Kids today.

Old man vs cloud.

My business is in five counties so I think I’m accurate. In my business we need to have kids fill out paperwork with their whole address. 10% of students don’t know their address. They are 15/16 yrs old. Of the remaining 90% about 50% of those kids only put their stree. “32547 cottonwood”. No city no zip. 80% of these kids don’t know dad or moms number as it’s in their phone as dad and mom

Look, I know these kids are way smarter than me in a ton of things. I get it. But am I wrong in thinking you should know and be able to write your home address and parents phone number. Or am I old man yelling at cloud?

That’s more numbers than I’m able to comprehend, Dwags. Math is hard. Also, I’d hate to live on cottonwood because it obviously suggests there’s a lot of
cottonwood trees. Those things sure are messy.

Do you want to talk about cottonwood trees, Dwags?

In 1996 I won the geography bee at my elementary school and they asked me my address and I completely spaced and couldn’t remember in all the commotion. Would dwags have thought I was a stupid child even after the massive achievement of winning the elementary school geography bee? 

Looking back that was the day I peaked.

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:In 1996 I won the geography bee at my elementary school and they asked me my address and I completely spaced and couldn’t remember in all the commotion. Would dwags have thought I was a stupid child even after the massive achievement of winning the elementary school geography bee? 

Looking back that was the day I peaked.

Please don’t mistake my old man yelling at cloud with me thinking these kids are dumb. I know they aren’t and many humble me.

I just think, in life, Ithere are some things that should be automatic. You have the little ones. My wife and I thought that in today’s world they should be able to recite their home address if they somehow were separated from us. (Our paranoia). I get when you froze. That’s a big event. That happens. But you still knew it.

Dwags list of things he believes everyone should know:

Your address
You children’s phone numbers
Your spouses phone number.
Everyone in your direct family’s birthday
Maybe your parents phone (I know but I only have my mom left)
If married, your anniversary.
Finally, the four best songs from Exile on Main Street

Btw I won the third grade spelling bee. I beat Kendra Thornley. She was a prof at Georgia tech last I knew and one of her sons pitched at Duke. Word was assassination. Beat that bitch. It’s when I peaked.

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:In 1996 I won the geography bee at my elementary school and they asked me my address and I completely spaced and couldn’t remember in all the commotion. Would dwags have thought I was a stupid child even after the massive achievement of winning the elementary school geography bee? 

Looking back that was the day I peaked.

Big whoop. I went through the entire 4th grade without missing a word during our weekly tests. The back of the text had a wall of numbers to color in based on the number of words spelled correctly. My wall was entirely filled in. No empty spaces.

Color the wall!

tGreenWay wrote:

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:In 1996 I won the geography bee at my elementary school and they asked me my address and I completely spaced and couldn’t remember in all the commotion. Would dwags have thought I was a stupid child even after the massive achievement of winning the elementary school geography bee? 

Looking back that was the day I peaked.

Big whoop. I went through the entire 4th grade without missing a word during our weekly tests. The back of the text had a wall of numbers to color in based on the number of words spelled correctly. My wall was entirely filled in. No empty spaces.

Color the wall!

My mom went to Caspian  public schools. Her senior year she won an award:  I’m not joking, The award was for never missing one day of school From kindergarten through her senior year.   We all thought that was the craziest thing ever   She told us that there were days when she was in high school that she was sick or had a fever but went to school because she knew she had this streak going    


There were so many days that I was sick and I would tell my mom I felt horrible and she would bring this award up and say she never missed a day of school so I should get my ass to school  


Worst award parent could ever win    I’m guessing maybe less than one percent of people in America never missed a day of school

Bioterrorist

I don't know my daughter's number... but I still remember my kindergarten friend number from 1982.

You ever think just maybe they don’t want to share that info with a creepy old guy?

Motown Spartan wrote:You ever think just maybe they don’t want to share that info with a creepy old guy?

I don’t need to think it because they tell me straight up.

My daughter is five and we have only lived here 18 months or so. But she has known our address for several months and at one point was telling everyone in the kindergarten what it was. She could probably also get the city but not the zip code. Although I think if I practiced with her she would quickly pick it up.

Heat, me too. :thumbs up: But I have the advantage of my parents still living in the same place and still using a landline.

InTenSity wrote:I don't know my daughter's number... but I still remember my kindergarten friend number from 1982.

I still remember my sixth grade girlfriend's number. I was drinking a couple nights ago, and I grabbed my phone and called the number. To my surprise, she answered. We exchanged pleasantries, and I began telling her all of the dirty things I wanted to do to her now that we had reconnected. Then she started screaming and I realized my sixth grade girlfriend probably wouldn't still sound like an eleven-year-old.

