Kids These Days

I can not count the times I've said those words in just the past few months.  And really it's not just kids these days.  Cody and I were talking about this last night.  He has discovered that auto parts stores up here are not what they are back home.  See we come from out in the middle of no-where, had to drive an hour to a Walmart, 2+ to get to the nearest mall and the nearby theater has ONE screen so if you don't like the time or what they're playing (which has usually been seen by other countries before you get the chance to see it in theaters) you're screwed.

I miss it terribly.

Back to my point.  Cody has noticed that if it's not in the computer screen in front of them the people working in auto parts stores have no idea.  Which I guess for someone who lives in the city might be par for the course but it's super irritating when you're used to being able to call the auto parts store and ask a question, like telling them the strange noise your car is making and they can even diagnose the problem for you, not that Cody even needs that 99% of the time but it's nice to have available.  It's just funny when you realize these things and realize that while you may have been hours away from "civilization" you were actually quite spoiled.

Something else I noticed is that included in Walmart's secret slogan "no we'll tell you what you want" I couldn't find a box of assorted greeting cards.  Then no one my age really even writes letters anymore.  Nothing is snail mail anymore, it's all email, which is great for some things but nothing makes my heart smile more than the handwritten letters I get from my Grams.

This lead to this conversation between Cody and I:

Me:  Our generation needs to bring back the snail mail!

Cody: Yeah, that'll happen.

Me:  Yeah I know... I just don't get it.

Cody:  Not everyone was raised like us to appreciate that sort of thing.

Me:  You mean raised in the middle of no where and being 10 years behind everyone else?

Cody:  Pretty much.

I just think it's sad.  Remember writing cursive in elementary school?  Omg it was so hard to learn sometimes and they drilled it into us that come middle and high school the teachers wouldn't accept anything not in cursive.

*dies laughing*

Then came computers into the schools and cursive was forgotten by most of the population and a lot of people can't even read it.  Yet here I am again.  I don't write completely in cursive but I write in a hybrid of cursive and print that's never the same.  In the same letter I could write the same word three times and it's unlikely any of them are written the same way as the last.  My writing has a life of it's own, haha (which probably means something fascinating in handwriting analysis that would likely get me committed but whatever).  It makes me wonder though.  Will my kids even be taught cursive?  When will they enter their first class that regularly involves computers?  In 6th grade we got email addresses and there was one lone computer in the classroom (and this was when Okaasan and I were living in the city for a few years) that we all fought for time on though none of us ever got any mail because no one else had email addresses, haha.

I'm just amazed when I look back at things like cursive, that while being taught was SUCH a big deal and now no one uses it.  Hell, ask Cody, I struggle to print.  I just think cursive is so much prettier than print, plus all that time learning it shouldn't be wasted.  ^w~

As I write this I also think this is one of those reasons I think vampires are so cool.  So many of the stories about them show their tie to traditional ways.  I love tradition.  Well some traditions.  ^w~  I just feel like there are some things our generation has left in the dust that we shouldn't have.  But it's not to late so I don't about you but I'm going to fight till my death to keep some traditions alive and I will teach my kids them as well.

Maybe it was that I was raised on things before my generation, like Spike Jones, who really was before Okaasan's time as well but my father introduced her to his stuff and I remember listening to it my entire childhood including running with two friends in a circle in the living room to one of his racetrack skits.

Alright.  I'll stop sounding like that crazy cat lady down the street screaming at the kids to get off her lawn now...  Besides, I gotta go see if Hallmark in town has any assorted greeting cards packs. :P

^w^