Alien in a foreign land.

[running]

an observation. time flys....

this is what i was thinking about today. just an example. when i was a small child it wasn't uncommon that if your parents hit the brakes their arm came over as a seatbelt. we often road in the back of pickup trucks not just on the street but out in the sand dunes over hills and all. holding on to not bounce out as we 4x4 up and down. after school we got on our bmx bikes for miles and miles to find that place with the biggest and baddest jump. coming home typically with wounds from our magnificent crashes. which we would then sometimes brag about. nobody ever thought of a helmet. nor did anyone hit their head without their hands and arms breaking the fall. everybody was in good shape from the constant activity. i see adds on youtube with a young guy with some secret to be fit and in shape. everybody was back then!! everybody! when you got hurt you were told to go work it off.

lots has changed. my nephew for example whom looks thin and in shape went to work for my brother recently. 19 years old and couldn't do it. it was physically to hard for him. i don't know what to think. maybe im not. maybe im just observing how things have changed and feel thankful to grow up at the time i did.


i remember a rather interesting story my dad and grandfather told me. the family often went to the desert on vacation to go rock hounding. one of the trips while on the road they got surrounded by the hells angels motorcycle gang. back then the gang would sometimes go to the desert and mountains.

what was interesting if you ever seen this type of thing in the movies is they would pull the car over. how people on motorcycles can pull a car over is a mystery to me. anyways thats the hollywood scene. the scene in the real world is much different. at least in this case.

as they surrounded the station wagon demanding them to pull over a much different reaction happend from my grandfather driving the wagon. motorcycles went off the road. apparantly my dad as a kid was baffled it how all these people and their threats went scattering all over the place. the kids being my dad and uncle were told to load the rifles as the motorcyles went off the road. my grandfather floored it to the next town to locate the sheriff. reported the incident. sheriff was thrilled they got out of the situation unscathed.

what would happen today i wonder? would anybody have the balls to protect themselves and their family? would the sheriff put you in jail for doing such?

an alien in a foreign land wonders!

[tumbling.dice]

I feel this way too sometimes. Some of it is wistfulness on my part no doubt. But values do naturally evolve with time. Overall, things are better today than when I was a kid. I just wish the younger generation could see that. They sometimes strike me as incredibly jaded.

It's interesting you mention seat belts. My mom and sister were killed in a car accident in 1977. They weren't wearing seat belts and there were no airbags, of course. If that same accident occurred today it's possible they could have walked away from it.

I have a special needs nephew that more likely than not would have just been labeled "stupid" had he grown up when I did (and gone to school where I did.) Luckily, he is enrolled in a school district that tailored a program for him. And lo and behold, the kid is a math whiz! His transformation has been amazing.

Those are just a couple of examples from my life. I miss the old days at times, but I think for me that has more to do with seeing the people I love that I'll never be able to see again. No way would I go back to those times permanently though.

[running]

I feel this way too sometimes. Some of it is wistfulness on my part no doubt. But values do naturally evolve with time. Overall, things are better today than when I was a kid. I just wish the younger generation could see that. They sometimes strike me as incredibly jaded.

It's interesting you mention seat belts. My mom and sister were killed in a car accident in 1977. They weren't wearing seat belts and there were no airbags, of course. If that same accident occurred today it's possible they could have walked away from it.

I have a special needs nephew that more likely than not would have just been labeled "stupid" had he grown up when I did (and gone to school where I did.) Luckily, he is enrolled in a school district that tailored a program for him. And lo and behold, the kid is a math whiz! His transformation has been amazing.

Those are just a couple of examples from my life. I miss the old days at times, but I think for me that has more to do with seeing the people I love that I'll never be able to see again. No way would I go back to those times permanently though.

i agree with you in a general sense. i see it much better back then. everybody values different things and has different life experiences. i love the freedom and accept the risk of before. that is just my personality. so i only speak for me. as far as going back in time? no. i already lived it.its more about not allowing the fear and lifestyle of today to become me. as long as i can preserve that which i have so far im good. some of this stuff is just basic things like food and activity. eat real food and stay physically active.

[running]

the freedom of just jumping on a plane. or having a smoke at a restaurant after a meal. or just while having some coffee there.

i understand everyone has their concerns. i respect it. i just find it interesting how we justify the things we do. freedom isn't of the same value as it once was.

[Undies]

can i ask how old you are? just curious. a lot of how you described your childhood sounds similar to the times i grew up in, although your avatar picture makes me think you're probably a bit older.

the exception is the part about your nephew. there were kids like that back in my day too. i used to bale hay all summer, and i'm pretty sure i was damn good at it. not that good help was that hard to find; there were a bunch of kids my age that worked with me and most were fine. i assume i was better because i was always the first guy my boss called in, and i kept getting raises to the point where i was making more than double minimum wage, for a job that usually pays less than minimum. but anyway, there was this one guy who was generally regarded as one of the county's biggest badasses. we both played defensive end for our schools (we lived in the same school district but he was recruited to the county's catholic school). i was ranked like 4th or 5th at that position in the conference, he was first and might have even been state ranked. then he came to do hay with us, and he would basically move one bale and have to sit and catch his breath for 5 minutes.

that was supposed to be a one or two sentence tangent, that turned into a whole thing. but the point was supposed to just be that people have always had different talents, and sometimes being apparently fit doesn't translate into being able to do all kinds of physical labor.

