The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s

On his 1938 Austin Cambridge which can barely hit 50mph "It's great to drive, there's always a clear road ahead but behind a sea of traffic." I was expecting to hate the kid, but he has me in stitches.

What a charming individualist young lad! Great contrapunctus to all these TikTok wannabe "'subscribe my channel' influencer" losers that lack any personal style, acting merely as advertising and exhibition space (their room and their body).

His photo reminded me of the film "Harold and Maude", if anyone here has seen it.

Once I'm retired, I would like to digitize my own grandfathers prisoner of war diary, including that episode where they ate a dog so they didn't die from starvation, but it turned out to be the camp commanders dog, so that meal had an enormous price tag in terms of consequences. (Just to point out it wasn't all black shiny cars in the 1940s!)

He's even a square in his own preferred era. Ditch the Anne Shelton and get yourself some Monk or Bird and an eighth of heroin mate

Everything about this is wonderful. I do as much of my writing on a mechanical typewriter as I can, I use a rotary phone, and listen to vinyl records. This kid takes it to a whole new level and I'm so happy to see someone passionate about being a luddite in the new generation

Am I alone in thinking this is a little strange? If my teenager decided to live their life in a comic book costume, or cosplaying and pretending to be an anime character, I would say they are too attached. There are YouTubers like "ReportoftheWeek" who like to dress in an older style, but choosing to not learn to use a cellphone and bypassing understanding modern technology seems to be going too far.

I'm not sure about the bit of him falling in love with the 40s after reading a...prisoner of war diary? Doesn't seem very uplifting.

And though he refuses to enter into the spirit of rationing, he is also in the fantasy world where the Germans aren't bombing and threatening to invade, or there are postwar shortages and cities in ruin. Yeah, I supposed it's OK to like the clothing, cars and other tech, but it seems a not much like the actual 1940s in Great Britain.

"When I was younger, I looked at my great grandad's prisoner-of-war diaries and I just love everything about the period."

Just IMAGINE saying that out loud.

> and rides a 1952 Raleigh bicycle

My wife has a 1950's Raleigh women's bike we bought ages ago for $50 and it is hands down the most comfortable bike we own.

I own 4 other bikes (a cruiser, an e-cruiser, and two racing bikes) but always grab hers for my errands within ~15 blocks.

Everything about it just feels easy-- it's well balanced, has a great upright sitting position, a super comfy saddle, an easy to use 3-speed hub, big soft tires, and the frame is basically indestructible.

Occasionally something gets out of place or slightly off and I just whack it back into place.

> He says he has friends of all ages, although he admits he shares more in common with people much older than him.

The only thing I'd worry about is him getting too obsessed to the point he has trouble relating with others that are from this generation or are younger than himself especially as the number of people familiar with that generation continue to pass away.

What a character. If only a fraction of people knew and were happy with themselves as much as he is

This seems to be a growing trend among the sub-millenial generations. Kids have always loved to rebel since the dawn of time. How better to do it at this point than to disconnect? The world will be a better place for it. They might even develop true subcultures again.

I'm all for people living their life as they wish, if they don't harm others, even if there's literally nothing appealing about that for me.

Something most people don't see as an anachronism, but apparently it is:

striking a match

I saw a Boy Scout earning his merit badge in fire-building. His first task was to start it with a match, and then he'd move on to striking a flint, or something.

So he was holding the box vertically, and striking down with the match. A moment's thought will tell you the flame will, quite likely, burn your fingers.

> "When I was younger, I looked at my great grandad's prisoner-of-war diaries and I just love everything about the period."

Is this some kind of understated British humor?

Back in the 70s I had a friend like that in middle school. Recently I looked up his address on Google streets and sure enough, there is a 1930s vintage Ford Model A in his driveway.

Kind of horrified at how upset the HN crowd is about this kid, as if he is a horrible sight to behold

> "When I was younger, I looked at my great grandad's prisoner-of-war diaries and I just love everything about the period."

