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Are we "The last of the Mohicans ?"

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Don's Hot Rods, May 30, 2012.

  1. Jimbo17
    Joined: Aug 19, 2008
    Posts: 3,959

    Jimbo17
    Member

    Don: Add my name to the list of people who agree with you.

    I am 65 but my friend the world is changing and the way I was raised I think is gone forever. I started working at the age of 11 cleaning up construction sites for my uncle who was a home builder. My father had died early so my uncle was my mentor in life.

    I worked for him all the way through high school and once I graduated I worked full time building and remodeling homes.

    I went on to work for myself my entire life in the building business because of the education I received working for my uncle who was a master carpenter.

    Back in those day's we did the foundation work and concrete, cabinets,tile, trim and just about everything else our self. I was so grateful for the opportunity to learn from someone who was so talented and had so much business sense. He owned over 15 homes back in the 60's.

    At the age of about 14 I purchase two cars for $50.00 dollars each. One was a 1949 Chevrolet Coupe that had a decent engine but the body was shot and the other was a 1951 Chevrolet that had a great body but no engine.

    I swapped the engine with a few friends and a few tools that we borrowed.

    I miss those day's!!!!!!!!!!! I used to spend a lot of time in junk yards looking for parts because I really did not have much money in those day's so you everything your self.

    I am from a different era when a simple hand shake was all that was needed for a deal or even to build someone a new home.

    My uncle always had works of wisdom for me and to this day I live my life by those same words.

    One day he asked me if I thought I was going to work hard my whole life and when I answered yes he looked at me and said then why make someone else rich. Work for your self and make your self rich.

    He was as honest as the day is long and those day's a mans word was all you needed.

    Our word and our ethics are something that cannot be bought or taken away from us.

    Just my opinion. Jimbo
     
  2. cheveey57
    Joined: Mar 11, 2010
    Posts: 676

    cheveey57
    Member

    No, everything comes and goes in cycles. If you wait long enough everything comes back in style. Just like the "retro" car styles right now. "old" will never really be out of style.
     
  3. farmergal
    Joined: Nov 28, 2010
    Posts: 2,074

    farmergal
    Member
    from somewhere

    :eek: Thanks
     
  4. nowaxn5
    Joined: Apr 15, 2007
    Posts: 818

    nowaxn5
    Member

    This thread makes me laugh.
    I'm nearly forty and not exactly young anymore. Not old but not exactly young either. I'd bet the generations before said the same things about television and the telephone. The generation before that said it about the automobile. If you don't think younger people work with their hands, fabricate or have true ingenuity attend a mini-trucker event and actually talk to some of those fellas that we despise. While it's not my cup O' tea some of these guys build some impressive frames and suspensions.

    Just saying
     
  5. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    True story, about twenty years ago, driving through town with my somewhat younger GF at the time...
    Me: "Look at that idiot with his pants hanging off his ass and his hat on backwards. What a maroon..."
    GF: "hmmm. you know what? You sound JUST LIKE my dad..."
     
  6. RagtopBuick66
    Joined: Dec 12, 2011
    Posts: 1,180

    RagtopBuick66
    Member

    IF we are the "Last of the Mohicans", don't blame technology. Game consoles have been around since the late 70s/early 80s. The introduction of the Atari 2600 gave kids with no other direction an excuse to stay indoors and turn into vegetables. Fortunately for me, I didn't take any interest in the Atari until I was about 30, and I bought a 2600 on eBay as a novelty item for my bar/man-cave. I still suck at Asteroids, but my buds and I turned it into a drinking game, so sucking just meant you got hammered quicker.

    IF the hands-on breed dies off, it is OUR fault for not recruiting younger folks to take our places. A kid will take an interest in anything an adult takes the time to teach them. Usually. My son is only 3, but he helps me tear down parts on the kitchen floor all day long! (Mom's not too happy about that, but...) I can remember growing up in sheer amazement at the world around me. Something as simple as a road sign could get me to thinking about how perfect its shape was, and wondering what processes were used to get it to look like it does, and finally, how it got to where it is. I asked questions, as every kid does. When I got the answers to the simple shit, my curiosities grew into more complex things, such as cars. I get annoyed with adults who see an inquisitive child as a nuisance and give them an answer like "because I said so". I was lucky enough to get my questions answered. And if they went unanswered, I would ask other questions to arrive at my own conclusions after filling in the blanks.

