The skills of our fathers.

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kamagong said:
For all those lamenting the fall of civilization remember that all hope isn't lost. If you are tired of all these clueless young men and women get out and mentor someone. Make sure you spend time with your children and grandchildren so that they learn their values from you, not the television.
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Excellent point. :thumbup:
 
Yep, despite my previous gloom & doom, there is a small percentage of kids out there who're born tinkerers (which is really what we're talking about here; Inquisitive nature, innate mechanical ability, and some directive training in those areas.) Also, the ones that come out to the range are serious about their gun skills, and not just trying to translate a video game into real life.

And when you think about it, those of us who fit that mold are also in the minority, even in our own generations. Not everyone my age has the same abilities I do, for instance. That's why we had handymen.

Finally, we do live in a much more "disposable" society now than when we were kids. Lots of things can be replaced more easily and cheaply than fixing them. May not be the direction I'd prefer, but there's no stopping it.

-- Sam
 
I will be 14 in a couple of days (Auguust 10). I carry a small stockman and sometimes a Buck Tempest. I keep my hair cut, listen to classic country music, can start a fire, clean a gun, sharpen a knife to almost shaving sharp with an old stone, I cant fix things but me and my dad are working on that. I don't have a cell phone or Ipod and don't really want one. My mom and dad were divorced for 5 years so I turned to the woods. My dad came back last year. I am confident that if I had a minimal survival kit I could survive in the woods. I have fixed my grandma's sink with some stuff I found in my granddads tool box. I agree that kids in my generation are becoming more focused on the newest ipod or some other piece of crap. If I had to I could tarp and shingle a roof. Like i've said I go to a small school we don't have electives like shop. I think we should have a survival class and a handyman class in every school. Sorry for my ranting. You have very good points.
 
Nowadays, kids don't have time for such electives if they want to get into college. They take 8 languages, calculus, and AP this or AP that. Every waking moment seems planned out.

I think maybe we just stink at how we use our time these days. If young people don't have time to break things, how can we expect them to fix things?
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Thats an excellent point Guyon. I have a 13-year-old nephew on that same track you discussed. He does like to poke around with switches, wires, computers, etc.

I gave him a Leatherman Fuse. He went nuts.
 
Scared myself coupl'a years ago. I have basic automotive knowledge. Very very basic carpentry skills. Creative, but not really good at finding out why things tick. Lack of common sense? Maybe. But I was astounded when I found out that what I thought were lack of skills, are pretty good for where I work. One guy I work with that just retired is a very experienced fisherman, a big fly fishing fan. He even wrote a book about it that was published by a big outdoors chain. Anyway, he and I were discussing different outdoors activities, and someone commented on how he wished he knew how to do that. Simple things. I forget what they were, but just was in awe. In general, I'm talking simple things. Changing a tire, changing oil, building a shelf. Even ripping apart a car for parts, something which I've done twice, and loved every minute of it (I was a teen in dire need of some parts for my POS truck). I don't know. I don't even know a tenth of what my father knows, and he only knows a fraction of what his father knew. But, different generations. For example, it came up in conversation with my aunt that she learned, with my father and uncles, how to take apart a car and put it back together. I mean getting down to the frame. Anyway, she was not a butch etc. She was, and still is, an attractive woman, a smart woman, and had all the guys after her, so my father says. Anyway, my grandfather taught her too. Self reliance was a big thing with him, although he worked hard for his family. Sort of self reliance because you didn't have any money.

I think people look at credit as having money these days. They think that they can just spend and spend and spend. Saving money, supposedly, by buying cheapie tools, that will break on you after a few years, if they last that long. You should buy the good tools, that will last for you, your kids and your kids kids. Do they still make those anymore?
 
Yeah it's pretty bad sometimes. On my first day of my 2nd year at law school before I even caught up with my friends I noticed one of the third years, a very beautiful woman BTW, looking a bit frazzled. It seems that the battery in her car died, and she had been running around the past couple of hours looking for someone to give her a jump. She couldn't find a single person who even had cables, much less know how to jump start a vehicle. She expressed surprise at my offering to help, I guess she had just about given up on finding someone who could come to her aid. She was incredulous that someone would have the foresight and wherewithal to pack cables in his trunk, instead of waiting for AAA like everyone else. My response? "Of course I have cables, I'm a man." :D
 
Texasboy, God bless you, son! You're on the right path, no matter what others of your generation may say or do. Us "old geezers" sort of rant about the youth nowadays at times (just like the older folks did about my generation decades ago!), but I KNOW for a fact that there are still quite a few like you out there.

