THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!
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 that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they have 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 a 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 spank our bottoms! Nowhere was safe!
There were no MP3's or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! * I do not condone stealing...this was just part of the email*
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and jack 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 the tape would come undone. Cause - that's how we rolled, dig?
We didn't have fancy schmancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!
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 mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!!
You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your 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 messed up when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your tookus and walk over to the TV to change the channel! NO REMOTES!!!
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 brats!
And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or before!
Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd
(Or Tarah)
Till Next Week!
That is hysterical, but true! Kids don't know how easy they have it. But guess what, I bet they'll say the same things to their kids too!!!!
ReplyDeleteso funny... but so very true!
ReplyDeletefunny...
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling it like it is. Although i'm just 29 and counting. :)
Just the chuckle I needed. Blessings, andrea
ReplyDeletePS: You guys have an award at arise 2 write
That's hilarious! And of course, we can only laugh because we lived it! Great post!
ReplyDeleteLol!! So true my friend!! I remember eagerly waiting to tape my fave song off the radio and the annoying DJ talking over it!!!!! Tapes unwinding drove me mad too!
ReplyDeleteCollette xxx
LOL! Oh, my! Soooo true! We didn't have cell phones either, so we had to wait until we got home to call someone. We didn't text a person next to us, we actually talked to them.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean no remote control? I "WAS" the remote control. If my daddy wanted to change the channel, it was my job (along with siblings) to walk over and stand there and keep changing the channels until he found what he wanted.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, we played "Pong" and "Space Invaders" and PAC MAN was the bomb, Baby!
Not only did we not have Caller ID, we were on a "Party Line". So if we wanted to use our phone, one of the neighbors might already be using it. You could pick it up to see if it was free, and then have to wait if it was busy. Course that was how we found out the married neighbor lady had a BOYFRIEND on the side! Not the smartest conversations to have if you're on a "Party Line."
That was so funny, I love reminiscing in that way. We did have it so tough. LOL But it sure was fun. I was cracking up about taping the song on the radio because I used to do that all the time. My kids have it so easy and yet so tough to live in this crazy complex world.
ReplyDeleteWow, I also remember getting our fast food in styrofoam containers, no MTV either, all of our activities were outside. We played board games and used our imaginations. Something a lot of our kids are missing today. They don't know what to do if their cell phone dies, Ipod or Itouch doesn't work or the Video games won't play. Just what can I do???
ReplyDeleteLove this post and thanks for letting me take a stroll back down through memory lane with all of you.
Love and Hugs ~ Kat
Oh Tarah! LOL That was great! It is amazing how much things change in such a short amount of time. thanks for reminding me of some things that I had forgotten myself. Not only do our kids have it so easy today. So do we!!!! I forget that sometimes!
ReplyDeleteChristy
HAHAHAHA!!! I can so realate! Asteriods and Pacman ROCKED! Thanks for the walk down memory lane!!
ReplyDeleteTarah, this is funny because it's true, lol! To go waaaaay back, some people had a "party" line. That meant you and your neighbors shared the same phone. My friend had one and her line was always busy as her neighbor like to talk on the phone alot, lol!
ReplyDeleteSo funny and so true! Loved reading through it...thanks for the laugh~ Atari 2600 was the best...loved Pacman!
ReplyDeleteI'm only 15 days into my 30s and it's hurts that I am not longer included in the To: line of this email but let me say, I remember those good old days and I miss them. I esp. loved the one about waiting all day to tape a song off the radio and then the DJ talking through the beginning. Fond memories.
ReplyDeleteFrom another Tara and fellow 30-something
OH MY, Tarah! I can't believe we survived those years. It's really amazing! No remotes, no microwaves, NO TIVO!!! And don't forget about no cell phones. We actually HAD to use those crusty pay phones, YUCK!!! Those might as well been called the stone ages. Can't you imagine what the youth of today will be saying when they get old and gray, whining about having to play XBOX and Wii and having to listen to their MP3 players that ONLY stored thousands of songs. Hopefully, I'll live to see that. It would be hilarious.
ReplyDeleteLol...this was funny. It's great to look back and remember how things were-'back in the day.'
ReplyDeleteFun post. Thanks for sharing it!
Jen
Aint it the truth. I admire some folks who try to keep their kids away from most of that stuff for as long as they can.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had.