There is one thing my piece of shit father taught me as a kid, do it right the first time, every time. He did construction projects for family and friends to make extra money( he worked the same desk job for over 40 years).
This meant that as soon as I was old enough, I became his “apprentice” every weekend during the summer. I did get paid for the work that I did whenever we had a job to do, so I did have some money to spend. Problem was, I was supposed to spend it on things that he approved of, not model cars, paint, and glue.
This meant that I learned how to put a roof on a house, paint a house, build patio covers, concrete walkways and driveways. We used bricks and cinder blocks to build walls, installed lawn sprinkler systems(before PVC pipe was invented, we used galvanized steel pipe).
Point is, He taught me how to build things, including half of the furniture in our house(dressers, shelving units, bed frames, hope chests {my wife’s}, tables, you get the picture.
He taught me how to have a work ethic that I’ve carried with me my entire life, that’s probably why I’m always so angry, I can’t work any kind of physical job anymore, and was forced to retire and sell our home.
I agree, a lot of today’s younger generations feel like they’re entitled to everything, they’re “owed”. Fuck that shit, if you want something, get a job and earn it.
My father taught me how to do things, but he was a shitty dad and I haven’t missed him since he died in 2001 for a second.
Me either. There are good and bad things and people in every generation.
The education thing is rather complicated for sure.
Well hell, it must be the teacher’s fault if my kid got bad grades! This idea of equal outcomes based programs would have to come up a couple of levels to be ridiculous. (Interesting article btw)
Yeah, the money is the priority for some school systems these days and has been going in that direction for a while.
Not a simple subject for sure.
Uh… I haven’t been able to drink beer for many years due to an allergy to hops? Bad fucking headaches. You could buy me a shot of Maker’s Mark though…
Edit for spatulas
I use to think I was taught a work ethic by my parents. I came to realize maybe they showed me work ethic, I decided I wanted to have work ethic though. Give yourself credit, you chose to work hard and get shit done. He didn’t make you do that, you had every chance to say “fuck that, you’re a sucker old man.” You literally said it, “I’ve carried with me”
Him physically showing you how to perform a task is just a big help that not a lot of other people got. Myself included, my father had basically no interest in me and who I was. He just wanted to do the fun parts of being a dad, hunting, sports, etc. Outside of that he didn’t want to show me a damn thing, I was going to get a desk job he said. He didn’t want me working a factory like him, because he hates it.
So appreciate your father for the knowledge he gave you, but not your choice to use it, remember it, and apply it to life.
Oh fuck: We could be twins. But you forgot the red licorice. You got to empty the pixie stick into the red licorice to make the whole thing work. I can still remember the smell of the candy store and the taste of Hot Dog bubblegum, Ju Ju Bees, Mike and Ike, Razzles, Zots, Chicklets, Abba Zabba, and whatever happened to Red Hots? There were cinnamon tooth picks, Necco wafers, Chico Sticks, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies, Good and Plenty with ole Choo Choo Charlie, and so much more. And none of it over a nickle. Ahhh, those were the days…
Yeah my Kids and Grand-kids can’t believe the nickle thing.
I may have forgotten red licorice, but you forgot slow pokes and milk duds and cherry mash and bit o honey and black cow and candy cigars and cigarettes and beemans gum and atomic fireballs and chuckles and coconut neopolitan bars and dots and jaw breakers and smarties and moon pies and mary janes and tootsie rolls and life savers and candy dots on paper and the plethora of penny candies in jars…
You need to get out of my head now…I have to go wipe off the drool…
~/ ~/ The drinker I stand, the longer I get, so down the fill one road for the cup!
And I had to walk to school, in the rain, with no jacked, no shoes, and only a paper napkin for clothes, up hill, both ways, in the snow, from my shoebox in the bottom of the lake.
LOL; My life as a gofer at the construction site. I built one house from the ground up over a summer. One of the best experiences of my life. I can smell the dirt and feel the fucking tamper in my hand. Laying pipe, I fucking hated it. The rest seemed like fun, but sitting out there with that damn tamper… Fuck! Up and down, up and down, hour after hour. I’ll take framing over laying pipe any time.
I THINK I CAN SUM ALL THIS UP.
Life is too fucking short to worry about the past shit over which you have no cotrol. Decide where in the fuck you are going and start moving forward.
