Will the next Generation be pussies?

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Ouch!

climber

Jul 25, 2005 - 09:31pm PT

I think the reason some of us are perhaps too overprotective stems from our experiences where it seemed we survived only by a miracle and it scared hell out of us.

One of the true joys of childhood in the hot summer was when the iceman would come and chip the size of block our mother wanted, then let us kids eat the slivers of ice that flew all over. We had signs that you hung on the front porch where you could dial the weight of the block of ice you required. I still remember the musty smell of the icebox. When we lived in the hills, we kept things cool in a big icy spring at the base of a big limestone bluff. I used to get into trouble when I would sneak down and drink the cream off the top of the milk jugs, leaving what we called BlueJohn, skim milk.

Ouch!

climber

Jul 25, 2005 - 09:34pm PT

"moron that makes stupid-ass lying movies"

Hell, what else kind could you make.

Michael Moron

Social climber

Davison, MI

Jul 25, 2005 - 09:40pm PT

There is no other kind of movies a fat liberal slob could make.

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?

Jul 25, 2005 - 09:48pm PT

The best line in your movies was was when you were interviewing the Canadian kids in Sarnia, just across the river from Port Huron, MI and down the road from Flint:

"So what do you guys do when you get mad at someone?"

"We call them names....."

The movie about Bush was terrible, though. Full of twisted [il]logic. You lost your credibility with me then.

My dad used to bring me home a big bottle of mercury that he scarfed from broken pressure switches. A little 8 oz bottle weighed about 2 or 3 pounds! Great fun, that stuff!

Michael Moron

Social climber

Davison, MI

Jul 25, 2005 - 09:51pm PT

"The movie about Bush was terrible, though. Full of twisted [il]logic. You lost your credibility with me then."

Well, at least I had some credibility with someone. That makes one person.

So what if the movie was bad, I got rich off of the poor liberal suckers that paid big money to see it

MikeL

Trad climber

Santa Clara, CA

Jul 25, 2005 - 10:14pm PT

"Pussies?"

Isn't this the same thing that every older generation has said to every younger generation? (I can hear it ringing in my ears what my mom and dad said to me over and over again about what it was like to live through the depression.)

ml

mingleefu

climber

Champaign, IL

Jul 25, 2005 - 10:18pm PT

Anyone else here realize that the "soft" generation was raised directly by the generation that the original post seems to suggest was raised in the glory days? If kids these days are soft, it's because their parents made them soft. Who buys the kid the Xbox?? They certainly don't go mow lawns to earn the money. It's their folks who are enabling them to get fat and disinterested in experiencing all the joys of learning to fall off a bike without cracking your skull. Who buys the kid the GameBoy that they bring into the restaurant? I (23 years) used to serve at an outback steakhouse. Kids were usually screaming or playing a handheld video game. Whose job is it to teach the kids how to interact socially? A buddy of mine works with a High School youth group and he told me that as often as not, he'll try to talk to a kid, and all they can get out is worthless babble. You learn conversation skills from your folks. Sure, some day the kid will have to stand tall and reap the consequences of whatever lifestyle he's sown, but most kids are merely doing what their parents will let them get away with.

Sure, lots of kids are soft. But the glory day generation did nothing to build 'em up.

Besides, what do you think the generation before yours thought of you? How many of those folks bashing the "next Generation" actually lived through the 20's and 30's? Do you know what it's like to barely scrape through a depression? Raise your hand if you were there to cultivate a "victory garden".
I won't pretend I've lived there. But I know I've heard stories about my grandma growing up knowinger her family's coal-burning stove as "the bank" because it seemed that every cent they got went towards stoking the fire so that they didn't freeze their cans off during the winter. I happen to know without doubt that she's been remarking about "kids these days" for longer than the latest generation has been around.

Ouch!

climber

Jul 25, 2005 - 11:52pm PT

The future is so fraught with uncertainty and danger, I don't see how anyone can not be afraid for our children and grandchildren.

The problems are so big and complex that no amount of simplistic idealogical demagoguery will help bring about any solutions. The shitstorm grows exponentially by the hour.

Thanks to neocon extremists and their thirst for revenge against Roosevelt's legacy and Sherman's march to the sea, this country has not been so divided since before the Civil War.

Just the simple truth. The extreme rightwing will destroy what's left of the Grand Experiment that was America.

We'll all be pussies.

AndyG

climber

San Diego, CA

Jul 26, 2005 - 12:13am PT

I can't believe all of you are getting all riled up over this dumb-ass Reader's Digest sh#t. This one And the one about God's questions. My sister-in-law's 75 yr old conservative dad occasionally sends me cute little feel good stories like those. I give my SIL sh#t about it.

Andy

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Jul 26, 2005 - 12:40am PT

Geeze, this is a topic that was probably discussed in the original Forums, the ones in Rome circa 500 B.C. The problems with the "younger generation" is an invariant, probably proceeds the species homo sapien.

I am an old fart, but I enjoy being around the young... actually I enjoy being around people from all ages, just that the ones climbing are mostly young...

Interesting perspective on the way we grew up... I doubt that there are many parents of our parent's generation who lost kids who would say that it was a good thing for building character... what sacrifice is sufficient?

