Don't feel bad Dean. I'm only 37, and I feel like an Old Fart when I
talk to just about anyone under the age of 30. I think a big part of
the problem is that kids nowadays don't really need to develop an
imagination anymore. Think about it...

Everything today is instant gratification. You don't have to use a
stick and pretend it's a raygun when you can stop by WalMart and buy
some flashing, blaring gizmo for a few bucks that would've shamed
anything used by the likes of "Captain Video." Also, the world of
imagination (TV & movies especially) is so hyper-obsessed with
depicting every aspect imaginable in super-realistic detail that kids
don't need to suspend disbelief anymore in order to wonder what a
dinosaur might really look like, or how robots work, or what it might
be like to fly. It's in their face on the tube, at their fingertips
on VHS and DVD, and right down the street at the local cineplex - in
thundering 5.1 digital THX Surround Sound. This is pretty much
unavoidable as technology marches on (unless you want to lock your
kids in the basement and put them on strict rations of bread and
water and The Twilight Zone).

I feel a wave of sadness and pity wash over me when I think that
today's kids will never know the wonderous joy of a small, fuzzy TV
picture, pulled out of the air with a beat up pair of rabbit ears in
the wee hours of the morning, backed by the tinny sound buzzing from
a single paper speaker, from a TV set that took minutes to warm up,
and just the right touch to dial in that great, once-a-week only late
night Creature Feature, (perhaps even hosted by a ghoulish TV host,
if you were lucky).

The beauty of modern B&W films like "The Elephant Man" and "Ed Wood"
are a total mystery to the 16 million color CGI generation. If us
Old Farts don't make a point of introducing classic movies and
TV shows to kids at a fairly young age, so that they are firmly
locked arm-in-arm with modern high-tech offerings, no self-respecting
youngster will be willing, nor patient enough, to indulge in these
guilty pleasures from the past.

When I moved back home from college, I was lucky enough to catch my
youngest cousin at that impressionable age. Now, years later, the
two of us enjoy a video-fest of classic monsters & aliens whenever
our work schedules permit. I was glad I could pass the [angry
villager's] torch on to at least one member of Generation X.

-J

--- In sonsofkong@yahoogroups.com, "Dean" <sonofvulcan@a...> wrote:
> I still vividly remember the day we got our first color TV. The
first
> show we watched (as a family of course since we only had the one
> set...those primitive days)was Daniel Boone (starring Fess Parker
of
> course). I still remember being absolutely fascinated with the
color
> of the trees blowing in the breeze.
>
> B&W as an artistic choice is almost totally forgotten. Trying to
> explain to students the technical limitations of early film is a
> stupefying event. They seem absolutely mystified that things have
not
> always been as they are right now. The lack of imagination I find
in
> many of my students is the single most frightening thing about the
> new generation. They seem to lack the sense of being part of a
world
> larger than themselves. As you say, the feeling seems to be that
> people from earlier times were just idiots for not inventing color
TV
> or air conditioning or cars or planes or whatever. The idea that
> technology is a tenuous network of discoveries and accomplishments
is
> totally lost on many of them alas.
>
> (Do I qualify for an "Old-Fart Membership" now or what!)
>
> Dean