Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Back in the Day

The beginning and the end of almost every story my grandpa tells me he usually says, "Back in the Day(and then his long long story)...these days you got it too easy". After reading the assigned material this week for class I began to hear those famous words from my grandpa. Now I don't know if that is a good thing or bad thing but usually I try to forgot about the stories I seem to hear over and over again. Though this time I think I might understand what he means by "These days you got it too easy".
After I read the assigned text I began to think about all the things that make our lives easier and in all honestly really comfortable. For instance, how about having easy access to food on almost every corner with your local grocery stores, or the idea of having an ever ending supply of water being pumped to your home. Something that really caught my attention is how many people these days can not change their oil, build a deck, fix a water leak, or just start an ordinary fire to heat a home. I know I was lucky enough to learn all of these things, but I can say that majority of my friends couldn't even tell you were to begin at checking your oil let alone change it. I think that technology has changed many peoples lives for the better, but one flaw that I seemed to take from the reading is that majority of people in my generation are losing the essential skills of survival and the understanding of how to live without having easy access to all the things we want and find essential to our survival. By being so technologically advanced I think that my generation is losing the basic aspects of life and what got us to where we are today. My grandpa always seemed to ask me "could I survive the way people lived two hundred years ago with the skills I have now". In all respect to my grandpa, I hope to God I don't have to because, "These Days we got it to easy".

2 comments:

jason zilio said...

I agree with Allen on this I always he stories from both my grandfathers about how they grew up and had to do everything for themselves. My one grandfather is from Italy and he grew up on a farm, so by living on a farm he had to learn all the necessary tools to survive without luxuries. They had to grow their own food, kill thier own food and cook it themselves. They didn't have stores they could go to everything had to be done by hand, without technological advances.
I rely on a lot of technology to get my through life, from the computer to help me with homework, to watching tv, to even just going to the store to get my food. I don't think I would be able to function in life without technology. It is not a bad thing to live in the technology age, but it would be nice to learn how to do things the old fashion way, just so I don't have to always rely on technology to get my through life.

josh said...

Allen amde some really good points in this post. Like he said he always hears about how his grandfathers always say "back in the day". My grandfather is the same exact way, always starting with it or ending with it. My grandfather grew up in a nice family, but the way his family had it is everyone had their own things to worry about and no help he was basically on his own, paying for his own things, working many different jobs, and so on.
As I see him now and hearing these stories I just realize that hard work will really pay off in the future and learning more early in your life will help you be more of a more successful person, and that all things do not come easy and that the more you end up knowing the more youo will be able to accomplish.