by Dianne
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 over the ripe old age of forty, 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!
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 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 ten 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 Torrents 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 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 then the tape would come undone
rendering it useless.
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 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 MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror… not
being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there was no TEXTING. Yeah, right.
Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.
8) 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 only on Saturday
morning. Do you hear what I’m saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for
cartoons, you spoiled little rugrats!
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 1970 or any time before!
Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd