If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious! If you are younger than 30, brace yourself.
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yada
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of stuff like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in an Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!
Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butts! Nowhere was safe!
There were no MP3s or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless.
We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!
There weren't any cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". Think of the horror.--. not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent.--. you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!
There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!
And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
And our parents told us to stay outside and play.--. all day long. Oh, no -- no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!
And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were luckily, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!
See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!
Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd
26 comments:
I love this one, your so right about the youth of today. I remember when we had party lines and could listen in on your neighbors phone calls and they of course could listen to yours.. LOL
You got that right!!! LOL!!!
Lol! Wait till I let my boys read this! It is SO true!
That is HILARIOUS!!!! My kids (all in their 30's now) will love this!
Puts it all out there doesn't it!
You had me smiling with this one. I'm forever telling my son about rotary phones, cords on the phone and WAY back in the day, the party line that we had. He can probably tell the stories better than I can now!
Have a great weekend.
Jane
This is true...so so true. I could even go back further a generation with this. Oh and it reminds me of a gal blogger named Mari [and many others including myself] regarding GPS and the wrong directions they give out. What happened to the day you'd pull up to a gas station or a restaurant and ASK for directions...much more clear and concise than GPS sometimes.
LOL
Loved this Mari.
perfect! :)
signed,
barely a member of the over 30 crowd.
Thanks for the smiles and giggles this morning. I love it!! You are so right about the kids having so good.
Great post!!
PS--thanks for your offer to help too. It didn't go unnoticed friend!
I went to the site this morning and my blog design is still showing up as an option. duh. We will see what happens AFTER tonight.
((hugs))
Sure brings back a lot of memories. I remember that time well.
Oh, I loved this! Nancy, I remember the party lines!
Do you remember the 8-tracks?
Mari, this was so good, I'm going to link to it on FB!
But, Mari...back in our younger days I wouldn't have been able to meet YOU!!!!
Fun post. I always love these kinds of comparison things and love the great memories they remind us of. We did have a lot of fun in our youth, didn't we?
Kim
That is so funny! Hahahaha!
With all the changes makes a person wonder what our kids will tell their kids doesn't it? Neat post.
Oh, this is fantastic! I have said all of these things to my kids, who just tune out and stare into the middle distance until my rant dies down. We used to STAY OUTSIDE playing because if we went inside we got put to work! We didn't even have a telephone on the wall, much less a cell phone! It was just a different world, a different time. I wish we could go back. Sort of.
Oh Mari, I laughed so hard on this and HAD to share it with Ivan, who laughed right along with me :) GREAT POST!
This.is.hilarious!!!
My kids are all in the other room wondering why I'm laughing hysterically. Probably on Facebook updating their status - that their mom has completely lost her mind. You know, cuz they shouldn't have to waste their time dialing the phone to tell each individual friend that I'm nuts. They've got to get the news out to the masses instantly.
Argh. They've got it so easy.
*grin*
Great post...it was hilarious Mari...I was totally laughing out loud!
Thanks for making me smile!
Oh Mary that is too funny
Amen!!!!!!
Great post Mari.
Hugs,
Kat
Kids today don't have a clue! Very Funny!
What a rough life we had, huh? Funny, back then I thought it was pretty amazing!
Oh, I love this post! Made me laugh like crazy!You know, Lavonne has a car story with pies way in the back of the station wagon that flew forward.
I have to share this with my kids!
I laughed when I read the part about taping a song off the radio. I remember doing that, sitting around with my finger on the button, waiting, waiting, waiting, until I heard the first note or two of the song and could push the button and start recording. Crazy!
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