It happens every generation I am sure. I don't necessarily think that my generation was the best one. I actually think far from that and think that my generation was a bit lost as well because between everyone I knew growing up compared to their fathers, the practical knowledge didn't get passed on to my generation for most of us. I made out better than most because I come from a redneck-ish family and not learning about construction, general repairs, mechanics, gardening, and outdoors life was not an option. I guess I just had a good upbringing because my father was able to make these things seem fun and it was almost a reward of sorts. Because of this parenting I grew up learning things that I ended up using for the remainder of my life at least up to this point and I ended up working in construction management and can fix almost anything... just like my Dad.
For most of the people that I went to school with though, this was not the case and it was evident when I was in college where almost everyone I knew had no idea how to work on a car, repair even the simplest of things, and most people didn't even own any tools. When I look around at the new generation of teens that I encounter out and about, I fear that this knowledge is even less common if it even exists at all.
Again, I want to emphasize that I am not trying to suggest that my generation was better but I will say that when it comes to being able to do practical things for yourself that the young generation that we have in USA right now don't really seem to know how to do anything except for stuff that I would consider to be quite useless. They are VERY good at using their phones and dealing with apps that I have never heard of and the only reason why I know that is because one of my friends has a couple of teenagers who are still willing to talk to their Dad's friends and they are always showing me stuff on their phones that I have never heard of and I pretend to be interested. I am sure they pretend to be interested in what I am talking about as well though.
The other day I was driving somewhere and I saw some teenagers that were pouring gasoline into a car that had run out of gas and they were pouring it from a plastic water bottle and while that is fair enough because perhaps they didn't have anything else to put the gas in, it was nighttime and they were illuminating the gas tank by using a damn lighter. Now I don't expect anyone to be a genius, but every single one of these kids likely had a phone in their pockets that has a flashlight feature but one of the geniuses of the group was perhaps trying to be a showoff and be daring or something but I pulled over to help them out of fear that they were going to accidentally detonate the car and kill everyone.
As soon as they saw my rather gigantic work pickup truck they put the lighter out because they no longer needed the illumination thanks to my headlights but when I approached them they seemed a combination of afraid and annoyed that I was interrupting their "progress." When I told them "you realize that gasoline is extremely flammable right?" they responded as if I was the idiot by saying that they were holding the lighter really far away so that it wouldn't ignite. I was going to inform them that the fumes of gasoline are far more flammable than the liquid is and how far you have it away from the liquid doesn't really matter as much as you think but I thought better of it because I don't think they would have cared that I am indeed very correct about saying this.
Another time I was driving down the road and a group of 3 teenage boys were messing about trying to change a tire on the side of the road. It was evident to me that none of these 3 lads had any idea how to change a tire and this just kind of made me sad. If there ever was just ONE THING that every man should know how to do it is how to change a tire. Thankfully I got there when I did in the process because they were preparing to put the scissor-jack (and I hate those things) and brace it not on the frame but on the body of the car. If this method of their succeeded in elevating the car at all it would have been only for a little while before the weight ripped through the body and perhaps injured anyone who was near the tire.
Rather than do the job for them, I coached them through the process and this time the kids were less bratty and seemed genuinely thankful that I would help them. They said they had been there for a while and this was on a relatively busy street in New Berne. Nobody had stopped to assist and that just makes me fear not just for the young but for all of humanity. Do we just not help out strangers anymore?
In my mind I don't expect people to be able to change the settings on a timing belt, but the simple process of changing a tire is a skill that I think everyone, especially men, should have.
While I was talking to both of these groups of people it came up in the conversation about whether or not they had AAA and maybe a lot of you that are not Americans have never heard of it either but I was a bit stunned that out of these 7 people, none of them had any idea what it was. One of the girls that was a bit snotty in the first group made a snarky remark about how they are not old enough to be alcoholics yet and I pointed out that Alcoholics Anonymous only has 2 A's in it, not three.
To me these two instances just showed that today's youth are quite happy to not know about really anything and this worries me about what their children are going to be like. These people aren't going to have anything to pass on and perhaps that is their parents' fault to some degree. Someone had to point out to them the importance of knowing some practical skills and I am very grateful to my parents that they understood this and passed the knowledge on to me.
So if you are a younger person out there that doesn't know what to do with your future, what to study etc. I think it wouldn't be a terrible idea to have a look at going into auto mechanics. As the people of this world continue to know less and less about how to repair their own vehicles, you are basically guaranteed a good living by going into this field.