Transcript- Folk Messages from an Older Generation

I asked this during some time into lunch during my internship to Kathrine (60s) and to Dorothy (62). Kathrine owns incubator kitchens and helps start up entrepreneurs, Dorothy is an accountant and works in the food industry. (This transcript is the gist of our conversation, I didn't have a tape recorder or recording devices (sadly) and used my notebook, so while not exactly as they said it, it’s what they had said.)

M: Can I ask you some questions for my history class? It’s kind of like a philosophy class.
K: Sure go ahead
D: Alright

M: Do you think people are happier now or do you think times were happier back then?
K: Well, I don't think there is exactly a happier now or then. I think this is what you know. Our reality is a lot different from yours. We didn't grow up with this stuff, for you its always been here. We didn't have computers or those texting things *does finger motion*. This is the way things are for you.
D: Like back then we didn't have computers, when I worked we had to use index cards to keep track of everything. It’s all about adaptability and I chose not to adapt. I say choose so I don't sound like a goon who doesn't know how things work. I mean I don't have a computer even now, I have a cell phone but I don't use it, heck, I don't even know my own number. I got a digital camera but I still don't know how to use it. We used to have cassettes too but that got replaced by this digital thing, sometimes I think things are changing too fast. I had VHS too and now I can't use it anymore.

M: How do you think the world has changed? In what ways has the world changed?
K: Well we now have all this technology, and it makes things more convenient. I mean, now you can call someone from your cell phone to check in on what block you're meeting them at. It makes things alot simpler.
D: Do you mean a Historic perspective?
M: Sure
D:I didn't live through the Cold War exactly but at my school we had to do drills for in case an atomic bomb would come from Vietnam plane. A bell would ring and all the kids would have to go underneath a table and put our arms over our head. People were building their own dugouts in their backyard and stocking up on food. Now we have this recession and the housing downturn. We had one back then too.
K: But not the housing downturn because the way people buy houses now have changed.

M: How have people's values changed?
K: Well, We want to buy things all the time. My sister walked into a store and things were 60-70% off and she said "OH, I have to have this." and then I said, "But do you need this?" and then she said "But its so cheap, its a bargain." But do you really need that you know? She had just gotten a personal consultant to clean up her walk in closet.
M: Wow
D: A walk-in closet, huh. I know what you mean. I try not to buy as many things, when I walk into a store and I see a sale, I think what a bargain, but then I ask myself do I really need this? Do I want to put this on my credit card or leave that space for something I need more? and I don't buy it. So I've been able to stop myself from doing things like that. I stll haven't gotten off Amazon yet, that site has alot of cheap things. But I buy used things now instead of new.

M: What do you find meaningful? and do you think you live a good and meaningful life?
D: Oh philosophy
M: *laughs* Yes, that's the philosophical part of it
D: Well you go first Kathrine, I've been running my mouth off
K: What is meaningful? Friends and Family, Following your dream, your passion. I enjoy my job, and I think that's important, do what makes you happy. I think its important to think, and still be open to learning, because we can always learn more things. So, Yes I do think I am living meaningful life.
D: Well, "Do unto others" is what I have been brought up with, so I live by that. I'm not perfect, but I try not to screw people over. Sometimes when people say things that make me pissed off I might get snappy, but then at night, I try to reconcile with myself, which is not to say I don't do it again. I would say that generally I'm happy, though the economy is making me stressed out. I want to have paid off all my credit cards, and though I don't have a mortgage I took out a loan to fix up the house. I think I'll have to work 8 more years before I can retire, *makes face*. I have a friend that has been saving up and every time she got her paycheck she would put it away to her 401k, and now she has 300,000.
K: Wow
D: Yeah, she just got in the habit. She has a husband and kids and she's still able to do the same things other people can, like dinner or whatever and that's what you have to learn to do. Save up a nest egg for yourself.
M: *nods*
K: When I get older, I don't are if my legs give out or my arms, I just want to still have my mind.
D: Yes, thats why I go to meetings to learn new things. Even if you don't want to go to college or school, you still have to be open to learning new things.

D: If I could do one thing back from when I was younger, I would go to college. I had European parents, so they were like what does a girl need a education for? You're going to get married and then its wasted. I would've said ---?forgot?---- well not not like because you don't talk to your parents like that but I would have been more insistant. So go to school when your at your age because you have the momentum. Also start saving now.

Off topic moment
D: I went to college when I was 25, I worked in an "intensive cooking course" After that I was the head cook for two weeks.
M: Did you like it?
D: I HATED it. I had to cook from the basement. No oven, no dishwasher, no nothing. I had to take it upstairs, quit after two weeks.