When younger kept phone #'s in my head.  Once it got to maybe 30, started writing them on a piece of paper I kept folded in my wallet.

Now, can only remember 1 of my 4 kids #'s.  Remember the # of Alibi pizza though have not ordered in a couple years.
Remember the # of the Amish poultry place cause it's only 6 #'s different from Alibi.  No idea what my work phone number is.

Cell phones and computers have made us soft.

My 3 and 6 year old know our address. All of it except for the zip code.

I want them to learn our phone numbers, but we have not got to that yet.

The Pantry wrote:When younger kept phone #'s in my head.  Once it got to maybe 30, started writing them on a piece of paper I kept folded in my wallet.

Now, can only remember 1 of my 4 kids #'s.  Remember the # of Alibi pizza though have not ordered in a couple years.
Remember the # of the Amish poultry place cause it's only 6 #'s different from Alibi.  No idea what my work phone number is.

Cell phones and computers have made us soft.

Honestly though those cell phones and computers require passwords that have to be memorized and should really be changed relatively frequently.

You're yelling at "a" cloud or clouds.  You brag about winning a spelling bee AND the name of the first loser by spelling assassination then forget 8th grade composition.  Getting old stinks eh?

Seriously, I'm betting on autofill that's on every smartphone and computer.  Your 15 and 16 year old students are autofill dependent.  If they sign up for classes at their HS, that info autofills for them.  All they need to do is click on the information at the bottom of their screen.

As a road warrior manufacturer's rep that started off in the pager era, then car phones mounted on the console, then flip phone before my first "smart phone" (a company issued Blackberry). I knew 50+ customer and factory phone numbers by memory and another 2 dozen family, friends dentist, doctor etc..  After my iPhone 5s with an easy to use contact list and autofill that list in my head has shrunk by at least 50%.  

Use it or lose it isn't a myth.

DWags wrote:

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:In 1996 I won the geography bee at my elementary school and they asked me my address and I completely spaced and couldn’t remember in all the commotion. Would dwags have thought I was a stupid child even after the massive achievement of winning the elementary school geography bee? 

Looking back that was the day I peaked.

Please don’t mistake my old man yelling at cloud with me thinking these kids are dumb. I know they aren’t and many humble me.

I just think, in life, Ithere are some things that should be automatic. You have the little ones. My wife and I thought that in today’s world they should be able to recite their home address if they somehow were separated from us. (Our paranoia). I get when you froze. That’s a big event. That happens. But you still knew it.

Dwags list of things he believes everyone should know:

Your address
You children’s phone numbers
Your spouses phone number.
Everyone in your direct family’s birthday
Maybe your parents phone (I know but I only have my mom left)
If married, your anniversary.
Finally, the four best songs from Exile on Main Street

Btw I won the third grade spelling bee. I beat Kendra Thornley. She was a prof at Georgia tech last I knew and one of her sons pitched at Duke. Word was assassination. Beat that bitch. It’s when I peaked.

I found Kendra Thornley. I’m thinking about contacting her to see if she’s gotten over her embarrassing loss.

tGreenWay wrote:

DWags wrote:




Please don’t mistake my old man yelling at cloud with me thinking these kids are dumb. I know they aren’t and many humble me.

I just think, in life, Ithere are some things that should be automatic. You have the little ones. My wife and I thought that in today’s world they should be able to recite their home address if they somehow were separated from us. (Our paranoia). I get when you froze. That’s a big event. That happens. But you still knew it.

Dwags list of things he believes everyone should know:

Your address
You children’s phone numbers
Your spouses phone number.
Everyone in your direct family’s birthday
Maybe your parents phone (I know but I only have my mom left)
If married, your anniversary.
Finally, the four best songs from Exile on Main Street

Btw I won the third grade spelling bee. I beat Kendra Thornley. She was a prof at Georgia tech last I knew and one of her sons pitched at Duke. Word was assassination. Beat that bitch. It’s when I peaked.

I found Kendra Thornley. I’m thinking about contacting her to see if she’s gotten over her embarrassing loss.

Her dad and my dad taught at Manistee high school. He taught geometry. They were good friends. Her dad died during Covid. She couldn’t see him as he was dying. Her sons were great athletes. I believe one of them is in the Phillies organization triple A


Tell her Wags says hi.

I have to think hard sometimes to remember my phone number. I'm thinking of running for president.