The "M" word

As an "M" that's close to 40, I think my generation is incorrectly defined. It should be taken into account that things changed drastically mid-generation due to the rapid growth of technology. I love being an "M" that can do everything the "BB"s say an "M" can't do because I was in the early half of the generation.
 
Tried, I did. Told my kids I would buy them older cars and parts as long they contributed labor. Here's my then 16 year old changing a tie rod end:

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Now on her own, across the country: "Dad, there's this little genie bottle image that came up on the dash, what do I do?"

Oh well, at least she had cell service.
 
If I had a hangar-sized garage with a lift and a full set of shop tools, I might do more of my maintenance myself, too...but probably not. I've changed water pumps, fuel pumps, alternators, plugs, brakes, and a few other things on my car in the past, but I make enough money now to let some other guy bust his knuckles on my car.
 
I wasn't allowed to get my license until I had completed an oil change and tire rotation on my own. Pretty sure dad added in a brake job during all that too.

Fast forward 15 years later I'm driving down the road with my wife in her vehicle when I hear a tire suddenly release it's air (valve stem cracked and fell off). We pull to the side as my wife is like oh no, who do we call? 911? Insurance company? AAA?

I just said," No one, give me 10 minutes." She was in utter amazement that in 10 minutes we were back on the road on the spare tire like nothing happened. She didn't even know where the spare or jack was in her car.

This isn't a generational thing, this is a basic life skills thing. A certain generation expects someone else to either prevent their problems, or take care of it for them. The rest of us just deal with it ourselves and move on.
 
Timbeck2 said:
I'm sure when I was younger, there were older people around that rolled their eyes at what my generation was saying and doing. I get it. Having said that...

One of the guys at work drove to San Diego over their long weekend. I say "their" because they (the controllers) got one, the watch supervisors didn't, we worked alone. Anyway I overheard him tell another "M" that he got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere in between Tucson and San Diego and they didn't have cell service in that area. He didn't know how to change a tire. He said, "I bought the car new and I know it is supposed to have a spare and a jack but I didn't know where they were."

My girls are younger than he is and they know how to change a tire. I don't blame the M's entirely but I wonder about their parents.
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At the risk of sounding stupid, I have to ask, who or what exactly is an "M"?
 
PaulS said:
If you really want to blow their mind:

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Nobody taught me how to drive a 3 speed, just told me to drive it to the barn from the field. Took about 15 seconds to figure out the gear pattern by shifting and easing out the clutch, seeing what happened.

I taught my 16 year old cousin to drive stick when I was 10, us farm boys are a talented bunch. I am, technically, considered a millennial.
 
Fiveslide said:
Nobody taught me how to drive a 3 speed, just told me to drive it to the barn from the field. Took about 15 seconds to figure out the gear pattern by shifting and easing out the clutch, seeing what happened.

I taught my 16 year old cousin to drive stick when I was 10, us farm boys are a talented bunch. I am, technically, considered a millennial.
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Actually, every generation gets ragged on, it's just your turn. My impression of most millennials is that they are some of the smartest ever. Of course then there are the coddled adult children millennials who are very loud and had parents who failed them, but every generation has those.
 
Sundancer said:
Or, just drive it on the flat till you get cell service. . .go slow, no harm done, except to the already flat tire. Local TV guy drove one 10+ miles to make a point some years ago.
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Yup, blew a tire in a rusted-out mid-70's Grand Prix and the spare was no good either. Middle of the Everglades on 27. Drove it easily 20 miles to Belle Glade where a used tire shop got me good to go for maybe $50 for both. Yup, I been dirt broke a few times.

