Grandparents, Uncles and Aunts... have times really changed so much?

[ultrarunner]

Have you noticed Parents tend to be much more cautious today then in the past?

So many of the things I'd look forward to doing with my Grandparents and Uncles and many of my fondest memories of spending time at the family farm around the holidays seem to no longer exist for kids today...

The cousins and I would think of nothing of spending the day hiking the woods or up to look-out peak... the only rule was to stay together, be safe and be home in time for supper... ages would range from 5 to 12... older kids would usually have too many chores to come along, unless it happened to be Sunday.

I know my own nieces and nephews and their friends are kept on a very short leash... stay out of the woods or don't go anywhere where you can't hear me... I would have thought with cell phones, kids today would have a little more freedom... instead of less?

Grandpa's workshop and tractor always fascinated me... I would spend just about every minute I could following him around and learning by watching and doing and he always made time for us and the neighbor kids.

In my spare time, I've restored a number of antique cars... from a Curved Dash Oldsmobile to Model A's and T's... As a child I always enjoyed going for a ride in the rumble seat.... as many kids as we could fit... I never imagined the day would come where any car without Airbags, ABS Brakes and shoulder belts would be too dangerous or unsafe to drive a mile or two down a country road...

Summer haying was another favorite time... we'd all climb on the hay wagon for the ride home... much too dangerous to do now days...

It's probably just my age is showing... but, it seems we no longer let kids be kids.

 

[Egon]

I'm wondering how so many of us managed to survive to old age.

Non pasteurized milk, uninspected meat, guns with shells, no seat belts and on and on.

 

[mikim]

Times do change--- if a kid got hurt back when, his folks would just get him fixed up and tell him to be more careful next time ... now they want to set blame....it's all about the "not my fault" generation and the laws that have been passed that support that. A lot of it is good ....but like anything -- the pendelum swings too far so you have to put up with the ridiculous along with the sensible. And kids experiences will naturally be affected along with the attitude. I too remember wandering well away from home on my own....my grandkids would never be allowed to do so.

 

[Bird]

For many years, my granddad's job was hauling the mail back and forth between the post office and the train station. It was a contract job for which he just had a half ton pickup on which he built his own flatbed for the purpose. Eight trains a day around the clock, 7 days a week. He'd go to the post office, load up the outgoing mail, drive 3 blocks to the train station to be there when the train arrived, then would drive right up next to the train to put the outgoing mail on the train, get the incoming mail, take it back to the post office, and go home until time for the next train. He started that job when I was 3 years old and I know at least from the time I was 5, I rode on the back of the truck with him, usually standing up so I could see better, many, many times. Sometimes it was 2 to 5 grandkids at a time. Can you imagine letting a bunch of little kids ride on the back of a truck on a job now?

 

[rox]

For many years, my granddad's job was hauling the mail back and forth between the post office and the train station. It was a contract job for which he just had a half ton pickup on which he built his own flatbed for the purpose. Eight trains a day around the clock, 7 days a week. He'd go to the post office, load up the outgoing mail, drive 3 blocks to the train station to be there when the train arrived, then would drive right up next to the train to put the outgoing mail on the train, get the incoming mail, take it back to the post office, and go home until time for the next train. He started that job when I was 3 years old and I know at least from the time I was 5, I rode on the back of the truck with him, usually standing up so I could see better, many, many times. Sometimes it was 2 to 5 grandkids at a time. Can you imagine letting a bunch of little kids ride on the back of a truck on a job now?

Bird,
No I can't imagine that at all today, a bunch of kids int he back of a pick up truck. The driver would be arrested and everyone seeing with a cell phone would call it in. Times are different. We spent our whole childhood exploring and rigging up pullys onto trees and building way high up tree houses etc. If I would have raised my kids in the country I would ahve let them do the same thing, however how many kids live int he country nowdays? Not many. Our kids were raised in the suburbs of Milwaukee and I knew where my kdis were all the tme. Contrailiy my mother never knew where we were, we just came home in time for meals.