(2022 Cognostic)
Based on how you described those movies, I would have been laughing right along with you. It would seem my humor is just as dark.
By the way, I don’t know what movie featured that hotdog cart, but it wasn’t “Goodfellas”. If you can remember the movie, though, I would certainly would like to find that scene. 
… (chuckle)… As much as I want to be annoyed and irritated by your remarks, I can’t help but laugh inside at some of the truth within them. No doubt I am getting crankier and crankier with each passing day. Haven’t quite reached “dinosaur” level yet, but I’m slowly creeping up on it. 
And I certainly concede the “kids” of today are absolute little wizards with all their phones, laptops, and various other electronic gadgets. They are indeed exceptionally gifted in those areas, no doubt and no argument. Therein lies the problem, though. Like a double-edge sword…
In short, what happens when the lights go out? Power grids go down? Internet communications shut down? As I said earlier, it would be like disconnecting the individual Borg from the hive collective. In short, they do not know how to think for themselves. Again, I don’t know jack shit about Australian culture/socirty, but I can tell you from personal observations in multiple encounters that the younger generations here in the U.S. would be pretty much DOOMED without their internet lifelines. For the past two to three decades, they have NOT BEEN TAUGHT how to learn, remember, or think critically. It is a sad but true FACT.
Moreover, even though they may be “superior” in their use of “advanced electronics”, how many of them actually KNOW how to FIX STUFF or BUILD STUFF without the aid of their precious www? And that’s IF you can even find a few who would dare sweat and get their hands dirty in the first place. Yes, there are a few out there. Some I know personally. But they are the EXCEPTIONS to the rule.
And that is where the double-edge sword lies. Yes, the advancement in modern electronics and such have (in SOME ways) made life a bit easier. The problem, however, is that it has also removed the motivation to actually LEARN practical skills that keep our modern civilization functioning. That is a REAL problem, and it ain’t just me being a grumpy old man.
So you know how to build a telephone (old style?), a simple two stroke engine from scrtach? How about a gasometer? Hell even a simple iron bound wagon wheel? …ok probably you could do the wheel…so how about an aquaduct? Or a sewer design? Or even making asparin? Yes you could eke out a rustic spartan existence for a while on your own…but build even an 1885 civilisation…nah. beyond you.
Since the pre industrial times the city drones have not been able to keep their cities running, watered, powered and fed without a special class of people.
The kids now in 2022 are no different, they have just many more things that are interdependent and need specialist knowledge to construct and keep running. They are living the future.
You and Cog seem to be grumpy toads in a pond, fuck all to do except moan about the latest generation of tadpoles that are growing legs and hopping out the pond.
Practical skills are only useful to a diminishing subset of modern humans. Knowing how to rub two boy scouts together to get a fire is not necessary, literary English is not necessary, nice to have but as useless as that lingua franca that was once universal in Western Education…Latin.
I tell my lot about education in the 50s and 60s…I had Latin and Greek daily, physical ed…daily. Saturday morning school…not a sniff of woodwork, cooking, metal work, any chemistry past 1920…and they called mine the “Modern Curriculum” …dated back to 1919 or so. Oh yes and “Religious Education” twice a week for one hour…unadulterated C of E (Episcopalian) propaganda with English Royalty loyalty thrown in . Totally unprepared for real life when it struck me in the face at 13 years old. And I was lucky…most of my peers were utterly unprepared for anything other than academia, lawyers, politicians, the Army, or the public service when they were released upon the world at 18 or 19.
The world has changed and you can either fucking whinge about kids without callouses on their brains and hands from repetitive manual labour or repetitive useless fucking rote learning of 20th century factoids or you can suck it up, you pair of priceless Princes of Wrinkles and Ossified Thoughts.
The kids are ok. Your comfort depends on them. They have so much MORE to learn than we ever did.
Found it. “Sleepers” It’s only the second time I have seen that scene and it still cracks me up. Smiling away as I type this.
You know. I think I saw both of these before I had a computer or internet. They were both so easy to find.
Bonus Material (If you haven’t seen it.)
Happy Tree Friends.
Example: Just today, my coworker, the one I am not keeping once his contract runs out. Came to me and said. The toilet has been running a while. Something is probably wrong with it. So I go into the bathroom and remove the back of the toilet to see why the water level is not rising. My guess, 'The plug is not over the drain." Was I right? Yep. Give the handle a little shake, the plug falls into place, and the toilet fills up. What the fuck is wrong with these people?