    In a nutshell, when you're working on your hot rods, roll up the damn garage door! The neighbor kid might just take an interest in what you're doing and ask to hang out. OP, you mention that we're dying out. Here's a parting thought;

    Don't worry about replacing the entire aging breed of mechanics. Replace ONE. If you can manage to educate just one member of the younger generation, in order that he/she might fill your shoes and continue your traditions when you've headed for the great salt flats in the sky, YOU HAVE JUST SINGLE-HANDEDLY SAVED THE MOHICANS.

    Doesn't make sense? No, it doesn't. Not on a personal level. But if we ALL give a little guidance to just ONE kid, and get just ONE kid interested in our craft, share our knowledge and hands-on experience with JUST ONE KID, our breed will never die out. Our numbers will stay the same. Teach two and we grow.

    MY replacement is my little boy, Cheytan. He could give a shit less about any video gave or TV show. He wants to help Daddy. And I will teach him all I know. (Especially things like not washing an intake in the dishwasher unless Mommy won't be home for a few days...)

    If you still believe, after reading my post, that we're a dying breed, ask yourself this question; "Did I turn just ONE kid on to what it is I do and know?" If you can answer "yes", then we'll never die. But we've ALL got to be able to answer that question with an affirmative "yes".
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2012
  7. My grandad was over 100 when I was 16, he had a fridge and before that he had an ice box. The day in these united states of needing to kill a chicken everyday is way before any of our time, I am sure that when his folks did the oregon trail they had to either salt their meat or kill it fresh. But they came from Hannibol and Hannibol had an ice house. He didn't speak of the fridge or color TV as new technology.

    I don't think that the purpose of Don's rant, if you will, was to speak against technology at all. He was just making an observation that with this new technology a lot of what at one time was considered to be common knowledge has been lost.

    I am not an anarchist or an armegeddon monger but if it were to come to pass the question becomes how many of us, us being those who live in a modern world, would be able to get by like our forefathers did.

    I chuckle about it, I lived in a 3rd world country for quite awhile. Those people that I lived with could take a common portable TV and make it run off of a car battery that they were pleased to carry by hand to town once a week to get charged. Some places had electricity and shared community refirgerators and would commonly light thier one room shacks with one bare light bulb. They would turn it on and off by twisting or untwisting the wires.

    If our world came crashing down there would be little change in their world.

    Now there is something to think about.
     
  8. Don's Hot Rods
    Joined: Oct 7, 2005
    Posts: 8,319

    Don's Hot Rods
    Member
    from florida

    One of my concerns in bringing this up is that cars are changing so much that future generations may only consider tham as point a to point b transportation and not have the same love affair with them as we do. Let's face it, do any of the new cars REALLY turn you on like the ones we knew and loved ? Yes, there are some slight exceptions, like the new Mustangs, Camaros, and Challengers, but for the most part I can't tell one new car brand from another unless I see the name written on the trunklid.

    Another concern is that as time goes on laws may change so much that our old cars are either illegal to drive or limited in the amount of time they can be driven (parades, special events, etc) As much as we love them, they do pollute more and don't have all the safety features of new ones, like airbags, crumple zones, etc. They may start putting such monetary penalties on us for having them, and the insurance companies may refuse to insure one older than a certain year, that we could not drive them.

    I realize some of this all fits into the Chicken Little Syndrome, but there is a very real possiblity that in the next 10-20 years we will all be driving electric cars or hybrids, and those will have sealed hoods making it impossible for the average guy to tinker with anything in there. Thankfully, I probably won't be around to see that day.

    Don
     
  9. Don
    If you haven't noticed new cars are already being sold as a point A to point B tool. Not something that one should enjoy.

    The legislation of which you speak for the most part will be a regional thing. It is not likely that it is something that is going to be enforced say in a small farming community out on the back side of nowhere. At least probably not in our lifetime.

    I know that a lot of us would like to retire to a nice place with plenty of things to do and nice restaurants, those people may feel the crunch. People like the wife and I will no doubt be left pretty much alone. the town we are moving to is 650 pop and getting smaller with each high school graduation. A nice quiet place to die and not be noticed.
     
  10. We will be fine and not the Last Don. There is a new upsurge ocurring againt technology, sort of a back to the Earth movement type thing. More folks now than ever are learning to use their hands on DIY home stuff, changing their own oil etc.....Heck, scools are even starting to grow tech programs that spent the last 20 years shrinking!
     
