A sign of the times...
 

Last night my wife's brother stopped by to drop something off. He has 2 boys a 12 year old and a 10 year old.

They had never seen my Firebird and asked if I could take them for a ride. So I said sure....I'm always willing to show off the car and encourage young boys to have an interest in Muscle cars and not those fart can Honda's.

So I back the Firebird out of the garage and my nephew climbs into the front seat. Now I leave my windows about 3/4 up while the car is parked in the garage, my nephew says "Uncle Greg, how do I roll the window down?". I just looked at him in amazement.....I said do you see that handle there(as I pointed at the window crank)....he looks at the window crank like what do I do with that....he grabs it and I look at him and say "now turn it". For the first time in his life my 12 year old nephew rolled a window down manually. He said "wow this is cool"

My response was "get out of my car!" HA HA I did take him for a ride but I told my brother in law after that, that it's a total violation to ride in an old car if you've never rolled a window down by hand before.

I mean seriously is this is what the world has come to???

Sad to say but Yes, it has come to that. :(

Dude..he thought it was cool..cut him some slack..its a technology thing, most kids that young have never seen anything but power windows,a/c and auto transmissions..its your duty to pass the torch, and teach him the hobby and passion...

It is a sign of the times. Most kids these days have no idea about old cars. How basic they were and how to properly use the doors, windows, vents, etc. I took my daughters and nephews out for donuts last Sunday morning in my Firebird. My youngest nephew, who is 8, was amazed at the kick panel vent and how it operated. They also watched in amazement as I opened the console and slid a Led Zep cassette into the tape player. They also thought it was neat that the ignition key went into the dash. I agree with marxjunk that it's our duty to pass this stuff on, otherwise it gets lost.

I think you're lucky the kids were even interested in the car at all. Seems most kids nowadays are far more interested in their iPhones and Xboxes than cars.

One of my nephews didn't even want to go for a ride in my GTO. No interest at all. Another nephew was genuinely bewildered that you had to shift the gears yourself. Apparently had never seen or heard of a manual transmission.

My mother in law had a pill bottle she couldn't open (arthritis). I showed her that she could screw the cap on upside down with no child proof tab since it had threads on the top. "Well how modern!" she said.

Many younger kids pull up next to me and say.. cool lookin car! what is it! lol.

Had a similar situation 10 years ago. Was coaching the sons baseball team and we just won our first playoff game. Decided to go to the other coaches house for pizza and pop. Grabbed a couple of kids and got into the GTO to get some pop. The other coaches son sitting in the front seat asks how to get the window down. Before I could say anything, he says "Look! An old fashioned crank" For a second I felt old. But, all of these kids have only seen electric windows. Times do change - probably too fast.

Yes, I agree, cut them some slack. Young boys today are as mechanically inclined as a dog was 30 years ago. Most don't know how a screwdriver works, but they can tweet and play videogames.

Watch the comedy movie "Idiocracy". That's exactly where our country is going.

I was gassing up my Grandville a few years back and a kid looked at it for a minute and said "hey, did they like stretch that car, you know, like a limousine?" :D

Another time I was cruising the main drag and a kid in a Honda with blue headlights, a fart-can exhaust, and giant rims pulled up next to me at the light and smiled. He was revving the engine waiting for the light so I slipped it down into low and waited. He took off with a fast start. I gave him about 2 cars and floored it, rocketed by him in low, shifted to second and chirped the tires, and then let off it and pulled into the grocery store in the next block.

He pulls in and parks next to me and says "Like, old dude? ( :mad: ) What's IN that car?" I just smiled and said "a dinosaur engine."

Teenage boys are teenage boys, but you're right, these youngsters don't have near the knowledge we did back in the day. Few drag strips and smog laws. No wonder they're limited to mostly cosmetics, is it?

Amen,Bob!

That's one reason why I can't wait to get the Cat back on the road.

god, amen to that! they can barely air up a bicycle tire much less work on a car. all they know is computer games n how to screw! (guess one thing gets passed down) hee hee!

You can tell him that cranking the windows by hand is new technology and will soon replace the automatic button to control the windows :)

Mark

You should always make up a story. Tell them it is a prototype and it will soon be seen in every car in a few years...... :rolleyes:

I picked up my nephew in my Jeep he ask "why are you doing that?" I look at him dumbfounded and said "Im shifting.".... no clue what a manual trans was.

Our old cars must seem so alien to kids today. No cup holders, no in-dash DVD entertainment and GPS system, no GPS suction-cupped to the windshield, no USB ports, no heated seats, crank windows, manual headlight operation, no keyless entry, a radio without satellite capability, a carburetor, having to wait for warmups, no rear view cameras, etc.

There's been a few articles recently about how younger people have no interest in getting a driver's license anymore. They walk, ride a bike, use the bus, and either can't afford a car, or the gas, or the insurance, so they have no desire to get a license.

When I was a teenager, I counted the HOURS before I could get my permit! Nowadays, thanks to the nation's Depression, kids don't want to drive or leave home. They're happy playing videogames and hanging out on the web, living in their parents basement. I guess with no hope of getting as job, and no future, there's no point in getting a car.

my birthday is in January, and when i turned 16 we had a horrible ice storm, and couldnt get out of the house for over a week...(the good old days) i didnt get my DL til the first week of Feb and it was the longest month of my life..waiting..geez, it was the most important thing in my young adult life..i cant imagine not wanting a DL..weird

Kids today I know seemt to be split on a getting a license. If they live in town they'll walk and not worry about it. Rural kids still WANT their license in this area anyhow.

