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.

 

[MossRoad]

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

Sounds good. Not meaning to give personal advice.

 

[flusher]

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

Thanks.

 

[ultrarunner]

Best job my brother ever had was summer life guard at the Park and Rec Department lakes...

He really enjoyed it and even as a teen... there were lifeguards double or more his age and that is all they did... they worked the summer and then got unemployment...

He met several of his girlfriends lifeguarding... and met his wife coaching college Ultimate...

 

[goeduck]

I had to walk 3 miles to school each day, be it in 100 degree weather in the summer or with snow 5' deep.

For money, I'd mow 10 acres on the weekend with my grandmothers push reel mower because my dad taught me never to rely on gas and it helps cut down on my overhead expenses.

For fun, we'd go cow tipping, and when the cow was down, slaughter and cook em right up in the field for a hardy lunch. Then afterwards, go play war with our .22's to run off the cow we just ate (bb gun wars were a joke to us).

Kids are ******* nowadays.

I only have one thing to say about that


Having said that I may be able to beat the 3 mile walk each way uphill. I had to hitchhike the last 10 miles to get home each day and usually walk the last 1 up to the house from the highway.

 

[Doofy]

Sounds good. Not meaning to give personal advice.

Never to old to learn and good advice is always welcome.

 

[MossRoad]

Never to old to learn and good advice is always welcome.

Buy low. Sell high.... that's all I got. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

..and met his wife coaching college Ultimate...

For anyone that doesn't get that... he's a frisbee coach.


I missed my calling. Lifeguard and frisbee coach.


SIGH!!! %^&$&!!!

 

[2ndhalf]

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

They know it. For that its worth my dad never learned to "talk" to me either at least not on a personal level. We talk at least 3 times a week though about things we have in common. He knows I love him and visa versa. He always answers even if he is fishing or outside etc. I will miss the day he cannot answer.

You don't have to be blubbering to know your dad loves you.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I guess I didn't have it so rough. I only walked 3/4 of a mile to and from the bus every day, but I got to loiter and pick wild "possum" grapes on the way home. Mom would make jelly out of them. Went to a one room school house for a couple of years; 8 grades in one school. Pumped our water; pot bellied stove, and "Boys" and "Girls" two holers about 20 yards form the door.
Wore overalls because Jeans were to expensive; wore our shoes completely out and would cut the backs off my Big Chief tablet to put in the bottom of my shoes to keep my feet off the ground. Never had a hot lunch until we moved to Oklahoma in 7th grade; believe me, you never forget the smell of an old lunchroom where brown bag lunches have been stored 5 days a week for 100 years.

Better off than some though; one kid I remember came to school barefoot wearing only overalls...no shirt. TB was endemic; Health Department came around every year, gave Whooping cough, Tetanus, Diphtheria an several other shots, including tests for TB. Never for get the long line in the library getting shots. Kids bawling, teachers wiping tears; I dreaded it for weeks in advance.
Ah, those were the days.

 

[k0ua]

I guess I didn't have it so rough. I only walked 3/4 of a mile to and from the bus every day, but I got to loiter and pick wild "possum" grapes on the way home. Mom would make jelly out of them. Went to a one room school house for a couple of years; 8 grades in one school. Pumped our water; pot bellied stove, and "Boys" and "Girls" two holers about 20 yards form the door.
Wore overalls because Jeans were to expensive; wore our shoes completely out and would cut the backs off my Big Chief tablet to put in the bottom of my shoes to keep my feet off the ground. Never had a hot lunch until we moved to Oklahoma in 7th grade; believe me, you never forget the smell of an old lunchroom where brown bag lunches have been stored 5 days a week for 100 years.

Better off than some though; one kid I remember came to school barefoot wearing only overalls...no shirt. TB was endemic; Health Department came around every year, gave Whooping cough, Tetanus, Diphtheria an several other shots, including tests for TB. Never for get the long line in the library getting shots. Kids bawling, teachers wiping tears; I dreaded it for weeks in advance.
Ah, those were the days.

Your school year experiences were very similar to mine growing up. But no school bus or walk. The neighbor lady drove her kid to school and I rode with them. Those old outdoor two holers sure smelled pretty ripe during the warm months.