Remember reading comic books (the “junk” our generation had? MAD magazine???). Remember thinking 
“wouldn’t it be cool if I could pick scenarios and have a different outcome”???
OMG 
video game “story telling”.
My youngest NOT only knows how to cook extremely well BUT creates from JavaScript video games (from scratch) and just recently released one in Japanese (he’s learnt on his own).
I taught him some cooking skills - BUT he loves it and off he goes.
I haven’t taught him a thing about game building/Japanese/Java (way over my head AND no interest). BUT he loves it and has learnt.
They socialize online (gee, kinda like us with this forum 
) in all sorts of mediums. My oldest met a guy who knew a girl he grew up with (the neighbor girl lol) - ONLINE in a game. They’ve met IRL and have a weekend planned for Edmonton (his friend is a single father raising his kid) - great character.
I haven’t done anything special BUT leave them the fuck alone and encourage them to do what they love. This generation is filled with amazing responsible young adults AND I am happy to step aside and have that generation ONE DAY really shape this world.
EDITED to add: The one thing I didn’t have in my home is cable TV. Can’t stand regular programming and commercials and “opinion news” 
. Have Netflix, Prime, Disney - lots of movies and taught the boys facts in news compared to opinion in news. Critical thinking.
When a generation comes along that discovers the cure to cross generational whinging about other generations, I’ll have total faith in that generation finally leading us toward a truly better generational future.
They are dependent on people like me, maintenance men. Why should someone have to know how to fix that? Stuff like that is my bread and butter, it’s job security for “specialized” people like me.
These people can fully consume their minds with more important things to them. Now if those things are worth consuming their memory with is another can of worms. I sacrificed furthering myself in technology to allow others to go further in technology. So for the ones that are using their minds for higher functioning skill sets like coding, technological advances, etc, don’t have to waste brain space to remember things like how do I properly cut and fit laminate flooring. Unfortunately I think you have to give up somethings in pursuit of higher causes. It feels very much like a trade off, just hopefully they use that trade off for bettering things.
I very much do not detest my replacements. Reminds me of the Greek and Roman stories of the new gods replacing the old gods. Zeus hated his children and tried to stop them from taking over his throne by unleashing the titans on them. At least I think that’s right? Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
LOL… dependent on people like you or just devoid of common sense? After all, we grew up going to the toilet.
Reminds me of Korean drivers. When they have a flat tire, they just stop. They do not pull to the side of the road. Their tire is flat and it is not safe to drive. They put out cones or flashers and wait for the tow truck. They can not change their own tires. They have to wait for a professional to do it. So a 10 minute tire change, takes 3 hours, endangers other drivers on the road, and keeps the tow truck company in business. Why… Shit like this is just common sense.
Little bit of column A, little bit of column B, I don’t ask and I don’t care, all pays the same for this millennial lol.
DAG-NABBIT!.. (stomping foot… throwing hat to ground… standing with hands on hips)… That’s IT! Final straw! Listen here, you ol’ Millennial Sympathizer! Cog and I were having a perfectly good time bashing our younger generations, as is our geriatric RIGHT! Then you have to putter up in here on your New-Aged fancy-dancy scooter and start using your rational reasoning and logic to totally piss all over our Grouchy Grumpfest! Keep this shit up and we may have to consider having your Triple “C” Membership revoked. (Cantankerous Curmudgeon Club) Meanwhile…
@Cognostic Hey, Cog! Where the hell do we keep the Geritol and Ex-Lax? I’m gonna make Ol Man a “special” batch of eggnog!.. (headed toward kitchen)…
You know, as a millennial I see it less and less right now, in my opinion.I find myself and other millennials we actually get along really well with gen Zs surprisingly. Then again, maybe the generation after them we might not? Only time will tell. On an in person basis gen Zs are a lot more relaxed, goofy, and offbeat. It’s rather refreshing compared to the more stoic seriousness of older generations with all their minutia about work and everything being on this structured path to becoming the same as everyone else. They are much more explorative and creative than the generations I’ve known. Also a lot of them seem to truly want to work, just on their terms. They have no interest in the monotony of 9-5s and set schedules, I kind of respect that.
So maybe I see some hope for the future?