  11. looks like another doom and gloom thread . I teach this "do nuthin lazy"generation.WE have over 250 students in our shop classes working and getting dirty everyday. SO what if theyre smart enough to use todays technology. So what if threy like tuner cars. Next time some young person pisses yaw off take the time to show and teach them something. How about selling them your 32 or whatever for a few hundred bucks and help them fix it up like the generation that taught you did !
     
  12. plan9
    Joined: Jun 3, 2003
    Posts: 4,078

    plan9
    Member

    Tman - there is truth in what you say. I know of many people in their 30's looking to leave the technology sector for more hands on work, even risking massive pay cuts. Some folks just aren't cut out for office jobs and the bullshit associated with it. We only live once... nothing ventured, nothing gained and there are no guarantee's in life even if one plays it safe. A truly American concept. :)
     
  13. I don't think that the thread is about anyone being pissed off, but I am concerned that someone teaching our youth didn't take the time to try and figure that out before posting.

    I personally don't have a problem with the way the world is going. I see problems in the world around me that I think that I have solutions for but I am just not that important. I do not think that "technology" is the root of all evil. It is just a tool to be used and a tool in and of itself doesn't do much, someone has to wield (sp?) it.

    I do think that if the world goes to hell in a hand basket as my grandad used to say I am not going to be the one that has to fix it. The only thing that concerns me is that I will probably live through whatever disaster causes our demise and I'll have to sit back and watch the others who are trying to fix it.
     
  14. Stop by for a beer with me on the Salt this year!
     
  15. plan9
    Joined: Jun 3, 2003
    Posts: 4,078

    plan9
    Member

    Hey Tman, I'll do that! If you see us first you should do the same. :)

    PNBeaner - The world has been going to shit since the dawn of civilization!
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2012
  16. Model T1
    Joined: May 11, 2012
    Posts: 3,309

    Model T1
    Member

    Many of us keep coming back making more comments here. And most of them are actually sounding pretty good. But I just happened to think of something, some of us, probably me included, are saying. Less young kids are in the old car hobby than ever before. Stop and think about when we were younger. We were always a minority. Just because we built hotrods, customs, or whatever kind of cars you want to call them doesn't mean the other kids did.
    We always had nurds and kids in sports or band. We always had young people who considered a car just a way to get from point "A" to point "B". The only things that have changed is the types of vehcles and all of the advancments in tools and available parts.
    I'll bet most of us wished we could have ordered new body parts and speed equipment from a magazine or local speed shop. Actually we did later on. Wouldn't an English wheel, TIG welder, etc been better than a bag filled with lead or a gas welder that we had to borrow?
    This hot rod thing is actually getting better, not worse.
    As mentioned, if each of us incourages just one kid to get involved in this hobby we've done our part. I did mine. My 22 year old is a car guy. The other three could care less. But it only takes one!
     
  17. Mooseman
    Joined: Apr 4, 2007
    Posts: 310

    Mooseman
    Member

    I think mindsets change, when I was in high school (2002-2005) a car was a luxury. Some students had cars but they sure werent everywhere the street outside the school wasn't filled to overflow with cars (it is nowdays funnily enough).

    Money was a huge luxury and most of it went on things we could afford like collector cards and stuff which were big at the time as hobby shops were common back then not anymore. Some of us had cheap guitars and would mess around in the music room. Cars were popular but not something everyone had, I took shop class but it was mostly wood work and I enjoyed it but really didn't know what I was doing and my classmates stuff was way better then mine. I did much better in technical drawing class then shop even though I am a trainee in a tool and die shop now.

    Out of my group of friends only a couple of us new how to drive and the majority of us were from splits homes where we either lived with our mums or our dads.

    I think the only cool vehicle in our group was my mate lisa's motorbike that she went everywhere on that was a pretty cool thing at the time. She learnt to ride a bike before learning to drive a car.

    I don't think any of us cared about being cool or popular I know I didn't we just did our own thing and dressed in whatever way suited us, our school had a uniform so couldnt exactly show off any kind of fashion haha. Infact I still wear and prefer leather shoes probably from wearing leather shoes all through school.

    Who new when we all got out of school that there would be a financial crisis huh.

