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Fri 22 Aug, 2008 08:07 am
Dear 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 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 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 damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it but kids today don't know how good you have 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 20 page 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! **What is the new postage rate? I haven't bought stamps in over a year!
There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the 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 @#*% it all up!
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 Boxes 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 collection 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!
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 screwed!
Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! 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 butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel 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, you spoiled little rat-bastards!
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 Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.
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!
Regards,
The over 30 Crowd
Received via E-mail, with slight edits.
Quote: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, you spoiled little rat-bastards!
I just delivered this rant in person last week!
The kid was watching "Saturday morning cartoons," and I was explaining how that actually used to be a big deal!!
i remember when saturday morning cartoons were actually on saturday
Haha funny. Thanks DrewDad
"And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!
Just like LIFE!"
- I'm not even quite 30 yet and I find myself thinking a lot of these things. Especially with the damn phones and Mp3s and tv and all the technology they have been able to take for granted.
On the other hand, it is kinda cool being able to watch everything change right within your lifetime. I remember the first shared computers! Those first emails! The first time my friends got phone lines of their own without having to share with other guys. And of course the first cell phones and the like.
We actually had to walk to school and getting a computer for the first time of ones own was a HUGE deal.
ok for some reason this really annoys me, yes we have it better than you did, so what, its called things changing, i could have the same argument and say that you all had it easy too, compare yourselves to Greeks or something, you have it much better than they did. The world cganges, things get better, your parents didnt have TVs they sat and listened to the radio, you say "Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!" Your parents didnt have a guy, they had to imagine him. so please, stop boring me to tears with your tedious diatribes about how hard things were when you were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning .. uphill BOTH ways. yadda, yadda, yadda.
and when you walked away the kid didnt even care, he was just really annoyed.
you know cars used to be a big deal too
Back when I was a boy, we even had to start sentences with capital letter, and show some regard for spelling.
And in my day, kids had a sense of humor.
When I was about twenty three, I was in some place trying to get work. An older guy and one about five years younger than me were having a conversation as I walked through the door. The young guy was laughing his ass off. Then I realized the old one was telling horrendous tales of his own life during the Great Depression. I don't know if the young one thought he was making it up or what, but the more awful the details, the louder the young guy laughed. I was born near enough to the depression days to know the old man spoke the truth. But I knew by that exchange that I would never bore my own kids with such stories.
Ah! that was true for me! (Btw, i'm still not over 30
...)
In small town India, where I grew up, Internet and cable TV hadn't really caught up till say 8 or 10 years ago.
Cartoons were on TV only on Sunday morning. Just 30 minutes. Yes, I waited all week for it and sometimes the cartoon program would be canceled because there was a cricket match. I can still remember that sinking feeling when I saw the men in white....
But I think it was enjoyable to wait all week for that treat. And I remember waiting for my dad's letters (he wrote to me from wherever he traveled on work)
Those were good days. I find playstations and the like boring:)
It annoys me too. I was born in 78, and experienced a lot of these things too.
But, just imagine what parents will be saying 20 years from now.
"Back then, we didn't have fabbers (three dimensional printers) you had to buy at the store, if they didn't make it you were SOL. We didn't have virtual reality tech where you can put your head in a magnetic helmet and experience whatever you want, we had tv and the internet and that was it! We didn't have self-driving cars, if you were too young to drive and operate the vehicle yourself or have someone who could operate it for you, too bad, you were stuck!"
Though, things do get better, gotta love science and tech.
Actually, I think Saturday morning cartoons (in the US at least) are pretty much-non existent now. There are some, but none on the 3 main broadcast networks, ABC, CBS,NBC. From 6AM to 12PM every saturday from 1980, to about 1995 there was nothing but cartoons.
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