I am so old....

[JPSpins]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

While it's a fact that I sometimes feel sorry for the lifestyle of the building bound generation, regardless of age, it is heartening to meet and talk camping and outdoor adventures with today's young people when you encounter them. We spent some time last weekend putting a new floor in my 31 year old daughter and son in laws 42 year old boler. They learned, they helped and they were proud. When they got ready to leave yesterday I gave them a mismatched set of wrenches including a Bonney 7/8 made in West Germany and so marked. I'm trying to show them what I can and to make them realize just cause it's old don't mean it ain't good. Human, Steel or Cheese. They already have the hooch part down.
Dave

Very nice! My 32 year old daughter plans on meeting up with me next year in B.C. for some camping when I meet the 19. Both of us will be on a Rocky Mountainy steep learning curve!

[Iowa Dave]

Loren, I have to tell you, that 21 you have is a sneaky devil. While you were here in May he slipped down to the building to see our 19 and the next thing I know, there's gonna be a baby boler living in my shed with her mom next winter. If Loren stops by to see you, keep your eye on his trailer.
Dave

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by rbryan4

Pretty much true. The people I admire most are those who can do alot of things well - maybe not professionally, but competently.

I agree... and there have been people like that forever; I suspect there always will be. There is less and less need to be a generalist, since almost anything is available without being able to build or do it ourselves, but some are still interested.

Originally Posted by rbryan4

One of my favorite quotes is from a novel by Robert Heinlein. It expresses his idea of the 'competent man':

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

That sounds nice, but like all literary references to the "competent man" it doesn't correspond to anyone in reality. Heinlein wrote this particular version in a science fiction novel (Time Enough for Love), not a practical manual for life. I think we'll need to accept the idea that by this standard there are about 7 billion incompetent humans on the planet... perhaps in part because - unlike Heinlein's "competent" character Lazarus Long - we don't have hundreds of years of life to learn all this stuff.

[JPSpins]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

I agree... and there have been people like that forever; I suspect there always will be. There is less and less need to be a generalist, since almost anything is available without being able to build or do it ourselves, but some are still interested.


That sounds nice, but like all literary references to the "competent man" it doesn't correspond to anyone in reality. Heinlein wrote this particular version in a science fiction novel (Time Enough for Love), not a practical manual for life. I think we'll need to accept the idea that by this standard there are about 7 billion incompetent humans on the planet... perhaps in part because - unlike Heinlein's "competent" character Lazarus Long - we don't have hundreds of years of life to learn all this stuff.

As long as I can tow and empty the black safely and competently, I will be a very happy camper.

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by JPSpins

As long as I can tow and empty the black safely and competently, I will be a very happy camper.

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[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

I think we'll need to accept the idea that by this standard there are about 7 billion incompetent humans on the planet... perhaps in part because - unlike Heinlein's "competent" character Lazarus Long - we don't have hundreds of years of life to learn all this stuff.

True, it's fiction, and therefore idealized and exaggerated. Still, I agree with the sentiment. My idea of the competent man is far narrower. My first experiences with this type of man were with my father. Growing up I often thought 'there's nothing he doesn't know how to do.' I watched him build a house from start to finish. I watched him paint a car, overhaul an engine, fly fish like an expert and hunt like nobody's business. All the while he was building the circuitry for Nike Hercules missiles for the Army. Smart man.


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[cpaharley2008]

I felt the same about my dad until Alzheimers set in and he regressed until his death, my father was the epitome of "Jack of all trades, master of none".

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

I felt the same about my dad until Alzheimers set in and he regressed until his death, my father was the epitome of "Jack of all trades, master of none".

My favorite kind of guy Jim. Alzheimers may have stolen his memories, but not your memories of him.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

I felt the same about my dad until Alzheimers set in and he regressed until his death, my father was the epitome of "Jack of all trades, master of none".

Hi: cpaharley2008... My Dad still helps me though he's been dead since '93. When I get into a bind with a job, I stop and think...WWDD and the problem gets solved. He never had time for Alzheimers and keeled over with a shovel in his hand. His wish!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Mike Lewis]

My former job involved high-performance computing. I remember telling a young co-worker about when I was a child having to wait for radios to warm up before they would work, because they used vacuum tubes. I added that the earliest computers used vacuum tubes as well. He thought for a minute and said, "Wow, those old computers must have been hard to work on, with all those tubes running every which way!" I guess he had never seen a vacuum tube and had no idea what one looked like.

[Jim Bennett]

My Dad lost an arm when he was 19, so had to do an about face with career planning, as being a farmer with one arm back then just wouldn't work. He too was a jack-of-all-trades, and rarely hired anything done, and was quite adept at carpentry.

Our relationship definitely lent definition by me being his "Right Hand Man"

[dfandrews]

Originally Posted by Marry

"Junior Seniors". Who can calculate without a calculator

You mean, like using the slide rule that's here on my desk, just to confound the young whipper-snappers around me. (wonder where that phrase came from?).

