# Old coot rants you don't get **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 26, 2005, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063 "2005-02-26T23:08:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/41 "2005-02-27T18:38:42Z")
Why back in my day, we had computers made out of knapped flint. And we _liked_ it! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/42 "2005-02-27T18:53:50Z")
My old coot rants are about personal responsibility, too. The rules were not invented just for people to beat it; people are not “getting away” with something when they do things like parking in handicapped spots, speeding through school zones, and littering. I think people need to monitor _themselves_, and do the right thing because it’s the right thing, not because a cop is standing there watching you. Jeeze, I think I aged a couple of years just typing that. I think people need to take responsibility for their own spelling, too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/43 "2005-02-27T18:58:17Z")
Oops, I think I slipped away from the OP’s intention. Okay, I think old coot rants about kids these days all being disrespectful potheaded libertines are full of poo. (Regarding analog vs digital clocks, I looked at the digital clock on my computer, and then the analog watch on my wrist, and it was funny to feel that I was using different parts of my brain/different methods to tell time on each. Very interesting.) ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/44 "2005-02-27T19:14:50Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The one that gets me is that old people often proclaim that “kids just aren’t as smart as the used to be”. There’s an old coot named Bill Gates who just said that. [High Schools Are 1.0 in a 5.0 World, Gates Says](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gates27feb27.story) Of course, he’s a college dropout himself - left school when the first million rolled in 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/45 "2005-02-27T20:00:13Z")
Just out of curiosity, how precisely does not being able to use a rotary phone make someone stupid or incompetent? It’s not an issue for me, since my family had a black rotary phone, but dialing just isn’t as intuitive as pressing buttons, especially when you’ve been raised on touchtones. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/46 "2005-02-27T20:22:49Z")
> [@Ace309](#): > > Just out of curiosity, how precisely does not being able to use a rotary phone make someone stupid or incompetent? It’s not an issue for me, since my family had a black rotary phone, but dialing just isn’t as intuitive as pressing buttons, especially when you’ve been raised on touchtones. I wish I could find a cell phone with a rotary dial. For the life of me, I cannot dial a number with the same hand that is holding the phone. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/47 "2005-02-27T20:56:15Z")
I see them all the time at antique stores! Cheap! And flea markets. Some are new enough to use modren plugs, but even those that have the 4 prong style, have adaptors that you can find at a hardware store. My father has one, and uses it exclusivly. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/48 "2005-02-27T21:12:43Z")
> [@Ace309](#): > > Just out of curiosity, how precisely does not being able to use a rotary phone make someone\*\* stupid or incompetent? \*\*It’s not an issue for me, since my family had a black rotary phone, but dialing just isn’t as intuitive as pressing buttons, especially when you’ve been raised on touchtones. It doesn’t , just makes people aware of how much the simple things have changed , those same people may have looked askance at being asked to wash their clothes , if that was not a womans work household , with those old style washers , and then hanging stuff on a line. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/49 "2005-02-27T21:15:52Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > My old coot rants are about personal responsibility, too. The rules were not invented just for people to beat it; people are not “getting away” with something when they do things like parking in handicapped spots, speeding through school zones, and littering. I think people need to monitor _themselves_, and do the right thing because it’s the right thing, not because a cop is standing there watching you. But that means you have to teach them to tell right from wrong _on their own._ That’s the sort of thing some fear is eating away at the fabric of society… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/50 "2005-02-27T21:36:19Z")
Well, I **am** an old coot; I’ll be 65 next month. I laugh at other old coots when they sound off about the way kids dress today, and their hairstyles and sloppy sneakers. I always ask how they dressed and wore their hair when they were teenagers and all I hear in response is a bunch of lies. I think we live in an interesting and exciting world; I wish I were still young enough to see it develop a lot further. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/51 "2005-02-27T21:40:45Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#): > > Every time I hear one of these “things were so tough in the old days” spiels, I think of [this](http://www.laughnet.net/archive/misc/monty1.htm) Monty Python sketch. Damn kids these days, half of 'em haven’t even heard of that sketch … ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/52 "2005-02-27T22:15:19Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Conversely, there’s the ranting about how great life was when they were a kid when open bigotry against anyone that wasn’t exactly like them was tolerated and how the end of civilization is near because of “less morals”(!!!) and other such bullshit. There’s a lot that is still wrong with the world but that isn’t one of them. It didn’t hit me for years how the idea of the 50s being such a marvelous time was such a white perspective. Remember that Rosa Parks didn’t even make her first bus seat protest until 1955. So about the only thing integrated (sort of) in the south, or even many other parts of America, was the military. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/53 "2005-02-28T00:37:38Z")
