Back to the good ole days

[rodmkr]

Got a message from a brother in the Texas oil patch titled( Back To The Good Ale Days)
Seems to be true on many aspects of this lockdown.
I can remember not being able to go to school functions as there was no transportation
after 5PM for the farm kids or anyone that lived out on an oil lease (pumpers kids)
Seems we didn't miss much and it made us a lot more independent than the city kids.
All of the Farm and Pumper kids I knew were hunters and reloaders.
I remember my first rifle (a 22) and the box of shells I got with it.
Dad admonished me to never waste a bullet and always bring home something to eat.
The jack rabbits and cotton tails sure did diminish around there for a couple of years.

I wonder if we are headed for a modern day Good Ole Days maybe a back to the future!

rodmkr

 

[Hawk]

Nope. Kids these days don't know how to do anything for themselves.
My dauther is the exception. She is 40, has two medical degrees from Texas A&M and is running the lab for a hospital.
But, I've got 7 nieces and nephews and 4 of them are over 35 and either living at home with their parents and don't have a job or living with and being supported by friends and don't have a job. Another is married and working, but has his house payment and half of his bills paid by his parents.
What a world, what a world!

 

[Ian]

There are still a few independent, smart, and capable boys and girls out there...in spite of the public dumbing system.

The problem as I see it is too many kids getting pushed into higher education and taught that blue-collar jobs aren't respectable. We have had a massive glut in college-educated people for two or three generations now and we keep having to dumb-down the systems to get them all through instead if only taking the best and brightest and making them more so by upholding high education standards. Trade schools don't get the same financial support or moral support that they need to, so they often get overlooked by high school graduates that may not be Bachelor's material but still want a formal education to better themselves. Even high school trade programs are few and poor these days, for whatever reason. I think welding and wood shop should be popularized by high school counsellors, but no, they don't want to sell anyone short of a college education. But, isnt it the counsellor's job to adequately evaluate, interview, and make that call on their student's behalf?

I won't get into philosophy, conspiracy, or ethics on this one, but it is a deep and troubling subject to me.

 

[FrankCVA42]

Two daughters and both married. The oldest married her grade school sweetheart and he has a pretty good auto parts and repair background. The youngest married a parish corrections officer. I don't think he could change a flat tire. Had a good buddy I grew up with and while I was in the navy he went to Stevens institute of Tecnology. Smart but dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to common sense. The time spent in the navy on a post WWII aircraft carrier well prepared me for doing repairs on steam powered equipment. So wasn't much of a transition from the stuff I had worked on in the navy to the steam powered stuff we had at work. Used to do most all repairs on my vehicles,exhaust systems,carbs,radiators stuff like that. I went to a vocational high school so understood working with my hands. Don't see that much anymore with the younger generations. It's all me,me,I,I. Frank

 

[Ole_270]

My kids might be a bit older than what has been talked about here, from 40-45 years old now. The two daughters both went to school to be elementary teachers. The oldest decided while student teaching that it wasn't going to work out, she's too much like my mom was, perfectionist. Now owns a successful jewelry store. Middle one married her high school sweetheart while in college and graduated suma com laude(sp) while he graduated at the top of his class in mechanical engineering. SIL went into aircraft stress engineering and has been very successful.The youngest, a son, graduated with a mechanical engineering degree and has risen up the ranks in the food packaging company he works for till he only reports to the corporate head of engineering. 26 plants in the US and not sure how many foreign. Both the guys do all their own mechanic work even though they don't get that much time away from work.

 

[462]

I'm in total agreement with Ian. I've written two different replies, but erased them both in order to remain in compliance with the forum's rules.

An overlooked area where a free education, and a possible career, can be obtained is the military.

It's all me,me,I,I.

Oh, boy! That is so prevalent locally.

 

[RicinYakima]

My military "training" taught me how to fill sandbags, lay mine fields, call in artillery fire missions and never give up. When I decided I wanted to be a professional firefighter in the West, I worked really hard to have the skills they were looking for. I took 13 entrance exams and physical fitness tests, was in the top five in 11 cities and had 5 job offers in a year. It took me until I was 27 to know what I wanted to do for a career.

 

[462]

Yep, the Air Force taught me a bunch of stuff that has no relevance or counterpart to civilian life.
However, you and I were in at a different, and old school, time frame.

 

[Gary]

Navy (1965~1969) was a Hospital Corpsman specializing as Operating Room Technician which gave me the background to start Nursing School and after that Nurse Anesthesia School. Can't say anything bad about the Military training I received.

 

[Ian]

I was discussing this with a friend of mine a few weeks ago and he opined that it is a great crime against humanity to ask an 18-yo kid who has next to no life experience to decide right now what they want to do with their lives.

