The youth of today...How are yours doing.

[misterpop]

.I was in Aldi store today and was looking at Airfix kits that vertualy built themselves...Now for years I have been trying to get my young boys to get interested in some kit building but dread to think what would happen if they where let lose with a glue tube so these kits of a Bugati and a Maclaren should suit them perfectly but what the hell is the point of paying about a tenner for what is basically a Kinder egg surprise with Lego undertones....

If you read old Model Railway mags from the 50s those guys could make you a dead scale working steam engine from a used fag packet and a bowl of porridge.



On Sunday we remember the men and women who fought in the world wars.I will be taking my hat off to them and also the guys that came back and put their resourcefulness into starting our hobbies of building Planes,Ships,Trains,Cars,Trucks,Tanks,and sharing those skills with us the next generation after the make do and mend generation so that I personally am known as the one who if I cant mend it nobody can...[I've got a plaque]

So how have your off springs took up our interest and what are they up to?

Are they going to take up the shackles and keep our gems and treasures spick and span and up and running for another hundred years ?

Mine definitely wont...

[Viewfield]

Three offsprings, two boys and a girl. (40, 37 and 42). One of each disappeared off to Australia the oldest boy still here with three children. Both boys have inherited the “car genes”, girl no interest whatsoever.
If anyone will keep up my collection, I doubt it.
When my daughter-in-law saw my toy room for the first time she said “cor, we’re going to have to throw out a lot of stuff when you die” so no chance there.
Only hope, all three want my vintage car (Adler Trumpf, 1935) so they can fight over that.

Rod

[Tinman]

I've brought forth no boys to carry on my name, three daughters instead. My legacy (and family name) dies with me. The girls (all 3) fix people and not things. I have two son-in-laws that are all thumbs and one that shows some hope. One bright side is that the girls now make good money so they have taken over paying off their education. I might finally be able to move into a house after years of eating a steady diet of free government cheese and living in a van down by the river.

[MOKOSEX]

I have three sons,i know i have because i passed them on the stairs this frosty morning at 5.0 am when i got up to go to work and they were on their way to bed. They have no interest in model cars whatoever ,the nearest interest is
my eldest (26) who as a lot of lego that he will not part with,and i really can,t complain about his other hobby which is computers as he has built all the pcs in the house including the one i am on now.he is also quite knowledgeable about trains and has a fair few hornby and he plays the guitar and has a few of them .My other two sons ,(22 and 19 ) will play computer games for hours on end.
At least being home i know they are fairly safe in this weird time,my eldest did say to me earlier in the week ,"you had better show me which of your s...t is worth anything in case you get covid and die"so at least a bit of interest there
I am proud of them though,the two eldest have computer degrees and the youngest has just started his computer degree so theres hope
dave





















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[misterpop]

Oh dear not much enthusiasm there.Rods are waiting to throw all his stuff out,Daves cant wait to sell and Joe well to be honest I would'nt mind living in a van by the river eating cheese sounds like my perfect holiday ...Swop for cold rainy Manchester any day.....Lets see what the others come up with..

[Squid]

If you read old Model Railway mags from the 50s those guys could make you a dead scale working steam engine from a used fag packet and a bowl of porridge.

A cigarette pack. In American English, "fag" carries a wholly different connotation.

My legacy (and family name) dies with me.

Same here. I have no children, and at 42, I'm too old to want any. I do have a nephew and a niece, but they're getting to be of that age that things such as old toy/model cars have no appeal. Will they want them when I'm gone? I don't know. Probably my best bet is to donate my collection to a museum.

[ClOwY]

My daughter (in two weeks 16) Will keep the rare ones ,and one or two which she likes.
(so some hope )
Gary

[misterpop]

Wow at 42 Squid you've got another 50 years collecting and restoring under your belt..You can just sit on yours till your our age's and sell everything as a medieval period artifact..When you consider I covert stuff from before WW2 thats going to be 150 year old land fill...We need to start an appreciation apprenticeship..


Good one Idris very wise it could be a nest egg that comes into its own in years to come.
PS .The rare ones? Thats going to be a whole lot..

[Tinman]

.If you read old Model Railway mags from the 50s those guys could make you a dead scale working steam engine from a used fag packet and a bowl of porridge.

When I was around 10 years old, I talked my father into buying a bench top (or table top) jig saw. I had read that plywood came bundled with a thin cover sheet on the top and bottom of each stack and that lumber yards often would give away these "cover sheets." That was some good advice and my local lumber yard would indeed give away those sheets and they were excellent for making small buildings and other things for my model railroad. I still have a grain elevator that I made from one of those cover sheets and that jig saw. The plans for the structure came from one of those model railroad magazines. It was from those same magazines that I learned how to wire up all the track, light the structures and so on.

