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Re: Who's keeping history alive?? By repeating it over and over!
Author: S. L. Murray
Date: 05-29-2007 - 22:34
It seems like the more things change, the more they remain the same. I'm not sure where on the young punk <> old fart spectrum I fall (for the record, I'm 39), but these sorts of complaints and criticisms regarding the younger generation sure seem familiar.
My generation was, of course, the TV generation and so had the attention spans of gnats. We also were lazy, and had no interest in railroads because we only cared about slot cars/had never seen a real passenger train/only played video games/etc. Obviously, railroading/rail fanning/model railroading/civilization was about to go down the toilet due to our spoiled decadence.
My father’s generation was, if anything, even worse. They couldn’t be counted on the uphold the glorious traditions of railroading/hard work/model building/etc., because they missed the age of steam/didn’t scratch build everything/listened to rock & roll/did drugs/used foto-mat/etc. Really, how can you expect any real work out of a generation who has everything handed to them, such that they don’t even hand lay their own model railroad track. As for my grandfather’s generation, don’t even get me going on those lazy shiftless jazz listening good for nothings. They were so lazy they actually bought their wheels and rails for their models, and then used preset ‘scales’, rather than milling their own.
Anyway, as I said, seems like I’ve read all this stuff before, but maybe my memory has just been ruined by watching all those hours of Gilligan’s Island. Are all the younger people I see out there taking those pictures I see on the “internet” just because they can’t hold down a real job?
You certainly don’t often see them sitting around the museum shooting the breeze with everybody else. It couldn’t be because they got bored (with their short attention spans) listening to everybody complain, could it?
Maybe the PNW is different, but there sure seem to be a lot of younger railfans, and railroaders, up here. They also work annoyingly hard, are full of ambition and ideas, and go out and get things done. That can really get on my nerves.
My generation was, of course, the TV generation and so had the attention spans of gnats. We also were lazy, and had no interest in railroads because we only cared about slot cars/had never seen a real passenger train/only played video games/etc. Obviously, railroading/rail fanning/model railroading/civilization was about to go down the toilet due to our spoiled decadence.
My father’s generation was, if anything, even worse. They couldn’t be counted on the uphold the glorious traditions of railroading/hard work/model building/etc., because they missed the age of steam/didn’t scratch build everything/listened to rock & roll/did drugs/used foto-mat/etc. Really, how can you expect any real work out of a generation who has everything handed to them, such that they don’t even hand lay their own model railroad track. As for my grandfather’s generation, don’t even get me going on those lazy shiftless jazz listening good for nothings. They were so lazy they actually bought their wheels and rails for their models, and then used preset ‘scales’, rather than milling their own.
Anyway, as I said, seems like I’ve read all this stuff before, but maybe my memory has just been ruined by watching all those hours of Gilligan’s Island. Are all the younger people I see out there taking those pictures I see on the “internet” just because they can’t hold down a real job?
You certainly don’t often see them sitting around the museum shooting the breeze with everybody else. It couldn’t be because they got bored (with their short attention spans) listening to everybody complain, could it?
Maybe the PNW is different, but there sure seem to be a lot of younger railfans, and railroaders, up here. They also work annoyingly hard, are full of ambition and ideas, and go out and get things done. That can really get on my nerves.
