The general decline in standards today

[HoosierDaddy]

That was also the experience of my Dad when he worked at the GM plant in South Gate back in the '50s. He was constantly hassled by the shop stewards for working too hard. And whenever management admonished the assembly line over the PA about the number of defective units produced by that shift, instead of being chastened and filled with a resolve to do a better job, everybody would start cheering as if their team had won the World Series.

I have a different story. I worked in GM plants for 34 years(retired 13 yrs ago this month)...and never saw anything like that. In fact..just the opposite. Evidentally the 18,000 GM workers then in this city were of a completely different mindset.
HD

 

[LizzieMaine]

We are the last unrecognised minority, as I'm fond of saying. My grandfather had it beaten into him in school to write with his right hand; my Aunt on that side is left handed too, and I don't recall her ever mentioning a problem. I got off relatively lightly - at the age of four, I was regularly cracked over the knuckles by a very old-fashioned pre-school group leader for using my left hand to draw. Thereafter, the worst I had was a craft and design teacher when I was thirteen who openly mocked me for taking an awkward stance to use equipment that was designed exclusively for right handers. They'd never get away with that now (that was about 1988), but he was a widely detested teacher, held in high contempt by everyone so being foolishly mocked by him didn't count in anyone's eyes, really.

I have to wonder if this is a peculiarly European thing -- I've never in my life known anyone personally who was beaten, disciplined, or otherwise chastised for being left-handed. My best friend as a kid was a lefty, and no one ever made any kind of a deal of it at all. She had a funny way of holding scissors, but it was just one of those things, nobody thought anything of it. The only time we ever even talked about righthanded-vs.-lefthanded is when my grandfather yelled at the TV, "Throw him the curve you damfool lefthanded SOB!" Otherwise, it never came up.

 

[p51]

I've never in my life known anyone personally who was beaten, disciplined, or otherwise chastised for being left-handed.

Well, you at least know of one in the US of A.... me. I regularly caught crap growing up in school for being left-handed.
It cracks me up that even today, I'll be writing something and someone will stop and ask, "Are you left handed?" like it's some sort of affliction. For years, I've answered the same way:
"Nah, this is an optical illusion. I'm writing with my feet."

 

[LizzieMaine]

All I can say is if someone is so desperate that they have to pick on someone because they're left handed, they must not get around much. I couldn't tell you what hand anybody I know uses -- the only reason I knew my childhood friend was a lefty is because it meant I couldn't borrow her baseball glove.

 

[ButteMT61]

When I was a kid, in school they had special, left-handed scissors. Now they need left-handed mice.
What cracks me up is when I ask someone who is left handed "So, you're a lefty?" they reply dazed and ask "How did you know?". The watch. It's the watch - it's on the wrong arm lol

 

[jamespowers]

The biggest pain I find is with some items (guitars among them - never required a gun), if they are available left handed at all, you do end up paying a no inconsiderable premium for them. Sometimes this is understandable (tooling up for limited runs), other times I begin to suspect that they are playing that up as an excuse to push up the price.

Yes indeed. I forgot about the extra cost for left handed things. I truly wonder how small a group left handers really are.

 

[jamespowers]

That was also the experience of my Dad when he worked at the GM plant in South Gate back in the '50s. He was constantly hassled by the shop stewards for working too hard. And whenever management admonished the assembly line over the PA about the number of defective units produced by that shift, instead of being chastened and filled with a resolve to do a better job, everybody would start cheering as if their team had won the World Series.

Great.... My 59 Olds was likely produced at that plant.:eusa_doh:
I have heard that they used to put glass bottles in the doors and pull other tricks with their cars too.