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Some years ago I saw a friend's teenage daughter with a flat tire in a parking lot. She had 3 young men changing the tire for her. I said something to my friend about my teenage son learning to change a tire before I let him drive, and he replied, "She's learned. She knows exactly how to get a tire changed." :)
 
Depending on the specific definition, I’m sometimes in the millennial group, sometimes not. But I do know how to change a tire (I actually do light MX on my cars and airplane). I remember when I was in my teens driving with my entire family in a large rented van on New Year’s Eve in Ireland to go to a black tie party when we got a flat on the way. It was pitch black night time in rural Ireland, raining (of course!) and I was wearing a tuxedo. I ended up having to change the tire on this unfamiliar van with my parents holding an umbrella, in the dim glow of a single awning light bulb at a random (unoccupied) house whose driveway we commandeered while trying not to muddy my evening attire. It was an interesting experience...

And in that instance, my father (clearly not a millennial) was the useless one while I, the teenage quasi-millennial fixed the tire. My father is an amazing man, and the ceo of a huge company but hands on, mechanical work was never really his thing. Anything I can do with my hands is mostly self taught.
 
PaulS said:
If you really want to blow their mind:
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"Three on the tree". My dad had a 1970 Maverick in Grabber Orange with a three-speed that I drove once I got legal. He bought it new. However, he did not teach me to drive. Guess he did not have the patience for that. Starting at 16, I worked at a gas station that rented U-Haul and I drove the larger (4-speed) trucks on the lot and occasionally would sneak off without a license in an automatic Econoline for a sandwich. The owner taught me to drive on the road a bit in his personal pickup which may have also have been a three-speed.

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15 years ago I finished restoring my '51 International pickup.

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Drove it to work and all over BC and Alberta for more than 7 years. Three-on-the-tree shifting. One time I gave a student a ride back to campus from the airport, and as I shifted from first to second, he said, startled, "What did you just do??" He figured I was going from Drive to Park, I guess. He'd never seen that before, but I suppose that's been normal for 30 years now.
 
AKiss20 said:
Every generation makes fun of the next for not knowing things they knew because technology has progressed making the previous knowledge far less relevant. How often do flat tires occur nowadays? A lot less frequently than before due to improved tire technology (and as others have pointed out, many cars don't come with spares nowadays anyway). I bet that the parents of the baby boomers among us lambasted how kids didn't know how to dial an operator or start a car with a crank start, because it wasn't really relevant knowledge.

No worries, we "M" words will keep making fun of you old farts with your 30 toolbars in IE, 5 billion icons on the desktop, and inability to use your iPhones :)
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I had 3 flats last year that could not be repaired due to side wall intrusions of little metal pieces, no tire technology is going to keep fod from penetrating my $200 tires. There is no way in hell I will own a car without a spare and a jack.
 
I have changed many flats in the 70's. Tires are better, jack systems suck though.

Now, I only get flats on Saturday nights in February, when the temp is 5 degrees and I am dressed for a night out. Also, usually there's icy snow around my car. So not a big deal...
 
Fiveslide said:
Nobody taught me how to drive a 3 speed, just told me to drive it to the barn from the field. Took about 15 seconds to figure out the gear pattern by shifting and easing out the clutch, seeing what happened.

I taught my 16 year old cousin to drive stick when I was 10, us farm boys are a talented bunch. I am, technically, considered a millennial.
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Sorry, "farm kid" trumps millennial every time. Motivated by "get your chores done, then you can eat", one learns early on to make due with what's at hand.
 
Timbeck2 said:
He didn't know how to change a tire.
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that is honestly rather pathetic. Changing a tire is quite simple and I feel like it's a rite of passage that everyone should know how to do, like balance a checkbook, understand what an annual percentage rate is, etc

I'm a millennial, born '86 but my parents immigrated to this country from Hungary in '76 and my dad, an engineer, was always keen on fixing everything he could.. some of my best memories are taking apart doorbells, lawn mowers, and doing all sorts of work on the car, etc..

Surprisingly, none of my friends growing up did similar activities with their dads.. if something broke they bought a new one or took it somewhere to get repaired. Socioeconomically we were not rich, but we were well off and I think this is part of the reason why my friends parents never bothered teaching them this stuff.. many of our parents simply didn't feel the need to pass on skills like that

Timbeck2 said:
I don't blame the M's entirely but I wonder about their parents.
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thanks, most people arbitrarily blame millennials as some generation of lazy losers, but who were we raised by?

