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A little something to read, if you're having a boring work day
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 my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that I'm approaching middle age, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. they have it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, they 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!
1) 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 catalog!!
2) 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!
3) 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! Nowhere was safe!
4) 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!
5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*%; 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?
6) 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!
7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! 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!
9) 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!
10) 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!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!
11) 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!
12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
13) 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 the 60's or any time before!
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 my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that I'm approaching middle age, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. they have it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, they 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!
1) 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 catalog!!
2) 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!
3) 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! Nowhere was safe!
4) 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!
5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*%; 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?
6) 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!
7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! 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!
9) 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!
10) 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!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!
11) 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!
12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
13) 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 the 60's or any time before!
Comments
However I think each generation has it's own issues and challenges to deal with, and relatively, within context they are equal in difficulty. I think every generation since the stone age has probably looked back and said "Boy, did I ever have it tougher than you do."
Rather than considering the advances in technology as improvements, play the devils advocate and think about how they could be viewed as potential stressors. For example, if some kid was getting picked on at school it usually only happened at school by a relatively small number of people. Now, it takes a few clicks and hundreds if not thousands can be picking on them 24/7. Maybe not the best example, but I'm sure you get my drift.
PS. Did you say middle age? Going for the Guinness book eh?
Parents nowadays are a joke too ftr.
Now, where's my popcorn and lawn chair? It's a little chilly, but weathernetwork says it will warm up by tomorrow . . .
Letter writing and receiving was the shizznit (fun)!
When I was kid:
- I had to make my bed every morning
- once I was old enough to reach the sink, my siblings and I fully took over dish washing duties
- we helped clean the house every other weekend. I had to vacuum, my step brother dusted and my stepsister cleaned bathrooms. Then the next week we rotated responsibilities
-if I was thirsty I would get myself a drink, I did not ask one of my parents to do fetch it for me
-after dinner, I carried my own dishes to the sink and helped clean up
-I got gifts (new toys, games, action figures, etc..) on my birthday and Xmas with the occassional gift for very special occassions.
-I got new clothes right before school started AND I had little to no say in what those clothes were. If my Mom thought it looked good on me she bought it and I better god damn well wear it or there was hell to pay.
My step-son and the kids of his generation seem to have the misconception that "parent" is a synonym for "butler" or "servant" and "atm". Obviously, in our household this is not the case but I see all the time with his friends and children of our friends. If you don't wait on your child and give them everything they want than you are a bad parent. The children expect the newest video games the day they come out. They expect to have all designer clothes and accessories and lots of them. It is a horrible cruelty to expect them to clean up after themselves or help with any household chores. This shit really pisses me off because children with this self entitled and lazy mentality grow into adults with this mentality. I really do worry about how soft the next generation will become.
Just my 2cents.
- Real LAWN DARTS. Not those shitty things they pass off today. Throw it high in the air and run like hell.
- Skating/Biking w/o a helmet. These days some look like they are ready for a space walk.
- If you broke a piece off of a toy and choked you learned a valuable lesson.
You had to go to the bank to withdraw money. No atms.. No Debit
We lived on a farm. Phone was a party line. 4 farms on 1 line 4 different rings 1 per house. You got major shit if you picked up the phone and it wasn't for anyone in your house.
8 track tape decks had no rewind or fast forward. No skip like cd players.
When I started driving 1979. Gas was 44 cents per litre.
Min wage was $3.75 per hr.
Oct 1988 I bought a Chev S-10 Bandit Pick up Truck $8500.00 I paid for it.
32 yrs later . Fuel is $1.15 /l Min Wage is $10.00 / hr
My truck. Same as a Chev Colorado . $32,000 +
We used to be able to buy a car. UNSATISFIED JUDGMENT. $125.00 for the year. This was insurance.
Now it has to be safetied, E TESTED and fully insured.
Get your idea and in general agree except Canada didn't change gasoline to metric until 1981. In 79 Avg gas prices were about $.90 per imperial gallon. When I started working in 1970 gas was $.29 per gallon and I was starting my IBM career at a whopping $550. per month. I thought I was rich.
Oil and also gas spiked in 1979 because of the Iran/Iraq war. In terms of todays $$'s, gas is about the same today as it was in 79.. However that doesn't tell the whole story...
Sorry. in 1984 we were paying around 45 cents/litre. It cost me less than $20.00 to fill the Z28 and a little over 20 to fill the truck . 79 Chev
I remember a buddy of mine saying he could go around the world on a Fin in his 75 Civic.
Now our Jeep bone dry is $75 and the truck would be $65 or so.
I can remember
Lrg pck of smokes $.85 Bottle of coke - Nickle and you could get a bag full of penny candy for a quarter. Oh the good old days.
1975. $5.00 would get you into a movie, drink and a large tub of popcorn and then a slice of pizza after the show. Phony actors were not pulling down 20 mil a picture then either. lol
Went to MLG to see RUSH. A FAREWELL TO KINGS TOUR Dec 30 1977.
Sat in the Golds by the stage $12.00 for the ticket. Today $100
I've never put more than $20 in my car in the 5 years I've owned it.
Mark
Ummm... being from the middle ages doesn't constitute being middle aged sir. *Ducks zee ban hammer*
Actually, they do. They brag about it all the bloody time!
I used to worry about this a lot too. I think there's always going to be a % of soft people in every generation. Does it seem like there will be more in this one? Yeap, but I keep seeing all these great ones at camp every summer and my faith in the future remains unshakeable.