It's Official...I'm a dinosaur.

At nearly 50, I'm not hip/cool anymore. Don't even wanna be. I got over it years ago.

The younger me HATED the "back in my day" speeches. Drove me crazy then and still does today, so I try to keep an open mind and shut mouth about current trends and social changes. Hey, I even have a smart phone! (and can use most of the features)

I've recently gotten new neighbors. One is a guy that moved in with the lady across the street. 2 Just bought adjacent houses.

Guy 1 (I'll call him "old school"). Around 30-ish. He just bought his house, and he's divorced with a little girl. He gets up in the wee hours, goes to work and then comes home and works on his house. He''s been there a few weeks and has already painted every room and replaced a lot of plumbing and electrical. He's cleaned up the yard and the outside of the house. I saw him changing the oil in his truck in the driveway while it was raining the other day. I've talked to him and he's a real nice guy. He also apparently bathes, shaves and gets his hair cut.

Guys 2 and 3....hmmmm. Both 30-35. They are kinda like twin Hobbits. Pudgy, furry,soft looking little dudes with scruffy beards and messy hair. They look like they smell bad.

Bilbo (guy 2) has lived with the lady across the street for a year or so. He "works from home". She hires a neighbor kid to cut grass. From what I can tell, his entire wardrobe consists of sweat pants, t-shirts and flip flops. He only comes out of the house to go to McDonald's. During the recent blizzards, she was out shoveling snow for an hour or so. He came out, cleaned off his car (dumping the snow on the driveway she just shoveled) and went back in.

Frodo (guy 3) Moved in a few weeks ago with his wife and new baby. I've only seen him a few times. He apparently "works from home" as well.
I see him in his yard walking a pug, wearing? You guessed it! t-shirt, pajama bottoms and flip flops. At 2 in the afternoon. Wifey goes to work and he apparently "supervises" all of the workers being paid to paint and fix things at his house.  His mother -in-law comes over to watch the baby while his wife is at work.

As far as I can tell, neither of these hobbits has to do much but watch TV and play World Of Warcraft.

So, 2/3rds of my recent meetings with the next generation of men are pretty irritating.

What happened? Why couldn't I get away with that? I protest! This sux!  I have to go to work, paint stuff, cut grass, shovel driveways,wash dishes and clothes, fix cars and all kinds of other "guy stuff".

Bummer. I was cheated.

Back in my day we had to....

Think I like "old school" guy best.

Those other 2 ... seem to be the type some have claimed I AM / have become.... *rolls eyes*


Cort www.oldcarsstronghearts.com
1979 & 1989 Caprice Classics | pigValve, paceMaker, cowValve
"I should ask, but I won't" __ Rebecca Lynn Howard __ 'Forgive'

Well Cort, I would say you have good reasons for chillin' a bit. Besides, at least you like cool cars and music.

One of them owns a Prius. Need I say more?

These two "men" only seem to like getting fat.

What happened? Why are adult men wearing stupid looking helmets to ride a freakin' bicycle?? I HATE WHAT'S HAPPENING!! STOP THIS MADNESS!!! AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!! I wanna go back to the seventies!!

I am witnessing the generational shift at work right now. Along with the new corporate policies and programs designed to take away any individuality and/or initiative, it's enough to drive a guy crazy.

Here in SW Kansas, we still have more than a few young folks that have a reasonable work ethic, but it is becoming more and more apparent as time goes by that the concept of work ethic as I know it is changing for the worse.

Hear Hear Fish!


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I noticed about twenty years ago that boys were being re-trained to suppress their boy-ish tendencies because men are all dumb and brutal. No contact sports, no toy guns, share your feelings, don't get hurt.

I guess these kinda guys are the results. Non aggressive, soft and sensitive to their wives.

Or their souls have been crushed.

Nothin' wrong with that I guess. Just REALLY weird for me to see grown men treated and acting like Don Draper's women.

BRL: I worked for an organization that required semi- strenuous physical testing, along with some psych tests etc. Starting in the early-mid 00s, the only applicants that could pass both were usually former military. The rest were either sad,weak physical specimens or so weepy and overindulged they were psychologically unfit.
Not much sadder than a 22 year old man who can't do 20 push ups.

I don't know what the future holds for Fire Depts, Police etc. I assume they will soon be dominated by tough females.

I have a brother in law who is your stereo type deadbeat.  He gets disability ('cuz he had cancer supposed to be in remission now) no job, lives with my mother in law, basically what I'm told watches TV all day & smokes cigarettes.  Doesn't do anything to help around the house either.

TOO MANY DOUCHE'S OUT THERE!!!!. Those 2 neighbors of yours sound like they need a smack in the mouth. I agreeIve had enough! Time to wake up , someone build a time machine!

Oh where do I begin!  LOL.  

The "hobbits" you've described so eloquently are not men they are "pseudo-men"- not quite men but more like perpetual 10 year old's. They were either raised wrong or their parents just let "society" raise them and took little responsibility for their upbringing.

The "John Waynes" of the world are dwindling down by the second and being replaced by eunuchs (at least here in the "polite society of the civilized world").  Back in my day- we knew what being a man was about.  Today men and especially young men are ostracized if they exhibit traditional male behavior by society.  They have to be "sensitive & compassionate and caring" (I was lisping sarcastically just then).  Not that it's not manly to be those things (it is!) but you also have to know when it's time to get into a bar fight, chase a skirt & drive it like you stole it.

