Kids these days

[triskellian]

(In backlash against being five yesterday, today I shall be seventy-five ;-)

Parts of my journey to work are shared by dozens of teenagers walking to school, and I have observed that all of them wear their backpacks properly, on both shoulders. What is the world coming to? In my day, no one used both shoulder straps, and backache be damned!

[Poll #1023562]

Comments

[white_hart]

I've noticed that. It's very odd.

I still have the backpack I used when I was at sixth form: standard brightly-coloured Millets one, with a drawstring and a flap and a front pocket. It's under my desk at work with gym stuff in, not that I ever go to the gym. It's also a pain to carry, because the left-hand strap is stretched and flattened after carrying all my A-Level stuff around, while the right-hand strap is almost like new, and any attempt to carry it properly is extremely uncomfortable!

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

On one shoulder until I got back-ache. Then on two. This is still how I wear a backpack :)

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I wanted a backpack, but my mum would never let me have one! Now I'm all growed up I have lots of backpacks, which I wear on both shoulders sensible-style.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I still wear it on one shoulder. But I alternate shoulders, to stave off the backacheyness. (Which doesn't always work.)

Maybe modern teens have more sloping shoulders, and it just won't stay on.

[triskellian]

Wow, you can swap shoulders? I can't - makes me feel all hunched and odd if I wear a bag on my left shoulder.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

I'm left-shouldered. Which goes with my left-footedness but not my right-handedness. Maybe I'm just a freak :)

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

if weight_of_bag == light
   number_of_shoulders_used = 1;
else
   number_of_shoulders_used = 2;

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Shoulder bag.

[knirirr.livejournal.com]

At my school the unfashionable way to carry one's books was a briefcase. The fashionable way was loose in one's arms. Backpacks were never used.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

It took a bit of practice... but like mousing with your wrong hand, you can get used to it if you push through the oddness barrier.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

PS around tomorrow night?

[triskellian]

Yep. Although not sure I'm up to knitting - hand still hurts from falling over :-( Talk on email tomorrow to confirm/organise?

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Suits me either way, really. There is wine and dvds and Arkham Horror if you don't want to knit; I'm more after company than knitting time this week. :)

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

No, I'm the same; left-shouldered, right-handed. Actually I think it's because it's easier to do something with your right hand when you don't have a backpack on that shoulder -- open doors, that kind of thing -- so that the backpack doesn't slide off and dangle painfully from your wrist. undyingking is obviously just a freak of nature (but we knew that)

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

I had a shoulder bag at school, but these days tend to use a rucksack/backpack (largely because we have a stack of free ones from rotwang's conference/work type stuff). The rucksack goes on one shoulder most of the time, or on both if it's especially heavy, if I need my hands free, or if I'm doing something which is likely to cause it to come loose (example; pulling a suitcase)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Caveat to my poll answer: Except when riding my bike!

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Actually, me too, at school. One shoulder till I could stand it no more. (Some days my bag weighed nearly a stone.)

[white_hart]

Me three.

[white_hart]

There was a fashion among some of the girls at my school to have bags that were only big enough for exercise books and pencil cases, and to carry folders and textbooks loose (or more often in a plastic carrier bag to stop them turning into papier-mache if it rained), but that always struck me as slightly silly. Your arms would get tired, and if you had to stand up on the bus it was difficult to hold your books *and* hold on to a seat to stop yourself falling over when it went round corners.

[smiorgan.livejournal.com]

Mine was usually worn on the shoulder of some other kid, running away from me and laughing.

[knirirr.livejournal.com]

Luckily for the followers of fashion at my school there was never any requirement to use a bus (most were boarders, a small proportion lived very locally), just to walk between lessons. They also had lockers to keep the books in, so it was only necessary to carry a few at any one time. Pens &c. could go in one's blazer pocket.

[knirirr.livejournal.com]

I found once or twice that the unfashionable briefcase (mentioned above) could make a fairly effective improvised weapon, thus preventing such thefts.

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

I dutifully wore mine on both shoulders, until the pisstaking got too much...

[white_hart]

I lived two and a half miles from my secondary school. We didn't have lockers or blazers, and as well as books I frequently had to carry one or more of PE kit/musical instrument/ingredients for cookery lesson. Which made having a bag that I could at least fit all my books and my packed lunch in fairly essential ;-)

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

One shoulder. Have to use two when cycling though, which still feels wrong. So as soon as I get to work and can dismount I revert to one...

[quantumboo.livejournal.com]

Argh! Not Britain too? When I arrived in Canada I noticed all the students wore theirs properly. I do not understand. Would James Dean have worn his properly? Exactly!

Actually, when I were a lad, I tore a muscle in my right shoulder from carrying a heavy bag. But it was worth it.

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

I think I probably wore mine on both shoulders, but I didn't have a backpack when I was a teenager. Or if I did (it was a long time ago, you know), I probably carried it in my hand, unless I was riding a bike, in which case it would have been on both shoulders.

[sumbitch.livejournal.com]

Always on one shoulder. Only the very nerdiest of the nerds wore them on two shoulders.

Oh, fickle fashion! I suspect part of the reason it's now fashionable to wear them on two shoulders is because the kids' parents wear them on one shoulder...

[mkononi.livejournal.com]

The only people who used to wear the rucksacks on both shoulders were the french exchange kids surely.

[triskellian]

That certainly used to be the case...

So, "mystery man", who are you?

[mkononi.livejournal.com]

now that would hardly be a mystery now would it.

[triskellian]

Of course not. How about a different question: do I know you?

[mkononi.livejournal.com]

yup

[triskellian]

Can you support this claim?

[mkononi.livejournal.com]

not without giving the game away

[triskellian]

Then you'll have to forgive me for not friending you back. Will I find out eventually?

[mkononi.livejournal.com]

give me a sec, I'm trying to work out a clue that doesn't identify me, you or anyone either of us knows...

[mkononi.livejournal.com]

aha, we all used to drink in the George, before it turned into Rosie O'Grady's :(

[triskellian]

It's back being the George again, though, isn't it?

But at least that narrows you down, so to speak... even though there are an awful lot of people I used to drink with in the George. Another clue! Or another question... how did you find me here?

[mkononi.livejournal.com]

Yeah it is - although it's not the same.

I already knew you were here, I just forgot my old login. Not that I ever posted anything when I did have a login here.

[triskellian]

Ah, then that's easier - were you typomatic in a previous life?

[mkononi.livejournal.com]

after reading some of the posts and replies I think that yes, yes I was.

[triskellian]

Now is the time for evidence, I think...

[mkononi.livejournal.com]

right, how to think of something not incriminating.

I'm thinking that you make the most excellent envelopes out of a single piece of paper that always used to amaze me, and I'm thinking that when we met it was at D&Vs flat about - oooh - 12 years ago now