Boy's, I done been schooled today . . .

[H-G]

A friend of mine stopped by today to check on a Blackhawk conversion I was doing for him. Now I should have had it done about a week ago, but as I told him when he arrived, "I just plain screwed up the other day." You see, all that's left to do to his gun is the blueing. But I rather stupidly managed to contaminate my salts and wrecked the whole batch. So I'm in kind of hurry-up-and -wait mode until my new batch of salts arrives. Now normally this would be no big deal. But. . .My friend brought along his 19 year old daughter, fresh home from her first year of higher learning!!!! WOW.

Now i was glad to see the young lady. See used to be quite a shooter and hunter, and has tagged along with dad since she was big enough to toddle. I can still rememebr her first turkey, deer, squirrel, etc. . . But today was a bit different than past visits.

First, she very kindly explained to me that I know nothing what-so-ever about business. And, that she had clearly learned that you don't just up and admit to the customer that you screwed something up!! No, no, no, to do so will completely undermine the clients confidience in your abilities, and erode (I think that was the phrase) the future relationship. Instead, one should simply take command of the sales relationship, and inform the customer that the press of daily production had expanded the production cycle causing a temporary, yet unavoidable delay in the completion of said project!! O....K.

Then she expalined a number of other interesting things she had discovered in her obviously enlightening 6 months or so away from home. A few tidbits about political realities, presidential choices, the questionable ethics of hunting in general. (When she got her first turkey she drug it right into the front seat of the truck with her, and hugged it so tight all the way home she looked like she'd blown up a pillow factory. Took her mom about three days of scrubbing just to get the turkey lice off the kid. Wonder if that come up in the campus "ethics" talk?) The doomed future of the american gun owner, And the sure, and welcome death of the free market economy that was surely dragging us all down the pipe! Oh yea and even a little bit about how her whole education was gonna be "free" because the governemnt grants were covering it all -"AS THEY SHOULD" (Apparently she had that class where they explain that government money is free money, and no one has to foot the bill for it?)

Now, I'm not really all that surprised to find out that i am no where near as smart as a 19 year old collage freshman. I came to grips with that reality long ago. But I will admit that occasionally I do get a bit grumpy in my advancing middle age. Especially when confronted with over-exuberant teenage jack-assery. But this time I have to say, the dismayed I-want-to-just-die-how-can-i-blame-your-momma- look on my buddies face as his pride and joy delivered her dissertation was worth every minute of the liberal dribble she was spewing Let's hope that some day she will grow up, get bills, have kids, and figure out just how dumb she sounded today. Maybe she'll even kill another defensless turkey!

[Larry in VA]

Have faith in the young Lass HG… I raised two Squirrel shooten, hook bait’n, rabbit skin’n lasses that went away and came back with similar tics’. Fortunately the mind-altering-liberal atmosphere of our “Higher Learning” centers didn’t have a lasting effect on either of my girls.
"Thank you God!"
By thier senior years they were back on the right side. Pun intended…

[Remmynut]

I can identify. Average age of employees (including several leads and shift supervisors) at work is about 24.

Imagine how dumb I AM......... I just nod and smile, then give them my standard "ok"......and walk off.

You want to show someone they are wrong.....let them do it their way.

Praise the Lord I get to work in the Lab where the ONLY other "ancient" employee works and it's OUR domain, lol. No worries there.

They will save the world.......just ask em (although you don't often have to). lol.


I take my breaks odd times so I don't get enlightened QUITE so frequently. Off work again friday because production out-runs shipping.......but we "need to run faster".

Gotta feel for the "Dad" though. Guess I'm "old fashiioned", MY child would have uh...........been "quieted down" after about the first sentence, or removed.

And for the younger readers, take no offense but had I done such with MY Dad standing there no one would have understood me anyway......trying to talk around my Dad's foot shoved down my throat and all.

I enjoy being "less informed" anymore. It's much quieter and more peaceful.

Glad to see you are not past learning from your "betters" , H-G.

God Bless

[darrel]

Well, I'd hate to disappoint the little wench but quite honestly if I took a job like what was mentioned to a gunsmith and then was told THAT kind of story when I got there, I'm about 100% certain that this particular business would NOT be taken off of my list to do business with because in spite of what "Little Miss Enlightened Liberal" may think, I STILL RATE HONESTY AT THE TOP OF MY LIST! And when someone tells me the truth and doesn't try to BS me, then they have EARNED that which few generation X, Y, Z'ers, you name it, understand: R-E-S-P-E-C-T!, something that several CURRENT younger generations do NOT understand!

[Chuck Miller]

Same boat here but my daughter seems to be going in a different direction. She's a freshman at JBU in Siloam Springs Ark, double major Intl. Bus. and Foreign Lang. It's interesting how when she comes home you hear some of the influences of "higher" education, the joke around here is that she's 19 going on 40. She informed me that the world is going to "hell in a hand basket" if it's going to rely on her generation! Kinda took me back and when I asked for an explanation she said they were the "Enabled Generation, you owe us!" She felt that over half of the kids she knew were on a subsidized adolescence with the only reason they were in school was the other option...work, and heck...they weren't paying for it so why not.

I'm 57 and self employed and if I screw up and tell the client it put's them at ease, rather than blowing a fastball by them(which I can) and them find out later.

[JINGWEED]

It's amazing to me how they think that 6mo. experience in scho0l over shadows a life's full of experience in the real world. Nothing wrong with confidence but theres no substitute for real experience. When I straighten out a fact or an oppinion that happens to be right. I get the feeling my kids think I made a lucky guess. Let them prove themselves wrong which is what experience is all about and be there to point them in the right direction. Support goes a long ways too. Oh yes...and patients!

[Hog Patrol]

It's the old " the older I get, the smarter my ol' man gets" syndrome. She'll come around. You can't screw a 45 year old head on a pair of 19 year old shoulders. Wrong pitch, left hand, acme, etc.

[SShooterZ]

At that age, I was an expert in beer and girls.

And my selections of either weren't winners.

[william t. oviatt]

I used to know a 19 year old know-it-all! He is now 62 and kicks rocks that are smarter! I told him just the other day: "Damn! You're gettin' stupider every day!" My wife yelled out at me: "Are you talking to yourself again?!!"
Bill

[H-G]

When i was just a kid, I worked one summer for a gunsmith. Nothing much, just cleaning the shop up, and once in a while he'd let me help tear the guns apart or reassemble them for bluing. One day he stuck a reamer in a barrel and hung her up good enough to really make some noise before everything broke. I don't know if i was wide eyed, or grinning or both. But he looked at me and said, "What you never screwed up? Hell, don't trust anyone who don't screw up, Their too damn stupid to learn anything!" It might have took me a few years but i eventually figured out exactly what he meant!

Never could see any reason not to admit if you make a mistake. I don't recall every losing any real business over it as long as I was willing to make it right. Besides, I'd have to have crib notes to give a speech like that.
-John