Men Are Becoming... Something Else

I think many of you can identify with the idea that, as a child, one of the last things you wanted to do was to tell your parents you were bored. They could find something for you to do, but the chances that it would be something you wanted to do were low. Today, many parents feel like it's their job to keep their children entertained, often with a device, or with endless scheduled activities.
 
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Well, since I was born at the height of the depression, this video and others like it resonated with me to a certain extent.

Even we girls had to learn so much of these simple yet useful skills, plus more in some instances.

Poke fun at it all if you will, but in the long run, if just a few were required under adverse conditions, it's not bad to know how to use them.

There are all manner of books, films, etc., that let on know how we live without technology and were industrious, because we had to be. And, make no mistake, it all did build character.

My generation was truly a class act. I look at what is being produced today and shudder.
 
Ken Anderson said:
I haven't watched the video, but I've watched several like that; judging from the blurb and the thumbnail, I generally find them interesting.

I, too, am annoyed by the common practice these days to have someone with a foreign accent or, even worse, an AI voice with a foreign accent, narrate everything. We're being programmed to believe that someone from another country is more authoritative than an American would be. That was an actual directive by the networks a few years ago, that whenever an expert was needed for a story, to find someone from another country, or, if an expert from another country couldn't be easily found, then someone with some ethnicity other than Anglo-Saxon, or, if all else fails, a woman. As a consequence, and this part is my opinion, people putting podcasts together have accepted that a foreign voice is more credible than an American accent so we see this even in podcasts on American subjects.
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I always am fascinated by the fact that in movies, Romans speak English with a British accent.
 
I grew up in the outdoors, and our children did as well. Camping, fire building, cooking over a fire and such were skills all the kids had. The boys used those skills more that the girls did, as they enjoyed it more. On her first dogsled race, #2 daughter had a team that she hadn't properly trained. They just quit running around midnight, so she set up camp in the on the trail and slept in the sled until the dogs decided they were ready to run again. I did some knot tying instruction and fire building training, and all our kids were taught those skills, and my wife as well. Wife grew up in a small Iowa town and had never camped until she met me. Our honeymoon was spent half in a fancy, elegant hotel, and half camped in a tent on a beach in North Carolina. She never learned to enjoy sleeping on the ground however, so I tried to limit those, and we bought a small pop-up Apache camper trailer that made her life enjoyable. #3 son recently told me of his experience in Nebraska with friends who had planned a picnic and party around an open fire. Unfortunately it rained quite hard before the event and the friends were sad that there couldn't be a fire since everything was wet. #3 son simply said , "Watch me" and built a blaze in the wet using techniques he had learned here.
 
Don Alaska said:
I grew up in the outdoors, and our children did as well. Camping, fire building, cooking over a fire and such were skills all the kids had. The boys used those skills more that the girls did, as they enjoyed it more. On her first dogsled race, #2 daughter had a team that she hadn't properly trained. They just quit running around midnight, so she set up camp in the on the trail and slept in the sled until the dogs decided they were ready to run again. I did some knot tying instruction and fire building training, and all our kids were taught those skills, and my wife as well. Wife grew up in a small Iowa town and had never camped until she met me. Our honeymoon was spent half in a fancy, elegant hotel, and half camped in a tent on a beach in North Carolina. She never learned to enjoy sleeping on the ground however, so I tried to limit those, and we bought a small pop-up Apache camper trailer that made her life enjoyable. #3 son recently told me of his experience in Nebraska with friends who had planned a picnic and party around an open fire. Unfortunately it rained quite hard before the event and the friends were sad that there couldn't be a fire since everything was wet. #3 son simply said , "Watch me" and built a blaze in the wet using techniques he had learned here.
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I lived in a semi rural area as a child. My father taught me to build a fire and I have been eternally grateful. I hate the taste of lighter fluid in my meat. I've always carried a knife, even though I am a girl. I got teased about it but often people ask if they can borrow it. I've started a fire with wet fuel chosen carefully and can find food most anywhere. Maybe not as good as some but could sustain us. Not sure I can camp on the ground anymore though.
 
