Under 30 Crowd

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 in hell I was going to lay

a bunch of crap like that on 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-five, 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 damn 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 damn library and

look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

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 ass! No where was safe!

There were no MP3 ' s or Napsters ! You wanted to

steal music , you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd 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 the tape would come undone ....cause that's how we rolled dog!

We didn't have fancy crap 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, your drug dealer, 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 screwed when it came to channel surfing ! You had to get off

your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel! 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-bastards!

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

I think this is more applicable to the over 40 crowd. The early 30 somethings I know at least had internet in High school and grew up with cable.

Just sayin.

mdisher said:

I think this is more applicable to the over 40 crowd. The early 30 somethings I know at least had internet in High school and grew up with cable.
Just sayin.

Click to expand...

Shit, you guys are generalizing too far. I'm in the under 30 crowd and grew up with outhouses and rabbit ears. And from where I sit, you guys were the ones responsible for raising us right. Where does the blaim really lie?

I hear ya brother. Spoiled pantyasses! Indeed.

Mike... Thanks for this. I just sent it to my boys as required reading. They'll probably reply in a week or two stating that they were busy texting friends and didn't get a chance to read my email!

madmike2 said:

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 ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!

Click to expand...

And there were only 3 channels... In black and white!

Yep, I'm a fossil and I know it. :yahoo:

madmike2 said:

We didn't have fancy crap 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, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you

just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

Click to expand...

We had ONE, rotary dial phone (made of black bakelite) in the house. It was connected to a party-line shared with someone who lived nearby. Us kids used to listen in on his calls (which were very boring, but it was something we ought not to be doing, so that made it fun).

My son saw a dial phone (not touch tone) and I showed him how to use it. He said it hurt his fingers. There was no redial button. Long distance calls costed a million dollars a second. I am not sure if I ever did it back then.

We couldn't afford TV Guide. And we watched the commercials but we couldn't afford to buy any of the stuff they showed.

Color TV was a big deal.

Ice makers were us kids (and you have to refill them or you would have no ice tomorrow).

I am not sure if we ever "ate out". I don't think we had restaurants back then.

In Virginia, cars were inspected every 6 months. It took the whole family working constantly the week before inspection to get all the lights and everything else working twice a year or you had to walk. We tended to walk everywhere. No big deal.

There were only two brands of tennis shoes ... Converse and PF Flyers. We couldn't afford the Converse (Chuck Taylor's nor All-Stars).

-----

I got an FJR, color TV, a microwave, an actual ice maker, DVR, touch tone phone with redial, 5 pair of blue jeans, Color TV, a tape measure, Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds, a pound of Twizzlers. Life is good.

Art

My far younger cousin once quipped "how did people survive before DVR?" "There were VCRs in the 80s up to a few years ago" "What is a VCR?"

I stopped...because I still have one at home in a box somewhere. He's getting that for Christmas...

I remember in 1959 when we went to a friend's house to watch Bonanza in COLOR. I was impressed with all the control boxes associated with the TV.

Then we went across the gravel road to a neighbor's house and listened to STEREO---STEREO, man, ping pong balls went from one side of the room to the other, trains whistled and roared across the room, plus the music!

I took chemistry and physics with a slide rule. The first $100 LED calculators were just coming out as I was finishing my physics classes. In a diabolical way, the batteries never lasted as long as a full test so I continued with my inexpensive and dependable 2½ digits of accuracy slip-stick. Whatta ya mean a slide rule can't add or subtract :blink: And those damn logs, 1=0; 10=1; 1,000=3, I was always loosing my logs. Yet we went to the moon with slide rules. Cars these days are way smarter than any '60s space vehicle.

Look, Life and Post.

Japanese = Junk.

TV programs with themes around values and morals.

I remember banana seats and taking the Presidents Physical Fitness Test every year. I saw those guys from England with hair like girls. TV only showed Pelvis Elvis from the waist up. On my grandparents farm I cranked the Victrola so they could listen to slate records.

In Atlanta, once a week at noon we had a drill where I would get under my desk for protection in case of an atomic bomb attack. Lester Maddox was handing out axe handles. During a halt in the president's motorcade I got to talk with President Kennedy for almost 10 minutes, he in his open convertible and me sitting on a fender of a car. A few months later he and his convertible went to Texas...

Starter buttons were on the floor. Carpets, heaters and often turn signals were options. Fender skirts. Oil bath air filters. Drive-In's. Window trays. A&W on a hot summer's night.

If it had two wheels and an engine the name was Harley.

Wire recorders, Rolleiflex, Brownies, COLOR film. OOHHH--Kodak Carousel Projectors-- OOHHH. Two phones were an extravagance. Blotter paper, carbon paper, Memograph, Telegraph.

I could go on... Yup, I'm old.

Hit the Road Jack said:

And there were only 3 channels... In black and white!

Click to expand...

and one of those was PBS!

ionbeam said:

I could go on... Yup, I'm old.

Click to expand...

I don't know about that, but you are sure as hell making me feel old....I remember all that crap.

Well, most of it.

Oh the memories!

Cars with chokes and starting handles.

My Grandmother's TV with the orange faces and neon green grass.

School uniform inspections (public school) with order marks for hanging threads or missing buttons. What on earth would they have made of baggy drooping pants? or piercings or tattoos?

Slide rules and log tables.

Home economics classes in high school where only the girls, learned to cook and keep house. Mandatory needlework classes for the girls, where the first project was the apron to use over the school uniform, for cookery class.