RonC, also from Texas
 
Don't dispair utterly about our youth! I'm a high school teacher in a fairly rural area. Although there are plenty of the overprogrammed kids who don't know what to do with stuff that doesn't plug in, I have observed a strong and growing minority of kids who largely reject the electronic "virtual" world in favor of the actual world of paper books, the outdoors, tools and hands-on skills/activities.
 
Remember, there is nothing wrong with including the wired world in your daily life. You just have to know when to step back. My siblings treat me like I'm a dinosaur because I still have cd's. My parents play their Christmas records starting Halloween, and all through til mid January (I would only be able to do it Thanksgiving through New Years, but...). Anyway, I got the bright idea to buy them those same albums on CD. What happened reminded me of the Everybody Loves Raymond episode, when the old man said he liked his records better than the cd's. My parents records didn't have bad poppings and hisses, heck, they're only in their mid 50's, they have modern conveniences, but they still like that stuff from their childhood.

I personally think self reliance begins when you can disassociate yourself from the plugged in world. I love the web, tv etc, everything at your fingertips. But how many people are online looking for instructions or a manual, as opposed as people looking for someone else to do it for them?
 
Texasboy, good for you and keep it up. And thanks to everyone that has some hope in us young guys. I have pretty much been striving to live a more traditional life sense I was in my early teens. Starting out I really did'nt know any thing, and my carbon slip joints, a second hand lodge skillet kicked me off. My folks both came from the city, and were supportive but not too help full.A lot of trial and error and taking on new skills. I am now 21 and have a long way to go, but I have made 2 wood stoves, 3 forges, different tools and knives from scrap steel, I can every vegetable,and fruit I can, ferment my wine, and mead, make my own corn cob pipes, some times. I shoot single shots and revolvers. A good amount of young folks enjoy these activities when they do participate, its getting them interested that is tough. In high school we had Harry Potter books in the library, but no Fox Fire. We had sports illustrated, and car magazines, but no Mother Earth News or countryside magazines. Great thread so far, Joe
 
Its interesting to watch how this thread has developed. I know my Dad (and I'm sure jackknife's and everybody else's) worked really hard and got by on just what he needed, because he wanted his children to have nicer things and an easier life than he had. Things I might want (and I'm sure he wanted).

He loved TV and I'm sure he was very happy up there somewhere when I was able to buy my 39 inch HDTV.

I think the cool part of the whole "traditional" thing is that remembers and honors the sacrifice that the Dads and Moms and Grandmas and Grandpas made for us all.

There's nothing wrong with a cell phone or AAA or stainless steel, but forgetting what came before and how things were done before gives our ancestors a great disservice.

Remember and respect.

Lord, that's schmaltzy. :barf: True, but a little melodramatic.

I here Dad up there right now.."What da hell you talking about down dere? What kinda nut talk is dat crap?"

Sorry Dad!
 
I asked on a local forum if anyone know the knife carrying laws, all I got was "why would want to carry a knife". Right now seems a knife is automatically linked to shady character or crime.

But the sad truth is today no one really give a flying crap about how good you are with your hands, or what skills you have besides read books and take exams.

I enjoy (and take pride in the fact that I can) work on my jeep, know how to and have done suspenison/engine/axle work with ease, while also knows my way around computer. But as far as the job market is concerned, it's totally useless, especially for a 25 year old who majored in microbiology.

So any of you old geezers work high up in a nice biotech company and looking to hire? :D
 
Hey Texas, good to meet you, and "good for you!" Same to you, Camo.

The funny thing is, old farts like us have been talkin' trash about "the next generation" since Aristotle's time. I guess it always seems like the world is crashing down on the shoulders of the older generation. There have been elements saying "it's the end of the world!" since time began.

-- Sam
 
ParaGlock said:
Hey Texas, good to meet you, and "good for you!" Same to you, Camo.