Then again, in 1970 my father bought a Mercury that left the factory without the fools tightening down the heads correctly. It leaked like a sieve until my father took it back and supervised them personally to point out what was wrong. They tried two times without him and couldn't figure it out. :eusa_doh:

 

[jamespowers]

When I was a kid, in school they had special, left-handed scissors. Now they need left-handed mice.
What cracks me up is when I ask someone who is left handed "So, you're a lefty?" they reply dazed and ask "How did you know?". The watch. It's the watch - it's on the wrong arm lol

I remember them having left handed scissors too. Trying to cut with one of those was a pain. If you grabbed the wrong one you were stuck with it for a while. :eusa_doh:
The watch is on the wrong arm! :rofl:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Great.... My 59 Olds was likely produced at that plant.:eusa_doh:
I have heard that they used to put glass bottles in the doors and pull other tricks with their cars too.

Then again, in 1970 my father bought a Mercury that left the factory without the fools tightening down the heads correctly. It leaked like a sieve until my father took it back and supervised them personally to point out what was wrong. They tried two times without him and couldn't figure it out. :eusa_doh:

Hard to believe it was the same factory that built this:

All of the M5/M5A1 series Stuart tanks were built at the South Gate plant.

 

[jamespowers]

Hard to believe it was the same factory that built this:

All of the M5/M5A1 series Stuart tanks were built at the South Gate plant.

Well, in war time screwing up could well be thought to be sabotage. They didn't want to go there so they straightened out and flew right. Then again, the WWII generation was VERY different from the generation that followed it.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I wear my watch cack-handed. No doubt in imitation of my "Devil's" handed father … I am "normal" right handed

When I was a kid, in school they had special, left-handed scissors. Now they need left-handed mice.
What cracks me up is when I ask someone who is left handed "So, you're a lefty?" they reply dazed and ask "How did you know?". The watch. It's the watch - it's on the wrong arm lol

 

[Edward]

I have to wonder if this is a peculiarly European thing -- I've never in my life known anyone personally who was beaten, disciplined, or otherwise chastised for being left-handed. My best friend as a kid was a lefty, and no one ever made any kind of a deal of it at all. She had a funny way of holding scissors, but it was just one of those things, nobody thought anything of it. The only time we ever even talked about righthanded-vs.-lefthanded is when my grandfather yelled at the TV, "Throw him the curve you damfool lefthanded SOB!" Otherwise, it never came up.

I don't honestly know. I know it was prevalent across Britain and Ireland, at least from Victorian times to gradually fading away by the latter half of the twentieth century in relation to writing at least - there's still a lot of ignorance in the musical world, particularly among classical musicians. Many teachers of violin, for example, simply refuse to accept anyone playing the instrument left handed. You'd actually think you'd suggested they should be allowed to play it, naked, in public, while making sexually inappropriate suggestions the way some of them react. I suppose that's still an advance from the days when it was considered a sign of witchcraft and apt to lead to a stake-burning....

Of course as I'm sure most folks round here know, our word "sinister" comes from the Latin for "left", reflecting he negative connotations which it was considered to have. To my mind it's as stupid as thinking less of somebody for something as ephemeral as the colour of their eyes, but yet I still nowadays hear from time to time of people trying to discourage their very young kids from using their left hand "to make it easier for them when they grow up, so they'll be more normal". Weird.

Well, you at least know of one in the US of A.... me. I regularly caught crap growing up in school for being left-handed.
It cracks me up that even today, I'll be writing something and someone will stop and ask, "Are you left handed?" like it's some sort of affliction. For years, I've answered the same way:
"Nah, this is an optical illusion. I'm writing with my feet."

Oh, I must remember that one....

When I was a kid, in school they had special, left-handed scissors. Now they need left-handed mice.

Actually never used a mouse with my left hand.... feels natural in the right, as some things do oriented my way. Very few of them are 'handed', though, in terms of the physical hardware - mostly it's just a software setting that needs change so you can reverse the order of the buttons. Oddly enough, scissors are about the only other thing I use in my right (even scissors specially shaped for a left hand feel wrong to me - I cut with the right, though I use my left to move the paper whatever, so the right really only is providing pressure for the actual cutting, not direction). I wodner if there is a connection between the basic motor skills used for both those things...