Mom being home every afternoon when we got home from school.

Going out to play after breakfast and not coming home until the streetlights came on. And that was OK.

Leaving my three year old daughter at the hairdresser's, with her money in her hand. Knowing that the lady would see her across the main road then she could walk home alone. And that was OK.

Parking the kids in the stroller outside the store, with all the other kids. And that was OK.

Spanking their little heinies when they needed it. And that was OK. (Neither one has been in trouble with the law, yet)

If you needed a cake in a hurry, you grabbed flour, sugar and eggs instead of car keys.

People smoked everywhere.

Owning one coat and one pair of shoes, and feeling privileged to do so.

Carrying a plug and a wrench in my pocket so that whenever I rode in the rain and my single cylinder sport-moped took on water, I could whip the plug out, put the dry one in and keep riding while the other plug dried out in my pocket.

Carrying an 8oz soda bottle of oil in my other pocket, to add to the tank with each fill up of gas.

Don't we have a good life now? It's nice to look back, but I feel like a millionaire compared to back then.

I feel sorry for the kids today,,,,,

When I was a youngin' ,,, I had a couple square miles of area to romp over...

I'd grab my rifle and dog and be gone most of the day ,,

( now days you see a kid with a gun they call the SWAT team out,)

use to ride my bike a couple miles on the main road to a friends house to play ...

( folks never worried ,, weren't all the crazies out there then,,)

of course there was a few things that weren't as good,,,

the 4 party black phone that sat in the corner,,,,

had to get up early in the morning to hoe the beans,,,

was given a gallon buckets to go pick black berries ,, had that same couple mile area to cover,,,

Ahhh the good old days.... :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

When I was a kid, I'd get up on about any summer morning and my Mom (who never had to work a day in my life) would have a big breakfast ready for me. From about the time I was 8 years old, I'd ride my bike to the local school yard and we'd play baseball, or basketball or tackle football (no pads or helmets) or the latest new thing, street hockey all day long. All of this was done with no adult supervision. Somehow we were able to get it done. When we got hungry (which was often) we'd go over someone's house and con their Mom into making us sandwiches. All the Moms were home. Then back to the important stuff, more play.

In the winter we'd walk down to the local pond and set up a makeshift hockey rink. Boots were the goals. No boards, no pads (except shin guards if you had em). No slapshots 'cause then we'd lose the damn puck. Kids hardly ever fell through the ice.

Yeah, I played organized sports some too, Little League, Pee Wee Hockey, etc. but the games were never as good as when we played pickup in the school yard. Half of the fun was the arguments (and fights) when there was some controversial play. We didn't need any umps or refs. We worked it out OK.

Sometimes we'd ride several miles across town on our bikes and spend our hard earned change (allowance) on candy and "tonics" (that's New England speak for soda pop). We had no worries about being abducted or molested or messed with in any way. We knew the guy at "The Stone Store" by his first name, Jake. He liked us kids.

At night, I'd drag my dirty tired butt home by dinner time or be "in big trouble". If it wasn't ready yet we'd hang around outside and mess around out in our yard, or at one of the neighbors. When it was ready my Dad would whistle for us out the back door.

This was in a suburb fairly close to Boston in the 1960's.

Yeah, honestly, I do feel very sorry for kids these days. I wouldn't trade any of the "technology advancements" and "personal security" they get today for the freedom and independence I had back then.

It is amazing how even though I'm 28 90% of this stuff applies to me. I grew up on a small farm, attended a country school and my grandparents moved into the house across the county road that was the old school 40 years ago.

I have 4 children of my own and wish that they could have a similar childhood. The most unfortuneate change for most kids is having both parents forced to work to keep up with the current standard of living.

Here are a few things that might bring back memories for some.

Remember the days when getting hosed off before you could come in were just standard procedure. If you didn’t' need hosed off or the ticks picked out of your hair each night you didn't have any 'real' fun.

Playing basketball on the gravel driveway. Kicking the gravel out of the area so the ball doesn't bouncing all over hell. (We had a plywood backboard of course)

25ft. corded phones that would reach into any room in the house.

If you didn't slip on duck shit while playing tag, you weren't running fast enough.

I remember our first 3 wheeler, man that was fun to ride on 2 wheels.

Making bows and arrows out of an old fishing pole and 1/4" wooden dowels. All you needed was some feathers from the chickens and a pencil sharpener (the crank style) to make them fly straight.

Getting a "SWAT" was getting spanked in school for being unruly. I think we need to bring that back soon. Man those paddles hurt, but you stopped being a PITA!

Trying to see just how much pain you could inflick on your friends during football games.

Hit the Road Jack said:

And there were only 3 channels... In black and white!

Click to expand...

my dad insisted 'til the day he died the ONLY reason we ever got a color tv was when the NHL expanded past 6 teams and he couldn't make out the jersey's in b&w...

they also had a rotary dial phone until about 6 years ago when the phone system here would not longer recognize it

good times, good memories

[SIZE=8pt]not sure where my stubborn streak comes from, at all...[/SIZE] :derisive:

Silver Penguin said:

We had ONE, rotary dial phone (made of black bakelite) in the house. It was connected to a party-line shared with someone who lived nearby. Us kids used to listen in on his calls (which were very boring, but it was something we ought not to be doing, so that made it fun).

Click to expand...

+1, ours was the pinky flesh toned bakelite

party line sucked