I can recall my kindergarten teacher. Miss Hahn. We didn't have "Ms.'s" in those days. The concept had not yet been invented.
I am, and have always been, an under-achiever. I'm good with that. All through school, every teacher I had, and a lot of other folks, had high hopes for me - told me that with what I had to work with, I could do anything, be anything, that I wanted.
So I did... but what I wanted didn't rise to their expectations. Still, it was what I wanted. I just never had, and still don't have, the ambition to compete with the Joneses. I give no shits what the Joneses have or what they do. That's their life to look after, not mine. Nor do I have any urge at all to allow them to look after mine. It's MY life to look after, not theirs.
Never wanted to be rich. Rich folks worry too damned much about their money, and who they think is going to try to take it from them next. I figured that the best defense against that sort of worry was to never amass a fortune to begin with. Why lose sleep over a pile of paper? You're not going to be able to take it with you in the end anyhow, so really what value does it have to worry over?
In high school, I took an electronics technician course for a couple of years in trade school. It was mostly vacuum tubes in those days. Transistors existed, but were not all that prevalent, and certainly not to be found in the millions on a wafer the size of your fingernail.
A few years after that, I went to a community college and took courses in electronics engineering to build on the tech courses from high school. Never did anything commercially with either track. All I did with it was to build and repair my own stuff, and repair stuff occasionally for other folks that needed it, never charged 'em for it, so I never made any money at it. It was more of a hobby.
When my son was coming up, cell phones became a thing. It was the days before "smart" phones. The wife at the time wanted to get him one, and I set my foot down. Told her a young-'un had to learn to crawl before they learned to walk. I wanted him to learn how to live in the real world before an electronic one took over his life. That way, if the electronics ever failed, he'd have something to fall back on, wouldn't be lost like the rest of the world.
Instead, I took him on walks in the woods, taught him what he could and couldn't eat there, what he had to watch out for, what the dangers were... and the joys of it. Now he's doing all right for himself. Sure, he finally fell into the smart phone hole as an adult, but the things of childhood have not left him. While he's become "successful" as a manager at a big company you've all heard of, he took that success and plowed it into a fairly large patch of land mostly wooded, with a few acres suitable for farming, too. Instead of getting everything at the grocery store to feed his brood, he supplements it with hunting, fishing, and farming... and the occasional bit of hunting-gathering. He can do that, and if it all falls down tomorrow, he'll still be able to hit the ground running.
He's also built himself a forge. If he needs something, he can often make it himself rather than being forced to buy it or trade for it. Not only can he save a few bucks NOW by doing for himself, but if it all collapses in the future, he's got a basis to get what other folks won't be able to, by making it himself. Lately he's been building his own guns for hunting - a muzzle loader rifle, for one example, and an AR-15 for another. Diversity pays off. If brass ammo gets too scarce, he can always still make his own powder, caps, and shot for the muzzle loader... so he and his will always be able to eat, at least.
I reckon you could say he's got a foot in each of two worlds.More than knowing how to make it in both, he PRACTICES it, to keep his skills honed for whatever comes.
Being glued to a screen destroys both your eyes and your ability to survive without that screen. I gave him the best start I could to cope with whatever comes.
.
I am, and have always been, an under-achiever. I'm good with that. All through school, every teacher I had, and a lot of other folks, had high hopes for me - told me that with what I had to work with, I could do anything, be anything, that I wanted.
So I did... but what I wanted didn't rise to their expectations. Still, it was what I wanted. I just never had, and still don't have, the ambition to compete with the Joneses. I give no shits what the Joneses have or what they do. That's their life to look after, not mine. Nor do I have any urge at all to allow them to look after mine. It's MY life to look after, not theirs.
Never wanted to be rich. Rich folks worry too damned much about their money, and who they think is going to try to take it from them next. I figured that the best defense against that sort of worry was to never amass a fortune to begin with. Why lose sleep over a pile of paper? You're not going to be able to take it with you in the end anyhow, so really what value does it have to worry over?
In high school, I took an electronics technician course for a couple of years in trade school. It was mostly vacuum tubes in those days. Transistors existed, but were not all that prevalent, and certainly not to be found in the millions on a wafer the size of your fingernail.
A few years after that, I went to a community college and took courses in electronics engineering to build on the tech courses from high school. Never did anything commercially with either track. All I did with it was to build and repair my own stuff, and repair stuff occasionally for other folks that needed it, never charged 'em for it, so I never made any money at it. It was more of a hobby.
When my son was coming up, cell phones became a thing. It was the days before "smart" phones. The wife at the time wanted to get him one, and I set my foot down. Told her a young-'un had to learn to crawl before they learned to walk. I wanted him to learn how to live in the real world before an electronic one took over his life. That way, if the electronics ever failed, he'd have something to fall back on, wouldn't be lost like the rest of the world.
Instead, I took him on walks in the woods, taught him what he could and couldn't eat there, what he had to watch out for, what the dangers were... and the joys of it. Now he's doing all right for himself. Sure, he finally fell into the smart phone hole as an adult, but the things of childhood have not left him. While he's become "successful" as a manager at a big company you've all heard of, he took that success and plowed it into a fairly large patch of land mostly wooded, with a few acres suitable for farming, too. Instead of getting everything at the grocery store to feed his brood, he supplements it with hunting, fishing, and farming... and the occasional bit of hunting-gathering. He can do that, and if it all falls down tomorrow, he'll still be able to hit the ground running.
He's also built himself a forge. If he needs something, he can often make it himself rather than being forced to buy it or trade for it. Not only can he save a few bucks NOW by doing for himself, but if it all collapses in the future, he's got a basis to get what other folks won't be able to, by making it himself. Lately he's been building his own guns for hunting - a muzzle loader rifle, for one example, and an AR-15 for another. Diversity pays off. If brass ammo gets too scarce, he can always still make his own powder, caps, and shot for the muzzle loader... so he and his will always be able to eat, at least.
I reckon you could say he's got a foot in each of two worlds.More than knowing how to make it in both, he PRACTICES it, to keep his skills honed for whatever comes.
Being glued to a screen destroys both your eyes and your ability to survive without that screen. I gave him the best start I could to cope with whatever comes.
.