We had scooters made from a roller skate, a 1x4, and an orange crate with a wood scrap for a handle. When the crate broke, we tried skating with only the 1x4. Now they call it skate-boarding!

The first clothes washer I remember had a two-roller wringer, then you hung the clothes on the solar clothes dryer!
AH yes, then there was the Helm's bakery truck with the little whistle, driving through the neighborhood. If I was good, and asked just right, my mom gave me the coins (5 cents, I think) to buy one of those melt-in-your-mouth glazed donuts.

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by dfandrews

You mean, like using the slide rule that's here on my desk, just to confound the young whipper-snappers around me. (wonder where that phrase came from?).

From Phrase.org.UK:

" 'Whipper snappers' were known by various names, all of them derived from the habit of young layabouts of hanging around snapping whips to pass the time. Originally these ne'er-do-wells were known simply, and without any great linguistic imagination, as 'whip snappers'. This term merged with an existing 17th century term for street rogues - 'snipper snappers', to become 'whipper snapper'."

And I, too, have a slide rule at my desk but can barely remember how to use it.

[alanmalk]

... so old that I remember when computer memory was little donuts of magnetic material (cores) with wires running through the middle in two directions, one bit per core at a cost of about $1 per bit.

Prices and sizes have dropped by about a "gigga". Best bargain ever...

--
Alan

[Jim Bennett]

I played with my slide rule from high school a while back. I could do the simple things like multiplication, division, squares, etc, but the more advanced uses have escaped my mind, along with the need to use them.

Fortunately I got to use a TI calculator when I went to college a few years later.

Another thing I have done recently, about a month ago, is to use the manual typewriter I learned on. My mom downsized to an apartment and needed to clear lots of stuff out. Unfortunately it went to Good Will, though not sure they even kept it. My best timing was 63 WPM with no mistakes, and I still type well to this day, at least faster than I can talk.

[dfandrews]

Originally Posted by alanmalk

... so old that I remember when computer memory was little donuts of magnetic material (cores) with wires running through the middle in two directions, one bit per core at a cost of about $1 per bit.

Prices and sizes have dropped by about a "gigga". Best bargain ever...

--
Alan

OK, Alan. You win!

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by dfandrews

OK, Alan. You win!

Truth!

[cpaharley2008]

We used carbon paper to make a "copy" of something and used a type of putty to clean our typewriter keys. Still have my Royal manual from high school and my 1st apple, a Macintosh computer. Ink pens were filled with ink from a bottle, Parker was my favorite pen and Bic pens were demonstrated as an arrow to show it's durability. Of course there was Cameron Swayze hawking Timex by strapping it to an outboard motor, takes a licking and keeps ticking. Ever wonder why watches were worn on your left hand vs right, because you had to wind them everyday. Favorite radio stations were WLS in Chicago, KOMA in OKCity, WABC in NYC, WKBW in Buffalo, NY, KDKA in Pittsburgh and some radio station from Mexico, XERS with Wolfman Jack.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

We used carbon paper to make a "copy" of something and used a type of putty to clean our typewriter keys. Still have my Royal manual from high school and my 1st apple, a Macintosh computer. Ink pens were filled with ink from a bottle, Parker was my favorite pen and Bic pens were demonstrated as an arrow to show it's durability. Of course there was Cameron Swayze hawking Timex by strapping it to an outboard motor, takes a licking and keeps ticking. Ever wonder why watches were worn on your left hand vs right, because you had to wind them everyday. Favorite radio stations were WLS in Chicago, KOMA in OKCity, WABC in NYC, WKBW in Buffalo, NY, KDKA in Pittsburgh and some radio station from Mexico, XERS with Wolfman Jack.

Hi: cpaharley2008... First transistor radio I bought was slim enough to slip under my pillow so I could listen to "Cousin Brucey" on WABC NY. He came all the way to London Ontario Canada over the air waves !!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Steven M]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

That I dialed wall mounted rotary phones with long cords and phone numbers had names such as Liberty or Forest and 4 digits to remember,and phones had shared party lines, while watching black and white 13" tv with aluminum foil on the antenna during the hours from 6 am to midnight only, after which is when the test pattern came on, listening to 45 RPM records or am radio,sometimes picking up radio stations from far away late at night, your mail only had 2 digit zip code and milk was delivered to your door. Your vegetables and fruit were sold in the rear alley by horse drawn vendors who would also sharpen your knives or your reel mower, which had 5 blades and actually cut the grass when pushed. Your streets were cleaned by a man who pushed a cart and broom swept clean and in the evening another man would come around and turn up the street lights which were gas operated. The good ole days......but then Escape Trailers did not exist, only the aluminum ones.

We had 5 numbers from the time I remember my phone number, I remember it but not the last phone number I had before I moved to my current home. The vegetable man had a truck to drive down our alley and before the knife sharpener got his truck he had a push cart. Coal was delivered for heat, the ice man the bread man and the milk man all delivered. Our local A&P was smaller then most convenient stores today and the competition National Tea was on the same block. Memories