In fact the whole anti-youth diatribe smacks of the power-of-the-individual schtick that so informs our social policies... if you are difficient in any way it's because you lack the willpower to make yourself better... what a wonderful view point (that with a sarcastic tone).

Some quotes:

Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it. ~Haim Ginott

In my day, we didn't have self-esteem, we had self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned. ~Jane Haddam

There is nothing wrong with today's teenager that twenty years won't cure. ~Author Unknown

In case you're worried about what's going to become of the younger generation, it's going to grow up and start worrying about the younger generation." Roger Allen

Jaybro

Social climber

The West

Jul 26, 2005 - 02:34am PT

man o man, you 'guys', -at least as I see it;

Ming..
every generation is the hard generation to the one after and soft to the one before.

Ed
This is not an anti-youth thread, more of a cyclical irony kinda deal; this is what scared our parents, this is what scares us, what's next? * a lot of us are parents and want to anticipate our worries

but you'all knew that

Crimpie,
my cousin had a vial of Mercury that we used to play with on holidays when my family visited his. It was the coolist!
When (see other thread) will you flatten shaq?

Shack

Trad climber

So. Cal.

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 26, 2005 - 02:41am PT

Of course Jaybro it's slightly tongue in cheek and we were all part of the younger generation at one time,
but Mingleefu hit the nail on the head.
Each generation is getting softer and society is trying
to wimpify our kids. It is a direct result of our coddling as parents. It's "our" responsibility as parents to
make sure our kids don't miss out on the charcter building things that kids used to do and should still do.
Like riding a horse, milking a cow, grow your own food,
learn to cook, catch a fish, camp under the stars, chop wood, build a fire etc.
Some of these things are the very basics of life, but most kids
have no experience with these things. Sad really.
They can't use a map and compass, but can use a GPS! Woopie!

Patrick Sawyer

climber

Originally California now Ireland

Jul 26, 2005 - 09:58am PT

I remember it well, walking to school barefoot ten miles in the snow (err, actually that was my mom), using hob nails boots and woolen clothes to climb the Eigerwand in 1938 (oops, I wasn't born yet), watching Charlton Heston part the Red Sea (before he came across the Statue of Liberty on some beach), Old Yeller and Savage Sam, Swiss Family Robinson.

Tom Evans, good post.

They are different times. The other day bicycling great Eddie Merckx, commenting on Lance Armstrong's record seventh Tour de France win, said that when he raced back in the 1960s and 1970s he would compete for every race on the calendar, whereas nowadays a lot of riders just concentrate on a couple or races. "The two eras are totally different," said Merckx, after acknowledging that Amstrong was indeed one of the greats.

Landgolier

climber

Arlington, VA

Jul 26, 2005 - 10:01am PT

Man, I sure am glad all you baby boomers had such healthy, vigorous childhoods, I guess I can stop worrying about my generation getting crushed under the burden of your health care costs. Oh, and thanks for having all the good times with mercury, my generation might have been utterly spineless milquetoasts were it not for dealing with the high rates of birth defects and autism that sh#t has caused. And thank god you didn't have access to information outlets that might have given you a diversity of perspectives about the world and a real, human view of other cultures, the racism and xenophobia have made for a really good character-building experience for all of my black, latino, asian, and native american friends, not to mention all the kids abroad who got to grow up (or not grow up) on the various battlefields of the cold war.

Oh, and Michael Moore may play fast and loose with the truth, but I challenge any of you self-congratulators to go meet the kid in F-9/11 who said "Man, I saw some pictures of Iraq, and I was thinkin' there's parts of Flint that look like that, and there hasn't even been no war here," and look him in the eye and tell him what a great America you guys built for him.

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Jul 26, 2005 - 10:50am PT

The surest sign of getting old is worrying about the lax ways of the younger generation.

But I agree with Shack that it's good to teach the kids about the old skills. The way we've trashed the planet and burned most of the oil, they'll be really lucky if they don't have to fall back on those old ways by the time they're our age. (that is, old enough to rag on the younger folks)

Peace

karl

climber

NOT Fresno

Jul 26, 2005 - 11:16am PT

Yeah, generations get old, and way the hell faster than people would like, and they notice how advanced and healthy the younger generations are, and so they sit down and write elegaic BS about their childhoods like it was a legendary lost time. There's a word for that and it's revision.

My kid can eat a mud pie and with the other hand devirus my laptop and she's five. In your face, old farts. That includes me, by the way.

MikeL

Trad climber

Santa Clara, CA

Jul 26, 2005 - 12:08pm PT

Is it my imagination, or are the demographics of this forum relatively "old?" But for only a few posts here on the subject, most people seem to personally remember the old days. Is this a forum that attracts middle-class, 40s-and-up folks?

In this climbing forum, I'd like to hear regularly from the younger generation. If we aren't hearing from them, we're reading a biased point of view about climbing, its ethics, its norms, its beliefs, and its directions.

There should be much to learn from the young. (But then again, maybe I've been a teacher for too long.)

ml

MikeA

climber

Farmington, Utah

Jul 26, 2005 - 12:22pm PT

"But today's kids, none of them are allowed to be called "losers" cause it's "bad for their precious little self esteem" and everyone gets a trophy for participating, making even the losers winners."

Well, if it makes you feel better:

YOU ARE ALL LOSERS!!!