I also find it ironic that a boomer will talk about how stupid and lazy millennials are but then are unable to figure out how to rotate a PDF. And frankly, the cards are heavily stacked against us. A four year degree from a good school gets you a $60K starting salary.. gone are the days where one person with a high school diploma can raise a family of four

Most of my peers make somewhere in the 80 to 120 range, have close to half-a-million dollars in education debt, and spend two of their paychecks on rent.. one on their loan payoff, and the other on everything else..
 
Dan Thomas said:
This is how a lot of us older folks grew up:

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This is how a lot of M's grew up:

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I as born in 83, brother in 80, I was the top picture and he was the bottom one.

Surprisingly he went to the same A&P school I did, work his ass off at a 135 operator in Denver area, got fed up there and went to helicopter place hired on as an entry level transmission shop guy. After about 4 years of that crossed over into the hydraulic shop, then to QA. He loves helicopters, fixing his own stuff, automotive, welding, computers, finished his own basement etc.

Me? I never stopped doing that stuff, even after losing my right hand and half of both feet. Last 5 years I've been doing mostly avionics work, and some automotive for fun. the j-o-b is mostly paperwork.

True we are farm kids so there is something to that.
 
Tantalum said:
I'm a millennial, born '86 but my parents immigrated to this country from Hungary in '76 and my dad, an engineer, was always keen on fixing everything he could.. some of my best memories are taking apart doorbells, lawn mowers, and doing all sorts of work on the car, etc..
My son got all that, too, and he's your age. I made sure he had access to tools and materials from the time he was small. Showed him how to use them, and off he went. His school chums were envious of his abilities.
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Surprisingly, none of my friends growing up did similar activities with their dads.. if something broke they bought a new one or took it somewhere to get repaired. Socioeconomically we were not rich, but we were well off and I think this is part of the reason why my friends parents never bothered teaching them this stuff.. many of our parents simply didn't feel the need to pass on skills like that
Much of the stuff we buy now is cheaper to replace than to repair. When was the last time you saw a small appliance or TV repair shop? Repairing stuff has become a lost art. Building stuff is becoming a lost art.
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thanks, most people arbitrarily blame millennials as some generation of lazy losers, but who were we raised by?
Daycare centers. Both parents working to survive in an economy geared to two incomes.
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I also find it ironic that a boomer will talk about how stupid and lazy millennials are but then are unable to figure out how to rotate a PDF. And frankly, the cards are heavily stacked against us. A four year degree from a good school gets you a $60K starting salary.. gone are the days where one person with a high school diploma can raise a family of four

Most of my peers make somewhere in the 80 to 120 range, have close to half-a-million dollars in education debt, and spend two of their paychecks on rent.. one on their loan payoff, and the other on everything else..
So, how does that degree, with its fat paycheck, stack up against a half-million dollar debt compared to the high-school grad working in construction and making $60K a year without any education debt?
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Tantalum said:
Most of my peers make somewhere in the 80 to 120 range, have close to half-a-million dollars in education debt, and spend two of their paychecks on rent.. one on their loan payoff, and the other on everything else..
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Just curious, who do you consider your peers? People in your age group with a college degree? Graduate degree? STEM employed?
 
gkainz said:
Sorry, "farm kid" trumps millennial every time. Motivated by "get your chores done, then you can eat", one learns early on to make due with what's at hand.
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No participation trophies? ;) :D
 
I would add to the conversation, that there are always exceptions to every stereotype. But then again, most stereotypes exist for a reason. They usually represent a significant portion of whatever population is being stereotyped, or at least the most noticeable and usually negatively perceived portion.
 