The funny thing is, old farts like us have been talkin' trash about "the next generation" since Aristotle's time. I guess it always seems like the world is crashing down on the shoulders of the older generation. There have been elements saying "it's the end of the world!" since time began.

-- Sam
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You're more right than you know!

I read a quote by someone in a magazine article, about this person complaining about how the younger generation has no respect for their elders and what they teach, and so on. Kind of like what we're biching about.

The quote was from the writings of Socraties.:eek:

I guess the more things change, the more they remain the same.:D
 
I used to wonder at how at the time I was really into computers and thinking of what they could do and where they could go. While at the same time I preferred older ideas, and would (and still would) prefer to live simply in the sticks. I finally came to the realization that by being so curious about the cutting edges of technology was a same kind of mentality of the earlier explorers. It was all about being on the frontier. Whether it a timber, rock, and grass frontier, or a electronic and virtual frontier, the drive was similar.

Some folks today are like that and the rest are those who came afterwards, using, claiming, and bragging about what they have while forgetting or disdaining those who opened the place up in the first place.

This is a rough paraphrase of something I read somewhere, maybe in a Jeff Cooper article, I can't recall. Anyway, it went something like this. When a society praises mediocre philosopher while looking down on an excellent plumber, neither their pipes nor their philosophies will hold water.

Oh, and good on ya, Texasboy! Good to hear.
 
Jackknife:

I enjoy your stories. They remind me of a book by Robert Ruark, called The Old Man and the Boy. Ruark talks about being taught to hunt and fish, train dogs and work on a professional fishing boat, by his grandfather. The stories are set in the twenties.

Ruark was writing in the fifties. He felt sorry for modern youngsters. Teenage boys built a dinghy and caught bait with a cast net before fishing in the swamps. They lived in cities and watched TV. Instead of chasing raccoons with drunken woodsloafers, they ran in gangs. Instead of carrying a hunting knife and a hatchet, they carried switchblades.

Sure enough, in one of the stories the Old Man—who grew up in the mid-nineteenth century—reminisced. “It’s not like it was in the old days. Growing up was better when I was a boy…”
 
My maternal grandfather was part of the "Greatest Generation". He didn't serve in WWII, was horrible at repairing things, never carried a knife, and was never a good father or grandfather. The only things he excelled at were drinking, gambling and abusing his children.

My father was a great man. He came to this country with nothing in 1958. He built his house from the ground up, was a jack of all trades, taught me how to fish. Most importantly, he was a loving man that spent lots of time with his family until the day he died in 1999. Unfortunately he never carried a knife.

I am 38 years old and technically part of "Generation X". I've been with the same woman for 20 years (married 14). I have a 5 year old daughter that I spend lots of time with. I'm a full time college professor. I maintain my own cars and boat. I remodeled and repaired most things in my house. I'm a painter and sculptor. I've made much of the furniture in my house using solid wood and mortise and tenon joints. I can sew, cook and garden with the best of them (hand stitched my daughter's first Halloween costume). I'm one hell of a good fisherman. I use a cell phone, iPod, laptop computer, etc. in my daily personal and work life. I am every bit of man that my father was. That is what he taught me to be and I know he is proud.

Every generation has good men of character. Many of my young students will go on to be just like the "Greatest Generation" in their own way.
 
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Robert A. Heinlein

Never stop learning or doing.

todd
 
These books should help you get those skills back .....

Old Ways of Working Wood
The Techniques & Tools of a Time-Honored Craft

http://www.astragalpress.com/old_ways_working_wood.htm

and here are some more books .....

http://www.mjdtools.com/books/booklist.htm

It is a matter of finding good books that will help you as you read the books and the manuals, You will remember and cry as you remember the things your father taught.

I know I did for my father as the things he taught came back flooding to me as I read the books and the manuals.

That will be normal and that is completely understandable.

Just get to working hard and finding out how to use the tools and the skills the way your father did.

If you have any questions these people may be able to tell or show you how to use this tool and what it is for.

Never sell your tools, especially the ones with no electric tools. You may need them in case of emergency, no electricity and all ..... You will be thankful to still have tools that work.

Git R' Done ..... :thumbup:
 
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