I Feel Blessed for When I was Born

[brian64]

Agreed. But I am pretty sure every generation for the last few hundred years or more felt and said the same thing. (Society going to hell in a hand basket.)

Probably...but it's never been more true than it is now.

 

[WVOldFart]

For God's sake, it is the energy food of the arctic expeditions. It is better and cheaper than the protein bars that children eat in gyms................

I guess some have never experienced the goodness of a butter bread sandwich, perhaps with some thinly sliced pieces of cucumber. I had to plant radishes every year so that my mother could have radish on butter bread sandwiches. There have been many a person through the years that lived on buttered bread, beans and potatoes and thought they were eating great.

 

[didimauw]

Me and the wife believe that we were born in the wrong era. 15-20 years too late at minimum. I'm so old-school compared to all my friends my age. I wish I was around during the more simpler times.

 

[sablebrush52]

Growing up in the '50's is terra incognita to later generations. People delivered milk butter and eggs to your home. There was the scent of orange blossoms in the air from the orchards. We built soapbox cars and raced them. TV was limited to a few channels, and they went off the air at 11:30. Stores were closed on Sunday and open half days on Saturday. Kids played with and sometimes beat the crap out of each other, outdoors. The scale of everything was smaller and far less glitzy.
On the other hand, we had cross burnings in Saugus and the American Nazi Party was still headquartered in Glendale. The police could be unabashedly corrupt and any crime could be bought off if you had the money and connections. Casual racial violence wasn't uncommon any more than political corruption.

Every era has it's good and bad.

 

[JOHN72]

I guess some have never experienced the goodness of a butter bread sandwich, perhaps with some thinly sliced pieces of cucumber. I had to plant radishes every year so that my mother could have radish on butter bread sandwiches. There have been many a person through the years that lived on buttered bread, beans and potatoes and thought they were eating great.

My grandfather had a farm.It taught me what it means to work hard and to thank God for the food we eat. To appreciate many simple things. It didn't even have electricity. I understand you. We were more innocent back then. We played by candlelight or a gas canister. There was something magical about those austere homes.

 

[brian64]

The police could be unabashedly corrupt and any crime could be bought off if you had the money and connections.

Some things never change.

 

[kcghost]

The Greatest Generation is worthy of the name but you have to face facts that as a group of parents they didn't have a clue. The watched the crap shows on TV that told them children don't lie. What a joke. Hey, parents, hear it from me your kids lie to you just to keep in practice. If their lips are moving odds are they are lying to you.
To me the greatest music was the 50's and the first half of the 60's.

 

[olkofri]

Agreed. But I am pretty sure every generation for the last few hundred years or more felt and said the same thing. (Society going to hell in a hand basket.)

'Cept that for the present one the hand basket is the size of the Titanic, and going just as fast. And, just like in the Titanic, there ain't enough life boats because... it couldn't possibly sink, right?

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Are you a better or as good a man as those you respected as a teen? That’s what really matters. Did your life make you a good person and does it matter how you get along with young people. Are you a whiner?

 

[Eastmon]

Born in the early 80’s, the 90’s showed me some of the best music ever made (Tool) and we got to experience the internet when it was raw and real. Our young years were wild and outdoors, but we had one foot in tech when it came. Best of both.

All is not lost by any means though. We just have a duty now to counteract the woke mob that seems to want to bland our children’s minds into compliance. Keep that crap at bay, and the new generation has an opportunity to do marvelous things and solve many problems. I think we are going to see some really cool things coming our way

 

[cigrmaster]

The music today sucks ass. My kids are always trying to get me to listen t their crap. I tell them unless there are musicians playing an instrument, don't even bother. I refuse to listen to computer shit music.I grew up in the 60's and 70's.

Yes
Pink Floyd
Lez Zeppelin
David Bowie
Steely Dan
Queen
The Doors
The Beatles
Electric Light Orchestra
The Doobie Brothers
Eric Clapton
Jeff Beck and the Jan Hammer group
Jethro Tull
The Eagles
Aerosmith
J Geils Band
Blue Oyster Cult
ZZ Top
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet band
Hughie Lewis and the News
The Allman Brothers
Joel Wash and the James Gang
Roxy Music
The Tubes
Lynard Skynard
Motown
Philadelphia Funk
Earth Wind and Fire


These are just off the top of my head, there are many more.

