Art & Inspiration Lost skills and talents . Gone just gone! Kids are our downfall !

The kid that wandered into my shop about 5-6yrs ago and adopted me, is like a six foot human sponge. First couple years I thought I'd gained 150lbs because he hung over my shoulder so much. And the questions:
"Whatcha doing?"
"Why you doing that?"
"How'd you do that?"
"Can you show me how to do that?"
"Can I do that now?"

Were soon followed by:
"Like this?"
"That better?"
"How's it look now?"
"You happy?"

To finally:
"Looks pretty good, huh?"

He just finished up a single seat, tube framed, blown SBC, shortie glide, 9" IRS sand rail. He made the frame, all the brackets and 90% of the suspension. He's not really into hotrods (finds them boring) or drag racing (to long a wait between rounds). I've mentioned Bonneville, and that sparked his interest till he read the rule book.
While he might not be into 'traditional' hotrodding, he's a hotrodder in my book. Oh, and he's set all the whizbang gadgets on my AMG Merc, and starts his 2020 Ford pickup with his phone. I ain't gonna worry about this kid, as he's got it pretty well covered.

 

I definitely can relate! I was in charge of the firetrucks and related vehicles for our city for 33 years. During that 33 years nothing was purchased with a clutch! But early on there were some left over trucks with clutches. I have dozens of stories about clutches! Did you know a firetruck can pop a wheely ? Just saying........lol








Bones

 

As a younger guy (for now anyway) I do enjoy the occasional situation where I make a old timer who doesnt know me speechless when he asks these kinds of questions at a car meet and I can easily answer. It usually happens at the local Cars and Coffee event as it attracts mainly modern stuff.

 

I purchased my last 3 pedal car in 2003. Both grandsons learned to drive it, taught by their father. The oldest one, out of Marine Corps, needed a car while attending school in Az. I offered him the car last year and reminded him it had had 3 pedals. His responses “ I’ll take it”. They both have driven my sons dirt circle track car with a triple disc clutch and 2 speed trans. Second grandson bought a OT Firebird with a 6 speed in it. He could leave the keys in it because none of his friends could even start it let alone drive it.

I have driven sticks since 1958 with 90% “column shifts”. None of them ever had a “tree” in them. Some one will need to splane that to me. Makes absolutely no sense and uses more words.

 

I couldn't help but smile the other day when my son in law told me that he was giving his old Toyota Landcruiser to my granddaughter as her first vehicle when she gets her license. Manual trans, no power steering, just power brakes. I love that she's going to learn on something most young people find foreign, and couldn't drive if they had to. She may be a unicorn in her school!

 

Okay, show of hands from the grumblers; how many can describe the steps shown here? BTW, I enjoy watching/learning stuff like this, even if it has no application in my life. But it doesn't take the place of learning stuff that DOES matter in modern life.

 

I've never driven a stock T before. What's that extra pedal for? Does that make me an idiot?

Its just that the chance never came up and I've never searched it out. Maybe I'll get the opportunity some day.

 

Its not just the younger generation, I had my 49 F 1 at the alignment shop. the 40 ? yr old mech needed me to open the hood for him. And once when at the hardware store, the attendant, an adult, didn't know how to lower the tailgate on the same truck. they rarely see them.

 

I can! But I am a steam buff! Can anyone spell torque!






Bones

 

"You younger guys don't know nothing about this old stuff....but stick around a while and I will try to explain it."
Then maybe you can show me how to change the ring tone on my phone.

This was said by me last week to the new camera assistant that was trying to figure out how the film was loaded in the old camera (1980s vintage)we were using as a prop. He only knows digital equipment.

By the end of the job I knew more about my phone and he was trying to buy that camera package.
He showed me how to set up a zoom call so we can see what each other are working on. He lives in another state.

We agree we both can benefit from each others knowledge.

Sent from my VS987 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Use to teach in a program that refurbished donations and the sold them. K-car needed a trans, also put in a new clutch. Guy picks the car up on a Friday. Comes back Monday morning on the hook. Clutch was absolutely fried. Seems he was trying to teach his son how to drive a stick. (Two guys with special talents.) Gave him his money back. Never heard back from the next purchaser.

Paid for an extra hour of Drivers Ed. for my daughter because she wanted to learn how to drive a stick. When she graduated from high school she and a friend drove her 5spd., S-10 Blazer to Alaska for the summer. On the way home she visited grandma in Washington state and returned home to Maryland on New Years.

 

As said, don't blame the kids. Expose them to the older tech, let them ask questions. Let them sit in your rod or custom. It also goes both ways, our new Bonneville crew is all in our 50s. Computers, data collection, laptop tuning is all part of the game there and we are having fun playing with the tech. There are also many friends here on the board that are adept at turbos, efi and modern engine swaps. You just don't see the OT stuff

 

AGREED!!! I have a 26 year old daughter and I told her many years ago that being able COMMUNICATE effectively with people is VERY important.