On a side note-  Hobbits are noble half-lings.  These two douches sound more like leeches or possibly Kennedy's.

[quote="77mali"

On a side note-  Hobbits are noble half-lings.  These two douches sound more like leeches or possibly Kennedy's.[/quote]

Wife and I had a similar discussion after arriving home from a birthday party my 28 yr old single mother niece gave for her 1 yr old son today.  She still lives with her parents.  She works two part time jobs to try and meet expenses of raising a child.  Good for her. However, dead beat baby daddy (also 28), who is in and out of her life, is perfectly content to not work and live at home with his mother while watching t.v. and playing video games.  Now for the kicker...he had five friends drop by the party and niece said all of them were unemployed too...and, not even looking for jobs.  Now, these aren't poor, disadvantaged inner city kids...rather, they all live in a nice outer ring suburb of Mpls.  I mean...WTH?  What kind of mindset is it that allows these young guys to be content to not do anything with their lives except to leach off others?  Makes you wonder how prevalent this lack of drive is among that generation. Back in my day, guys couldn't wait to get a job so they could pick up that first car. It was a sense of pride, responsibility and independence that motivated us. I guess the over-indulgent parents stripped that from many of this generation.

You see it with little kids today too. Dont run around and no wrestling. No interest in cars and planes and trains just IPads. Its not their fault though. You look at the parents and that answers it. Mandatory military service I bet would change it but that is not going to happen.

It does seem that most of us are around the same age and raised in a similar fashion. Independence and self reliance being stressed in our up-bringing. Plus a certain amount of
Eastwoodiness.

What I find interesting with the hobbits is the unwillingness to break a sweat. They don't seem the least bit motivated to do anything involving traditional "boy" stuff. I don't know a single guy that wasn't raised with lego, linclon logs and a deep seated, instinctual need to take s*** apart.

I would chop off my arm before I paid somebody to cut my grass.

Well stated. I get some kickback every once in awhile from the wifey when I get myself overwhelmed with house/car maintenance projects. She brings up the fact that few, if any, of her friends' husbands do their own handyman repairs/redecorating and maybe I should take a step back and pay someone else to do it. I have always done this kind of stuff myself; primarily because I never felt I had the luxury of spending my hard-earned money to hire someone to do something I could do with a little perseverance and know-how. Just because it wasn't an enjoyable job didn't excuse me from tackling it. Most of this stuff isn't rocket science, anyway...just requires a will, sense of responsibility and pride in oneself. I learned this way of life from my parents...and, by watching neighbors all doing the same thing. It simply was a way of life back then.

Yep,
You nailed it with the Big Wheel pic Cap'n, I had more scabs and road rash on my limbs than a slow moving possum.My younger days were filled with bicycle and skateboard stunts that would have todays parents calling the child psychologist.Anyone here ever cut up an old pair of bicycle forks and tap them on over your existing ones to have a "chopper?" Hope this thread keeps going,I feel younger already..Thanks for that!

Can't say I ever did the fork trick...I did do the plywood ramps with every vehicle I could steer.

My forks got bent pretty bad once after a bad head on experience with a Ford Pinto. We replaced them with a set from a 10 speed. I wouldn't call it a chopper, but it did have an interesting look to it for a week or so.

There was also a two hour session of my mom picking minute pieces of gravel from my back, elbows and A$$ that involved a go cart, a ramp and a nearby stretch of road called "Mount M***** F*****" I'l just say that the ramp should've been a little wider.

I wish I had my Western Flyer today.It had that fancy green banana seat with the metal flake in it.No telling what the value would be.

HA!!!!

I had a Western Flyer! When new it was blue with chrome fenders, white banana seat and a tall sissy bar!

Of course, it was modified all to hell before I killed it.

Exactly like this minus seat color:

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I can't remember where my parents bought it,maybe Western Auto? Or Sears and Roebuck? I really liked the rear fender style on them, very cool for a "working class Apple Crate alternative".My parents were good not to spoil me with the most expensive things but they did what was affordable in our blue collar family.We WERE "That Seventies Show" on a blue collar budget.(Lawn Darts and Clackers were every freakin' where.)

I almost forgot the cap pistols for which you could buy those little rolls of red paper with the gun powder charge on each little removable square.

Had those too, along with the fake tommy gun that rattled when you squeezed the trigger.

My guess is that my new neighbors only played with Barbie and Mario.

I wonder if they would go into cardiac arrest if I found some of those M-80 cherry bombs we used to have and set one off in the back yard.
Or if they would squeal and run off if I put a crawfish on their porch.

Ha! I lost my last few M-80's in a F4 tornado.They had waterproof fuses. I could have fun all day with a slingshot and a coffee can full of those suckers.

Here in NY the fourth of July involved finding the guy who could "get" fireworks. So about a month before we had to start asking around,it was a big deal once you found the right guy. Alot of cladestine late night operations. But those M-80s were fun,how about blockbusters and pineapples? The damn pineapples were a half stick of dynomite!

Also I have a Stingray fastback with huge sissy bar in my basement right now!

Sweeet! Those are really nice bikes.