Hi all
From these post it does seem that it is the older generation that like to be hands on and have real interest like woodworking with fewer youngsters getting involved. I don't think they do metal work, technical drawing or woodwork in schools anymore as it has been combined into something like material studies.
What about the fact kids were tougher in those days, we still had to walk to school in our shorts even if the snow was over our knees and were still sent outside during breaktimes what ever the weather, if the lead paint had not killed us a little rain or snow was not going to. We had smaller class sizes and real teachers, not so called teaching assistants.
Then we also had the scabby knees which never seemed to heal, always in the rough and tumble and playing in the dirtiest of places, our mums never reached for the spray that kills 99.9% of bacteria apart from the fact it did not exist they knew we would develop our own immunity and could that be an issue today? How do children develop strong immune systems without the exposure.
We used to put asbestos onto bonfires and watch it go bang, explore derelict buildings and get a nail in the foot or fall through a roof but it was all fun and life experiences, in short we had real childhoods and were shielded from many adult topics.
Children now do not have a childhood, they have to grow up faster and are exposed to an adult world in which they cannot explore because of all the sicko's, weirdo's and pedos that are now free to roam. Then they seem to think they can escape the world of having to work by becoming "Famous" and become addicted to false images that lead to facial disfigurement, often refered to as plastic surgery or as I call it the sink plunger look.
Yes life might well have been harder in the sixties and our parents had more of a struggle but from that came appreciation, we valued what we had and could entertain ourselves without having to buy things, I spent hours dismantling Tv's and old radios for fun. Our dads would show us how they decoked the family saloon by removing the cylinder head, we had a Rover 110 with freewheel and how to repair our bikes, now it is a buy a new one.
I look at the later generations and feel sorry for them, they may have the latest in technology but oh what a mess everything is in, the planet is dying, greed is openly accepted and no one has time for others and they face higher health risk because of all the pollution from the past like radiation from bomb testing and accidents. They have a tougher time finding work because so many industries are gone and the system fails them, and the cost of living is higher.
Does everyone really need to go to university, in our days engineering apprenticeships were the big objective, universities were for the academics from high schools not us from the local secondary school, mine was in Hornchurch.
So would we have wanted to grow up in todays world, no way because there is so much wrong with society these days and I loved my childhood, so much freedom to explore, we had chemistry sets that would now be banned under the terrorism act, remember the Jetex engines we put in model planes and boats again HSE would have something to say about those and we grew up with an awareness of danger, not wrapped up in cotton wool.
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