Hi,

I was just thinking about how things have changed over the years. I decided to break it into experiences that go by generations.

If you find this interesting, please add your own stories

I did this on my Dad's side, which makes me feel pretty lucky. He was 43 when I was born, so the gap is bigger than it would be otherwise.


Here goes

Dad vs his Dad :
running water
indoor 'facilities'
electricity
radio
television
telephone
movies(?) certainly talkies

Me vs Dad:
checkbook -- though he could have if he wanted
credit card -same
color tv
home air conditioner
auto air conditioner
computer
internet
cable/satellite tv
flew on a plane
rode aboard a ship ( once!)
traded stock(very few times)
microwave oven
cell phone

Dad vs me:
raised a family with only a 4th grade education
drove horses ( probably)

Kids vs me:
twitter
facebook
internet multi player games
other social networks

Just a little nonsense for now,

hj

 

My grandma lived to a ripe old age, but she was born almost 5 years before first flight at Kittyhawk, and when she died it had been 25 years since Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. Quite amazing when you stop and think about it.

 

My Great Uncle died at 104. When he was born the mode of transportation was a horse, but when he died he had witnessed Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. He remembered the Great Blizzard of 1888 where the livestock froze to death in the fields as they couldn't get them in fast enough. What a life he had!

 

Grandparents on my Dads side were born in 1898 and 1900. Grandma said she was 15 when she saw her first car. (they called them machines) Grandpa on my Mom's side was born much later. I know he worked for the railroad both here in the U.S., and in Europe after enlisting in the Army after Pearl Harbor. He saw steam power on the railroad. My Dad worked very little on the farm with hay burners, he was born in 1939. Tractors were making their way into that industry. He does remember some folks bringing the big thrasher machines from farm to farm to thrash wheat and corn, stationary units, some powered by gas/kerosene tractors, others by steam.

Me, 1964 model year, remembers milking cows without a pipeline, raising tobacco from pulling plants to set to cutting and hanging it and stripping it in the fall/winter. 8 acres was a lot back then to raise. I remember a B&W TV briefly as a kid. When it died, we went without for a year or two. Mom stayed at home to raise the kids. (I still say that mom's going to work and leaving the kids at home was the worst thing to happen to the family unit) 8 Track tapes, cassettes, and records, the vinyl ones. Darn near every boy at school had a pocket knife in their pocket, and many had guns in their trucks out in the parking lot, which were never locked either. A smoking lounge for the kids at school too. I can remember being hit with a paddle at school too for misbehaving. And as much as that hurt, the one I got when I got home was worse! Most cars and trucks were simple to work on back then too.

 

CampSpringsJohn: Your comment about the pocketknives reminded me of my High School days in the late '60s. I was in an Outdoor Club, and the faculty member who was our Advisor would stop you in the hall and ask for your knife. If you did not have it, he would question how you could be in the club without a knife! Also, we brought our shotguns to school, took them to the office where they were secured, and picked them up after school to go hunting for birds. Wow! Have the times ever changed......

 

My Dad was born in 1920 . He was the youngest of 6 . Mom was born in 29 . She was 2nd oldest of 9 . Power , Tv , phones ... They saw a lot happen . Dad went through the great War , Mom hunted to eat . Grandpa cut railroad ties by hand with a team of mules . Sold them for 50 cents a piece . Mom died in 92 , dad in 98 . I live on the farm my dad was born on . In my family since 1892 . I have seen a bit . My first cell phone ( work provided ) was the size of a purse , with a cord to the headset . I miss Grandpa's mules , the saddest day of his life when he sold them . They would come in handy some times . Better than a tractor sometimes ! Now look at what we have . Could we live without it ? I could . My Kids ? They would have to come back home to survive !

 

Guns in the truck at school ! YES ! I would go hunting before school , kept my gun in the truck ! No Problem . Pocket knife ? Yes,all boys carried them at school . Now people go spastic if a kid has a picture of a gun or knife ! Sad we have come to this .

 

My grandfather's grandfather immigrated to this country from Scotland, along with his brothers. They worked their way from the east coast over across Canada until they homesteaded in what is now Los Gatos, California.

My granddad worked as a miner in many gold and silver mines throughout California, Idaho, and Montana. He taught me how to pan for gold when I was but a wee lad...

My grandad told me a story once about his first car - a Model 'A' Ford - It was the family car, but it was also the family's farm truck as it was originally a Model 'T' - The Model 'A' and Model 'T' used the same frame so, while it was on the farm, they would run it with the 'T' truck body and, when it was time to go into town, they would pull the truck body off and put the 'A' car body on - then switch it back to the 'T' once they got back from town...

