.

 

It took them five minutes to figure out a mechanical kitchen timer worked.

 

They were amazed at my old pocket and wrist watches.

 

And more.  LOTS more.

 

Earlier in the evening I was at the grocery store and thought it might be classy to take some fresh cut flowers home for the kitchen table.  After going to a Frys, two Walmart's, a Costco, a Sprout's and a pair of flower shops, I found that modern flowers have very little if  any scent, and 99% of them are artificially, VERY obviously artificially colored.

 

I stopped at Hobby Lobby and bought some plastic flowers.  They actually look better and with some aerosol spray I got some passably pleasant scents.

 

I don't have a fireplace, so we put on a yule log DVD with some crappy Christmas music.   (Some pieces should not be played with nothing but woodwinds......said a life long alto and tenor sax player.)  I have a year to find a better one.

 

 

A generation of one-trick ponies.   

 

All of the young folks can work every feature of a phone or tablet.  But that has been their sole focus.  They learned to do very little else. 

 

Without a calculator or Internet connection, they can't tell you the number of Sq, feet in a 2' x 2' square.   I once interviewed a young man and asked him to weigh a coffee cup (the job involved weighing fish).  He looked at the gram scale and said he didn't know how to weigh in metric.  

 

It isn't just the Gen Z people.  Their coddled Millennial parents aren't much broader. 

Knowing only one thing very well seems to be a characteristic of those generations. 

 

You meet a nice seeming young person and ask what their interest is or what career plans they have. At least 70%  say "computer this" or "computer that".   Maybe that many I.T. people will be needed.  Who can say.  But somebody had better teach them how to take the screws out of a computer cabinet.  Many have never touched a screwdriver. 

 

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39 minutes ago, Dusty Devil Dale said:

.   Maybe that many I.T. people will be needed.  Who can say.  But somebody had better teach them how to take the screws out of a computer cabinet.  Many have never touched a screwdriver. 

 

 

  ........ I'd wager that even less have seen a screwdriver, ........ or even know that it's not a drink .....  :mellow:

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3 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

Can you imagine how they would respond to a party line or an actual phone operator??

 

Imagine their response to an old style ratcheting bumper jack!!

 

 I would love to be there when one of them encountered a ‘60 Chevy with a “three on the tree”!!!

The transmission wouldn't matter, they couldn't start the carbureted engine in December.

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44 minutes ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

 

  ........ I'd wager that even less have seen a screwdriver, ........ or even know that it's not a drink .....  :mellow:

The 20yo neighbor girl had a screwdriver.  She was unsuccessfully trying to hammer a nail into a wood slat with it.

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I woke up this morning thinking about The Encyclopedia Brittanica. I must have been dreaming about it. I was also thinking about a sci-fi story about a janitor that could perform the feat of doing math without a calculator in a world where everyone used calculators. In researching the name of that story I found one by Isaac Asimov written in 1958 that I had forgotten about called “The Feeling of Power”.

In this one a technician figures out how to do math on paper lessening the need for computers aboard spacecraft and saving lots of money in the war effort. He commits suicide because his rediscovery is used for war. 
I would hate to see books disappear. All it would take is a huge magnetic storm from the Sun and all existing electronics would cease to operate. A society relying on electronics for everything would be devastated. 
 

 

Over the years here in the Saloon we have often mused about what life would be like if we went back in time to the old west. 
How many of us here could appear in 1880 with no preparation whatsoever and know what it takes to survive or even function?

Could you properly harness a horse and wagon?

Could you properly care for a horse?

Could you make your own soap?

Could you properly stock a fire to last all night?

Could you answer the questions needed to get a basic job as a store clerk?


How about you get transported to 1910. Could you start and drive a car of that era?

 

As technology advances the old technology dies. We know things that young people don’t. Things that we pride ourselves on that are literally useless today. The same goes for their opinions of us, I am sure. They can navigate electronics that we fumble with. Someday they be the fumblers with something new that we cannot even fathom. 
 

It’s just the way of things. 

 

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8 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I woke up this morning thinking about The Encyclopedia Brittanica. I must have been dreaming about it. I was also thinking about a sci-fi story about a janitor that could perform the feat of doing math without a calculator in a world where everyone used calculators. In researching the name of that story I found one by Isaac Asimov written in 1958 that I had forgotten about called “The Feeling of Power”.

In this one a technician figures out how to do math on paper lessening the need for computers aboard spacecraft and saving lots of money in the war effort. He commits suicide because his rediscovery is used for war. 
I would hate to see books disappear. All it would take is a huge magnetic storm from the Sun and all existing electronics would cease to operate. A society relying on electronics for everything would be devastated. 
 

 

Over the years here in the Saloon we have often mused about what life would be like if we went back in time to the old west. 
How many of us here could appear in 1880 with no preparation whatsoever and know what it takes to survive or even function?