 

I like to call this ‘fake rage’ youre angry at something for no real reason and youre unsure at what exactly. Its anger, but obviously misdirected to the wrong place.
Im also going to assume you mean millenials who by the way, are adults now, 24-39years old currently in 2020.

The things you use as examples, kids have NO control over. For the most part it isnt kids fault maufacturers of vehicles arent supplying them with manual anything, and are making them less owner maintained and more reliance on the dealer for easy things like oil changes...its corporate greed, and also convenience, both the modern way.

Boomers are in charge of apple and tech and are the ones who engrained iphones so deeply in our lives we literally cant live without them now, even created the tech you use to go on this forum to smack talk kids with. I bet you pick on us for that too, even if we work damn hard and earn our own damn money to be able to spend it on that to bury our faces in all the time if we we choose .

Is it the kids fault boomers took auto repair off the school syllabus?
Is it the kids fault boomers now got greedy and decided to create a reliance on the car dealers for simple maintenance tasks like changing oil..?
Is it the kids fault cars are now being designed with creature comforts and electronics..?
Are the kids in charge of these auto companies..?

When you were young, adults could have a mortgage, 2 kids, cars and a stay at home wife all on a 40k a year grocery bag packer salary, boomers love to brag about this bootstraps thing all the time! its also not the young peoples fault wages are so low thats impossible now..
None of this is the kids fault...
Kids arent in charge of anything. Kids dont own anything. Boomers are the ones who own the corporations and are in charge of designing and releasing these cars into the public. Not kids. Boomers are now in charge of corporate greed. And shitty wages.

i see it all the time and hear it from the old guys at work, dad fights a war, comes back, starts a company after ww2, wants to give his kids everything he missed out on in the depression, which creates an entitled little snowflakey boomer asshole son like you, passes company to this boomer son, who then gets greedy and changes things and tightens the screws, even making pensions and loyalty to a company things of the past because he needs a few more storeys on his house.

none of this is any kids fault.

If you REALLY wanted a blue coloured bowl to eat dinner out of but the shops only sold red, green and orange bowls, thatd be millenials fault too wouldnt it.

i honestly say you need to look within and think about who the generation is that FAILED to do their job of raising millenials.
That, or realise, that as an old boomer, you probably only have what, 10years left before dying of old age..? At this point just let it go man, your blood pressure might thankyou, might bump thatup to 12 years of life left. Oh and lay off the fox news too, the lower blood pressure from not watching that alone will add 10years of life on you.

 

Last year, a friend of mine wanted to buy a 4x4 with a manual transmission, and not only did he have to special order it, but he had to pay extra for the insult.
Technology is advancing so rapidly now, that modern kids are living in a completely different world than we did. It isn't a matter of whether or not the changes are good or bad for us, they are happening anyway, and the kids have to adapt to the world they are growing up in. Our world is dead, just like what happened when the era of steam began.
We can enjoy our hobby, but have to know that most things we cherish will end up on the scrap heaps or in museums. Even some old farts are walking around with their eyes on the phone, and can't see where they are going because they are so wrapped up in texting. Most of the time, my smart phone stays at home.
Bob

 

Knowledge is acquired from a desire to have the mental and physical tool sets to accomplish a goal. All human beings are motivated by exterior and interior triggers. Children learn from their parents, teachers, their peer group, and also from role models (real and imagined). Some human beings do certain things better than others, because of their innate talent for the various aspects of existence. There are some people who find machines a comfort to be around, to operate, to repair, and very often to alter for purposes other than their original intention. See where I'm going? If the children of today are not interested in the same things we are, it is because they are interested in other things. Not everyone wants to take the time to study how an internal combustion engine operates, or how to alter its operation. Nor do they want to get dirty, while working on automobiles. It takes a certain kind of person who is not afraid of grease, and dirt to take that first leap into a world where part of what you know is from doing, another part comes from watching others, and certainly a goodly amount comes from studying whatever materials you can find on the various aspects of it, be that magazines, books, or as is currently possible, from videos. This motivation comes from inside and cannot be forced on anyone. And, I hate to say it, but we are really dinosaurs. We either cannot, or refuse to evolve. We don't want a world full of electric vehicles. We don't want self-driving cars. We don't want artificial intelligence being in charge of anything that comes near us. And, yet, like the computerized vehicles that now cruise America's highways, if something can be built that fits a niche, or takes over the market, it will be the next Model T and whoever the Henry Ford that dreams that magic mouse-trap up, the world is going to beat a path to their showroom. And, personally I figure there will still be people who are dissatisfied with whatever that mouse-trap does, and will take it apart and tinker with it to do what they want it to do. And, that is where we are. We are just another generation of mouse-trap tinkerers. Take a look at one of Gow Job posts on here and you will realize that there were others like us in past generations, and no matter how much we think we're seeing the end of what we think of is the cat's whiskers, someone else is coming along who will do something similar to whatever it is that they have to work with. Even if it has a mini-nuclear reactor under the hood.

