Last week my exercise group got a little rowdy. I am there to exercise so I usually just keep on working and watch the other ladies get worked up rather than worked out.
These things always start with a totally unexpected topic which veers right and then left, takes a detour through Bullwinkle’s Fractured Fairytales and ends up as the gospel truth.
It started with a discussion on the new cars coming out that can drive themselves. From my perspective this is not a bad thing. Suppose I have a heart attack. My car could get itself safely off the road without killing me or anyone else. I wish it could do CPR but perhaps it can call for medics.
By Jerry King for the Northeast Ohio Sun News
So how can this turn a group of gray haired ladies into a frenzied mob? Simple. They started talking about the inadequacies of children these days.
Of course this new technology would mean that the young kids coming up would never learn how to properly drive a car.
From there it went into a litany of all the things that advancements did to ruin kids. After all they can’t give change without a cash register telling them how much to return.
They can’t really add or subtract because they have apps for that. They don’t memorize multiple tables. Lord knows that puts us at the bottom of the heap.
I don’t agree with all the negativity. I was going to comment that ever since matches were invented, I can’t start a fire for anything but thought it better not to go there.
As new ideas come along, we no longer need the skills for the old way. It’s just life. Stick shift is another good example. I made it a point to learn how to drive a stick shift car but many of my friends didn’t.
There are some things that we can do easily that kids can’t do as fast without technology. However, given my druthers, I would have loved to grow up with this fangled technology because it’s so much easier to learn when you are young.
Growing up today isn’t too shabby. I received a generic education. No one ever told me that I could write or encouraged me to go into languages (I was a very quick study for languages).
If I had a child with my particular talents I would have guided them to look into international relations or journalism. How exciting that could have been.
I love that today’s kids, especially the girls, have such great choices. They can be whatever they want if they work at it. I wish I would have felt that growing up.
They are very smart and capable! They have the best developed digits ever! Talk about opposable thumbs!
They aren’t less skilled than we were. It’s just different now.
The only thing I regret for them is that they missed the sixties. Oh my God! What a wonderful time to come of age!
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
The 60’s were great…I loved the 70’s too…and…wow, how things have changed. The kids? Oh my…they are so up on everything and so smart. My grandchildren range from 15 to 32 and their think tanks are super charged. The technology these days makes sort of genius people even among us who are…shall I say ‘mature’. Yeah, really mature. Life would be peculiar for me if we didn’t have computers…who wants carbon paper, white-out and so slow typing on a manual. Kids today are awesome…just like all of us! Every age is really amazing…each in its own way! Those group discussions are fun to listen to…ha!
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I’m glad you enjoy them. They are really delightful women who adore their grandchildren but when they get together, they sure know how life could be better. Doesn’t matter what the topic is — politicians are their favorite but family will do too. Nope I don’t want to go back to no computers either.
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Very interesting! AND we just had the “kids nowadays” discussion for the forty-eleventh time Wednesday night sitting at my Mom-in-laws for dinner. I probably shouldn’t go there on “kids nowadays”.. 😀 I want very much to drive to be able to drive the car, I am a car nut and love to drive. I learned to drive in a VW Bug with a stick. I love to shift, at least I did until at 55 I finally got the Jeep Wrangler I had always wanted since I was 16. I drove it less than 6 months with that heavy duty super industrial strength shifter and threw my back out with all that shifting. It got traded in pronto!
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I am very good at driving a stick shift. In fact, I get a little wild. I do have an automatic though. Much safer for me. Oh yes, those kidsnowadays discussions. What’s really funny is that these are the same women who talk about their wonderful, exceptionally brilliant grandkids. Sometimes I think that group behavior is a factor.
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What a great post! Makes me wonder what the kids of the future will have in store. I mean I thought a mimeograph machine was cutting edge! Love your comment about “ever since matches were invented, I can’t start a fire for anything.” LOL! 🙂
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I remember when I learned how to use a mimeograph machine. I thought I was just brilliant. It was the coolest ever and if the teacher wasn’t around, we could mimeo song lyrics!
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Amen to that Kate!
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I’m with you on this. It’s a good parlor game to moan and groan about kids today, but I think every generation did that. I mean, did your parents embrace rock and roll or herald it as the end of mankind as we know it? 🙂
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The absolute end of morality as I remember.
