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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
@DrewDad,
Received via E-mail, with slight edits.
@DrewDad,
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!!
@sozobe,
i remember when saturday morning cartoons were actually on saturday
@DrewDad,
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.
@sozobe,
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
@ocean5124,
Back when I was a boy, we even had to start sentences with capital letter, and show some regard for spelling.
@ocean5124,
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.
@sozobe,
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:)
@ocean5124,
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.
@sozobe,
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.
@DrewDad,
Yes all that stuff about kids today is true, but I have noticed we had one thing over on kids today. That is kids when I was one. We were much better looking than kids today. The kids today are just plain FAT!
When I was at school we always had one fate kid, to bash up on. Now look at them. Yes the girls were much better looking when I was at school.
Dardardit,
@the snare,
There are still cartoons... they tend to be cable stuff that is shown on networks on Saturday mornings. Qubo is on NBC I think, Disney on ABC? (that'd make sense), stuff like that.
Yeah, just checked TV Guide -- ABC, CBS and NBC all have stuff aimed at kids on Saturday morning, not necessarily "cartoons" though. (Some are, some aren't.)
@ocean5124,
She was mostly just shocked. What, there was no Cartoon Network? No Nickelodeon, no Disney Channel? You couldn't just watch this stuff whenever you wanted? Weird.
Mo cracked me up the other day by stomping around saying "I bet Granny let you play "M" (mature) games when you were a kid!"
I was glad to be able to answer him truthfully that she absolutely did not.
@boomerang,
Ha! Yeah, the other day she asked me what my favorite video game was when I was her age. It took her a loooong time to figure out why I was giving her a blank "think about it!" stare...
This all reminds me of the Beloit College Mindset List -- always a fascinating thing:
The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2013
Quote: Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1991.
For these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, The Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.
Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.
The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.
They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.
Salsa has always outsold ketchup.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive.
Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.
They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.
Rap music has always been main stream.
Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.
Someone has always been building something taller than the Willis (née Sears) Tower in Chicago.
The KGB has never officially existed.
Text has always been hyper.
They never saw the “Scud Stud” (but there have always been electromagnetic stud finders.)
Babies have always had a Social Security Number.
They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.
Bungee jumping has always been socially acceptable.
They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.
American students have always lived anxiously with high-stakes educational testing.
Except for the present incumbent, the President has never inhaled.
State abbreviations in addresses have never had periods.
The European Union has always existed.
McDonald's has always been serving Happy Meals in China.
Condoms have always been advertised on television.
Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
Christopher Columbus has always been getting a bad rap.
The American health care system has always been in critical condition.
Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.
Desperate smokers have always been able to turn to Nicoderm skin patches.
There has always been a Cartoon Network.
The nation’s key economic indicator has always been the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.
They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
Women have always outnumbered men in college.
We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
Amateur radio operators have never needed to know Morse code.
Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.
It's always been official: President Zachary Taylor did not die of arsenic poisoning.
Madonna’s perspective on Sex has always been well documented.
Phil Jackson has always been coaching championship basketball.
Ozzy Osbourne has always been coming back.
Kevin Costner has always been Dancing with Wolves, especially on cable.
There have always been flat screen televisions.
They have always eaten Berry Berry Kix.
Disney’s Fantasia has always been available on video, and It’s a Wonderful Life has always been on Moscow television.
Smokers have never been promoted as an economic force that deserves respect.
Elite American colleges have never been able to fix the price of tuition.
Nobody has been able to make a deposit in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
Britney Spears has always been heard on classic rock stations.
They have never been Saved by the Bell
Someone has always been asking: “Was Iraq worth a war?”
Most communities have always had a mega-church.
Natalie Cole has always been singing with her father.
The status of gays in the military has always been a topic of political debate.
Elizabeth Taylor has always reeked of White Diamonds.
There has always been a Planet Hollywood.
For one reason or another, California’s future has always been in doubt.
Agent Starling has always feared the Silence of the Lambs.
“Womyn” and “waitperson” have always been in the dictionary.
Members of Congress have always had to keep their checkbooks balanced since the closing of the House Bank.
There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.
Avon has always been “calling” in a catalog.
NATO has always been looking for a role.
Two Koreas have always been members of the UN.
Official racial classifications in South Africa have always been outlawed.
The NBC Today Show has always been seen on weekends.
Vice presidents of the United States have always had real power.
Conflict in Northern Ireland has always been slowly winding down.
Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.
Nobody has ever responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
Congress could never give itself a mid-term raise.
There has always been blue Jell-O.
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