OT -- Do you ever feel the world is full of wussies

All of you are right. We raised them.
They are in general, are very good/great group of folk.
We were once as they are now.
I love the military, mostly millenials.
I love construction workers, a lot of millenials.
I love police, firemen, emergency workers, a lot of millenials.
Society will be fine without me riding their backs. May God bless them all.

NOTE:
"All these grizzled old men, walked uphill both ways to school in blizzards with unsplinted broken legs. Very entertaining."

Not me, I walked to school, but my grade school was two blocks away, JR High 3 blocks away, and HS 5 blocks away.

But my parents and grandparents, were much better folk.
My Mom went to college in the late 30's early 40s with a bunch of men 300/5 ratio men to women. She graduated with a Chemical Engineering degree. She was raised on a homestead my Grand parents built up. My grand mother went to college and taught school. She actually rode a horse six miles to the one room school house. GPa, built the house tried farming, dust bowl hit, converted to raising sheep. BTW my GMa was actually born and raised in a sod house in central Nebraska.
My father, quit school in 8th grade during the depression to help feed his family. He then went on to the CCC, and then joined the Army in WW2. Later he was a lineman for the power company in SD. He was the toughest man I've ever known.

NOTE: Bad day yesterday, better day today upon further reflection.
May God bless each and every one of you!

Inevitably there's friction between the generations, it's just nature's way.

But when it really counts, when the situation really calls for it, as when a parent is suddenly in the hospital or something, and the kids were raised right, they'll rush to be by their parent's side, and, generational differences aside, the mutual underlying affection and respect that was always there will show itself bigtime.

As when I had my RT treatment back in 2012, and my two boys did yeoman's service in driving me to appointments, caring for the house, paying the bills, etc.

It reminds me of an oldie song that maybe gets close to the heart of the matter, when a couple of lovestruck teens express impatience with the patronizing views of their parents, but then forgive them for doing so because they know their folks really are "one in a million":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j01m6nrn1-8

The setting: The Roman Coliseum in the tenth year of the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Among the 60,000 or so spectators, two old friends, Titus and Marcus, now in their late 60s, retired, not wealthy but prosperous enough to sit in the more desirable shaded side of the amphitheater. Part of their conversation:

Titus: “What an insult to the gods. These sad excuses, most of them Belgae scrapped out of Gaul. They...”
Marcus: “Just don’t want to get in close, just dancing around the sand. Just dancing.”
Titus: “None of this lot would have made it out of the galleys in my grandfather’s day. Hardly handle the sword. When’s the last time the Games had anyone half decent with the trident?”
Marcus: “All about the sesterces these days. No standards any more.”

I think it is too easy for old guys to think the world is going to heck. Myself included. Maybe cause we must shortly leave it? Comforting in its strange way. When I find myself going that way, i like to replay my imaginary friends Titus and Marcus.
Of course, Rome did fall. But that is another story. We Who Are about to Post, Salute You!

Since this thread deals with cold weather/snow, I will add a few of my own experiences in the last week. My wife and I flew from the West last week to participate in a week of cross country racing in an eastern city well known for it,s winter weather and festivals. Saturday,s race for us was a 50km classic event that started out at -20C with moderate winds making for -30C conditions with wind chill factor. One positive note was for -9C temperatures towards the afternoon when we finished. Participants ranged from 20 years old and up. My group of over 70+ had 14 skiers. Very few dropped out because of the bitter cold in any age. It was nice to see so many young people out in such brutal conditions for well over 4 hours of high intensity activity.

Next day was milder with 27 and 50KM freestyle distances with again a large group of mixed aged athletes. I was so impressed with the grit and determination from so many of these younger racers. Maybe this is not a sample of the average American society, but all of these participants, had spent many hundred of hours in cold conditions preparing for these long distant ski loppets.

I haven,t given up on the Milenials just yet. They are facing challenging times even if quite different than what we went through.

Dave

Newspaper Lover - excellent!

My brother-in-law used to run an office. A few years back he had an intern, a recent college grad who seemed to be a bright person. One day he asked her to mail a letter. She returned with the envelope... but with no idea how or where to affix the stamp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqzkdzlw_ga

....... they’re paying out Medicare and Social Security bills.

halbert said...
On the other hand, there are a lot of fine young people out there. Many of them are wearing (or have worn) a military uniform. Many more are really serious about the issues that are out there in the world--and there is a lot of criticism of them about how idealistic, silly, unreasonable, etc they are.

My opinion is that the youngsters our there are on their way to being a socially active, responsible generation--and we need to stop telling them they are a bunch of fools and encourage them instead.

Well said.

One of my sons was a Green Beret officer and is the guy I want next to me when the world goes to hell. However, if I see him with a hammer or screwdriver, I have to follow him to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. Doesn’t make sense but I could never get him interested in things other than sports, guns, and beer as he grew up and I tried. Just a different attitude.