Are we "The last of the Mohicans ?"

In my 66 (almost 67) years on this earth I have seen so many changes, some good, some not so good. But one thing I have seen on the decline is that we Americans used to build things. Not only were our factories and mills the best and biggest in the world, but even on a home level our Parents and Grandparents knew how to work with their hands and make something from nothing.

When I was a kid I watched my Dad and Grandpap build a house and barn from nothing, with no plans and with hand saws and hammers. Circular saws must not have been out yet because they used a crosscut saw to cut every piece of lumber in them and a hammer to drive every nail. They were also great problem solvers. I would see them put their heads together and come up with some solution of how to fix or build something, and I think my Father was the most educated, with only a HS diploma.

We hot rodders and car lovers are like that, we use our hands and brains to build and fix up old cars and to solve problems. However, I wonder if generations to come will have those same skills. Everything today is prepackaged and not repairable. Our kids spend their time on computers instead of using their hands to do things and play. Where we used to get outside and play ball and interact with other kids, ours are generally alone in their rooms in front of a monitor.

I just listened to a very good program on PBS about how a persons brain develops if they are exposed to actually working with their hands as opposed to pushing buttons on a keyboard. The people on that show said their is no real research yet, but that it seems that a different part of the brain is used when our hands are working on something as opposed to when we are using them to work a computer to do the thinking for us.

So maybe we are the last of the breed......a dying breed. We may pass along our love of cars and our skills to our kids, but will they be able to pass them along to future generations ? Will things like the cars we love be legislated into being museum pieces and the cars of the future ones that we couldn't fix if we wanted ?

Just wondering.

Don

 

people think they are smarter because they can google any question they have. Destroys critical thinking and problem solving. Are own laziness will be our down fall.

 

I think we may well be a dying breed. With obvious exceptions. But with the advent of the internet and 1-800-send parts no one has to think on how to do anything. Just point, click and wait for UPS to drop off the box. And if the part doesn't come with detailed instructions you can get on here and ask. And if it doesn't fit perfectly you can get on here and bitch about poor quality. Its just the way the world is going.

 

Don,I agree with you 110%...I glad as hell I'm 78 and wont be around when it really goes to shit..speaking of that,,i'd bet in a few years kids will not even know how to wipe their ass

 

I totally agree with you guys. Technology is going to kill people(and not in the terminator way) but in the fact that people dont do shit anymore. I'm only 19 and I love working with my hands. I've helped my dad build many houses and I'm restoring my 2nd truck so far and I'm proud of it! Cant wait to see what I can do when I have more knowledge and experience!

Yea I know my 1st pic is OT...

 

Its already there, seen a thing on History channel the other day about those bday toilets thats squirt water at you're ass the blow hot air at it. HAHAHA I was like what the hell.....

 

Yup it seems if they can'y buy it it can't be done. Nothing more traditional than garage builds whether it's a street rod, hotrod or what ever.And i'm not talking 'ya i made it on a cnc machine' either. It's a different world.

 

Yes, this is the end of the line. The young mimic what they see. Be honest, the media machine (movie/games/TV/porn/sports/reality) is spitting out (as a whole) junk. The hands on, skill and talent vocations are drying up. And please save your 'the sky is falling' BS. Open your eyes w i d e. Do what you can, stash some stuff to stay safe, teach a young one something useful ie manners, skill's w/tools ect. PS you are what you eat, what consumes your thoughts controls your life.

 

Just think of the information on this site that would be next to impossible to find without the internet. Its all how It's used.

 

This. My 10-year old stepdaughter gets excited when I try to have her help out in the garage, but the attention span isn't there. She'll maybe spend a half-hour tops and go in the house. She spends all weekend in the house either playing computer games, on her cell phone or reading books (which I don't complain about). When I was 10, we had no computer, I had no cell phone and only had Nintendo (most of my time was spent playing outside with my neighborhood friends). But, when my dad was out in the garage you bet your ass I'd be out there turning wrenches!

It's technology, and I don't see the trend ever reversing. I see today's rice burner generation just slapping on bolt-on parts. Never seen a "tuner" guy with dirty fingernails or scars from knucklebusters.

 

Wow! Only five posts down, and we already have a prime example of what is forthcoming...
"Bidets" have been around since the early seventeen hundreds...

 

I'm in between your age Don and another old fart poster. I've been thinking these same things for awhile. With fast food and crappy additives came diabetas, and just plain assed lazyness. We've already lost the ability to defend ourselves. Fat people can't fight or run.
And over the years, notice most young women have no idea how to boil water or actually prepare a simple meal. It's the same way now with working on cars, old or new.
My youngest kid is the only one interested in old cars. But even at the garage where he works they use comptuters to show them where the square peg fits into the round hole. Most rod builders buy catalog parts and have never been in an actual junk yard.
Add to all of this, I'm afraid old vehicles will either be banned or eventually impossible to get repair parts for. Rod shops and speed parts companies will be closed down. If your car doesn't get 59 MPG on politician shit it won't be legal to drive.
We are a dieing breed.

