Kids don't believe me!

[J king]

cleaning out barn today. came across hand trimmers. Son asked what these were. I told him to clip grass around things like you would a string trimmer.
He says no way.. He didn't believe me.Told him I use to mow several yards with my buddy when I was young and that's how we trimmed.. he still doesn't believe me. he goggled it and says we must have been nuts.
I said we were hard workers. different than today's kids. lol.

 

[ratdoggy]

Did they believe "uphill in the snow; 10 miles each way to and from school"?

 

[CJ7VFR]

I still use my old-timey hand operated grass trimmers!

I use them around my flower beds, and in the garden, and around some electrical conduit that comes out of the ground at my house and shed where the weedwacker would cause too much destruction.

You want to freak out your kids? Show them a picture of a rotary phone that hung on the wall with a cord and say that is what we used to talk to people!!!

Jim

 

[CJM8515]

I remember those and Im only 30! My dad never really used them, but explained what they were for, total PITA job!

 

[Falcon67]

Only thing my dad used around the house. Love to have a pair - to look at.

 

[Ben7203]

I still remember the beating I got over those damn hand clippers.

My brother and I got roped into cutting my grand parents yard. He was older, so he got to use the push mower, I got handed the rusty, dull clippers. He's done in an hour or so. I still remember seeing him sitting inside laughing at me on my hands and knees fighting with those damn clippers. My grandmother comes out later complaining and pointing out every blade I missed. The last straw was when she gave my brother $5 and me a f-ing dollar. I blurted out this is bull sh*t and she went ballistic. Slapping, hitting me with her purse and took the damn dollar back. My Pop-pop comes in, stops her and crawled her pretty good. Still didn't get my dollar back. Never cut their grass again.

 

[Fixin'Stuff]

Those were bleeding edge technology in their day!

In a generation or two, kids won't believe that humans actually ever did yard work. They'll have robotic stuff that takes care of that stuff. (But I don't know what the folks that mow for a living will do once that happens.)

 

[Cyberbear]

No doubt why our nation has gone down hill so fast, modern technology has spoiled the values that once made us great. Jefferson said: "A nation that expects to be ignorant and free, expects what never was and never will be."

 

[maxpower_hd]

My daughter didn't believe me when I told her my brother and I used to do my Dad's lawn with sickles. Until it was corroborated by Mom. He had an acre of grass we did with those. Then we graduated to an electric mower the neighbor donated to the cause. We moved out and a month later he bought a zero turn mower the *******!

 

[MattVette89]

Doesn't believe you? Sounds like a teaching lesson moment....I would have handed him the clippers and told him to trim the lawn.

 

[hifi_hokie]

I believe you, I think people using hand yard tools exclusively are nuts

But then again, I've found using a scythe to be a very relaxing experience...

 

[hifi_hokie]

No doubt why our nation has gone down hill so fast, modern technology has spoiled the values that once made us great. Jefferson said: "A nation that expects to be ignorant and free, expects what never was and never will be."

They've been saying that since 1830...

 

[Rewind97]

You want to freak out your kids? Show them a picture of a rotary phone that hung on the wall with a cord and say that is what we used to talk to people!!!

Jim

We pulled one out of a closet, my daughter looked at it and seeing the letters under the dial asked "How did you text on this?"..........I told her, "Very slowly".

How about showing a kid a reel mower.........that'd freak them out!!!!

 

[LutzTD]

I used those when I was a kid, but I also knew how to sharpen them. My daughter was dumbfounded when I told her about the coiling cord on a corded phone. "corded phone, they had cords?"

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

The thing nobody mentions to their kids is that back in the day those were new. When the blades are sharp, straight and move freely they aren't difficult to use.

 

[CJM8515]

The thing nobody mentions to their kids is that back in the day those were new. When the blades are sharp, straight and move freely they aren't difficult to use.

But the crawling along on your hands and knees sucked!

 

[StingRay]

We pulled one out of a closet, my daughter looked at it and seeing the letters under the dial asked "How did you text on this?"..........I told her, "Very slowly".

How about showing a kid a reel mower.........that'd freak them out!!!!

My Wife is 57. Her first phone had a hand crank, had a wooden case, you held the ear piece, talked into the mic on the wall box and was on a party line. You called into an operator to make you calls. She grew up on a farm in rural Saskatchewan. Indoor plumbing came to them in about 76. We have one just like it hanging in our front hallway. We have a bunch of vintage dial phones like I grew up with and a few of them are hooked up as extensions. If the old hand crank would work on a modern system I'd hook it up too.

