The Way Things Used to Be (Partially)

By Corey McCullock

Kat Country Hub Contributor

Corey McCullock

I remember when I was younger, riding with my parents down a gravel road and seeing boots on fence posts and asking my mom why people did that. She explained that the person who owned the fence line must have gotten a new pair of boots because they always hang their old worn out pair on the posts.

I don’t remember the last time I saw a pair of boots on a fence post. It’s not sad, it was just a kind of reality check, that things aren’t the way they used to be. My generation has lost a lot of “touch” with older generations. Not just the generation my parents are in, but the generation my grandparents are in too. I feel like today’s youth are lacking in many things that generations older than mine have to offer.

Technology has advanced the way we do things so much today. I wish parts of it were put on hold. My grandparents farmed the hard way, horse drawn equipment, back breaking work and many other physically tasking duties that we don’t have to worry about today.It worries me that the generation my kids grow up in won’t know what work is. They’ll have jobs and go to work, but that is not the type of work that got this nation where it is today.

I could say the same for my generation. We don’t know what work is compared to the generations before us. I feel this way not just with work ethic, but in other areas like respect, discipline, “street” knowledge in a way that you can cob anything together and make it work without even having the right part.

There are many other things I think my generation needs to learn from past generations. There are also many ideas from previous generations that I want to stay there. I do remember overhearing some people talk one day saying, “What’s wrong with the kids today?” and I just kind of sat there and thought to myself, what the heck are they talking about. Now I realize today what they were talking about. Think of how you wish the world would be today. Is there anything that the previous generations could give my generation to hopefully reach that?

Maybe things should be the way they used to be.