 

It's technology, and I don't see the trend ever reversing. I see today's rice burner generation just slapping on bolt-on parts. Never seen a "tuner" guy with dirty fingernails or scars from knucklebusters.[/QUOTE]

thats cause they wear latex gloves. ha ha ha. I used to laugh at this ricer guys car then he wanted to race for money. I schooled him good in my 56 chevy. He then came back and put on rubber gloves and starts doing something under the hood saying his turbo isnt putting out boost. Now hes into diesels. Go figure. Never got my 5 bucks.

Im 31 and what ive found even with my own peers that lots of people are just scared. Their scared of everything. Getting dirty or hurt, or worried about messing stuff up. People need to teach their kids that makeing mistakes is ok. People need to make their own desicions and take calculated risks.

 

Being the double minority here (Im young and I work with my hands) I will have to say its a split road.
I grew up in an old yankee household, the youngest of 7 kids, we didnt have much and lived a little house on the prarie life compared to alot of the other families in town. I dont ever remember my dad hiring out any form of work and sorta living by "if it doesnt burn the place down leave it alone"...
We payed attention, because we had to, and we learned alot. I came to find out in my high school years it was somewhat of a curse. I loved to do everything and was decent at most of it. I couldnt pick a path or direction and still dont think I have...
In school we were trained..."you will go to college" "you will get an executive job" "you will have the white picket fence" but yet they dont even teach you how to balance a check book.
As life goes on I find myself immersed in an older persons world. There are a few of us young guys learning the old ways and practicing them, enjoying them, and sharing with others.
To say that the older demographic here is the last mohicans is somewhat an exaggeration although your point is well taken.
as for examples:
"Kids would know how to build a barn"...
They dont need to! They will never need a cow or a tractor, they can have one on their phone or computer.
"The kids can call 1-800-parts"...
Yes they can and will, when a bridgeport costs a couple grand and the part you could make only costs $2 bucks...no brainer, plus they dont have a barn to keep the bridgeport in!

Dont lose all faith you ol' timers! There are plenty of us young folks that will carry the torch and keep working with our hands. But they will probably never be famous or rich and you will probably never hear of them...

 

I too am close to 67 yrs on this planet. As we get older we tend to only remember the fun times of our youth. Let me tell you the 60's were not the most fun times! However, these will be the good old days for the young bucks/does out there turning wrenches. I wish that I had this technology back then it would have save me plenty of sleepless nights. These forums are a great way to help, and share our knowledge with the guys and gals. And that's another thing, I wish that there were girls back then like the ones today that's cool.
Sorry I got off track a bit.
I came from a blue collar family that instill in me the American work ethic; be reliable, work hard and take pride in your work. At the same time I had my eye into the future, higher education and engineering was my goal. So, I guess I'm lucky that I have the best of both worlds, working with my hands in the old car hobby for over 50 yrs. and a retired aerospace engineer. Now that I'm retired I started a restoration hobby/home business. Now that's synergy!

Thanks for letting me ramble.
Tony

 

Slick Willy you just proved there are two or more sides to every story. That 22 year old kid of mine gets greasy and loves working on old cars. In fact he sometimes gets too greasy and forgets what soap and water is. Like you and him, there are still thousands of much younger guys and gals working with their hands.
But in our days, many people even built, or at least finished, their own homes. Now kids buy a house with the yard fully landscaped before even moving in. Most expect to have what daddy had the day they get married and expect to keep buying more every year. We see what happened to that plan. It hasn't worked well.
Same with old hotrods, streetrod,s and customs. Most young guys think they can just write a check and become a rodder. But when that rod breaks they have no idea how to fix it.
You are few and far between and this modern world is at fault.


Tony----- wish that there were girls back then like the ones today that's cool.
There were girls back then like today. I married one!

 

[/QUOTE]

thats cause they wear latex gloves. ha ha ha. I used to laugh at this ricer guys car then he wanted to race for money. I schooled him good in my 56 chevy. He then came back and put on rubber gloves and starts doing something under the hood saying his turbo isnt putting out boost. Now hes into diesels. Go figure. Never got my 5 bucks.

Im 31 and what ive found even with my own peers that lots of people are just scared. Their scared of everything. Getting dirty or hurt, or worried about messing stuff up. People need to teach their kids that makeing mistakes is ok. People need to make their own desicions and take calculated risks.[/QUOTE]


Getting dirty is half the fun! Although I do have a nice scar on my right hand from wrenching on my wife's Altima Don't ever R&R a water pump in a modern import car after consuming 3 glasses of whiskey!