*Everything* ?? Yikes!

It's curious to me that he's not being raised by his parents. Something tragic must have happened here. Is is running away from his trauma?

(Edited quite a bit: others have brought up the point about getting this conclusion from reading a WW2 POW's diary. I wrote too soon -- the bit about not being raised by parents seems much more salient to me.)

From the NY Times obituary of Tom Jones, writer of the book for the long-running musical "The Fantasticks":

"""

As Mr. Jones put it in his memoir, "Sometime during my sophomore year at Coleman High School, I became a 'character'" -- wearing bow ties and a straw hat to school, smoking a pipe, signing his articles for the school newspaper "T. Collins Jones, Esquire."

"Even now, nearly 70 years later, I can't help but stop and wonder what the hell I thought I was doing," he wrote. "Even more, I wonder at the fact that the other kids -- farmers mostly, and ranchers and 4-H girls -- took it all in their stride."

In 1945, when he enrolled in the drama department at the University of Texas, "for the first time, there were other people actually like me," he wrote. "Here, marvel of marvels, everybody was T. Collins Jones, Esquire."

"""

Perhaps this kid will get to the university and find his tribe.

And here am I, having my kids miss out on stuff all the time because I cannot keep up with regularly checking the 5000 WhatsApp groups that have formed around their lives. Although whenever I do check them, all I see is petty messages and emojis. I don't know how other people stay on top of it all...

"The simple life" is a very attractive thought. Few dare to subscribe to it for real like this feller does. Respect.

He's probably happier than most!

I hate grappling with advancing a career vs "doing whatever I want." The problem is, whenever I play video games or try to decompress, I feel like I'm forcing myself. This guy has seemingly no qualms about it. For that, I'm jealous.

I was expecting the car to be much more expensive then what was stated.

One wild dream of me is to start living my life from the beginning of micro computers (Altair) and pretending that I'm in the 80s.

I just feel like he went "over the top." Is the kid taking modern medicine? There are things that seem like they were better back then, and things that seem like they're better now. I guess I just don't get the all-or-nothing philosophy. Why not pick and choose the best parts of each time period?

I'm in awe of his devotion to the cause.

is eschewing technology a wise move if you plan on participating in modern society? i'm wondering how difficult he's making his life later. like, if he can't use a mobile phone or computer what careers are realistically open to him?

I admire this gentleman immensely.

And I thought that driving a manual car from 2005 makes me old-fashioned.

Oh boy is he gonna have a tough time once he's starting his career, not having embraced any sort of technology.

> He has the original invoice showing the car cost £215 in 1938, the equivalent of about £18,000 today.

Wow. $22K USD inflation-adjusted for a hand-made car in 1938. Cheaper than cars that are made by robots today. You'd think that after 80 years of technological progress and automation, they'd cost less than $1000 by now. What is going on? Surely this makes a strong case that modern poverty is artificial and done on purpose.

And how can a kid barely out of school afford to buy all this stuff? I swear some people are living in a parallel universe.

The BBC misspelled LARP.

£7,000 for that car is not an expense, it's an investment.

In addition, the good thing about cars up to the 90s, and perhaps later, is that there are fixable with the manual. There is electrics but no electronics or software.

> "I couldn't tell you a modern singer if you asked me," he says.

Not sure about music but in architecture 'modern' was already in 40s.

How does he fill his free time?

I'd call that the #1 distinction.

These days it's the ubiquitous volcano of entertainment : social media, youtube etc.

Back then it was what, bake brownies?

Part of me wants to do this.

Maybe with the 1990s.

Quite the panty dropper.

Get this boy MKUltra'd right quick lets see what he turns into.

This made my day!

When I see this I worry that he's become codependent or "parentified" by his grandmother and is becoming the kind of man who would have been her father or her peer when she was younger. Not sure we should be celebrating this when it's impacting his ability to function in modern society. It's probably not a coincidence that the boy "beyond obsessed" with the 40s has been raised solely by his grandmother.