There are just so many great groups from that time. It is real run going on Youtube watching some of the shows I would see.

 

[goosetime]

I was born in '95 and have always had GPS for driving. That would be hard to have been without--I wouldn't say I am directionally "gifted".

 

[goosetime]

This is a much different note, and also smaller in scale (last 10 or so years), but self-learning materials have broadly shifted away from written text to videos.

In some cases, videos are essential; I have a friend who taught himself to be a car mechanic off of YouTube and is currently employed as one.

But often I would prefer something written out, both so I can go through it at my own pace--but MAINLY so it's easier to reference later!

I find videos extremely frustrating for teaching and learning--I feel bad for the kids not much younger than I who are experiencing high school mostly online--I would have failed.

 

[mso489]

As people age into the future, not sure if they will be around in ten years, they develop a defense by thinking that all of the life worth living was during their lifetime, and that living another fifty years wouldn't be worth it anyway. That's understandable, but maybe wrong-headed. I'd rather leave things getting better, and feel I played a part in that -- which isn't happening. The road paved with good intentions.

 

[mso489]

Some people facing retirement are the same way. Suddenly, the organization they've worked for for decades, or the business they've been in, are totally gone to hell from their point of view. What luck. They're retiring. It can be a little demoralizing for those around them, but it is understandable.

 

[irishearl]

The blessings of growing up feeling and being safe and what Tom says above are slightly offset by poor cars, rotten TV and having to read to get news! And you'd have to pick up a land line to talk to anyone. No texting or streaming. Zounds!!

When I was a kid on the farm many a year ago we had party lines still.

 

[STP]

I remember my grandfather cussing at the News on TV and saying, “it gets worse everyday,” then my dad saying the same thing, and now I find that I’m echoing that same sentiment. While the past might be good, the perception of that reality can be skewed. I would imagine that those who lived through the Great Depression would not view that period as enjoyable, but may have later perceived experiences to the contrary. I think people “generally” tend to focus of the positive experiences of their past more than the negative, which fuels nostalgia.

 

[cigrmaster]

Where is Walter Cronkite when you need him. The news today is sickening.

 

[Egg Shen]

Music well today I met kids through music all the time that have taste that spans decades. They don't think they're that weird, it's just how people who like music get their music now. With out the boundaries must of us had to deal with.
I can agree about the sports thing totally. I have to admit that even working as a janitor at a college sometimes cleaning the football building I can't consider it a sport as much as an industry, not to knock the kids they work their asses off and need talent to even get there and suck (if they do, the worst kid there is impressive). But there is so much that goes into making the team and it goes back to money so much of the time. That I can't see it as a competition between athletes. I look at the less popular sports and see sports. The Lacrosse team is going to do better or worse almost completely on the work of the coaches and the players. Not because they can afford to be up on the latest science and recruiting and etc..... I imagine the pro level makes what I've seen look sandlot.
I think that being blessed says a lot. More so then what a person has in stuff or even experience and simulation. I think a big thing is if life feels rewarding or if it feels like a senseless slog. I think one of the biggest things people are missing these days is the sense and maybe the reality of effort and work being genuinely rewarded. Even looking at jobs I've had. My last job I know I was doing something and effecting peoples lives, but I almost never felt that. The work and the result where so distant and detached from each other. My favorite description of the job was Sisyphean. Now I can look at the room I was just in and say it's clean and ready for people to use it. And I think it's harder to find a job like that these days (not impossible, but harder).
All in all I think every time has its goods it's bads and even those depend on you and how you're composed (for example some people just don't care about music). But no matter what it's probably a lot better to feel like you're lucky for when you where born then to feel like you landed in the wrong time.

I’ve always felt that people that dislike/are indifferent towards music are robots. Even space aliens listen to music

 

[STP]

Where is Walter Cronkite when you need him. The news today is sickening.

Dead, but surely better than the Chicken Little anchors of today, like Lester Holt in his “sky is falling” broadcast every night.