Kids

[Baron Winnebago]

That sounds absolutely miserable. I can count on 1 hand how many nights my kids (8, 5, 3) have slept in our bed. I don't think our kids even know it's an option...

Same. Even if our kids are sick, they're in their beds.

 

[BIGSTICK67]

That's great. I think that's one of the problems today is everyone is so busy we don't slow down a little and actually teach how to do things because it's faster to just do it ourselves.

I would love to go back and be with my grandparents and just learn how to do different things again.

So at my age (with my grandparents whom passed decades ago) this would be some of the things I'd learn.

How to attach a plow to a tractor, make butter, clean clothes by hand, make a phone call using the party line, make soap, changing the oil in my Studebaker, plant a giant garden, and make homemade sausage. Oh, and how to go to mass EVERY Sunday at the same time...or burn in hell if you missed.

About the only thing on that list that sounds remotely appealing is making homemade sausage.

 

[vailhusker]

So at my age (with my grandparents whom passed decades ago) this would be some of the things I'd learn.

How to attach a plow to a tractor, make butter, clean clothes by hand, make a phone call using the party line, make soap, changing the oil in my Studebaker, plant a giant garden, and make homemade sausage. Oh, and how to go to mass EVERY Sunday at the same time...or burn in hell if you missed.

About the only thing on that list that sounds remotely appealing is making homemade sausage.

I'm sorry I didn't realize @HuskerDocCo and Nancy were your grandparents.

 

[Boondock_St_Sker]

My Dad worked at a concrete block plant in Orange County CA on the night shift or swing shift to make more money. Mom would take him dinner most nights and my brothers and I would tag a long b/c we were too young to stay at home by ourselves. We would sit in the break room and listen to the machines clanging away, Dad would let us walk around the plant, you DO NOT run around a block plant. We knew all the guys working there and would get to push buttons and “help out”. The smells of that place…oil, dust, concrete, sand, portland…I can still smell them today. Dad would also work on the weekends remaking pallets to earn some extra cash. We would be right there with him getting old pallets and hauling them over to his truck where he would break them down and rebuild. We would take the rebuilt pallets and stack them into piles of 10. It was a two person job hauling and stacking so mom had to help too since there was only three boys. Team work made the dream work. Dad would also bring home truck beds full of “seconds” that my brothers and I would have to unload and stacking up where he wanted…typically far from the truck. We would carry one at a time b/c they were heavy but the old man would carry four of those bastards, his hands and fingers were like clamps! Eventually, as we got older and stronger we worked up to one block in each hand but I never did get to his level.

I have two daughters and never worked at a block plant but I’ve tried to teach them an honest days work by having them rack leaves, pick up sticks, help plant flowers, shovel or blow snow, hold the other end of the tape measure, hammer and remove nails, use a dewalt, know the difference between a cross tip and a slotted screwdriver AND how to use them, power tool usage, how to change a tie, different sized wrenches…if we don’t equip our kids…especially our young ladies…we are doing them a disservice and should be flogged.

I miss ya Pops!!

 

[BIGSTICK67]

I'm sorry I didn't realize @HuskerDocCo and Nancy were your grandparents.

Ha ha. I am in my mid 50's. If my Grandpa was alive today, he'd be 117 years old. The other would be 113.