Mary Stetler said:
I lived in a semi rural area as a child. My father taught me to build a fire and I have been eternally grateful. I hate the taste of lighter fluid in my meat. I've always carried a knife, even though I am a girl. I got teased about it but often people ask if they can borrow it. I've started a fire with wet fuel chosen carefully and can find food most anywhere. Maybe not as good as some
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I remember talking to a woman in northern Alaska who was on a rafting trip on the Noatak river when the raft hit a sweeper and capsized, dumping the occupants in the icy river. All got out safely, but no one had the means to start a warming fire except her, who was the only smoker on the trip. She said it was the first and only time that being a smoker likely saved her life and the lives of the others. I always carry a knife and a lighter, although I do not smoke. I was just at a birthday party today and I was asked for my lighter, as no one had any way to light the candles on the cake. I am asked almost every day for my knife for one reason or another. Our daughters have knives, but I don't think either of them carry them, but they live in Washington, so it might be illegal to do so.;) All our sons carry knives, but I think I am the only one who always carried a lighter.
 
  1. Knots NOPE
  2. Sharpening a Knife NOPE
  3. Starting a Fire NOPE
  4. Direction NOPE
  5. Fishing Yup
  6. Bicycling (Unsupervised Mobility) Yup
  7. Changing/Repairing a Tire Yup
  8. Fighting NOPE
  9. Childhood Jobs Yup
  10. Boredom (Free Time, Thinking Time) Yup
  11. A Voice (Memorization, Recitation) Yup
  12. Manners, Respect Yup
  13. Disappointment, Failure Yup
  14. Truth, Honesty Yup
  15. Being Left Alone Yup
I think the one thing generations after ours misses out on is having a lot of free time at home. With both parents working (generally), there's little time to routinely decompress in their own space and experience boredom and finding a way to entertain themselves. Of course, the coming of portable radios, television, cable/satellite TV, internet, etc. was a major transition from how things had been for many, many generations and ushered in a whole new era. I think the ability to "just be" has been a damaged by those things as much as math skills have been damaged by calculators.

I had neighbors who home schooled their 2 sons, who were allowed 1 hour of "screen time" per day to use as they chose: TV, movie, internet, video games, whatever. 60 minutes total. Then they were on their own. I don't think I ever saw them in front of a screen. It just wasn't part of their lives. They were smart kids.
 
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We was chatting today about our neighbour and their son , don’t really know who to make / fix or install anything

The neighbour worked as a general labourer all his life ( nothing wrong with that ) the son is a school teacher , and he asked my hubby if he’d cut some blinds that were to wide for their newly built home a few months back ( simple roll up / down holland blinds )

He simply had no idea how to use a tape measure / and a straight edge and a box cutter type knife to reduce the width of a blind
including reducing the width of the roller part ( I used to do that all the time when I bought new blinds ) or was given some and fixed so they’d fit a window …


Recently seen an article how a survey was conducted on school kids various ages on using their hands , for different tasks
it was a huge failure …as most couldn’t use their hands to make or fix anything including holding / using a pen or a pencil
or look through a book for something like a dictionary….

We live in a corner where 4 school buses stop ( all Christian schools ) ….the bus stops 4 times in a 300 mtr area ( all one road )
to,pick up and drop off Kids as old as 14/15 year olds so they don’t …..
have to walk …or parents drive kids to one the bus stops ….. from side streets 4 homes away ….

Wonder whats going to happen when these kids get a job …..wonder if a parent might have to accompany them …cause it appears kids can’t
or are not allowed to walk to places to even catch a bus …without being escorted, i recently asked the school teachers 6 year old , which is your left hand ….he didn’t know
 
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Kate Ellery said:
e live in a corner where 4 school buses stop ( all Christian schools ) ….the bus stops 4 times in a 300 mtr area ( all one road )
to,pick up and drop off Kids as old as 14/15 year olds so they don’t …..
have to walk …or parents drive kids to one the bus stops ….. from side streets 4 homes away ….
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I have noticed, too, that buses will make 3-4 stops on the same block, as if a child can't walk from the neighbor's house to their own. Even in elementary school, we could decide for ourselves whether we were going to walk to or from school or take the bus.
 
I was saying to hubs yesterday , if the trend of not getting exercise / and not using their grey matter , they will mostly die of dementia in their 30’s
Remember the mid 20’s who spoke to me in a condescending tone , when I asked for 1/2 dozen mini Frankfurt’s ( she didn’t know how many 1/2 dozen was ) but stood with her hands on her hips …displaying her dominance…by saying how many’s that ,!!!!!

anyway , I was in Woolworths yesterday and I said where’s the youngster ….most who work in the deli dept are in their 50’s
one said oh she was dismissed ..wonder why
 
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