What cracks me up is when I ask someone who is left handed "So, you're a lefty?" they reply dazed and ask "How did you know?". The watch. It's the watch - it's on the wrong arm lol

Ha, I'd slip that net - I have always worn my watch on my left arm. I've seen left handed watches, but never in anything like the price bracket I can even afford to think about "one day". I suppose I may have worn mine on my left arm originally due to a perceived norm (in the immediate family home I was the only lefty), but it has always felt natural there. Tried it on my right arm for a bit, but could never get used to it. If ever I need to see it while I'm writing, I tend to take it off and set it in front of me.

Yes indeed. I forgot about the extra cost for left handed things. I truly wonder how small a group left handers really are.

Usually cited as anywhere between ten ans fifteen percent of the population. In Japan, by some genetic quirk, I'm told it's actually as high as twenty per cent, which might explain why the Japanese are far ahead of so many others when it comes to inlcuding left handed options in their guitar ranges especially.

 

[jamespowers]

I wear my watch cack-handed. No doubt in imitation of my "Devil's" handed father … I am "normal" right handed

Impostor!

 

[Baron Kurtz]

My grandfather on my father's side was ambidextrous, but originally left handed. It helped him a lot as a council painter. Using both hands to paint fences etc., he was quicker and better than the other council painters, and ended up foreman of painters. My father ended up a watchmaker, apprenticing with Heuer … I don't know which wrist my grandfathers wore their gifted Heuer's on!

Strangely, my other grandfather was also a council painter, in a very different part of the country, and was also left handed.

interestingly, I am ambipedestrous which makes me quite good at soccer, but totally useless with my left hand.

bk

 

[DesertDan]

there's still a lot of ignorance in the musical world, particularly among classical musicians. Many teachers of violin, for example, simply refuse to accept anyone playing the instrument left handed. You'd actually think you'd suggested they should be allowed to play it, naked, in public, while making sexually inappropriate suggestions the way some of them react. I suppose that's still an advance from the days when it was considered a sign of witchcraft and apt to lead to a stake-burning....

It also has to do with the use of the bow in the orchestra setting as well as the fact of the way that the instruments are actually built. I played Double Bass in high school orchestra and did a simple bridge flip and re-string to get by. But that actually robs the bass of its projection and tone due to the interior structure. But alot of it is "traditional" predjudice, One can buy actual lefthanded orchestral instruments but you will never get a position in a professional orchestra as a left handed player.

Usually cited as anywhere between ten ans fifteen percent of the population. In Japan, by some genetic quirk, I'm told it's actually as high as twenty per cent, which might explain why the Japanese are far ahead of so many others when it comes to inlcuding left handed options in their guitar ranges especially.

True. There is one American company (Carvin) that will build guitars/basses with almost every option offered to the right hand models at the same price. But almost every maker charges a markup, usually 10 - 15% but I have seen as high as 50%. Lefties often have a longer waiting periods and greatly reduced options.

 

[jamespowers]

interestingly, I am ambipedestrous which makes me quite good at soccer, but totally useless with my left hand.

bk

:rofl:

 

[p51]

What cracks me up is when I ask someone who is left handed "So, you're a lefty?" they reply dazed and ask "How did you know?". The watch. It's the watch - it's on the wrong arm lol

You'd fail on me, then. My watch has always been on my left arm.
I always did everything right handed but write. The odd thing is my Dad does everything right handed but he shoots left handed!
I never could make left handed scissors work...

 

[LizzieMaine]

I eat left-handed. Does that make me ambiforxtrous?

 

[jamespowers]

I eat left-handed. Does that make me ambiforxtrous?

That is the only time I am ambidextrous.

 

[sheeplady]

I'm a leftie who was taught to write right handed. I also use scissors with my right hand. Everything else is left handed. (I am right eye dominant, so I do shoot from my right too, although left seems like it would be "better".)

I had a lot of trouble writing in school. I remember the teacher removing the pencil from one hand to the other. I can scribble with my left (not too badly, but I am slow) and I can cut paper (but it feels weak).