 

[ore540]

Bill Bryson wrote "Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" about his growing up in Iowa in the 50s. I recommend it - lot of laughs and it sure spoke to this Oregon boy. One of the things he wrote about was how many kids there were back in the early days of us Boomers. He figured that parents let us do all that stuff because we were so common and easily replaced

 

[Bird]

Yeah, Rox, sometimes I get to thinking about it and wonder how we survived when we were kids. I think I only fell out of the hayloft in the barn once; not sure how many trees I fell out of, teased bulls, then ran in the barn and climbed the ladder just ahead of them, only been kicked by a horse once (no, for those wondering, I wasn't kicked in the head), was only bucked off once, fell off on my head another time when the cinch wasn't tight enough and the saddle slipped around under the horse, been bit too many times to count, was drug down a borrow ditch once by a panicked horse I was leading and I wouldn't turn loose of the rope in spite of mother screaming at me to let go, only fell off the bed of a truck once when Dad went around a corner and I was sitting too near the edge, and a few other little things like that.

And perhaps the dumbest of all the stunts I pulled was when I pulled down a big old dead oak tree with the John Deere L without thinking about the fact that the chain I was using wasn't half as long as the tree was tall.. That big tree came down right along side the left side of the tractor, and I sat there hoping Dad wouldn't ask me how I got that tree down. It it had fallen 3' farther to the right, he'd have had to bury me and buy another tractor.

 

[Bird]

Bill Bryson wrote "Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" about his growing up in Iowa in the 50s. I recommend it - lot of laughs and it sure spoke to this Oregon boy. One of the things he wrote about was how many kids there were back in the early days of us Boomers. He figured that parents let us do all that stuff because we were so common and easily replaced

That sounds like my kind of book. My favorite author is Patrick F. McManus, who writes about hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, etc. both as a kid growing up and as an adult, so for some of us who grew in circumstances in which we can identify with his stories, they are hilarious. The first book I read of his was A Fine and Pleasant Misery, and I read it the first time while our daughters were still teenagers, and my wife and our daughters thought I'd lost my mind (probably right, too) because I sat in the den in the evening reading that book and laughing until tears ran down my cheeks.

And for how many kids there were back then . . . I'm the oldest of 5; had two brothers and two sisters. My wife is one of 7; has one sister and 5 brothers.

 

[gotrocks]

Bird, always good to see your posts. Hope you and you wife are well and ready for a Merry Christmas.
You reminded me of a true story about hauling mail.
An old friend had the job of picking up the mail at the train station in Columbus Ga - deliver to PO in Phenix City AL just across the river. Then he would have to wait a couple of hours an take the sorted mail to Opelika AL
Just so happens the river is suppose to be the line between Eastern & Central time zone. However; Phenix City runs on Eastern. Now Opelika AL is about 30 miles away and uses Central Time. Enough setting the stage.

One afternoon, this fellow stopped at the PO and asked for money to catch the bus to Opelika. No one would offer any money but they told him he could wait and see if Mr. Tim would give him a ride.
He asked what time did Mr. Tim leave Phenix City... they told him 6 o'clock.
He asked what time does he get to Opelika..... they told him 6 o'clock.

Well he sat down outside the backdoor to the PO and a little before 6 someone asked him if he was going to ask Mr. Tim for a ride.

He replied;" Naw Sur...... I just wants to watch him leave."
Norris

 

[Egon]

Of course there is always "Tom Sawyer" ! Or Huckleberry Finn!

 

[Bird]

Norris, that sounds like the story Justin Wilson, the Cajun, used to tell about a Cajun asking about a flight at the airport that got to its desination one minute later than the departure time.

And besides the things the kids used to do, can you imagine anyone taking a job like my granddad had? As I said, there were 8 trains a day through Ardmore back then, 7 days a week, and at all hours of the day and night. He set his alarm clock and got up twice during the night to go meet the train. He took that job in 1943 and in 1950, he bought a new truck and he and my grandmother went to California on a vacation trip. The local newspaper ran a story about him because he had never missed a single train, had never taken off sick, had never even taken a day off in 7 years, and after that one vacation, I don't guess he ever took another one, and he could never understand anyone "retiring". When trains quit hauling the mail, he hauled the mail between the post office and the bus depot, and he only quit when the job played out when trains no longer hauled the mail and neither did Greyhound or Continental Trailways.

 

[ultrarunner]

It does make me stop and wonder if this generation is doing the next any favors...

Before I was 10, I was making pocket money doing odd jobs and painting... One of my colleagues at work mentioned her 17 year old didn't know how to do anything and it was time he got a summer job. I needed a few apartments painted inside and offered to give him a try... one would of thought I was sending her son to mine asbestos or something... she said no way would she allow her son to be exposed to all those chemicals and that's why she hires painters for her home....it's just too dangerous, but not so dangerous to have hire it out.

I can only imagine what the future holds... I would have thought technology would have made us safer and instead it seems to have made us fearful.