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I sort of wanted a poodle skirt and I really wanted saddle shoes. My extremely practical mother said no to both. The poodle skirt because it was made of felt which is not washable and, of course, she knew I’d spill something on it. No saddle shoes because they were more expensive than brown oxfords and the white part would show scuffs frequently, especially on a girl who often seemed to fall over her own feet. Due to that upbringing I couldn’t manage the tie-dyed look but my hair was long and parted in the middle in college and the mini-skirts were really short. Now my hair is really short and my skirts have all gone away to become jeans and comfy pants.
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I did have saddle shoes somewhere along the line although penny loafers (with pennies in the slot) were really big when I was in school. My hair got shorter and my skirts got longer (and fewer) too. Poodle skirts were a little older than me though.
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You had me at the picture from Fractured Fairy Tales – my absolute favorite part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show!!! As for seeing my kids come of age in the 60’s – I think our youngest son would have loved it – the older two..I’m not as sure
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They were great times. So many things changed and the music was so great. Definitely a great time especially for free spirits.
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Every age has its own special beauty. We might as well enjoy the time we live in. It’s all we have. And yet, we can also enjoy the beauty of times past through memory and history. Speaking of the sixties, I remember visiting some hippies on a communal farm as they tried to live the simple life. Singing antiwar songs under the stars at college. Joan Baez and MIriam Makeba. Dancing “La Bamba.” Reading “The Silent Spring.” The war on TV. And yes, driving a stick shift and using carbon paper and white-out on my typewriter.
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For one of my jobs I typed purchase orders with 9 carbon copies. There was a knack to correcting a mistake because you had to correct it on all the copies. I can’t even imagine doing that today. Heck, purchase orders are all on-line. That is one job I never missed.
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The sixties I was still a little girl but I did enjoy watching my older siblings grow up in that era and take the memory lane looking at old photos. OMG!
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It was fun!
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I’m not interested in having a car that drives itself . . . I want a body that can go exercise by itself while I do other things. And a hovercraft. A hovercraft would be a blast.
Thanks for the share from your Think Tank, Kate. You made me smile.
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A body that can exercise by itself! Brilliant! I want one too!
We have at least 6 inches of snow here. Balmy there?
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Yesterday it got to 70. Today it might reach 60. At the moment, it’s hovering just below 50. So it’s balmy-ish. 😎
And no snow which is a big improvement on all my winters up north.
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I would kill for 50 right now. It’s 3 outside and it’s noon!
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I agree when those bells start chiming, I don’t chime in but just listen. After all, my job as a teacher is to make something out of this younger population, and yet, they teach me so much. They rescue me when I can’t text home. They introduce me to Prezzi over ppt. They will always respond to a smile because they aren’t “jaded” yet. And, they still look beautiful (radiant eyes, an expectant laugh, healthy hair), young and fit as I’m sure you feel as you’re attending the fitness class. Truly more girls are beautiful today. Note: I said, more girls not girls are more beautiful. They can be confident in that one model is not the norm and they exude beauty, self-confidence and fitness. Let’s see did I wander, ramble or disagree with all that’s wrong with young people today?
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I watch the young folks in my family, even those in their 20s and 30s and I am always amazed. They are so much more prepared and confident than I was. My gym is an incubator for blogging material.
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These women need to focus on the workout. I’m glad you MYOB, Kate. I would love to have been a teenager in the 1950’s…loved those poodle skirts and bobby socks.
I hope you and your husband are safe at home as the snow storm hits PA. We’re upset the Flyers game was cancelled tonight, but you’ve got to keep the fan safe. Stay warm!
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I was too young for poodle skirts but I did wear tie-dyed tee-shirts with my long hair parted in the middle. Wasn’t a good look for me.
We have about 6 inches of snow but we don’t need to go anywhere so we’re good. This weather is getting a bit tedious though. How’s it by you? I think you are getting more snow than we are.
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The mountains of NC got a lot of snow, but here in Charlotte, we had some sprinkles late yesterday but the temperature has really dropped. I heard you all got around 14 inches. You need to move south!
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Philadelphia got way more than we did and yes, moving south sounds very good especially today. I think we have 6 or so inches out there.
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These ladies in your exercise class sound a bit out of touch. I agree with you, today is much better in so many ways. I mean, does anyone miss manual typewriters, typewriter ribbon, white-out & carbon paper? I doubt it, yet good books are still being written on this newfangled thing called a computer. 😉
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They are lovely ladies but sometimes if one goes off on something, it can get wild. Perhaps it’s a knee jerk reaction to something but I like technology even if it makes me yell.
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Me too. Life is so much more interesting with it around.
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