    Been a while since those days, im the only one left in my home town from my group. Been a few changes in the group a few tragidies that kind of tore us apart a wee bit one being that some of my close mates moved to another town looking for bigger and better things well their house burned down and only 3 of the 4 of them got out alive. Its funny I went to see them after it happened and even though I wasn't there to experiance the tragidy they did, after the funeral we all kind of went seperate ways.

    Just a different time I think.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2012
  18. I have read this thread and there are many negetive posts I apologize for not mentioning the positive ones .But if you are really concerned who is teaching our youth you should come visit our school. you would find a model t that our kids completely torn down for a resto.you would see the many parts they have repaired and painted. you would find parts to a 1st series gm truck we are fixing.You would see where we shaved a tailgate handle on an ot truck by making our on parts and not a kit,we fabed our on plate ,tiged it and metalfinished it . WE are also body droping this truck. We are always hapy for anyone to come and see what our school is doing and to have any help that can be offered.
     
  19. I actually have been in and out of the educational system as an observer and or adviser for a very long time. I most recently as a parent/guardian in a school with "enhanced accreditation" or as it is the "cream of the crop", appalling to say the least. What passes for education these days is shamful. For example for a history lesson my grandaughter watched Forest Gump and was then required to answer questions about the movie.

    If you have a little niche in our educational system and you are doing well, then you are the exception to the rule. My observation is that the country schools with the least budget usually do better than the others. Maybe it is because in order for the school to function the parents or extended family need to be involved. Actually country people are the real exception to the rule with Don's observation, there are still people doing it the hard way once you get away from the cities.
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2012
  20. In the end, it doesn't really matter.

    If you're 81 or 29.....time marches by incredibly fast and your time on Earth will be over before you know it. Just yesterday a nurse handed me my firstborn and next week she'll have her sweet sixteen party. You graduate from high school and work your tail off and the first time you stop to take a breath, you look up and you're in your 40's.

    So go outside and play with that hotrod.

    Fire it up...take it out and run it through the gears....and take a kid with you.
     
  21. D-fens
    Joined: Aug 30, 2007
    Posts: 368

    D-fens
    Member
    from Huntsville

    This happened to me. The realization was kinda harsh. Had me in a bad mood for about 4 or 5 years.

    Far as I know, the trues have always been in the minority. Most of the guys I went to school with liked cars, but not enough to make a life out of it. Could be that it's not as much of a new thing as we think.

    Seems like kids are getting their start later in life these days. Maybe there's still hope - your 16 year old may not care about cars now or just acts he doesn't, but in a few years when he's not so worried about being cool in front of his friends he'll come around.
     
  22. Morrisman
    Joined: Dec 9, 2003
    Posts: 1,602

    Morrisman
    Member
    from England

    The key to immortality is to first live a life worth remembering. (Bruce Lee)

    If you were told you were going to die tomorrow, and were asked to jot down your life on paper before you went, would you write three lines, or three hundred?

    I'm 52, and I work offshore half the year, away from my family and life, so when I'm home I feel the need to do things, urgently, and never seem to sit around relaxing. People say they admire me because I am always busy, always doing something, but I'm not a workaholic, I just don't want to waste the precious time that is available to me by doing nothing. A day spent relaxing is a day wasted. (Unless I'm simply relaxing with my wife and daughter)

    People of today seem to have a different sense of urgency. Communication seems to be their thing, and they spend all their time on electronic devices, swapping messages about nothing, informing each other of the vacuum that is their life. They do nothing, and leave nothing behind.

    Were some great calamity to happen they would have no use in preserving society. They have no real skills, that can be measured without electricity and/or radio waves.
     
  23. OLDSMAN
    Joined: Jul 20, 2006
    Posts: 2,422

    OLDSMAN
    BANNED

    I guess I am fortunate. I am 63 now, but my daughter who is 35, is a gear head. She knows how to change a waterpump, change oil, and other minor things. I am building a car for her, but she has helped me when she comes home. But I agree that most young kids have no interest in building, or fixing anything. It will be a sad place when all mof the young ones are like that.
     
  24. Morrisman....you seem to have a good grip on things.

    FWIW...I see you're located in Angeles City. That's cool. I was stationed at Clark for two years, back in the 80's.
     
