Back in the day.

[Tedsoldbus]

I am 66 this summer. As I age I try to be calmer and just look at things a bit more as an observation than needing an opinion. I think it is helping me age... a little more mellow.

A few things still fire me up. My Nephews, all 5 of them, don't seem to care about much except their phones when they visit us at the lake. Don't want to fish for more than an hour. Could care less about the bus or any other machine. None of them want to hunt. So I started giving my hunting things including guns to friend's kids that do. They are not terribly motivated about anything. But then I tried to be an observer again.

They grew starting strapped in a car seat in diapers in a mini van. I stood on the back seat of the station wagon so I could see out when we went down the road. On a long trip, they played with the tablet built into the back of their parents seats in the mini van. We asked "Are we there yet?". When I got home from school, I might check the TV that I changed channels manually. I've seen that Gilligan's Island, seen that Andy of Mayberry, never watch Days of our Lives. Well....that was it. All three channels a no go. Jumped on my bike, found 2 buddies and we went to look for snakes and climb trees.

I got spanked and deserved it. They get time outs.

When I played sports in school we got on a bus and played the guys in the next town. Now they fly out of state and the parents say "That is how it is now".

Observation? They grew up different. None of them learned the skills mentioned above. No interest in even learning to use a screw gun when at my house.

My concern is they will hit the work force. I told them to find their giddy up button and tape it down with Duct tape. They said "What is Duct tape Uncle Ted". (why bother showing to them)

They all think they will get a tech job or maybe invent the new Facebook. Perhaps Eyebrow Encyclopedia? Two of the five are in their twenties and still live at home. My brother and Rita's sister told us that we don't understand because we never had children.

No.....I think we get it.
They are the two siblings that have 20+ year old "children" living in their basement.

But that is just and observation...

[dtcerrato]

Grandpop on my mother's side owned a fruit & vegetable business in Middletown NJ on Highway 35 which would have been referred to as a "road stand" back.in the day (50s 60s 70s) occupied about several hundred feet of highway frontage. I remember being among about 18 cousins as Grandpop & Grandmom had five girls & two boys (my aunts & uncles). Some of us cousins would jump in the back of grandpops stake bed truck that was leaving the road stand for the farmers market and when returning I remember being overdosed on fresh peaches. At Christmas time Christmas trees were sold on the stand and us cousins would take turns wading in deep snow to retrieve a tree matching a customer's request while the adults at big long tables were making wreaths &/or playing poker. Wow I actually posted this on the BCM board. One last note: when it was time for the hugh Italian dinners Grandpop would sit at the head of the table and when his daughters (my mom and aunts) would request a glass of the homemade rose wine grandpop would serve it with 50/50 Coca-Cola & wine and at times one of the uncle truck drivers (& most of them were) would roll into the road stand with a full tanker of refrigerated orange juice  (among other commodities) and drain off a couple of 50 gal. drums for personal use. Geeze those were the days my friends and we thought they'd never end...

[windtrader]

Lots here describes the march of progress. We've had this discussion many times about what people need and do as time goes on. All those observations about changing interests is true, just signs of progress.
I had this chat with my daughter, late 20's finishing grad school, seems to leaning toward a doctorate - I just tell her to get a "job". well, that gets the fire going. anyway, she relays conversations she has with the teaching staff about the increasing issue with AI generated papers and such. It's funny as she sort of complains that the students don't do the research, just type in a question and the bot spits out the answer. Even if not fully baked, it certainly provides a starting point far ahead of a blank page of paper.
I ask here about using calculators in class. Sure we can. Well, what happened to doing basic math computations? It's similar with AI but this is so much scarier.
OpenAI and ChatGBThttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/chatgpt-is-a-new-ai-chatbot-that-can-answer-questions-and-write-essays.html
What's coming is not evolutionary but revolutionary. When a human can not tell if what they see with their eyes is an image of a real person or what they read was created by a bot not a human, it changes how we think and perceive about reality.
AI and robotics is scary too. It won't be long when realistic robots act like humans.

Blade Runner meets reality?

[dtcerrato]

I thought this post was "back in the day! I guess I'm in the wrong place. Lol

[chessie4905]

Back in the day they used to deliver milk to a box in our breezeway. Used to clean auto parts with a stiff brush and a couple of gallons of gasoline in a short 3 gallon bucket. After an hour of that, the skin on your hands would tingle.
Couldn't  ride the bus to school, unless it was more than 2 miles away. Ours was 1.9. 🤬
Tv only had 2 channels. B&W, Programming didn't  start till 5pm. Captain Video and Howdy Dootey. No wonder everyone thought Lucy was so great with only 2 channels.

[tr206]

I want know when the bus to back in the day leaves I am ready these days are not for me. Beam me back Scotty.

[CrabbyMilton]

We have to be careful not to lump everything together. In other words the improvements in technology is separate from bad behavior. Remember, if products and technology was so much better in times gone by, then why are the a thing of the past? I for one don't mind watching a TV without a wiggly and squiggly picture and fuzzy and buzzy sound. Here let's lighten this up:
https://youtu.be/X6Ztdp70peU

[Jim Blackwood]

Those guys were weird. I took them down the Gauley river one season on a raft. Very bizarre senses of humor, they were some of the most twisted people I ever met. Seemed to have fun, though it was kinda hard to tell. Always seemed to be some sort of hidden agenda I just couldn't figure out. It was like a surface layer of strange hilarity with an undercurrent of terror. Not long after that they started the "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" series. I shouldn't have been surprised. At the time my guide name was Caveman and I was attending law school. My reaction to the series was that it was mostly embarrassing. But that's the way it was and we liked it.

My tag line at the time was, "Just what the Hell do you expect from a Caveman anyway?"

Jim

[freds]

I am 66 this summer. As I age I try to be calmer and just look at things a bit more as an observation than needing an opinion. I think it is helping me age... a little more mellow.
When I played sports in school we got on a bus and played the guys in the next town. Now they fly out of state and the parents say "That is how it is now".

They are the two siblings that have 20+ year old "children" living in their basement.

But that is just and observation...

God I remember when you first look forward to being able to drive. I had friends a decade back with kids who were in navy and never got their drivers license.

You know how in the military you should never volunteer for anything? 

I did basic training in Ft Dix NJ in January and volunteered to be a vehicle driver (dang thing had heat and I did experience a bit of cold letting others warm up a bit) while on stupid guard duty with a M16 with no ammo. Rumor was that sometimes the mafia assaulted the guards to steal M16's...

When I went to basic we never bivouacked as it was too cold for a standard sleeping bag and shelter half...