I’ve heard this saying many times and I’ve even said it myself now that I’m an old fart and sometimes reflect on today’s generation of young people.  But I paused this thought yesterday when (during my genealogy research) I stumbled on a news article from 1900 about my Great (3x)-grandmother who essentially said the same thing about the young girls of her day.  Of course times were definitely different back then.  For example, electricity which we all take so much for granted nowadays was only first demonstrated in a hotel in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, for the first time ever by Thomas Edison in 1883.  So it is unlikely that my Great-grandmother’s house was ever wired up with it.  She grew up in the 1800s and was 90 years old when interviewed for the article (attached below).  So she never had the benefit of electricity, running water and in-door plumbing, driving to work in a car instead of hooking up a horse and buggy, or even riding on the train (a relatively new modern convenience at the time).  Also I thought about the fact that splitting rails and hewing logs like my Great-grandmother did wasn’t something required of girls even back when I was growing up in the 1950s. But as time moves on and technology continues to make it easier and easier for people to live, I can’t sometimes wonder if we’re not setting up future generations to a major catastrophe.  Should the cosmos or mother nature take away our ability to use our technological advances, would we be able to survive like our ancestors did when it was just them and whatever nature provided around them?  Even with some of the old experiences in my life, I’m not sure I could grow a very good garden or catch a rabbit for supper like my Great-grandmother.  For this and so many other things, I admire her greatly.