This reminded me of the YouTube videos where teenagers try to figure out how to use an old rotary phone. My kids finally gave up and asked for help.

One Man Band?

The Lehi one.

I think that pretty soon,
We'll all have kids
Who have a problem with a spoon.

Did you ask them to please not play B-17?

While you are giving them instructions, make sure to include this advice.



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RMDq-MnpbTo

Wonder how they'd do with an old-fashioned pinball machine? You know, the ones you had to push, lift, and shift to get a decent score, delicately enough not to "tilt." Matchbook covers under the front legs, shoot, it's been forever since I last saw an actual matchbook!

Don’t forget that at one point you had to be shown how to use it too.

I had a kid about 13 with me in my 86 Chevy pickup, that asked me to lower his window. He couldn’t find a button to push and didn’t know about the use of the crank handle.

damn, I feel old now ,
we only had rotary phones when I was a kid,

and grandma had a partly line

quote:

Originally posted by lyman:
damn, I feel old now ,
we only had rotary phones when I was a kid,

and grandma had a partly line

You had a phone? (Just kidding) We had a party line for a while.

When I was a kid our house did not have hot water (running cold water in sink and toilet, but no hot); we didn't have a bathtub or shower, either. (Bathed in a big galvanized steel tub in the kitchen with water heated on the stove.) Later added a stall shower in the Utility Room (not a heated space) and a gas water heater that had to be lit by hand when hot water was needed. Old memories.

flashguy

We had a rotary dial phone on a party line when I was a kid.

My kindergarten class was held in the basement of a Grange Hall, not sure how many youngsters would know of the Grange.

quote:

Originally posted by Phantom229:
Don’t forget that at one point you had to be shown how to use it too.

I have to keep reminding myself this.

I was trying to explain percentages to an 8th grade student who was struggling, so I started using money. A nickel is 5%, dime 10%, etc. The student still didn’t understand. I mentioned it the principal and he told me the kids don’t use cash, so it’s a foreign concept to them.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
The Lehi one.

Thought I recognized it.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
I had a kid about 13 with me in my 86 Chevy pickup, that asked me to lower his window. He couldn’t find a button to push and didn’t know about the use of the crank handle.

I feel the urge to both laugh and cry over stories like this. My gut instinct is that this ever-increasingly push-button touch-pad speak-to-gizmo interaction with our world will lead to disconnected lazy younger generations.

I try to remind myself that I've never learned to ride a horse or hand-crank a Model A Ford either ... but then again, I've at least ridden horses and fed them and have hand-propped airplanes and push-started manual transmission cars and kick-started motorcycles and pull-started lawnmowers, dialed rotary phones, and fired black powder firearms, so I at least have an understanding of tech that came before my time, even if I haven't mastered all of it.

We're now talking about generations that are so far removed from older tech and the ways that came before them that they not only don't know how to work it but, in some cases, aren't even aware of it...or even appreciate just how easy life has become.

I sometimes wonder if this new tech has so disconnected younger generations from the physical world that it has also led to a decrease in common sense. I also sometimes wonder if the ease that modern tech brings to our lives is worth the trade-off of a loss of common sense and lack of appreciation by younger generations.

I'm not a Luddite, well, not completely, and I often marvel at all the good and miraculous things tech has accomplished. Among it's accomplishments, I'm still alive because of modern tech...but there is a value to both work and simpler ways...and knowing what came before you.[/lament]

I still drive vehicles with manual transmissions and hand-crank windows.

Long live the juke box and the hand-crank window!

What was the issue they had with the jukebox? Were they not familiar with using a coin slot or was it the amount of pressure needed to press the non-virtual buttons. The click was there to let us know we pressed hard enough but I’d imagine that sound would make the uninitiated think they broke something.

quote:

Originally posted by lyman:
damn, I feel old now ,
we only had rotary phones when I was a kid,

and grandma had a partly line

Same here, also no indoor pluming.

I read somewhere recently that the best auto theif deterrent now is a manual transmission

20 pound bakelite desktop dial phone on a party line as a kid. No TV of any kind until around 1965. Did have indoor plumbing.

My Aunt on my Mother's side had an outhouse until I was 10 or so. Staying there in the Winter was a thrill, chamber pots at night and a DAMN quick trip to the convenience during the day.

When I was a kid , our wheels were square .