It took me a few years of hating college, getting beat up by "systems", making a trial go at my chosen career path in aviation engineering, learning a whole bunch of stuff about life, bureaucracy, politics, unions, power, greed, selfishness (the bad kind) and human nature before I settled on plan B and disappointed all my friends and family by enrolling in an apprenticeship/associate's degree program with a major US automaker and junior college. Sorry folks, I chose happy over prestige and wealth. I like not being forced to live near a metro center or commute. I like being around the type of people who become successful automotive technicians, and I like working with my hands. I like going home at quitting time and putting the day's responsibilities behind me. I kind of knew that at 18, but I had a lot of youthful idealism to burn off and big things to go do before being ok committing my working life to a trade.

 

[RicinYakima]

Gary, my training wasn't bad, just had no use in civilian life, even law enforcement that I tried first. I did get to use it as a trainer in Brazil for three months (a long story), but that was it until my FD expertise became hazardous materials specialist.

 

[RicinYakima]

Ian, you called it! My mother and older brother both wanted me to finish my chemistry degree. My father wanted me to do a 6 year Tool and Die apprenticeship. One was working in a stinky lab and the other confined inside a shop. I enlisted to be a chopper pilot, dumb me.

 

[Cherokee]

My military training gave me experience in aspects of life I had not encountered before, people types I saw for the first time. Responsibility and accountability, choosing your battles, the sort of things I would need the rest of my life. I appreciate my time in the Army.

 

[rodmkr]

I did 25yrs 6mths in the Navy and have never been sorry for one day of it.
I have never used my MOS in civilian life but learned that there was no job
I could not do if I set my mind to it.
Air line ground equipment mechanic,commercial bee keeper,and Building maintenance mechanic
for a major Air Line.

rodmkr

 

[462]

After high school, I enrolled at the local junior college. I was never more than an above average student -- general lack of application, and motivation for many subjects -- and a B average was required to obtain a college deferment. Ha, good luck with that! (Besides, I wasn't the scion of a rich East Coast dynasty.)
I unenrolled, continued my job as the Denny's swing-shift cook, then felt the tug of the call to duty and enlisted. Wanted to me a jet or helicopter mechanic, but was told in basic training that weapons mechanics got rank the quickest, so I said weapons mechanic and I'm glad I did.
Put in four years and volunteered for a tour in Viet Nam.
I'd do it all over with no changes and no regrets.

Ric,
A friend was a Huey pilot. He's four years my junior and didn't get to Viet Nam till the very end, and was there for a bit less than six months, then was stationed in Germany for the duration of his hitch.

 

[RicinYakima]

I never made it past primary! Great health and coordination, eyes like a eagle, willing to study and do what I was told. However, they never tested my hearing! In the Bell primaries with four banger gas engines and an instructor with a voice like Mickey Mouse, I could only hear half of what he said. Growing up on a farm and shooting with out hearing protection, by 21 I already had high pitch hearing lose. Offered to send me to Infantry OCS for an additional four year commitment. Since by then I just had a little over 18 months on my original enlistment, I said no thanks.

 

[462]

I went in with perfect hearing, but working mere feet from F-100 and F-4 engines, without hearing protection, made for a 30% loss and tinnitus.

 

[StrawHat]

My first job out of high school was on board a ship. I sailed ore frieghters in summers to pay for my college. Graduated and was offered an entry level job making squat. I was a licensed Engineer on board so continued sailing. Until the steel mills closed. No steel, you don’t need ore. If you don’t tore you don’t need ships to haul it. You get the picture. I am on my sixth career and none of them involved my degrees!

I am currently Corona retired but looking forward to getting back to business.

Kevin

 

[popper]

I wanted to be an auto mechanic (training to build race cars), Dad wanted me to be a dentist. Fooled them all, Navy missile tech - I could pass navy physical, not the others. After 3 1/2 yrs, lets just say a 'bell' went off (strange story and doesn't fit the protocol here) and I should go to school. Borrowed $ for the first summer school and then got a job designing guidance systems. Daughter has a Chem degree but is pretty much a homemaker (and works 2 jobs), son is ChemE. Both have 2 kids who like 'screen time'. Basically agree with Ian, not much real drive for the youngsters these days, not any reason to have drive.
Have a friend, was supposed to be a dentist but draft got him into Huey medivac.

 

[Hawk]

Speaking of "scream time", Got a buddy that I worked with at the same company for 43 years (we're both retired).
He has a 35 year old daughter that has never had a job. She's been married three times and has 4 kids by 4 different men.
They all live with my buddy and his wife, since the daughters last divorce two years ago.
The two youngest boys are 4 and 5 and have figured out that they get their way by screaming until everyone else caves in.
My buddy is not allowed to use corporal punishment on them. His wife (Kiki) and daughter think that is too brutal. Time out is the punishment of the day.
He says the hardest times are when they both want the same toy/thing and start screaming at each other to get it. Neither will back down, cause screaming is how they think they win, and usually do.
I have other thoughts on the matter, but will stop here.