Mike

When the new GTO first came out I drove my 65 down to the car lot to look at one. A young salesman came out and we started talking about the new goat.
He then looked at my car and asked what it was. When I told him it was a 65 GTO he got a bewildered look on his face and said "I didn't know Pontiac made a GTO before"!

As I put my Firebird back together, I've been on the fence about doing power windows. After reading this post, it made my decision - keep the crank. Thanks for the post.

From a different view when I get into a customers car at work 9 times out of 10 the radio is on. Call me old but if it's a aftermarket radio I have a heck of a time turning it OFF. Tom

I live near a school...you'd be surprised at the number of teenage boys who walk past my open garage while I'm working on the Firebird and never even give it a second glance..no interest at all.....

I once drove a Renault R5 T2 to a gas station, a guy there said is that thing for real? I said yup! Hard to believe that thing had 400HP, nearly killed myself when it swaped ends.

I took the T/A out one day and had 2 kids ask me if it was real, I said yes, it's good to know that there are some people that are interested in cars.

Ha, give 'em a break. How many of us could start an engine with a hand crank, or manually adjust the timing as we drive?

That is all I dreamed about from birth until I was 16.:)

A lot-too many to mention-of younger people these days think my Tempest Custom wagon is an SUV. :eek: They also think my "cruiser" 4000 LB '74 Oldsmobile Cutlass with the 350 is a "Muscle car", because it is an older V8 powered 2 dr car. An old "late" freind of mine had a '74 Grandville back in the late '90s. I drove it to an auto parts store one day to get a vacuum modulator for it for him, and several people though it had been "stretched" like Bob Dillon had mentioned, and the "counter person" never new Pontiac made a car bigger than the Crown Victoria:gag: Speaking of the newer car "gimmicks" like keyless entry, I had a customer come in the shop that could not "unlock her door" when she picked her car up. I went out there and put the key into it, turned it and unlocked it. She was stunned. The battery had died in the key fob, and she didn't know you could unlock the door with a regular key.:rolleyes:

Sounds normal. Kids were probably doing the same in 1980 when there was a tape deck instead of a 8 Track.

or in the mid 90's when there was a CD slot instead of a tape deck.

Or now when there is no CD or Tape and just a 3.5MM jack for a phone or Ipod.

I don't know of any cars being built these days with manual windows.

One of my old outboards has a manual timing adjust lever...."you got feel it to adjust it, Man"

This reminds me of the other day I was watching you tube videos of how to drive a model T. Not too many people from my generation that would have a clue how to drive one of them!

The wife & I were at car show a few months back looking at a 67 mustang when a man and preteen son came up the dad said look at that it has a 8track player & a box of tapes, his son said whats a 8track. It was fun listening to the dad trying to explain but the kid just didnt seem to understand

Whats a ipod? Try explaining an 4 track after explaining and 8 track.Or exp. a 45 record player in a car?

Nope. There were 8 tracks still in usage then. Cassettes were big time. In 1981-82 I was driving a Challenger with an 8 track and swapping tapes with other people when I got tired of one. I remember Van Halen and Def Leppard. I had cassettes but the deck quit working. Nobody would steal an 8 track deck in Detroit. They'd steal your cassette deck.

The point was the industry was MOVING to cassettes.

This is what I was thinking. There are any number of other things that everyone knew about at one time - dial telephones, manual typewriters, kerosene lamps and the list goes on.

More recently, how many kids have any experience with 3 1/2" floppy disks (or for that matter, the 5 1/4" or 8" ones.) Time marches on.

I remember backing up our work computer and it's 20K hard drive with those 8" discs. It got to taking 45 minutes on swapping discs about 8 times.

Just think when the time came when someone didn't know what side of a horse to mount up on...??!!! It happens. We're the keepers of history for now.

I was at a car show and a 8 to 10 yr old boy points at my car and says "Look mom, a GTO, I've got one of those in my video game". At first I was impressed with his skills until he said video game then I thought it was sad.
The young kids in my neighborhood are about 50/50 with interest in my car, some will stop and watch me drive by, others don't even notice.

Don't feel bad Bob, when my wife & I were new car shopping about 12 years ago a salesmen called mine a "aircraft carrier"

yeah, it is sad, how things have changed so much even from when i was a kid, 25yrs ago...i have always loved those cars that i saw being owned as a kid, and yearned for my license and to have one of my own...i cant even think about not wanting your license! its just crazy--and really the only people i see look at my lemans are older folks--even the cruise nights here are all 95% of the people are over 40...hardly ever any young adults. i remember guys in my neighborhood working on cars back in the mid 80s when i had a paper route---man, id be over there talking to them as much as i could!

I would have bitch-slapped him.

Young kid with his father at a show looking at my brother's '67 Firebird 400... Kid says, "It's a 4 point oh point oh."

http://www.mopar9999.com/fcstore2008...rddeck_400.jpg

The dad kindly explained it was '400 cubic inches'.

Good!
 

I feel better now. :D
I thought I was the only one.