Thursday, February 28, 2008

Thursday Thirteen

Archived TTs ~ TT Headquarters

For The Over 30 Crowd

1. When I was a kid, we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the dang library and look it up ourselves...in the card c atalog!! (Do you even kn ow 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!

3. 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!

4. There were no MP3's or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the dang record store and shoplift it yourself!

5. Or... wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!

6. 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!

7. 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 collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

8. 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" 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!

9. 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!

10. Sure, 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!

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!

12. 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.

13. 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 the 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.

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 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've got it made! And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!

24 comments, add yours here:

Laura Paxton said...

I like this list...read it a couple of times before, and it always reminds me that we actually have it a lot better than our parents did!

Happy T-13!

Jubilee on Earth said...

Too funny! I so cracked up at this. I forgot all about the cable TV guide. Yeah... take that all you youngin's out there!!

LOL

~Maria
www.jubileeonearth.com

Di said...

I agree with being bored by adult diatribes...so it's hard for me to understand why my children are always hanging around and eavesdropping on my conversations with my friends. And I'm even more perplexed by the fact that when THEY are home and I am out, they call to tell me to come home!!! I never wanted my parents to come home.

Unknown said...

AMEN! There were no cell phones, there were just cordless phones and pay phones.

Have a great Thursday! Come on over and laugh at my thirteen, but not too hard!

Odat said...

Bring back the simple times!
Great list.
Peace

maryt/theteach said...

Oh Tish, ain't all that the truth! How did we live with stadium seating (I mean it!) and microwaves? Great post! :D

Malcolm said...

I remember we had one of those big electric popcorn poppers when I was a kid. It also had a butter well on top so that it could melt on to the popcorn as it popped.

One thing that kills me is when people who have digital cable are channel surfing and complain that there is nothing to watch. You mean to tell me that you have well over 100 channels and you can't find anything worthwhile to watch?!

Anonymous said...

I'd hate to see the list for those of us over 40...

LOL

Sandee said...

It's all true. I so remember all of this and much more. Very well done. Have a great TT. :)

Deb said...

Amen! Makes you wonder what our kids' kids will have that we don't now, doesn't it... :)

Unknown said...

Yeah you know you are getting older when you can relate to what your parents used to say...BUT I refuse to believe dad walked to school wearing cardboard boxes because they only had one pair of boots and it was uphill both ways.

Yeah, I remember everything you said and then some.

Speaking of thirties I did a retrospect of that era today for my TT

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh...mailboxes. I remember the big blue ones on the corner in the neighborhood I grew up in.

Akelamalu said...

Ah the good old days! :)

Fratzels said...

I used to live for Saturday mornings - the smurfs were my favorite.

Mississippi Songbird said...

This is cute. thanks for posting..Have a great day..

Not So Anonymous Michelle said...

I love this lst, so great! I'm 29 but still related to all of it! haha

Maggie Moo said...

This is great! I remember once I was trying to tape a song and my mother opened the door and ruined it. Oh, I was so angry!!!

Unknown said...

These were so funny. My favorite was #5. I often waited to tape my favorite song only to have the darn DJ talk over it. They must have taught that in DJ school. LOL

Travis Cody said...

I think we could take this back, generation by generation, all the way to the invention of fire.

Dallas Meow said...

oh this is the BEST!
'course we didn't have cable - wouldn't have had time to watch though, what with those long walks back and forth to school
...
up hill
...
each way
;)

is there voting? I vote you

Amy @ The Q Family said...

Love the list. Remind me just how old I am.

Patti said...

This is a great post!! :D I'm LMAO!!!

I'm showing my age here ... I know all the stuff you listed!! I know what a card catalog is! Yup! I do!!! :) And Atari ruled!! ;)

Thanks for the laugh and the trip down memory lane! (sigh) Those were some good ol' days!! hehe

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

ha ha ha, honey i can remember not even having a phone or a tv!

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxox

Jillie Bean (AKA Bubba's Sis) said...

This is hilarious!!!