Posted on 03/22/2015 3:57:54 PM PDT by bgill
By "skilled trades," I'm guessing you mean "union?" Because the truly skilled jobs like machinist, tool and die, welder - those jobs are still here and still very much in demand.
But the grossly-overpaid union jobs have by and large left these shores for Mexico, Taiwan, China, etc.
Well if it's like here in the midwest they're in demand because they're paying 12 bucks an hour, or slightly more than the Amazon warehouses.
I don’t know, I wasn’t there. Were they awful?
How do you get to the comments? I clicked everything, including “Load Comments,” and couldn’t get any comments :o(
Hmm, the title and source was rewritten so looks like the links have changed. Here’s where I found the article and the comments are at the bottom: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-first-grade-readiness-checklist-from-1979-shows-just-how-much-times-have-changed-2015-3
I was doing all of those and more before I went to kindergarden at age 4.5.
Well on the one hand, you get to have sex with women old enough to be your mother.
On the other hand, all those same women refuse to let you grow up to manhood.
Give me the old days.
OK, got it this time. Thanks!!
Just to throw in my own 2 cents' worth, I walked the 6 blocks to kindergarten by myself at age 5, and the half mile to first grade at age 6 --- that was 56 years ago.
My own boys (late 20th century) were at large over the whole neighborhood ---there was a nice tiny urban-slightly-wild place where they could catch crawdads, build dams and swing on a rope across the stream--- but it did attract police attention during the school day (we were homeschoolers). Several times I had a friendly cop return one of them to the door. I finally printed ID cards for them that stated that they were homeschooled children who were, with parental permission, going to or from an educational activity by themselves. That way they could go to the Public Library or the Hands-On Museum or a music lession, without me having to lead them by the hand.
One or the other of them walked their blind grandfather to the Senior Center for lunch every day, crossing two fairly major streets. They were known and looked on smilingly in the neighborhood.
I guess these days they call them "Free-Range Kids." e just considered it "unremarkable normal childhood."
Just remembered the character Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird was only 6 years old at the beginning of the book. Think she was 9 at the end.
I was 9, my brother 6 when we delivered newspapers. We were too young to “own” the route, but my older brother who was 14 was working full time in a grocery store. It was at least a 2 mile jaunt, closer to 3. The money earned, went into the “kitty” as did a significant portion of my brothers money to defray expenses. When I got a full time job, and my brother was playing sports, my 3 sisters took over the route and ran it until the last one was 16 years old. We had seven kids, mom at home full time, and a father who made sure we ALL participated in the expense of life. To this day, I can do nearly any job, and can live on the barest of income. It is a lesson we all learned well. Every sibling still alive is working or retired, no welfare, no addicts.
If I wasn’t home at sunset dad would just stand on the porch and bellow my name.
..........and if we didn’t come or answer, he would come find us and whoop our buttocks. Only happened once, we were fast learners. Stay within earshot, and come home quick.
Anyway, the teeth is interesting point. One of the two only now is getting his first loose tooth while the other lost a couple months, seems like nearly a year ago. Trends?
Mine will be hard pressed to trust the policeman. Can they tell the good ones from the bad ones?
The travel alone is a remarkable change. We don't let our guys go out in the yard alone, and we are in a nice, quiet neighborhood at the end of a street. Very different than when I was their age.
Yes, things have changed.
We all have our “way back when” stories. I have SOOO many cherished memories. 79 years ago, I walked the mile to a two room school house alone. School started promptly at 8 but finished whenever our teacher completed what she had laid out for the day, so many days in the winter I walked home in darkness.
One day when I was 3-4 mother missed me and after a frantic search, found me sound asleep sitting on the lower “little hole” resting my head on the higher “big boys” hole of our outhouse.
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