Nitpick: if the old coot is going on about how **good** it was “back in my day” then he is “raving”, not “ranting”. MAD Magazine had a bit once titled, “American Jokes They Tell in Poland”. The only one I can remember went like this: **Q** : What does an American call years of poverty, unemployment, hunger and war? **A** : The Good Old Days! ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/54 "2005-02-28T05:23:50Z")
> [@According to Pliny](#): > > Disclaimer: To some, I am an old coot, and my rants hard to follow. However… > > I hear a few rants over and over from old people and they make no sense to me. > > One is that “Kids today have digital clocks and cannot tell time on a ‘real’ clock.” Time is set in base 60 which makes sense from a “real” clock but not from a digital clock. The time reference of “quarter after” is lost on small children who get a digital watch as their first time piece. Not sure why teenagers can’t make change today without a calculator but it might have something to do with their math books. I was looking at my nephew’s 2nd grade math book and it would show 10 different ways to add something. I was more confused when I was done reading it. Their homework consisted of a lot of estimating. 😕 Maybe I’m over the hill but everything I have to do at work involves the EXACT number. Estimating is nice as a quick mental check but it doesn’t mean squat if you can’t get the correct answer. Sure wish I could convince a police officer to believe that I was doing the estimated speed limit. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/55 "2005-02-28T06:19:11Z")
> [@bluethree](#): > > I’m sure that if our designers and manufacturers wanted to, they could make clothes that both looked neat and felt comfortable and were affordable. For some reason, they aren’t doing that. You’d wear that clothing until it wore out and wouldn’t be going out to buy the newest styles. They will never let something like that happen. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/56 "2005-02-28T06:50:07Z")
Heh, My Grandfather used to chastize me for going to college. He said I was wasting my time and that I should step up to the plate; be a man and get my ass to work. That ol’ hard ass! Gotta lov’em though… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/57 "2005-02-28T14:17:59Z")
“Television was so much better 40 and 50 years ago. That’s why they called it the Golden Era.” Sure. No black faces appeared, except on rare occasions on one of the ubiquitous variety shows. If it wasn’t a variety show, it was either a sitcom – most about dull upper-middle-class families in the suburbs of New York – or a western. There was wrestling in prime time, and it was extremely popular. Let’s not forget commercials for cigarettes and hard liquor, and corporate-branded shows that usually had names like “The Texaco Variety Hour,” “The Lucky Strike Variety Hour” and “The Canadian Club Variety Hour”. You got three channels if you were lucky, and maybe four if you lived in a very large city. What was better back in the good old days of television? Local kids shows. That’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/58 "2005-02-28T14:25:13Z")
> [@According to Pliny](#): > > Disclaimer: To some, I am an old coot, and my rants hard to follow. However… > > I hear a few rants over and over from old people and they make no sense to me. > > One is that “Kids today have digital clocks and cannot tell time on a ‘real’ clock.” > To which I respond that there are analog clocks everywhere, including half of all wrist watches, and especially in the front of every classroom I’ve ever seen. And every kid in the back row knows exactly how many minutes are left until the next break. (They \*never \*believe this. I can never through, but I still always try). A couple of years ago there was a piece in the Sydney papers about a local council changing all its clocks to digital because kids can’t read analog clocks. One of the workers at the local swimming pool was overjoyed because she was sick of teens coming up to ask her the time, which she then read off the same clock they could see. Apparently the staff were regularly abused about kids not coming home on time because they couldn’t read the clocks. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/59 "2005-02-28T14:36:31Z")
What about spelling? Children today are taught spell check will do it all for them. I’m really worried about losing our language skills. I agree with math. Calculators do it all for them. I can do simple arithmetic in my head, and find younger people can’t. It always amazes me when older people talk about how much better life was with the double sexual standard: Grandpa was doubly praised for being “moral” and Grandma was doubly damned for being “immoral.” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063/60 "2005-02-28T14:41:02Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#): > > Every time I hear one of these “things were so tough in the old days” spiels, I think of [this](http://www.laughnet.net/archive/misc/monty1.htm) Monty Python sketch. Actually not really a Python sketch - it was stolen from **At Last the 1948 Show** , which explains why all my friends used to shorthand it as “Luxury. Sheer bloody luxury.” which doesn’t appear in the Python ripoff. They first used it on the album _Monty Python Live at Drury Lane_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-coot-rants-you-dont-get/292063.md?page=4)