Generation gap? Are we getting old or what?

[Golddollar]

Every once in a while I go to the bank and get $20 or $30 in $2 bills to use as pocket money. I get a kick out of the look of bewilderment on young folks faces behind the cash register when I'm on uniformed duty and hand them $2 bills across the convenience store counter.

The cook at the Eagles is always glad to see me when I buy supper with $2 bills.

Since I don't know what children are into these days, I started sending my two nephews stacks of $2 bills for presents. When my younger nephew turned 21, I sent him a birthday card with a stack of 21 $2 bills in it. The next time I saw him I told him he could now buy his first legal drink or make his first bet on a horse. He's graduating from college this year so I'm going to have to start scrounging the banks now to get enough $2 bills for his graduation present.

 

[SMSgt]

I can't read my own cursive, so I hardly ever use it. My cursive signature is unreadable and never the same twice. Woe be the day I'm in court and some lawyer asks me if this is my signature. "Heck if I know, I can't read it either."

 

[fiasconva]

Oh we kept the wheatback but my wife didn't notice that it had been in with her change. I have a little box that I keep any of the wheatbacks we find every now and then. I wasn't bashing the young lady but just musing about how times are a'changing.

 

[cruiserdan]

I love to count back change. It really jacks with almost all young people. The old ones... like me... get a kick out of it.

 

[Kinman]

Every once in a while I go to the bank and get $20 or $30 in $2 bills to use as pocket money. I get a kick out of the look of bewilderment on young folks faces behind the cash register when I'm on uniformed duty and hand them $2 bills across the convenience store counter.

I do the same thing, just for laughs. My neighbors have their grandson living with them, he is a nice little boy, around 10 or so. He asked me if he could put a lemonaid stand on my corner, I told him sure. He set up and was doing some good business, I bought a glass and asked him if he wanted a job. He got excited and asked me what the job was. I told him, see that grass growing along the curb line of my yard and the corner, I'd like that dug out, I'll give you the tools and a bucket for the weeds. I came back, gave him the stuff and told him I would be out in my shop when he was done. Thirty minutes later he comes to get me, we walk around front, beautiful job. I asked him what he thought it was worth, he looked a bit puzzled and I said "How about a couple bucks?" He said "Wow, sure." I hand him a $2 bill, he looks at it, looks at me and says "Whats this?" I said "Its as $2 bill, go show granpa he knows." Kid runs over and runs back all excited. My granddaughter got in my Model A a couple years ago and pointed to the window crank and said "Papa what is this for." I said that controls the window, she said "I pushed it and nothing happened."

 

[Kinman]

I developed a decent cursive hand in school, I prefer to print or type but if pressed and given a couple of minutes to practice it all comes back. I always held my pencil odd and used to have a callous on my right hand middle finger. Having those skills was not a big advantage while I was in the Army, when they found out I could type they sent me over to Headquarters to work in S-2. I hated it so much I volunteered to go to truck driving school although later ran the parts department for an Army truck company, because I could type. It wasn't all bad, no reveille, had my own parts truck, running all over Germany with a pass signed by my CWO that gave me access to any military PDO yard, good duty.

 

[Warren Sear]

How time flies. Has it only been a month since the last young people bashing thread?

A guy knows he has achieved Old Farthood when he gets haughty satisfaction from annoying young people.

 

[Rustyt1953]

A guy knows he has achieved Old Farthood when he gets haughty satisfaction from annoying young people.

It baffles me as to why someone would intentionally make a young person's job more difficult or complicated especially when those young people are willing to show up for work at a menial job.

 

[Warren Sear]

It baffles me as to why someone would intentionally make a young person's job more difficult or complicated especially when those young people are willing to show up for work at a menial job.

I hear yuh there. When I was a very young guy, I was looking at a 1934 Chevy truck. A condescending old bastion standing nearby sneered at me saying I wouldn't be able to shift the transmission without grinding the gears (since it did not have a synchronized transmission). I thought to myself that if someone as if'ing stupid as this old fool could learn to do it, I'm sure I could too, but I was taught to respect old fools, so I didn't say anything.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I've met plenty of ignorant people. They're not all young. Some of them are even older than I.

 

[MelvinWalker]

I had this same thing happen to me 20+ years ago by a skinny blonde 18 year old teller in a convenience store in Dunlap Tennessee one morning except it was a $2 bill...the manager had to gently explain it to her.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Between the high divorce rate and the high rate of illegitimacy the current generations/age cohorts are the first for whom fatherlessness is the norm.
In my youth I met plenty of people with gray hair, double chins, potbellies, balding pates who were bad tempered, ill mannered, immature-overage brats with an incredible sense of entitlement. Now, at 74, I still meet them.
The McDonald's I usually patronize had a Hispanic manager, now retired.
All the help was Hispanic-still are. They are well trained, know their jobs, follow the regulations and procedures. His spirit is still there.
I keep a journal/diary-I call it a Thoughtbook. Started block printing, my hand writing has gotten atrocious, probably from hurrying.

 

[Ματθιας]

Today, made me think about this thread.

To me it seems the biggest gap is commutation.

I believe that communication is the key to any relationship, work or personal. That's where most of the problems are. Folks seem to talk at each other rather than to each other, styles clash, some times, neither side wants to listen. Or they don't know how to communicate.

Here's my take;

The older the person, the thinker the skin. The younger the person, the thinner the skin. Lots of misunderstandings.

Most of the time, older folks will come to me and be blunt and to the point. Younger folks will dance around the issue and getting info is like pulling teeth. Few people can't seem, to answer yes or no questions, though. With older folks it's tough to get straight answers. With younger folks, sometimes I can't tell if what they're saying is a statement or a question the way they make every sentence sound like a question.

Anyway that's my take.

