Things kids take for granted today unheard of in our past…

MarkinPhx said:
I was doing some research for the reasons why kids aren't getting them as much anymore and what you stated is one of the reasons. I had no restrictions when I got my drivers license when I turned 16. Of course there was a local curfew at the time but the law ignored it unless kids were causing trouble. My state has similar restrictions that you listed so many kids do take rideshares to work and other events now. I agree with it being tough but fair. i know when I first got my license I was not a very responsible driver at times.
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Some of the reasons why young people are not getting a DL come down to where they LIVE. A big city has the ride services you mentioned, but here in Ontario ( which is larger than either Texas or Alaska in terms of it's square mile area ) small town and farm kids don't have that choice at all. They get a DL so they can get around.

My Wife's younger son is 52 years old, and he has had a DL since he was 18, but he doesn't own a car, and he lives in downtown Toronto. He rides his pedal bike most of the time, but when he needs a car or a van for his carpentry business he rents a vehicle by the hour.
 

hollydolly said:
I never knew a single person who had a car when I was at school..it just wasn;'t something British kids had mostly...to own a car first a 17 year old has to pass a stringent Driving test.. currently £35 per hour for lessons or it's equivalent in the early 70's.. then you had to have parents who could afford to buy a car for you.. most parents couldn't. The cost of living was so high that most parents worked out of the home, and could barely get by...so for any teen to get a car they had to work themselves and save the money...
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Most teens here who had cars when I was a teen also worked for them. You could get a good used car for a reasonable amount back then and your friends always knew someone selling a car.
Today's youth makes videos of how horrible their lives are on their smart phones inside a their beautiful clean car and I feel like WTF? Something has seriously changed. :rolleyes:
 
I think the only thing that has changed are the numbers.

My first car was an old $500.00 hooptie and I was making $3.60/hour full time. That car was spotless inside and out!!!

Today old hoopties sell for $5,000.00 but kids are making $15.00-$20.00/hour at part time jobs.

and the beat goes on! 😉🤭😂
 

reteP said:

Things kids take for granted today unheard of in our past…​

Kids attacking, stabbing, shooting others to get car keys for a joy ride.
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mmmm'''...I have to take issue with that .... I don't think kids take it for granted they can do these things.....

Yes there are more crimes committed by kids than when we were small that's for sure, but actually take it for granted ? most kids don't think like that. I think it's more likely they take for granted they won't get punished like an adult.. and unfortunately that is true.. mostly..
 
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hollydolly said:
LOL... never mind grandparents.. when I was little before we had a bathroom, we had to have that tin bath brought out and placed in front of the fire, and my mother would fill it with kettles of boiling water.. and each of us kids had to get into the same water one after the other, with my mother topping it up with more hot water..

Equally before we got a single tub washing machine.. my mother washed clothes for 6 of us in the sink using a Washboard and Sunlight soap, and we had mangle clamped on the side of the sink... which I would turn while she fed the clothes through..
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Oh yeh, those halcyon days, eh, Holly? 😊
 
hollydolly said:
I never knew a single person who had a car when I was at school..it just wasn;'t something British kids had mostly...to own a car first a 17 year old has to pass a stringent Driving test.. currently £35 per hour for lessons or it's equivalent in the early 70's.. then you had to have parents who could afford to buy a car for you.. most parents couldn't. The cost of living was so high that most parents worked out of the home, and could barely get by...so for any teen to get a car they had to work themselves and save the money...
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7am each morning, hundreds of people all cycling to work, then again in the evening, hundreds of them coming home again.... cars were for the filthy rich. 😊
 
timoc said:
7am each morning, hundreds of people all cycling to work, then again in the evening, hundreds of them coming home again.... cars were for the filthy rich. 😊
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that's so true... I remember even as a tiny tot my mother standing me by the window to watch my father come home from work on his bike...
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Kids today take air conditioning everywhere for granted. In my youth, air conditioning was rare, and mostly to be found in movie theaters and expensive stores. Home residences rarely had air conditioning unless the residents were wealthy. Cars didn’t, either…you simply cranked the windows down, and hoped that the vehicle kept moving so you could catch a breeze! Schools could be stifling, with a big floor fan at the front of the classroom to move the warm, soupy air if you were lucky…

It was hot even inside grocery stores, whereas today I’ve seen older folks wear jackets inside such places as they’re kept so cold in summer. Churches might have ceiling fans, or simply put hand fans in pews for parishioners to fan themselves with during summer services.

Everyone was hot and miserable during the height of summer heat, and it was our norm. If I dared to complain about summer heat, my mother would growl at me, “It’s summer…it’s SUPPOSED to be hot!” No sympathy there, for sure… 🔥

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Fyrefox said:
Kids today take air conditioning everywhere for granted. In my youth, air conditioning was rare, and mostly to be found in movie theaters and expensive stores. Home residences rarely had air conditioning unless the residents were wealthy. Cars didn’t, either…you simply cranked the windows down, and hoped that the vehicle kept moving so you could catch a breeze!
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Cars had "4-40" airconditioning.....you rolled down all 4 windows and drove 40 miles per hour.

I can remember how miserable long car vacations were in the summer. All windows rolled down, including the back window in the station wagon, everyone getting beaten to death with the wind blowing through, the cinders and bugs flying in and getting behind trucks belching smoke.
 
Fyrefox said:
Kids today take air conditioning everywhere for granted. In my youth, air conditioning was rare, and mostly to be found in movie theaters and expensive stores. Home residences rarely had air conditioning unless the residents were wealthy. Cars didn’t, either…you simply cranked the windows down, and hoped that the vehicle kept moving so you could catch a breeze! Schools could be stifling, with a big floor fan at the front of the classroom to move the warm, soupy air if you were lucky…

It was hot even inside grocery stores, whereas today I’ve seen older folks wear jackets inside such places as they’re kept so cold in summer. Churches might have ceiling fans, or simply put hand fans in pews for parishioners to fan themselves with during summer services.