  25. droptop 63
    Joined: Apr 22, 2012
    Posts: 33

    droptop 63
    Member
    from Texas

    This thread really got me to thinking about the evolution of the hot rod craze and what most guys were thinking about - going fast and individualism. This lead me to thinking about when I recently was asked by a young guy, interested in learning about hot rods, to explain why some cars had "blue dot" reflectors on their tailights. I went on and on about what we old guys and our fathers before us were into during those times - lead sleds, glass packs, frenched antennas, disappearing license plates, etc. This got a reaction from the youngster to which he said "why is this so different from what we do now - clear tailights, very loud exhausts, black-out headlights/tailights, etc. The more it changes, the more it stays the same.

    I had to stop and realize that this thing we have has crossed new ethnic groups, age groups, higher performance goals, and on and on. The hot rod scene is evolving but it seems that there is a higher percentage of enthusiasts that want their rides on the road than working and tinkering with them which we were forced to day due to the old technology of our days.
     
  26. Morrisman
    Joined: Dec 9, 2003
    Posts: 1,602

    Morrisman
    Member
    from England

    Travel broadens the mind. ;)

    We've lived here for two years ourselves now, this time, but we also lived here for ten years over a decade ago.

    I like this place, and wish I'd seen it when the base was in its glory. It was once the biggest military installation in the world, and it was also bombed exactly 8 hours after Pearl harbour. A little snippet you rarely hear about.
     
  27. I wouldn't write a thing, you can spend a lot of time with someone you care about in a day.

    Someone mentioned that time marches one. My grandad was born in the 19th century and lived well into the 20th century. He like, like us saw mega changes in things. The industrial revolution caused an acceleration in the way things are done. His father on the other hand didn't see much in the line of major changes, maybe cartridges in stead of cap and ball.

    The generations prior to those who lived into the 20th century didn't deal with radical changes in the way things were done. Now we see major changes in things all the time.

    There are some things lost in the process. The first television that I remember for instance was a big wood box (maybe it wasn't big I was little) it had knobs on the side and it got 3 channels because we lived in the city. Now this is important for everyone to pay attention to. It was a real bear to set up, you connected two wires to the back, plugged it in and turned it on.

    We had a phone with a dial, you stuck your finger in the hole that represented the number and spun the dial. There were no portable phones you sat by the phone in the house and talked to someone. Some phones had long cords so you could actually move them to a different location.

    We played out side, with little or no adult supervision. We ran and jumped and climbed (I wasn't so good at the running and jumping part), 3 kids and a couple of sticks could be a war either with the Germans or the Indians. Yes Indians were still called that.

    There was almost no childhood obesity. There was always a fat kid but nothing like we have today.

    We have made major advances in "technology" and some obviously is good, some is not. No reason to go into that, you can still think, right?

    The things that people like Don and myself count as a loss are not really a loss to anyone but people like Don and myself. You can't loose anything that you have never had. Probably it is more of a phylisophical loss than anything else.

    For the most part I don't believe that anything is better or worse just different. It is nice to remember the good parts of our youth, probably good to not remember the bad parts as well.

    Would I go back, not on your life. Memory is selective better left as a memory.

    As for the question about what I could write, I probably couldn't write anything of value. Even if I could I wouldn't. You can spend a lot of time with someone you care about in a day.
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2012
  28. Morrisman
    Joined: Dec 9, 2003
    Posts: 1,602

    Morrisman
    Member
    from England

    No matter how bad things are today, in ten years time these will always be 'the good old days'. ;)
     

  29. Anyone who doesn't remember the past as the good old days ends up in therapy. That is the nicest thing about the human mind if you let it it will take the very worst of times and make it the best of times.

    Let the world change, can't stop it no how.
     
  30. Ratrod37
    Joined: Apr 12, 2007
    Posts: 276

    Ratrod37
    Member

    I see plenty of younger people in the Hotrod hobby. They are just doing it different than the older generation. Just remember back when your parents told you you were doing it wrong and you thought they are just old and don't understand. Now it's your turn to not understand. There going to do it different and it's going to piss you off but that's just the way it has always been. I'm sure 100 years ago there were people saying thing's like "these kids nowadays with these cars, what's wrong with a horse?" Sit back watch and even talk to the new generation, they may surprise you with what they know and believe it or not they love to hear the stories of the Old Days. I'm headed toward being one of the older generation but I prefer to hang with the new generation. The old guys are to busy bitchin to have fun! Just my useless 2¢.:)
     

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