 

[Bozz10mm]

If you live long enough, eventually everything becomes obsolete.

 

[glenwolde]

...as for me, it isn't "what" it's that I am really getting old. The acceleration of change just in my lifetime I believe has helped generations gaps to become wider. The difference between my parent's generation and mine doesn't seem to compare to the gap between mine and my grandchildren's generation

That's one generation vs two generations.

 

[ZGrand]

At lunch today, after I paid cash for the pizza and drinks, my change was 37 cents. The young girl running the register, with a drawer full of all denominations of change, gave me 3 dimes and 7 pennies. I started to say something, but I knew it would be a waste of breath.

At least the pizza was good.

 

[pasound]

Recently retired, I have to look back to my staff as exceptions to the generational "rules". All were either one generation, or two, younger than me. They have the same problems with their peers not making change, no knowledge of events or their history, inability to write legibly, etc. as the generations we refer to. They all said, as I do, it's a failure of education.

 

[Rustyt1953]

You received 37¢. I fail to see the problem.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

A while back my GD expressed an interest in Coin Collecting.
I gave her a Red Book and an old Mexican Shaving Kit half full of Wheatie Pennies.
She moved on to other ventures, College, etc.
The Wheaties are probably under her bed, in the closet, etc.

 

[GaryS]

Including us!

If you live long enough, eventually everything becomes obsolete.

 

[BC38]

...as for me, it isn't "what" it's that I am really getting old. The acceleration of change just in my lifetime I believe has helped generations gaps to become wider. The difference between my parent's generation and mine doesn't seem to compare to the gap between mine and my grandchildren's generation

Wouldn't it be more of an apples to apples comparison to compare your generation to your grandparents generation and your grandchildren? Or to compare your generation to that of your parents and to your kids?

I know there was a pretty big difference between my generation and my dad's generation - but not that much more of a difference between my generation and my kids.

But if I compare my grandparent's generation to mine the difference is astronomical. They were born in the horse and buggy era - I was born in the era of moon landings.

 

[BC38]

Half dollar coins are good for that too.

LOL, yeah they are.
When was the last time you got a Kennedy half-dollar coin as change? Even a circulated 1976 minting with no silver in it sells for close to 15 bucks!

 

[BC38]

My oldest son was in the last group of kids to be taught cursive in the WA public schools. His brother, just 4 years younger doesn't read or write cursive - he block prints his signature.
BUT, a block printed signature is legally just as valid as any doctor's scrawl, so I guess it isn't an issue.
One of my main concerns is that so many of the foundational documents of Western civilization are written in cursive, and if you can't read it in the original form, how do you know that what you are getting is actually the original text, meaning, and intent?
In transcribing it to typed text, you could alter it in any way you want, and if the reader can't read the original text, how would they know the difference?
Kinda' like the evolution of the principles of the revolution in Orwell's Animal Farm.

 

[444 Magnum]

I don't know anyone who, after high school, continued to use cursive.

I'm in my 50's and I write cursive. I write cursive or print depending on the circumstances. It's easier and flows more smoothly than printing.
Properly done, cursive writing is beautiful. I have complimented several senior ladies over the years who had exceptional handwriting. Beautiful penmanship, like custom gun making and other master level skills, is, however, quickly becoming a lost art.
It is indeed sad.

 

[BC38]

I'm in my 50's and I write cursive. I write cursive or print depending on the circumstances. It's easier and flows more smoothly than printing.
Properly done, cursive writing is beautiful. I have complimented several senior ladies over the years who had exceptional handwriting. Beautiful penmanship, like custom gun making and other master level skills, is, however, quickly becoming a lost art.
It is indeed sad.

Kinda like calligraphy!
I've mentioned this before, but in regards to my cursive handwriting, my dad used to say...
"Bob had the best handwriting in his 2nd grade class - but it never got any better!"

 

[Harrison]

I don't know anyone who, after high school, continued to use cursive. It isn't necessary to communicate. All the important historical documents written in longhand have been transferred to block type. Your legally recognized signature can be almost any scribble you like.

Every cash register and smartphone has a sophisticated calculator built in so making change is not a problem.

My grandfather told my dad that he and his generation were doomed to failure. My dad condemned me to the same fate. I have yet to spew that bilge to my children or grandchildren. They are doing fine, thank you.

I took copious notes while in college using cursive. In the Army I wrote in medical records using cursive.

 

[GypsmJim]

There is a gap between generations, a big one!

I'm a GenXer, I work/manage "younger" Boomers all the way to 18 yo GenZers. The differences are crazy!

My parents are in their 90's, dunno what gen that is. I'm a boomer and my kids are genXers. We are ALL the same. Why? Because we all grew up in the same family and the morals and responsibilities and values were all handed down, and respected by successive generations.

My take on why the X's and Z's and whatever are different is because (some of) the Boomers didn't do a very good job.

 

[Buford57]

A perfect chance to recite a bit of poetry I learned in school, back when poetry was memorized in school.

My granddad, in his house of logs
Said "Things are going to the dogs";

His granddad, in his leather togs,
Said " Things are going to the dogs";

His granddad, in the Flemish bogs,
Said "Things are going to the dogs".

They may be right, but this I'll state:
Those dogs have had a long, long wait!

I guess technically that's doggerel.

 

[GypsmJim]

I don't know anyone who, after high school, continued to use cursive.

I guess you never met me. I PRINT when I address an envelope, but that's about the only time. If I write a note to myself, or write a shopping list I always WRITE it. It's quicker and I'm simply lazy.

 

[Rockrivr1]

Whatever you do don't make them make change. It's too hard for them. I went to Dunkin for a coffee and donut and the amount came up to $4.15. I gave the girl $20.15. You'd have thought I shot her as she was having trouble trying to figure out what then change should be. Just shooked my head as I walked out.