 

The shocking truth...

 

61, I think you hit the nail on the head! Back when I was younger, I was taught several things that young folks today ignore!
One is being on time and calling if you are late or can’t make it! This one pisses me off !
The other is interrupting a conversation, mine or someone else’s! This infuriates me!
One other is, to start playing on their phone during a conversation!
I’ve got more....lol but that’s enough now! Now I’m pissed off just thinking about it! Also the youngsters don’t have a monopoly on these traits , either!










Bones

 

I dont think anything has changed nessessarily, just shifted. im a cnc machinist, and while i respect that in the 70s, machining was a high skilled high payed respected career, nowadays, more cnc machinists can do manual machining aswell as program and run more technical things on a cnc machine than any amount of old timers on clapped out bridgeports can do.

as an example, yes, the old way was to use mathematics and draught up plans to build a window winder mechanism for a car and have it work.... but nowadays you can use any number of design software, draw it up, run simulations and export it to a machine for automated manufacture in a FRACTION of the time..
My point is,
Shun the electronic up n down modern car windows all you want, but the exact same human brain power, ingenuity, problem solving, sweat equity etc went into that electronic design and circuitry in not only the modern car window but also the cnc machine and computer programming used to build it as did the old wind up window and bridgeport mill.

So i think yes, the majority of people are getting dumber, but those of us with brains nowadays use them to work smarter not harder.

 

Geeez.....how do you really feel.....I hope better now.

 

interesting.

some guy on here decides to try insult my generation, i stand up for myself and your response is to pick on me, not the snowflake that started the whole thread.
Hope YOU feel better now.. you big bully.

 

Not insulting your generation in the least, read my previous post. Wish you the best.

 

One of the problems with all the high tech to do your figures for you, is you do not “exercise “ your brain! Your brain needs exercise just like your muscles to stay fit and strong!
That’s where the problem comes in! That’s why we used to have to do our figures , repeatedly back in the old days in school! To implant the results in your brain all the while exercising it. I think this is missing today. I know there are other kinds of exercise, but I don’t think they work as good as the old days
When I went to school they taught you HOW to think, today they teach you WHAT to think!





Bones

 

Steam? You had better know what you are doing or a catastrophic ending is in your future. Yes I am a steam buff too and like to ride steam trains. If nothing else to marvel at the ingenuity that became the modern world. Google the three pedals in a Model T and you can get a tutorial on how to put one into motion. By the way. don't overlook the hand brake as it does play a part. Without all of this world knowledge at our fingertips we would not know half of what we do or be able to pass it on.

 

well i did say cnc machinist not push button operator, theres still plenty of thought and exercise for the brain with coding etc even though you dont haveto literally trig anything out.

I agree with you there on the school thing, you used to get marks for what was behind your answer whether right or wrong, and you used to haveto be smart to get into college...
What i noticed since having gone back here and there.. If your check clears you pass pretty much

 

The “greatest generation” label should be either applied or added to the generation that raised the gen considered the “greatest”
That generation, at least statistically, raised the generation that made the bulk of the sacrifices during WW2. The “greatest gen” didn’t do as good of a job with child rearing (statistical speaking)
Now some of that is societal and technical changes.
Placing blame or belittling a generation entirely for perceived shortcomings is easy fodder for confused or scared individuals.
A T-ball player never gave themselves a participation trophy. The trophy was a product of the generation that came before.
Any blame of lack of knowledge, respect or any other generational shortcomings is a reflection or result of the failures of the past gen.

 

Jeebus, some of you are more windy than the Unabomber's manifesto

 

100% this.

For those of you who are prone to complain about kids these days, if you want to know where the problem is, grab a mirror.

 

I resemble that remark. However when a student enters my class, it’s not their fault he/she has no clue what a screwdriver is.
It’s my fault if they leave my class and still doesn’t know.

 

Modern computer controlled powertrain management systems can choose the proper gear for the conditions with a degree of precision that is several orders-of-magnitude more precise than the most talented Human.

There is a reason for this. Fuel economy maximization (Federal law, CAFE standards), and pollution minimization (Federal law, and and a good idea, so the kids can survive when you are gone (and you should care about that)).

There are quite a few examples of vehicles now that get lower mileage with a manual transmission than they do with an automatic.

My wife's front-wheel-drive family sedan can smoke probably 80% of the cars on this board 0-60, 1/8 mile, 1/4 mile, and top speed (with the limiter turned off), and gets 50mpg at 70mph. Passes CA smog perfectly.

6-Speed DSG dual wet clutch gearbox, computer shifted.

No older car can do this.