The funny thing is... times really haven't changed all that much when you read newspaper headlines from 30, 40 50 or even 60 years ago... it really seems history tends to repeat itself.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Yeah That really shocks me when peolpe 10 or 12 years younger than me ask me where I learned what I know and that They are amazed by my little smple things I do. Im not really a good mechanic and i have alot of folks asking me how to work on a lawnmower. or go cart. Kids cant funtion with out a cell phone, my wife was raised on a phone her mother calls multiple times a day even on a trip to make sure we are on track.
Thats my gripe about magazines like Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. They dont have articles like the older ones I have. I have some that are from before and after WW2 that show teenager projects like building a tractor out of a model T and trailers and motor scooters and such. When I was 17 I had to hop hubs for a grader operator, thats where you mark a bried grade stake and lift the flag up and stp back till the moldboard passes then step up and shovel off the top pf the stake and reset a flag and run back to another while trying not to fall under a grader tire lol.
My dad started operating a scraper and a dozer when he was 16 for Russel bonds and driving a 10 wheeler. Also roaded scrapers many miles. Dad started me on a scraper when I was 14 because I wanted to learn, that included maintenance and all the things such as mechanic work that went with it. My friends parents were shocked to see me at 15 backing this thing on a trailer backwards with about 10 inches of tire on the inside holding it on the trailer.and chaining it down to move it to another site.
I dont think parents are doing much of a favor for their kids by making everything so easy for them. I dont think I ll have a video game in my home till they are older. The only 2 things I wasnt allowed to do when I was younger was Bush hog and pull a trailer. When I got my first car it was an 84 S10 I got to fix it up out of a junk yard and such. Most of my friends are older than me and alot of them have kids that drive nearly new cars and they have got older cars. I also think that kids dont apreciate things that are given to them like they would if they had to save up and work hard for them. Ive seen one of my neighbors down the road kid tear up a new hyundai car hot rodding it.

 

[ultrarunner]

When I got my first car it was an 84 S10 I got to fix it up out of a junk yard and such. Most of my friends are older than me and alot of them have kids that drive nearly new cars and they have got older cars. I also think that kids dont apreciate things that are given to them like they would if they had to save up and work hard for them. Ive seen one of my neighbors down the road kid tear up a new hyundai car hot rodding it.

Excellent point... Most any guy that had a car when I was in High School could work on it... and the difference from today isn't that today's cars are so complicated either. You can still change the oil, rotate the tires and stuff like brake pads...

The reason we all worked on cars is because we were on a pay as you go program... it was what we could afford and we learned by doing. I tend to think you take better care of things when you're the one fixing it.

You would be hard pressed to find anyone where I work that has not bought their son or daughter a new car... the most common reason given is safety, followed by reliability... My folks never had a new car till my Mom was 70 years old... and my grandparents never did either.

Today, it almost seems as it a new car is a given and automatically comes with a driver's license...

 

[Sackett2]

Good thread!

The newest 4wheeled item I have ever owned is my tractor! the two cars I have bought from the dealerships both had 40,000 when we drove them out, and they felt new to me! (still own them, the 1992 f-250 has 180,000 and the 2002 0f the wife's is nearing 100,000)

I wonder how kids today are suppose to learn the basics of life when they are handed everything (the Paris Hilton effect) New cars, spending money;-- more than I keep on me, and I work!
The Step-daughter's sperm donater, is 23 and has never had a 40 hour a week job; baby number 2 paid for by the state. (and he bitched about a room not having privacy)
The other day, he mentioned that it was cheaper to buy a hamburger out than cook a dinner- I tried to explain about "stretching" hamburger helper with potatoes, and he commented "I don't want to eat potatoes every day!" That ****** me off.
Growing up in the 60's, mom and dad rationed the meat but had a HUGE bowl of mashed potatoes at every meal. We canned A lot of food from our garden- buying veggies (canned or not) from the store was unheard of. I still have a huge garden (Bigger this next year with the tractor!), and a lonely cow (Her friend is hiding in the freezer) While this is not self supportive, it's part of working for your food, something that I enjoy.
anyway, imho, we give so much to kids today (as a society) that they are hurt by missing the lessons of life.

 

[weldingisfun]

All the things we used to do when we were kids for pocket money, mowing lawns, shoveling snow, delivering newspapers, etc. Kids today, can't do. There is too much concern about law suits if the kid gets hurt. Ran into that when my sons were in high school, thet are 37 and 33 now. This didn't just happen in the last few years.