Much of the supplies I needed could be obtained for next to nothing or free if you were willing to be creative. If I needed more plaster, I would take a couple of empty coffee cans and bike over to where they were building a house and someone would always fill a couple of cans with dry plaster mix for you. If I needed more wire, just look for a telephone line man working on a junction box or other phone junction, they were a great source for free scraps of color coded copper wire. Any garage that has some junker cars out back would usually let you have small things like used dash board instrument lights which were perfect for lighting up buildings. Charcoal for Dad's grille, fine red clay from the baseball diamond, baby powder and baking powder, pencil lead all worked well to make "weathering" powders. The lack of having any money was the mother of invention and creative sourcing for all one's needs.

It was easier for a young kid to make money in those days too. You could get a job mowing lawns, weeding and trimming bushes, cleaning gutters and so on. Helping to clean up a persons attic, garage or storage room was also a great thing. Lots of old stuff could be had for free and repurposed if not used outright. Often, one could score model train stuff their child had outgrown. I had a job selling a local weekly paper door to door in my neighborhood. Often my sales were boosted by the simple fact that people simply wanted to support a young kid willing to work for something. It also was a fantastic way to network and get to know everyone in the neighborhood. You knew who needed someone to help with chores, have their lawn mowed or their car washed. You also were first in line for those things that were no longer wanted as their child went off to college, university or the military.

Reflecting back, the lack of a digital world probably had much influence on the creativity of all children my age. My child hood home didn't even have a TV set until 1959, even then it had a screen about 18" or 19" diagonal and was black & white. It picked up two channels that were pretty clear and one that was almost always a little snowy. Anything battery powered was always a challenge for two reasons: Batteries were hard to come by and short lived. If you left a dead battery in something, when you did finally get new batteries you discovered the old ones had leaked and that ruined whatever it was. Virtual reality was an interesting book or a radio adventure show. Gaming was done with the use of a deck of cards or a board game. If you could afford it, pinball was the action packed game of skill at the arcade.

Much of the real world called just as strongly. I was an avid fan of outdoor adventures and there was plenty to see and do where I lived. I was a huge rail fan and real railroading was abundant. I loved to go hang out at my small town's train station. It was the hub of activity from the passenger station to the next door freight station and Railway Express Agency office (REA). I got to know the locomotive crews on my favorite passenger trains and was always up in the cabs while the train was at the station. I had an Aunt and Uncle who lived 30 miles up the line in the next small town. At some point, the engine crews would let ride with them up to the next stop and my Aunt would come pick me up (at the station) and I would visit for the better part of the day. Then she would take me back to the station and I would catch a ride back home with the southbound crew in the late afternoon.

In those days, railroading was a labor intensive business and knowing those men (& women) opened doors literally and I learned so much about how real railroads operate, about the equipment, infrastructure and got hands on experience with the things I loved. Cab rides in the locomotive or a caboose and all those experiences are things some pencil pusher or company lawyer would crap their pants if they heard about today. Just the thought of a pre-adolescent kid being anywhere near the dangers of railroading, construction or anything like that today would be shocking and probably put some parents and companies in big trouble. Kids can't even walk to school these days. I walked to school from the start of first grade.

The digital age has altered many realities of today's world. Growing populations have also changed the risks associated with being a young child and your ability to experience life with far less constant adult supervision. I guess one last realm where a kid can experience similar real life situations is inside of some video game experience. However, none of those can compare to real life adventures which provide an experience that is second to none. The latter brings knowledge, maturity and real life experience which no video game can provide. Combine that with the human interaction and making friends of all ages and one quickly learns the ways of the world.

I can't imagine growing up in today's environment and living at home into my 20's or 30's. When I turned 18 I was out the door, I wanted my own place, my own job and my own adventures. Each and every failure or mistake was a life lesson, there was no reset, new game, or extra lives or hacks to get to the next level. Your successes and your failures were the stuff that shaped your life and your direction. Your dreams and desires were the motivation to take you there. Getting out of the house and getting to know people from an early age is invaluable. You make connections that are literally invaluable and will take you places you want to be (figuratively and literally).

Creativity, the desire to make things, build things, draw, paint, sculpt, compose, make music on an instrument and so on, are inside all of us. Finding the key to unlock that creativity is an important step. That step can come from parents, mentors and even from within but sometimes it requires a little push. So don't give up on the positive reinforcement of children (your own or those of others) and be a mentor when possible. If you can't be a mentor, just be a friend to anyone young or old. That has it's own rewards for both parties.

[misterpop]

Talking of Cabooses and boxcars.Your boxcar has departed....

Theres a great bit of USA lifestyle history from Joe.Just like we remembered from the hundreds of American films we have watched in the UK since the 50s....Add to that the Superman etc comics and its almost as if I lived my youth through American literature and screen..

I hope your keeping a record of all this writing as that would make a good start to your autobiography...Shame we hav'nt got a heart as I love that story...I'll just have to go with this-