Even in 1987, when I was in high school, there were those who carried their hunting rifles in their trucks in the parking lot. It was normal and nobody pitched a fit over it like they do now...

 

My grandparents on both sides were born during the first world war. I believe this generation has witnessed the largest increase in the mechanized world, experienced the most hardships in the economy and raised the largest families doing it.

My dad was born in 1936 and mum, 1942. Mum never worked outside the house. I remember at the time of my dad's passing in 1995, I was looking through his income statements as he was a home builder. In the 60's he earned about $4500 per year for several years and we lived pretty good on that.

Beyond the mortgage and vehicle note, dad never carried much debt if any. They worked hard and we were raised in a very strict but loving home.

My folks would say that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. As I got a little older and more enlightened on world events and history, I vehemently disagreed with them.

The biggest thing that separates my gen from my folks is instant information and less censoring. The events really haven't changed just the players, the times and the way things are done.

My wife worked all through the years and my girls were raised a little differently than I was. Instead of a strict "it's my way of the highway" mentality, we raised our girls to be free thinkers and to ask questions. They were taught right from wrong and on a few occasions they learned the consequences associated with crossing that line. They've turned out great!

Our generation and the future is and will be blessed with advances in medical science

 

I remember having a black and white TV growing up with only 3 channels, ABC, NBC, CBS. Mom and Dad grew up with just a radio.

 

My Momma and Poppa were born in the twenties, they both became college graduates. They saw the great depression at first hand, went on their honeymoon in a Piper Cub Aeroplane, Poppa was one of the engineers who worked on the space shuttle project in Sunnyvale California. Look up George Arthur Jacobs, if you disbelieve me, but I doubt you will find him easily

While I was at sea on my first ship (Nuclear Aircraft Carrier USS Carl Vinson, CVN-70) Momma and one of her aging girlfriends drove across Canada to Alaska in an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme (her car) and sent me a T-shirt while I was still at sea in the western pacific

Both Mom and Pop passed away within a year of eachother - Mom died in 2001, two weeks after 9-1-1. Poppa followed the next year...

Between them, I think they saw more of this new world of ours than any two people I can imagine.

 

I think the one that strikes me as seeing the biggest change in her lifetime was my great grandma. I remember her but didn't know her as well as I would have liked. She was born in 1875 and passed in 1974. Her dad was a WBTS vet as was most of the adult men in her life as a kid. She experienced the birth of electricity, telephone, automobile, and aviation and lived to see a man walk on the moon. US Grant was President when she was born and Nixon resigned just before she passed. Somewhere along the way were names like Garfield, Cleveland, Harrison, Roosevelt(x2), Wilson, Truman, Eisenhower & Kennedy. The Spanish-American War, The Great War, WWII, Korea, & Viet Nam came and went during her lifetime. She was born during Reconstruction and lived thru the Civil Rights movement. At the time of her birth there were only 37 states and life expectancy was 40 years. I think back at the the things she saw and experienced in her lifetime and I am amazed. Bless her soul. If she wasn't already dead, she would be after I got done asking her a gazillion questions nonstop.

 

Any of you ever go outside when you were a kid? Remember the rules?
Remember all those times we couldn't go anywhere becasue our cell phones only carried a 1 hour charge, or they didn't have enough range?
No? Me either. I remember leaving the house in the morning on my bike with friends, coming home at lunch time (maybe) and then going back out until almost dark. I remember playing in the woods, playing hide and seek for hours in the neighbor hood (ok, we probably should have stayed out of people's yards, but what fun would that have been?), playing cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, or war- really any game that involved 'shooting' each other with pretend guns. I remember, on those rare occasions, when someone would get hurt playing, someone would have to go get the parent... I also remember being one of the ones that got hurt, sitting long enough to figure out how I was getting home and getting my butt back on the bike and riding my bleeding self home. "No scars, no proof."

How often do you leave the house now without a cell phone? I rarely do. In fact, if I realize I left it within a minute or so of leaving, I'll go back to get it. I never would have thought about that as a kid (of course, there weren't cell phones).
Bike: check.
"let's go."

You don't have to look too far back to see the differences in the generations. We talked to people back then... now? Not so much.

 

If I didn't need a cell phone for my work, I probably still wouldn't have one. It goes everywhere with me, except in church.

 

Same here. But also back then we discovered CBs. Almost all our friends had one and some of them were modified to "reach". No real purpose except to chat/gossip. A very public party line.