Everyone was hot and miserable during the height of summer heat, and it was our norm. If I dared to complain about summer heat, my mother would growl at me, “It’s summer…it’s SUPPOSED to be hot!” No sympathy there, for sure… 🔥

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None of that applies here... :D
 
jujube said:
Cars had "4-40" airconditioning.....you rolled down all 4 windows and drove 40 miles per hour.

I can remember how miserable long car vacations were in the summer. All windows rolled down, including the back window in the station wagon, everyone getting beaten to death with the wind blowing through, the cinders and bugs flying in and getting behind trucks belching smoke.
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Sitting and sleeping in the back of the old station wagon with the back seat folded down is something that today’s kids will never experience.

I understand the use of car seats but I’m thankful that I didn’t have to deal with them.
 
jujube said:
Cars had "4-40" airconditioning.....you rolled down all 4 windows and drove 40 miles per hour.

I can remember how miserable long car vacations were in the summer. All windows rolled down, including the back window in the station wagon, everyone getting beaten to death with the wind blowing through, the cinders and bugs flying in and getting behind trucks belching smoke.
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My husband said his family used something called a 'swamp cooler' in their car. I don't know what that is. Something about a long cloth wicked in water and waving out the window??
 
Something many kids seem to take for granted today is personal income that’s work-free. They walk around glued to their phone screens while wearing designer clothes and kicks costing over $100 a pair, all bought for them! In my day, depending on the season kids would shovel snow, rake leaves, mow lawns, care for dogs, or wash cars…anything for a buck! Have fun trying to find a youth to do any of these things today for compensation. They just can’t be bothered doing manual labor any more, and apparently get money or things just given to them by indulgent parents.

An older lady asked if I would hire her grandson to weed for pay, that he wanted money, and I said sure! Brought in tow by the lady, the reluctant kid worked for less than two hours, then went for lunch and never came back! His apologetic grandmother was embarrassed. Whatever happened to a work ethic?

I guess that the days of enterprising young snow shovelers roaming the streets in winter looking to make some bucks are pretty much done…

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Fyrefox said:
Something many kids seem to take for granted today is personal income that’s work-free. They walk around glued to their phone screens while wearing designer clothes and kicks costing over $100 a pair, all bought for them! In my day, depending on the season kids would shovel snow, rake leaves, mow lawns, care for dogs, or wash cars…anything for a buck! Have fun trying to find a youth to do any of these things today for compensation. They just can’t be bothered doing manual labor any more, and apparently get money or things just given to them by indulgent parents.

An older lady asked if I would hire her grandson to weed for pay, that he wanted money, and I said sure! Brought in tow by the lady, the reluctant kid worked for less than two hours, then went for lunch and never came back! His apologetic grandmother was embarrassed. Whatever happened to a work ethic?

I guess that the days of enterprising young snow shovelers roaming the streets in winter looking to make some bucks are pretty much done…

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I think that some of it is due to the helicopter
parents fear and mistrust of anyone outside the family ‘bubble’.

I understand the concerns but I feel that kids would be better off if they were made aware of the dangers, learned to evaluate, and deal with them as opposed to sheltering them from every new and unfamiliar situation.

Just another sad concession to the Boogeyman.

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Assuming that past is referring to the1950's and 1960's:

Remote control to change TV channels
Cell phones with cameras
Computer playing machines.
Internet
 
Fyrefox said:
Something many kids seem to take for granted today is personal income that’s work-free. They walk around glued to their phone screens while wearing designer clothes and kicks costing over $100 a pair, all bought for them! In my day, depending on the season kids would shovel snow, rake leaves, mow lawns, care for dogs, or wash cars…anything for a buck! Have fun trying to find a youth to do any of these things today for compensation. They just can’t be bothered doing manual labor any more, and apparently get money or things just given to them by indulgent parents.

An older lady asked if I would hire her grandson to weed for pay, that he wanted money, and I said sure! Brought in tow by the lady, the reluctant kid worked for less than two hours, then went for lunch and never came back! His apologetic grandmother was embarrassed. Whatever happened to a work ethic?

I guess that the days of enterprising young snow shovelers roaming the streets in winter looking to make some bucks are pretty much done…

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It was at least twenty thirty years ago when I was shoveling snow in a blizzard, an enterprising kid about eleven marched up and offered to do it for me --for twenty bucks an hour.
I told him he was very kind, but I needed the exercise (like hell I did).
 
ChiroDoc said:
And there's not a fat person in that crowd!
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yep.. that's fact. I remember at school where there was more than a thousand pupils.. there was just one overweight girl.... and even in today's society she would not even be considered overweight but back then she was classed as obese because everyone else were slim
 
gruntlabor said:
My husband said his family used something called a 'swamp cooler' in their car. I don't know what that is. Something about a long cloth wicked in water and waving out the window??
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We had a swamp cooler (also called an evaporative cooler) in our house in Nevada; they're quite common there instead of air conditioning because they (swamp coolers) keep moisture in the dry air. I believe a house swamp cooler runs air over water to "cool" the house, only they don't do much cooling. I vastly preferred regular old air conditioning.

I've never heard of a swamp cooler in a car though—that's interesting.
 
Fyrefox said:
...

I guess that the days of enterprising young snow shovelers roaming the streets in winter looking to make some bucks are pretty much done…

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Right you are, Fyrefox! I used psychology on the neighbors. After a snow I'd go up to their door with my snow shovel, offering to shovel their sidewalk for a quarter. If I got the go-ahead they'd usually give me a buck or so. Sometimes I got stuck with doing it for a quarter though!...😄
 

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