used to, but a healthy mix of bodybuilding and farm work made it impractical

What part of Illinois? Along the river I'm sure but are you close to Hannibal, Mo?

not to hijack the thread, I'm in NW Illinois, about an hour away from the Miss and about 3 away from Chicago.

So, you were born the year I got married. I'm glad you feel so old.

@ Nikimcbee: The funny thing is that that joke is even older than me. It's about time it was buried, like any other bone.

bigger watch band, or watch belt, the leather/metal thing that goes around your wrist so the watch stays on. Take your girlfriends waist belt if there's nothing your size and improvise

1992, the year I started grammar school

One thing that really jumped out at me was that it was pointed out to the teachers that some of the students will not know how to read or write cursive :o

Just what DO they teach in schools these days??

We were taught to write cursive in 4th grade here, but nobody seemed to care whether or not we used it. So my cursive disintegrated (I always took learning to write it as an insult anyways) and my "plain" writing improved. Another reason the teachers didn't care much, I'm guessing they were at the point they just wanted to be able to read what the students were writing.

As for school curricula...:shifty:

Surely. Until you smash the crystal working on one of the tractors or what have you. My dad and I both have a history of doing such things.

We suffer from the same problem Sledgehammer, I think the medical term for it is clumsybastarditis though more commonly known as "oh for f...." syndrome. :O:

Remember when calculators were miniaturized enough to where they could fit into a wristwatch? Everybody had to have one of those. :haha:

They started teaching us english in 4th grade, german in 6th

Unfortunately, I DO remember those.

Unfortunately they have yet to begin teaching English over here... :O:

I may not be as old as some of you, but this gives me all the more reason to worry, seeing how unlike most in the thread my job is actually teaching these suckers :dead:

What frustrates me most, and is not really mentioned here, is two major attitude problems towards college education that you see in young students:

1) An education is a product. You have to get what you pay for.
2) College? More like High School 2.0

Both of make teaching these kids a real pain in the ass.

1992?

I was underground in Omaha Nebraska, going toe-to-toe with the Russkies in a never ending battle for truth, justice, or the American way (I gets confused sometimes). I was hunting what was euphemistically called "relocatable targets" back then. It was the most lethal game of hide and seek. :yeah:

I think they teach keyboarding, which is a fancy term for what they called in my day "Typing".

How many of us old guys ever write in cursive? I know that I sometimes curse in my writing, but I can't remember the last time I ever wrote in cursive or a situation where it would be necessary to write in cursive.

Perhaps it is a good thing that this "technology" is being dropped?