 

i think fewer and fewer people are working with there hands. getting most of there work done with a checkbook or laptop. there are some people who are still making things from scratch and building parts instead of buying them. theres a lot of young guys like me out there interested in the traditional way of life, and a lot of those guys can be found on here. its cool to see things evolve. i read threads on here about how things were done 40 or 50 years back. it seems the younger cats are taking the examples of past and combining some of the new technology to progress even further, trying to go outside the box. i think a combination of someone who is a skillful craftsman combined with todays tool, and part technology can create some bitchin rides

 

Short answer......the world is going to hell in a hand basket! That's what my dad used to say and now that I am his age I say the same thing. I work in the trades and you would be amazed at the total lack of any kind of mechanical skill that most homeowners possess. There are very few do it yourself people around where I live. I find that the ability to spin a wrench comes in the family and is passed down. Probably every gear head here had a mentor in his family. Now I have three sons who just don't get it and aren't interested in the hot rod........I don't understand it! I think a part of it is the lack of patience to see a long term project thru, my last car took eight years to build, this new one will be about two years. All I know is if any young person expresses an interest I go out of my way to encourage their curiosity.

 

It's sad but I sometimes get a kick out of um. I walked into a restroom at a local Dennys and there was a teenager running his hands all over the paper towel dispenser, I thought it was strange until it dawned on me what he was doing. I reached over and pulled the lever and a towel came out. All he could say was " oh "

My Daughter was the only one in a group of 40 kids that could read a paper map.

A 20's something kid noticed my 60 F100 was running a bit rough and seriously asked me what code it was showing.

God help um if things ever get unplugged.

 

I am on the same wagon with you Don. I agree with what you said 200 percent. Life is wasted on todays youth. I was once proud of my State (California). I was once proud of my country (United States of America). Now it saddens me to see the sorry state my country is in. And California? California is a joke now days.

 

In my youth, (im only 31 now..) I wanted to be a cnc machinist. My father a renowned oil field machinist (dnc) refused to encurage it. his resoning, I would know how to make something but not not fix anything. sooo.. I learned dnc.

 

Von Dutch was convinced the art of pinstriping was going to die with him..

 

Well, for one thing, you can't build a house to your liking by your own hands anymore because our government will come by and make you tear it all out because you did not follow their arbitrary made up silly ass rules and regulations. Either that or put you in jail for not getting permission and paying a bribe first.

 

I'm only 62 but when I was a kid, you could walk down the street on Saturday morning and every house nearly, someone would be making or fixing something. Not necessarily cars, but painting the fence, building a dog house, working on a boat, tuning up the car, planting rose bushes or something. Now they are all inside watching TV.

25 years ago I first noticed, you could no longer sell a project car. No one would buy a car for $500 that needed $1000 worth of work, but they would pay $5000 for the same car if it was finished. Real car guys and hot rodders were few and far between.

A lot of men today only seem to know 2 things: whatever they do for a living, just well enough to get by. And whatever sports are on TV. If the phone went on the blink and they couldn't call for help, the house would fall down around their ears before they could figure out how to fix anything.

 

Pick up an old Popular Mechanics or Mechanix Illustrated magazine from the fifties. Learn how to build a ham radio, lay a cement sidewalk, develop home movies, even build your own air conditioner. Nobody could publish such a magazine today. They would sell about 100 copies vs 1,000,000 back then.

 

All I know is my son is 8 and he can talk about all things cars. He wants a '55 Chevy 2 door and he wants to customize it and paint it in Winfield fashion. So I think as long as we can teach a young person about what we do our hobby (Lifestyle) will be safe. I couldn't tell you how many old guys I've tried to talk to about their hot rods and customs just to be blown off. So that's why I bought my own and came here so I could learn.

 

A friend takes a social behavior class in which they put 30 kids that text/email/game in a room together. They all seem to interact OK. Take any 2 in a room by themselves and they will not look each other in the eye. I'm on line for tacos the other day and a couple around 20 yrs old are next to me....both texting someone else. MAKE OUT ya fucking moron she's CUTE

 

Yea I know that I'm not dumb like most of the world today! I didn't mention that this one put the seat down and everything too. And I didn't want to look up the correct spelling because I wanted to get out in the garage.

 

Don: Great discussion. I think we are all more concerned about this than we were a f ew years ago. You experience the dumbing down of our society daily. Just watch some of todays younger people make change. The get it wrong, or use a calculator and some actually get it right. I spend time with my grandsons occasionally building model crs. They love it. they also learn several things along the way...follow the instructions and watch how the old guy does it. I'll be 67 soon and can't imagine not going to the garage and cutting, welding, grinding or painting something. Teach the younger guys how and they will have a rare skill set in a few years. Not everyone's going to get a job in a tech related field. I'm hoping to wake up a few months from now and realize this nightmare is over. Tim