Tantalum said:
I also find it ironic that a boomer will talk about how stupid and lazy millennials are but then are unable to figure out how to rotate a PDF. And frankly, the cards are heavily stacked against us. A four year degree from a good school gets you a $60K starting salary.. gone are the days where one person with a high school diploma can raise a family of four
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It's gotta be hard when your career launch coincides with a huge downturn in the economy (2007-08). That tends to reset the pay scale downward in a lot of industries, and you've gotta play catch-up from that point forward. And thank you for spelling "rite" right earlier in your post. :D

I like to think of myself as a "Tweener"...young baby boomer or old Gen-X'r. I've always defied easy categorization. :)

1RTK1 said:
I had 3 flats last year that could not be repaired due to side wall intrusions of little metal pieces, no tire technology is going to keep fod from penetrating my $200 tires. There is no way in hell I will own a car without a spare and a jack.
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Wow, very unlucky for all those punctures to affect the sidewall. All three flats I've had over the last 10 years have been straightforward nail/screw punctures in the tread area.

Jim_R said:
If I had a hangar-sized garage with a lift and a full set of shop tools, I might do more of my maintenance myself, too...but probably not. I've changed water pumps, fuel pumps, alternators, plugs, brakes, and a few other things on my car in the past, but I make enough money now to let some other guy bust his knuckles on my car.
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I hear you. I can afford to hire someone else, but I just hate putting my cars in the hands of a dealership or independent mechanic (and spending that money that could go toward sumthin' purdy for the RV!). Doing an oil change or whatever, I really enjoy poking around the underside of the Miata and giving everything a look-see. Kinda like an annual inspection for the aircraft! It helps that my home drome has a big oil disposal tank on the premises.
 
When it comes to the younger generations, I often perceive that the dumb ones are dumber than those in my generation (boomers) but the smart ones are just as smart and willing to work just as hard. But one thing for certain, they are on the whole less bigoted and closed minded than my fellow boomers and the so-called greatest generation that came before us. I think some older folks need to step back, look at the young folk, and say "show me what you got". You might be pleasantly surprised.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
Why blame anyone for anything that has no impact on you?
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It does have an impact on me. I have to hear it and play daddy/directory assistance. I have to get the phone call, "hey, I'm going to be late for work because I (insert problem here) and I don't know what to do. I have to take the phone call from someone asking for someone else's phone number because they didn't take a copy of the roster home with them so that they can get a ride to the airport because they don't know how to Uber, Lift, park in long term, ask someone who work doesn't impact or otherwise know how to take care of themselves. I could go on but I choose not to.
 
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As an ‘M’ I’ll confirm that many in my generation are incapable of performing several basic life tasks, however, I would venture to guess that goes for every generation in history. My guess is that the parents never taught these guys how to change a tire, which isn’t necessarily the fault of the kid. Either that, or life skills class didn’t cover it.

There’s a couple individuals on this forum who enjoy acting like dicks and taking intentional jabs at myself and a couple others who are in my age bracket. It isn’t funny and it’s a great way to compromise all of the respect that I have for you.

Plenty of losers in the millennial age group, but there’s plenty of successful, hard working, and goal oriented individuals as well, including myself.
 
I never thought that changing a tire was a task that needed to be taught. 5 lug nuts, a jack and a lug nut wrench, right? What's there to teach???
 
Where to find the jack, the special lock key for the lug nuts and where the lug wrench is.
 
My son wasn't very mechanical in his teens. I taught him to change a tire and keep it inflated, spark plug changes etc. After 7 years in the Army he is a different man. Now at 27, he drives a hazmat tanker OTR for Schneider.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Well, lots of vehicles pre-1990s used to carry spare tire jack or components in locations under the hood so it’s not too surprising.
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It wasn't under the hood (looked there straightaway). Rather behind a removable grille between the hood and windshield. Never seen such an arrangement before or since.

Dave
 
cessna182b said:
It wasn't under the hood (looked there straightaway). Rather behind a removable grille between the hood and windshield. Never seen such an arrangement before or since.

Dave
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French car, so not too surprising.
 
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