Remember the Card Catalog, Tape Players, and Space Invaders?
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
I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to tell my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
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Internet - 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!!
E-mail - 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 10 cents!
Parenting - 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 smack us! Nowhere was safe!
There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If 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 would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% 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. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?
Call Waiting - 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! If you were waiting on your boyfriend to call while your little sister was on the phone, tough luck!
Cell Phones - There weren't any cell phones. 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's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.
Caller ID - 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, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
Games - 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! There were no cheat codes because you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!Television - 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!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what was the world coming to?!?!
Cartoons - 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!
Outside - 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!
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! She just had cheap car insurance so you'd better hope like heck that you didn't damage that dashboard!
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 1980 or any time before!
8 comments, add yours here:
Well done! Love "The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!"
Oh Lord I'm old! HAHA
Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
Now I know where the world is going wrong. Life is just too easy.
I can remember the 8-track player!
I'm twice your age and I had it a lot rougher than you did. Oh wait, I was your parents age. Forget that. