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, yadda
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of garbage like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of garbage 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 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 (Big room with Books) and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen (No Spell Check - dictionary...In Big Room with Books) ! 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 Bust Us ... No where was safe!
There were no MP3's 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 mess 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. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?
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". OH NO !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! To check in with your folks you had to stop and use a pay-phone (ask an oldtimer) 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, 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 PONG and advanced to 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! NO channel surfing! (there were only 3-5) You had to get off your couch 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!
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 (Big room with Books) and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen (No Spell Check - dictionary...In Big Room with Books) ! 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 Bust Us ... No where was safe!
There were no MP3's 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 mess 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. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?
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". OH NO !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! To check in with your folks you had to stop and use a pay-phone (ask an oldtimer) 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, 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 PONG and advanced to 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! NO channel surfing! (there were only 3-5) You had to get off your couch 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 lucky, 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!
I wish I could take credit for writing this
but I can't!
This is so very true though,
and wanted to share it.
Sometimes I wish for
the days of old,
when life was simpler!
3 comments:
When life was simpler? yes and no.
Umitilla 1960's
Do you remember....No eating the grain on the road between the railroad tracks and the grain silos? They had poison on them to get rid of the pigeons. So I made sure not to take the pinto on the roads around there.
Do you remember that to get decent reception on the UHF TV channels one needed a big antenna.
Even then some days the BW picture was just snowey.
Do you remember (for us little kids at least) in no way were we to go down to the river to go swimming. No matter how hot it got. Oh well there were always big grasshoppers to catch.
Do you remember to smell of coolness as you enter a place and the swamp cooler was blasting away.
Come to think of it I do miss those days. Hope you do to
Thanks
Skip
Yep! I sure do miss those days!
I think it's OK to glance back, but God's Gift is TODAY. That's why we call it present!
Some of us spend so much time looking forwards and looking backwards that we don't take the time to enjoy the present.
I look back, too and I think about the future. Then I realize one is gone and the other I have no control over. The only time I can have any effect is right NOW.
Enjoy life. Live it now!
Peace
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