I used a reel mower and those damn hand clippers too as a kid. I think the poor bastards in hell use that stuff to cut the grass in hell for all eternity.

 

[Firebird 1]

I hated hand clippers with a passion. I cut my grandparents yard, it was fairly large, she insisted the front had to be done with the push mower, and ALL of the trimming HAD to be done with hand clippers. ARGH!!!!

 

[bczygan]

I have a few of those.

Just sharpened one up the other day to trim the hedge.

They are amazing devices. They work WITHOUT ANY gas, electricity or batteries!

Bill

 

[KEH]

Hedges, as in Privet hedges. We had some along a driveway when I was a boy. A hated job was trimming the hedge with clippers like those. I have spent much of my life digging up and trimming plants some housewife set out. The home place has been occupied for sometime. It was a red letter day when my mother tole me to get the tractor and a chain and help pull up the hedges.

KEH

 

[cookiemech]

I'm almost 60, and when I was a kid, my dad had me trim along the sidewalks and around the flower beds with hand clippers. It had to be about 3 inches wide and neat along the sidewalks. I wasn't all that happy about having to do it, but boy, it looked nice! And after a while, I didn't even think much about it. It was just a job that had to be done every week.

Of course, shortly thereafter, the entire lawn (mowing and trimming) became my job. I did a damn good job of it, mowing diagonally and alternating weekly.

My younger brother never had to do it, even after I moved out. Wonder why?

 

[yukon65006]

Had a set that was on wheels with a extension handle to relocate the controls so you didn't need to bend over.

 

[GH85Carrera]

When I was a kid in the late 1960s my dad was in the Air Force. We lived on base at Maxwell, AFB in Montgomery, AL. There was a federal minimum security prison on the base and the prisoners mowed all the grass on base for free. It was part of their rehabilitation to learn a skill

Anyway, it is impossible to compete with free for mowing yards so my income from mowing yards was over. Then I realized the prisoners never edged any yards. That was my new job. No more mowing, just edging. There was no Weed Eater on the market, just a 3.5 HP gas power engine that spun a metal blade. I could edge along the sidewalk just fine. Doing up along the house was impossible with a spinning metal blade.

I figured if I took off the metal blade and tied a piece of parachute cord to the hub it would beat the grass and weeds off and not damage the house. It worked great. I had invented the weed eater and was just too ignorant to get it patented.

It was way better than those slow hand clippers.

 

[dar24601]

I still use my old-timey hand operated grass trimmers!

I use them around my flower beds, and in the garden, and around some electrical conduit that comes out of the ground at my house and shed where the weedwacker would cause too much destruction.

You want to freak out your kids? Show them a picture of a rotary phone that hung on the wall with a cord and say that is what we used to talk to people!!!

Jim

Have them try to use it. My grandmother still has rotary phone. I found it hilarious when my nephew tried to make a call and just stared at it till finally asking how to use it.

 

[Moose97]

Used these many times as a kid until we bought our 1st weed-eater when I was 12 or 13. I talked my parents into that purchase just to save my knees!!

 

[jd_1138]

Kids are different now. I brought out the bucket, car wash solution, a sponge, hose (car was 10 feet from the faucet). I told my 10 year old nephew I'd give him $20 if he washed my Honda CRV. He refused.

"I don't need $20. I have $2,200 in the bank", the lad replied.

"Ok, will you do it for free?" I asked.

"No" he replied.

 

[slomaro3.4]

I'm 25 and have a pair for around the grounding cables on my house. That being said, the day a robot can landscape my yard for a reasonable cost I'm out of the yard work game. More time to focus in the garage.

 

[bcradio]

They are amazing devices. They work WITHOUT ANY gas, electricity or batteries!

Bill

But they don't work with arthritis

 

[KRB52]

I used to work for a guy that did maintenance, "handy man" type stuff when I was in high school and college. Every Friday, we had our list of lawns to mow, some got clipped with those. The tough ones were the two cemeteries we had to do. He would start the large areas with the rider, I would do between the stones with the push mower, then we would go back and clip around all the stones with the hand clippers. Right hand and arm got tired? Switch to the left one for a while. Great for building up forearms. The worst part was the end of the day, after having your shirt ride up a few inches above your belt and getting that crimson sunburn. Sitting in the truck to go home and have your belt rubbing on that burn. Oh, what fun!

 

[mmb617]

In a generation or two, kids won't believe that humans actually ever did yard work. They'll have robotic stuff that takes care of that stuff.