I agree with all that has been said by everyone. Looking back at all the things I did with today's mindset, I don't see how I survived. But, I like to think that I am a better man because of the way I grew up.

 

[Tig]

When I was a kid, I cut many lawns. One guy always had me bring my own mower because he didn't want to be liable. Seems that man was ahead of his time.

 

[Taylortractornut]

I got frustrated with my mother in law when questioned why I changed the oil in Amy's ranger instead of taking it to Wally world or a quick lube. I serviced the whole truck for 22.50 not counting labor of about 10 minutes. She acted like i wasnt qualified to, I made a remark that I cange the oil in 10 000 dollar equipment engines monthly at work.
My uncle raised his grandson, buys them everything they want. They kinda support both married children and he complains about not having any money for a tractor. He got aggravated when I told him to wean a few of them the youngest is my age. I bought a nice Like new 94 Toyota 4runner from him for 1000. He bought it for his grandson and put new tires on it and had the motor gone through. The inside is new with every option on it. He rolled it over on its side on the deer camp road. The doors on the driverside work good, didnt even bust a window. He sold it because the 16 year old wouldnt drive it to school. I drove my S10 to school for a week in Highsool without a starter because I didnt have the money at the time but i had plenty of hills to park on.
When I was 15 I went to work for a factory welding and as a machinist helper, Mom and dad had to sign several waivers but I enjoyed the job Paid lots better than working at a store. The high school and middle school both have summer job programs to that let kids do the meanial tasks and non dangerous things like painting door frames and weed eating, and trash picking and even leaf raking but they cant get the students. I think they pay Minwage and adds a credit. When I was In HS our principle tried to get meto tell on a friend for cutting donuts in the court yard on a go cart which he didnt. Punishment was oh so tuff. During my in school suspension I had to take the portable welder and weld pipe fencing around the running track. That was real terrible I cant think how bad it was to miss all those hours of boring English, and health, PE classes lol.
I know that in machine shop class in high school the state made us quit using a horizontal Mill and a shaper because they were deemed dangerous. Also lost out on Casting and heat treatment.
When I was 12 or 13 I got my little s 10 well dad bought it off a co worker. When I got proficient with driving and shifting it we would drive it down to the Church at the end of the road and park it and mom would take us to school. Back then the bus wasnt allowed to come up this road till everyone else was off the bus usually that was around 5 pm or 2 hours after school. Or we could get off at the church and walk almost a mile . Dad statered letting us park the truck after we came home in a thunder storm. I had a teacher that saw me on her way home get into the track she told me my parents should be shot for that reason. Then she was gonna get the tag number and I forgot to mention Caesar my psycho white German sheperd. He would always wait for a ride i nthe truck home. He slept under the truck and Miss Adams never mentionedd what those funny marks on her hands were. But she told me after that she figured we were safe enough.

 

[texbaylea]

I grew up in Houston in the 30's & 40's. We lived on the SE edge and it was a long way from being fully developed. Basically I was allowed to roam where I wanted. There was a black family living nearby that was very poor, run down house, outhouse, chickens and other animals running about. I frequently went over there to play with the boys. And get exposed to all kinds of dirt and stuff. Now I had to cross a creek on a bridge of a fallen tree and cross a small patch of woods (loaded with poison ivy which I never got) to get there. I have had few illnesses and no allergies. By luck, also no broken bones. I also grew up having to fix things and make my own toys. Later as a pre-teen and early teenager I would board a bus by myself riding about 15 miles across Houston to the only model shop where I could reach to buy model kits. Had to transfer in downtown also. No parent would risk that today.

My opinion is that a major cause of extreme concern about hazards is our great mainstream media's mantra of if it bleeds, it leads. Ordinary accidents thousands of miles away that we would never hear of in those days are on the evening news and made to seem right next door. That plus self styled experts telling us how we are raising our children wrong.

Another thing - the rising rates of sick children is because we are TOO CLEAN. Our children never get exposed to pathogens in small amounts and don't build up any immunities. We are putting anti-biotics in every thing which is totally wrong.

WE have become a nation of self-centered sissies.

End of rant.

Vernon

 

[MossRoad]

In 1950 there were only 151 million people in the U.S. Today, there are over 300 million people in the U.S. That's double the population... AND.... double the troublemakers. So, I have to be twice as cautious with my kids as my parents were with me....

There. I hope that explains everything to everyone.