20 something kids

[Hollow-Grind]

When you eat alfalfa shoots in spring because the Super-Valu hasn't thrown out any usable food, and your mother tells you it's good stuff...then you know.

And that’s why some people are considered being part of the greatest generation. Tough people!

 

[skippyelwell]

When you eat alfalfa shoots in spring because the Super-Valu hasn't thrown out any usable food, and your mother tells you it's good stuff...then you know.

HaHa, Super-Valu, I haven't heard that name in 40 yrs, I guess it was a B.C. thing

 

[trevj]

I'm just a grouchy old man with two sons who turned out OK due to no fault of myself.

<rant>
It seems to me that the today's problems are summed up in two words: "human right". That is, Food is a human right. Housing is a human right. Health care is a human right. A living wage is a human right. Safe drinking water is a human right. Education is a human right. Freedom from discrimination is a human right. Choice of religion is a human right. A healthy environment is a human right. Why bother to work hard if everything important is a right?
</rant>

I have met FAR to many young kids that think exactly the opposite of this!

Sometimes, it is all the hope I have for the future!

I grew up in a house, that IF you got a second helping of food, it was cut off one or the other Parent's plate. It has made me a little tetchy about having food on hand... Took me a few years to get my mind wrapped around that, but now that I do... I at least, understand the impulse...

In another course of fire, a friend of mine was pulled aside at his workplace by his boss. Boss says "Wife made me hire my useless kid!" "Your job is to make him quit!". Every sump that needed cleaning, every crap job that nobody wanted, this kid was assigned to, as well as someone competent enough to get it done correctly, until he did just that, quit. Boss was VERY grateful, as it prevented a blowout between him and her.

IMO, most of the kids out there are not as dumb as some of us old farts give them credit for. We were all young and dumb at some point too! 😛 The world has just changed a lot in our lives! Think on this, my grandfather (born 1900, died 1986) watched the world go from Horse Powered, to Space Travel. What will your grandchildren see evolve?

 

[slow-poke]

I have a plan.....

This kid is softer than the pillsbury dough boy, with the spine of a jellyfish.

Deck is shaded until about noon. I'm going to get him to start at noon. It gets pretty toasty after that. I don't expect he will last an hour, maybe two tops, better if he just taps out on his own;-)

My guy quit 3rd day.

He was working (If you call it that), five hours a day, tells me he has never worked harder in his life and is so exhausted that he needs some days off to recover.

This guy was so lazy he would not bend over to tie his shoelaces. I pointed out that his shoelaces were undone and that he might trip but he just grunted and continued until break time like that.

The experiment is over.

 

[Mcgyver]

Aristotle:
“This younger generation are all lazy and useless. Why, they don’t even know all the names of the gods and can’t identify the four humours.”

Old folks complaining about how little young folks know is probably older than the use of fire.

I know "kids these days" is as old as the hills, however there are differences this time. A 1000 years ago the kids upbringing and life was the same as the father's. Now, it's radically different. Different society, culture, values, education, communications, media, expectations, social norms etc .... it's not surprising to find things are different.

Overall things may have gone to shlt. It's not to hard to convince myself of that, however that doesn't mean all of them are messed up. What matters for my existence is to pull in, attract and train the good ones - and there are lots out there.

 

[L98Fiero]

That goes both ways though, I get frustrated with people who don't know how to use basic tools. If it's a specific task, sure, that's worth explaining how it needs to get done, or what the end result should be. I do my best to stay patient, like someone asked me how to use a cordless drill. This guy was in university to be an accountant. I showed him how, obviously, but I kinda feel I shouldn't have to

I'd done quite few other jobs previously, but none involving machining and on my first job in a machine shop I was told to drill and tap the hub on a flat belt sheave, I had to be shown where the drills were and which one to use, and where the vise was, and then, when the hole was drilled I asked the old foreman, he was 67 how to put the threads in. He didn't bat an eye, just told me to use a tap and how to select them. In 6 months my toolbox was at one of the best lathes in the shop and I was building my own diesets in a year. If they want to work, and have an aptitude, a little patience goes a long way.

 

[David]

If they want to work,

Critical point right there.

 

[slow-poke]

If this kid was even a tiny bit interested in anything I tried to get him to do it would have helped. I'm convinced he thinks hands on work is beneath him and might taint is blue blood. I did hear his father make the comment about another neighbour "Common is as common does"

He had no skills; could not measure, put in a screw etc. I could have lived with that, how hard is it to teach someone how to put a screw in? Harder than you think!

In the end it was his laziness that did him in.

I'm so glad he's gone.

 

[trevj]

Critical point right there.

Maybe, but in my experience teaching the newbs that cycled through our shop, you have to get some idea how motivated they are, interested they are, and eager to better themselves they are, not to mention, that some folks will read the instructions and follow them, others think they are too smart to follow along even in their earliest stages of trying to cure ignorance.

I taught a LOT of new tradesmen and women in my trade in the Forces, how to be safe and capable in a manual machine shop environment, and I learned interesting things from almost every single student I dealt with too! Some of them became my replacement when I left. And I thought they deserved it!

 

[JustaDB]

"Between welfare and selling drugs I can make in 2 hrs what I just made for the whole week, I owe it to myself"

Pretty damn difficult to argue w/ success, idn't it?

 

[trevj]

Pretty damn difficult to argue w/ success, idn't it?

I ate a lot of Canadian Forces mess hall food. It kinda sucked. Every report I ever heard or read or watched as a video, suggest that Prison Food sucks a LOT more!

It's only Success, if you retire without eating Prison Food!

 

[Elektrishun]

I had a very strong work ethic when I was young. My dad made sure of it. Maybe too strong.

In my early teens I would bike half way across the city to mow an elderly widow's lawn and do other yard work for $15.00 and homemade cookies. Friend of my grandparents, very nice lady. One day I was finishing up and a young pregnant lady from next door asked if I would mow her lawn. I said sure. I finish up and go next door. Before I get started she invites me indoors because she thinks it's too hot out to be working in sweat pants. She holds up a pair of her husbands shorts and suggests I try them on. I said something like "no thanks, I'm good" and get back to business. I am sure it was only about 10 minutes later her husband pulls up out front. I am running the mower while he walks past without even acknowledging me, like he's on a mission. Whatever, I do the job, get paid, and go home.

Couple years later, thinking about what that situation was meant to be, I did the math. Pretty sure I would've had about 7 minutes to spare.