Why would they need a yard when they never leave their room?

A lot of kids today can't figure out how to operate the windows in a car that has crank ups. That kind of stuff makes me feel old.

 

[J king]

I used to work for a guy that did maintenance, "handy man" type stuff when I was in high school and college. Every Friday, we had our list of lawns to mow, some got clipped with those. The tough ones were the two cemeteries we had to do. He would start the large areas with the rider, I would do between the stones with the push mower, then we would go back and clip around all the stones with the hand clippers. Right hand and arm got tired? Switch to the left one for a while. Great for building up forearms.

lol..when I cut my hand bad I had to get plastic surgery then physical therapy for my hand. The therapy girl called me Popeye.Said my forearms were huge. I guess that's how that happened.
Can't imagine clipping a cemetery!

 

[bushmechanic]

Kids are different now. I brought out the bucket, car wash solution, a sponge, hose (car was 10 feet from the faucet). I told my 10 year old nephew I'd give him $20 if he washed my Honda CRV. He refused.

"I don't need $20. I have $2,200 in the bank", the lad replied.

"Ok, will you do it for free?" I asked.

"No" he replied.

He knows a waste of time when he sees it. That's probably how he's managed to retain the $2,200; whether he's keeping it in an account or not.

If you'd asked him to help you do it for fun, and made a royally entertaining and soaking wet mess of the affair, he'd have played ball.

You know... Entice him into fun by doing the same things people used to do in order to get you excited over a job when you were a kid...

Kids haven't changed. Adults have.

 

[justanengineer]

I've known many that use them on hedges, myself included and still do but never knew anybody dumb enough to clip grass with them. Funny yuppies...

 

[Tucko]

I still use my old-timey hand operated grass trimmers!

I use them around my flower beds, and in the garden, and around some electrical conduit that comes out of the ground at my house and shed where the weedwacker would cause too much destruction.

You want to freak out your kids? Show them a picture of a rotary phone that hung on the wall with a cord and say that is what we used to talk to people!!!

Jim

A picture? I'm still using a rotary phone....

 

[matt_i]

I recall the next iteration, which was a primitive cordless tool with about a 1 volt rechargeable battery, one fixed blade and one oscillating shear blade with about 4 teeth. Funny my grandma got the first one and then we had one not long after. I went all over with that thing. Almost cut my fingertip off with that one, I was probably too young to be using it. Still have the deep scar to remind me.

 

[Jon_E]

I still use a reel mower occasionally, can't recall the brand but I remember it is a manufacturer that also made hand tools. Millers Falls, maybe? I have a few of those old hedge shears and grass clippers too, used to use them when I was a kid. My kids wouldn't have a clue what they were.

 

[wssix99]

Son asked what these were.

Is he 4 years old, 14 years old, or 24 years old? I think that context makes a big difference.

4 years = Cute. Action Required: Remind child not to touch sharp objects. Prepare him for hard work by telling him, "Someday, you will be cutting the lawn."

14 years = Worry. Action Required: Disciplined learning exercise. Have him sharpen the tool, oil it, and go trim the yard by hand to learn what its like. (If exercise fails, repeat on a much warmer day... barefoot.)

24 years = Panic. Action Required: Professional intervention. Send him to an inpatient rehab facility for immersive therapy, reprogramming and electroshock treatments.

 

[jedeyeben]

Lol! I had to laugh as I read this thread... Because I sit here knowing that I have two blade "mowers" outside that still work, albeit they're used as garden decorations but you still don't mess with those blades. And the family farm up the road from us still has the hand crank phone still attached to the wall and a rotary phone on the end table that's still in use.

"Kids these day...!" (Waggles finger). Btw, I'm only 40. Lol

 

[outlawz2004]

cant tell you how many blisters we got from those as kids.

 

[Mr. Tool]

Doesn't believe you? Sounds like a teaching lesson moment....I would have handed him the clippers and told him to trim the lawn.

My exact same thought on this.


This reminds me of the time I quickly had to stop by my brothers house and as you pulled in the driveway along the driveway and yard they had massive amounts of dead leaves that had fallen and was just waiting to be raked and bagged.

My brother tells his son that he needed to rake the yard and bag the leaves. His son replied..."I'll do it for $30 dollars?"

Now at this point I was sort of stunned that he replied as such and I just looked at my brother in disbelief and he quickly responded, in a harsh tone with....."No, your going to do it because I'm telling you to do it!....and that ended that conversation real quick.

Well needless to say as I was driving off his son was raking the leaves!