Are our grandkids getting too sissified?

[Doofy]

How sweet it is! First working for wages job was in 1969 at a Full Service Union 76 station. $2.50 per hour to pumping gas, washing windows and checking oil and tires. Best part was checking out the Hippie chicks! Gas was 52 cents per gallon and fixing semi-truck tires was $6.50. Really enjoyed that job.

 

[k0ua]

Around here (Maine), you need drivers ed before you can get a license if you are under 18. When that went through the number of teen licenses dropped. Kids used to get jobs, borrow a car and save money for their own car.

But Drivers Ed is 500 dollars rural kids don't have - so they don't get a license until they are 18. Kills some of that independent drive.

Hmm. back in my day drivers ed was taken by every sophmore in high school, and it was free. I will always remember the day I slid behind the wheel of a brand spanking new 69 Pontiac Catalina, and I was the very first kid to get to drive it.

 

[Doofy]

I just wonder what the kids of today will reminisce about in 50 years from now? Surely, their memories couldn't be as fond or as sweet as ours have been, but I could be wrong.

I thoroughly enjoyed my childhood and all of my life in general. Very few regrets...wish I had been a better father and husband and had not worked so much in those formative years. Kids are all grown and long gone(out of state). Don't know if their memories are good or bad.

 

[ultrarunner]

Do you keep in touch?

People seem to travel around more these days... it seems most I meet in the SF Bay Area are from somewhere else or going somewhere.

 

[flusher]

Last May my granddaughter graduated summa from U. of Wisconsin Madison in 4 years. She spent the past summer at Columbia U. in NYC at a 7-week seminar for introduction to the publishing industry in that city. Now she's working at one of the big 5 publishers in NYC. Nothing wimpy or sissified about that young lady.

 

[MossRoad]

....she said she makes $20 per half hour giving private water safety lessons to infants and toddlers... that is $40 an hour... but of course it works out to about 12 lessons in an 8 hour day... earning $240...

...

Lots of people in my family, including myself, were lifeguards at city swimming facilities. Mom made us take swim lessons because we lived on a lake. We couldn't go in the water or the boat without a life jacket until we passed the 3rd level in red cross swim classes. I think it went:
- Beginner
- Advanced beginner
- Intermediate
- Swimmer
- Junior lifesaving
- Lifesaving
-WSI - Water Safety Instructor
Or something like that. They've all changed since then.

Anyhow, if you were a water safety instructor, the big thing back then was to go to people's homes and teach their kids and neighbor kids, nieces, nephews, etc... to swim in their pools. They'd pay pretty good money for the day. And usually feed you, too! :laughing:

There was usually a shortage of trained lifeguards and summer jobs were easy to be found at municipal pools, beaches on lakes, country clubs, higher end trailer parks with pools, hotels, Lake Michigan, etc...

For that matter, I got let go from a small airport when I was 18 (owner told chief mechanic to cut costs, so he fire me, which left no one to service the airplanes or run the office on the weekends, as I was the only weekend employee). He told me to finish out the day. Yeah, right. You give me 8 hours notice, I give you the ****. I picked up the newspaper in our lobby, found an ad for a Water Safety Instructor at the YMCA down the road, and had another job lined up about 30 minutes after I got fired. Airport owner found out what his mechanic did, realized I was needed, called me about 2 hours after I got fired and told me it was a mistake, please come back. I told him I already found another job. He's like "What? It's Saturday! Who hires on Saturday?" I told him I was in high demand. He gave me a nice raise and I went back to him on Sunday. The mechanic pretty much hated me from that day on. :laughing:

I finished out my lifeguard career working on a man-made whitewater course here in South Bend. I did that for several years before and after we got married. It was a good gig. I'd recommend lifeguarding and water safety instructor training for anyone that has a teen. Lifeguard jobs are more scarce now, because of insurance and lawsuits. They are actually less-liable if they say swim at your own risk, VS having someone drown or get injured when there's a lifeguard on duty. Insurance and lawsuits... how often have we heard that in our lifetimes?

 

[MossRoad]

Last May my granddaughter graduated summa from U. of Wisconsin Madison in 4 years. She spent the past summer at Columbia U. in NYC at a 7-week seminar for introduction to the publishing industry in that city. Now she's working at one of the big 5 publishers in NYC. Nothing wimpy or sissified about that young lady.

Good luck to her. I know there are many forms of publishing that still offer a good living and rewarding career.

 

[Doofy]

Do you keep in touch?

People seem to travel around more these days... it seems most I meet in the SF Bay Area are from somewhere else or going somewhere.

Sad to say, I never learned to talk to my children. Children were to be seen and not heard and I deeply regret that.

 

[MossRoad]

Sad to say, I never learned to talk to my children. Children were to be seen and not heard and I deeply regret that.

So tell them that and just say hello once in a while.

 

[Doofy]

So tell them that and just say hello once in a while.

Believe me, I make every effort to tell them how much I love them.