Trebuchet designs

Ted DuPuis said:
Thanks Bill. It is what it is. More than anything it's interesting to me that with theoretically better medicine and care, my mom's and uncle's generation is doing worse than the previous generation that were small children during WW1 and then lived through/fought in WW2. That could just be appearances though.
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Ted, yeah.

I'll tread carefully in what I say to avoid Mr. Banhammer.

My father outlived his father in terms of number of years (by a pretty good amount), and my mom (at 94) passed at the same age as her parents. While I think each could have lived longer, I also know that the quality of life would not have been there (for a variety of reasons). While we've made improvements on the medical side, there have also been drawbacks (and I see the way the medical system in this city handled Medicare patients as a drawback); likewise our knowledge of life-prolonging lifestyles has improved, but at the same time, some of the stuff in our diet, chemicals, pollution, and even more tightly sealed residences (what with radon and other "unhealthy air") have worked against that.

I think some of it is appearances, though there are many, many factors that enter into it.

Somehow we (or at least I....) survived childhood of Jarts, no bicycle helmets, firecrackers, playing in the back of the station wagon on family travels, and a whole bunch of other things that would cause many nosy neighbors & politicians (and parents!) today to have their panties tightly wadded in their *****.
 
wsuffa said:
Somehow we (or at least I....) survived childhood of Jarts, no bicycle helmets, firecrackers, playing in the back of the station wagon on family travels, and a whole bunch of other things that would cause many nosy neighbors & politicians (and parents!) today to have their panties tightly wadded in their *****.
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Jarts! I remember them. I'm part of this generation too, and am glad that I survived without all of today's required safety measures which would have made things less fun, or maybe kids nowadays don't know the difference so it doesn't matter.

My father, who was relatively active and a non-smoker died of a sudden heart attack at 54. My mom who was active, but not into exercise, per se, lived to 97, but she had late onset Alzheimers, probably starting in her early 90s. She was incredibly healthy her whole life, besides that. My older cousins seem to be really into health and diet, more than me, but it could also be because they live in an area where that is emphasized. Of the generation before, some were healthy, some were not. I think that in the old days, if you weren't healthy you died young, and never made it to old age, so it's hard to say how able those people would have been.
 
Everskyward said:
Jarts! I remember them. I'm part of this generation too, and am glad that I survived without all of today's required safety measures which would have made things less fun, or maybe kids nowadays don't know the difference so it doesn't matter.
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Our kids definitely get upset whenever we impose any kind of safety restriction. Helmets are the main one. And as you know, we certainly don't keep our kids wrapped in a bubble.

I even flew them in an MU-2! :eek:
 
There's a rumor, but I can't confirm it, that we still have some original Jarts somewhere around the house(s).
 
When I was growing up in the 60s, we rode our bikes in the street with traffic and no helmet, we climbed trees, played in the creeks, went camping, rode in the back of pickups, rode horses, played with fire crackers, threw rocks at each other, pet stray dogs and talked to strangers. But safety first, we had to wait 30 minutes after eating before going swimming....
 
Zeldman said:
But safety first, we had to wait 30 minutes after eating before going swimming....
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Yeah, what was that all about? We were also supposed to 'duck and cover' in the hall in case of nuclear attack. But I only remember that from very early on. I guess they figured out it was useless.
 
Zeldman said:
When I was growing up in the 60s, we rode our bikes in the street with traffic and no helmet, we climbed trees, played in the creeks, went camping, rode in the back of pickups, rode horses, played with fire crackers, threw rocks at each other, pet stray dogs and talked to strangers. But safety first, we had to wait 30 minutes after eating before going swimming....
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Wasn't any different growing up in the 80's. Not sure where Gen X went wrong with the kids born in the 90's!
 
Everskyward said:
We were also supposed to 'duck and cover' in the hall in case of nuclear attack.
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AP_17228008574856.jpg


Growing up in the nuclear age..... what memories.!!
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Just got word that my uncle is apparently going to be taken off life support today (got put on yesterday). He's in his early/mid 80s. Compared to their parents, my mom and uncle overall seem to be doing worse. My grandfather died at 76 from cancer, but that was in the 80s and if he'd been diagnosed 20 years later, or even 10, he probably would have survived. My uncle's been in pretty bad shape since the 2nd half of his 70s, so the news was no surprise. My grandmother lived independently until her late 80s when she decided to move to a retirement home. Granted she should have done that sooner, but if my mom makes it to 80, I'll be a bit surprised.
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Condolences.
 
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