Sunday, January 6, 2008

Under 30

The Spoiled Under 30 Crowd

If you are 30 or older, you will think this is hilarious... . If not, send it
to your parents. They'll think it's funny.

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 BOTH ways ..
Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in
heck 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 (ahem...waaaaay 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 dang Utopia. And I hate to say it
but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it.

1. 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. (Do you even know what a card catalog is? Didn't think
so.)

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.

3. There were no MP3's or Napsters. If you wanted to steal music, 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.

4. 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.

5. And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either. When the phone rang, you
had no idea who it was. It could be your school, your mom, your boss, a collections
agent, you just didn't know... You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister.

6. We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with
high-resolution 3-D graphics. If we were lucky, we had Video Pong and later
on the Atari 2600. With games like "Space Invaders" and "asteroids" and the
graphics were horrible. 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.

7. When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium
seating. All the seats were the same height. If a tall guy or some old broad
with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just out of luck.

8. Some of us had no cable...only 3 stations (maybe) that you had to go
outside and turn the antennae to be able pick up. Later on, we had cable
television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no
onscreen menu. You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out
what was on.

And 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.

9. And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up, we had
to use the stove or go build a fire ... Imagine that. If we wanted popcorn,
we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing or a pan with HOT oil and Real
popcorn kernels and shake it all over the stove forever like an idiot.

10. When we were on the phone with our friends and our parents walked-in, we
were stuck to the wall with a cord, a 7 foot cord that ran to the phone -
not the phone base, the actual phone. We barely had enough length to sit on
the floor and still be able to twirl t he phone cord in our fingers. If you
suddenly had to go to the bathroom - guess what we had to do..... Hang up
and talk to them later.

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 1960 or 1970 or 1980.

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

9 comments:

  1. Very funny indeed!  Imagine Celeste ... I didn't even have cassette tapes when I was young, I had record albums!  But ... the good news is, I'm not so old that I didn't get to cassette tapes before I got old -- but first we had to go through 8 track tapes.  LOL!!!

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  2. Funny!  But true.  In so very many ways, we raised our kids like the 70's.  Just a plain phone, no extra's.  A second hand atari.  Then a second hand Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt.  No computer until just a few years ago.  Half the time just the three major networkd on TV.  But I think it was good for them.  Bubba can live with an axe and a gun.  But he can also install stuff on computers, run diagnostic equipment and figure out any cell phone in 10 minutes.  ;o)  -  Barbara

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  3. Celeste this is brilliant ~ you are so right the kids today have got it made ~ Ally x

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  4. This is great, and so true!!  I especially like #3.
    Lori

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  5. LMAO OMG this is OH SO TRUE!!! Every one of these brought back memories! I'm going to read this to my son and see what he has to say. He will think I lived in the dark ages!!!
    Thanks for posting this.
    Pam

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  6. omg!! This is all so TRUE! I am 38 but I remember those days like they were yesterday....especially the Atari games lol

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  7. I remember when we had an iceman. Ouch! I am old but you know what I am glad I got to live to see all these modern things come about because it makes me appreciate everything. Nice entry. Paula

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  8. Here! Here!  Thank you SOOOO much! ;)  C.

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  9. One phone in the house, with a cord, no microwave, no color TV, no cell phones, no answering machines, cars started if they felt like it, no air conditioning.....

    xoxo

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