[running]

can i ask how old you are? just curious. a lot of how you described your childhood sounds similar to the times i grew up in, although your avatar picture makes me think you're probably a bit older.

the exception is the part about your nephew. there were kids like that back in my day too. i used to bale hay all summer, and i'm pretty sure i was damn good at it. not that good help was that hard to find; there were a bunch of kids my age that worked with me and most were fine. i assume i was better because i was always the first guy my boss called in, and i kept getting raises to the point where i was making more than double minimum wage, for a job that usually pays less than minimum. but anyway, there was this one guy who was generally regarded as one of the county's biggest badasses. we both played defensive end for our schools (we lived in the same school district but he was recruited to the county's catholic school). i was ranked like 4th or 5th at that position in the conference, he was first and might have even been state ranked. then he came to do hay with us, and he would basically move one bale and have to sit and catch his breath for 5 minutes.

that was supposed to be a one or two sentence tangent, that turned into a whole thing. but the point was supposed to just be that people have always had different talents, and sometimes being apparently fit doesn't translate into being able to do all kinds of physical labor.

i appreciate your insight. i started thinking and backed off to observation of simply generational change due to activity.

i was born in 74.

its interesting you brought up hay. when i was a kid i watched dukes of hazzard when it was on. the dark haired duke apparently loaded hay onto trucks for his dad growing up. they called him coat hanger on the set because he was all muscle. they tried to teach him to swim for one of the episodes. never could. they jokingly thought it was because he was so dense from muscle mass. anyways i happen to hear this on youtube from the blonde bo duke recently. i drive up to 70 hrs a week so sometimes i listen to off the wall things to mix it up. lol. this was one of them.

[Undies]

i was born in 74.

83 here.

i threw around a lot of hay as a kid, but they called me string bean because i looked like a skeleton with skin. i never had visible muscle until probably 10 years after my last hay bale. the human body's a weird thing.

[Sooz]

i appreciate your insight. i started thinking and backed off to observation of simply generational change due to activity.

i was born in 74.

its interesting you brought up hay. when i was a kid i watched dukes of hazzard when it was on. the dark haired duke apparently loaded hay onto trucks for his dad growing up. they called him coat hanger on the set because he was all muscle. they tried to teach him to swim for one of the episodes. never could. they jokingly thought it was because he was so dense from muscle mass. anyways i happen to hear this on youtube from the blonde bo duke recently. i drive up to 70 hrs a week so sometimes i listen to off the wall things to mix it up. lol. this was one of them.

I was born in 1977.

I am into umpiring footy these days.
It's fun exercise.

It helps gain muscle.

[Din Djarin]

the freedom of just jumping on a plane. or having a smoke at a restaurant after a meal. or just while having some coffee there.

i understand everyone has their concerns. i respect it. i just find it interesting how we justify the things we do. freedom isn't of the same value as it once was.

I recognize your concerns about these precautions and societal considerations and how they make you feel less free. I used to experience it the same.
It feels kinda patronizing or like exchanging freedom for safety. And sometimes it is. But things like not smoking in a restaurant anymore im totally ok with. That's just considerate. Same with smoking on a plane. Lol, how nasty for certain others that must have been!
But I miss smoking weed at indoors concerts, and also have second doubts about banning smoking from every bar or even worse, whole city centers! To focus on the smoking aspect alone for a sec. But totally support the improvement on most standards how to transport kids etc too (me and my friends were also transported in ways that are generally not done anymore these days, but we were totally fine with at the time. Like with 5 in the back of a car with only two front seats etc.)

[Undies]

and also have second doubts about banning smoking from every bar or even worse, whole city centers!

i was totally against banning smoking from bars when they first started talking about it here. i didn't even smoke, it just seemed too authoritarian to me. but then they did it and i got used to it, and now if i go into a bar that allows smoking i just want to leave.

now city centers is different, i'm still against any outdoor smoking bans. i've never been offended by cigarette smoke outside. and that's how the bars make it work too, they all just have outdoor smoking patios now.

[Din Djarin]

Most bars here used to have indoors smoking sections after personel and non smoking customers had to be protected from second hand smoke. But after some years those have been banned too (except in coffeeshops) not long ago. So now there's a lot of bar goers who stand outside a significant amount of the time, which is not ideal either

[running]

smoking was just an example. i didn't smoke most of my life while it was legal in resturaunts, planes, and bars. i never had an issue. there were sections. which at the time i thought was ridiculous so i always said seat me where ever, i dont care.

the price of freedom is something. its about what one values. control for the sake of what have you. or the willingness to suck it up because you value freedom.

cash will be next.......

[Din Djarin]

I understood! That's why I added: to focus on the smoking aspect alone for a sec. It's a good example of how society's perception on health/safety/consideration etc. is shifting.

[running]

I understood! That's why I added: to focus on the smoking aspect alone for a sec. It's a good example of how society's perception on health/safety/consideration etc. is shifting.

people value different things. some freedom and assume the risks involved. while others want less risk which brings less freedom. i don't think its a right and wrong thing. but more like religious differences.

i would argue that people for various reasons were much healthier back then than today. today most people are fat and take drugs. more people did smoke back then but were more active and took far less drugs.

[running]

when i say drugs im speaking to prescription.