As a bona fide "Cranky Senior", no one pays attention when I note that it was a lot tougher being a high school student back in my day. First of all, girls had to wear skirts even in the winter. Boys had to wear collared shirts and non-jeans pants. Today's kids dress like tarts and construction workers! There was no Pizza Day at lunch. We got a balanced meal of whatever USDA surplus food happened to be available. Like it or lump it! Our English research papers and essays were typewritten. Typos and misspellings were "points off" unlike today's foolproof formatting and Spellcheck.
One change from my high school days is for the better. Drivers Ed. cars today have automatic transmissions. The very definition of terror is sitting in the back seat of a standard transmission Drivers Ed. car while it drifts backward on a hill, traffic is approaching, and the Instructor screams "Up on the clutch!". The terror is amplified by the knowledge that the gas cap is behind the license plate so the fuel tank must be directly beneath you and that is the first thing that the oncoming garbage truck will hit. Worse yet, you are next to go behind the wheel, and you don't know where the "catch point" on the clutch is either.
If the goal of each generation is to make life easier for their children and grandchildren, our greatest contribution to today's teens is the automatic transmission Drivers Ed car. I still think that they should suffer through uncomfortable clothing, USDA surplus food, and manual typewriting though. Otherwise what will they have to complain about when they are Cranky Seniors.
No comments:
Post a Comment