Could you properly harness a horse and wagon?

Could you properly care for a horse?

Could you make your own soap?

Could you properly stock a fire to last all night?

Could you answer the questions needed to get a basic job as a store clerk?


How about you get transported to 1910. Could you start and drive a car of that era?

 

As technology advances the old technology dies. We know things that young people don’t. Things that we pride ourselves on that are literally useless today. The same goes for their opinions of us, I am sure. They can navigate electronics that we fumble with. Someday they be the fumblers with something new that we cannot even fathom. 
 

It’s just the way of things. 

 


The answer, in my case, is yes to all of the above.  The horses, the cars, the fire, even the soap!  Could I survive?? Probably not! I’m diabetic and I have had major spinal surgeries. I’d have made it to age 50 or so and probably would have done well until then.  My first major surgery was at age 53 and I might have made it another five or ten years in serious pain, but after that paralysis and loss of some bodily functions would probably have done me in.  The diabetes developed at age 57 and likely would have finished me off in due time.

 

The medical developments are what would be missed in the wayback journey for a lot of us “boomers”.  For those arriving in later generations, it would be MUCH WORSE for most of them!

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4 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I woke up this morning thinking about The Encyclopedia Brittanica. I must have been dreaming about it. I was also thinking about a sci-fi story about a janitor that could perform the feat of doing math without a calculator in a world where everyone used calculators. In researching the name of that story I found one by Isaac Asimov written in 1958 that I had forgotten about called “The Feeling of Power”.

In this one a technician figures out how to do math on paper lessening the need for computers aboard spacecraft and saving lots of money in the war effort. He commits suicide because his rediscovery is used for war. 
I would hate to see books disappear. All it would take is a huge magnetic storm from the Sun and all existing electronics would cease to operate. A society relying on electronics for everything would be devastated. 
 

 

Over the years here in the Saloon we have often mused about what life would be like if we went back in time to the old west. 
How many of us here could appear in 1880 with no preparation whatsoever and know what it takes to survive or even function?

Could you properly harness a horse and wagon?

Could you properly care for a horse?

Could you make your own soap?

Could you properly stock a fire to last all night?

Could you answer the questions needed to get a basic job as a store clerk?


How about you get transported to 1910. Could you start and drive a car of that era?

 

As technology advances the old technology dies. We know things that young people don’t. Things that we pride ourselves on that are literally useless today. The same goes for their opinions of us, I am sure. They can navigate electronics that we fumble with. Someday they be the fumblers with something new that we cannot even fathom. 
 

It’s just the way of things. 

 

What the books and movies don't tell us is that if you went back to 1883, you'd spend half of your time just procuring enough firewood to survive the winter, and half of the rest making sure you have seed grain or money enough to buy flower for the year.   During the Ca Gold Rush, the folks who made all of the money were the ones selling wood, food, liquor and sex.  

Big families were the way to get the  person-power to accomplish life's necessities.  

 

I often wonder how much a guy could have made back then with only a chainsaw and wood splitter (and fuel to run them).  Another life in another time!

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Nasty, brutish and short. Certainly a possibility, but on several occasions I've had the opportunity to spend time in buildings that were trapped in time, 1880 -1890's.  I've cooked on an old kitchen wood stove and it worked as well as my modern stove.  No central heating, but the wood / coal stoves kept the places very nice.  Pumping or hauling water, and the big old kitchen stoves have water tanks, so hot water.  An icebox with block ice works even in high Summer. I will say the outhouse needed a little modern touch, Styrofoam seat for comfort in winter, but there were chamber pots. All in all if you were reasonably prosperous in those days, you were lived well.  Medical care, of course not what we have today, but from personal experience we have gone too far in the other direction.  It is dreadfully easy to get caught in an endless cycle of tests and treatments.  Everyone dies, and for some it might be better to have lived in earlier times and die sooner sparing them selves an unpleasant to intolerable life extension .

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10 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

 

  ........ I'd wager that even less have seen a screwdriver, ........ or even know that it's not a drink .....  :mellow:

I'll bet that most of them don't even know what screwdrive (drink) is or has ever heard of them.

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4 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:


The answer, in my case, is yes to all of the above.  The horses, the cars, the fire, even the soap!  Could I survive?? Probably not! I’m diabetic and I have had major spinal surgeries. I’d have made it to age 50 or so and probably would have done well until then.  My first major surgery was at age 53 and I might have made it another five or ten years in serious pain, but after that paralysis and loss of some bodily functions would probably have done me in.  The diabetes developed at age 57 and likely would have finished me off in due time.

 

The medical developments are what would be missed in the wayback journey for a lot of us “boomers”.  For those arriving in later generations, it would be MUCH WORSE for most of them!

Good points.  I'm in the same box myself.

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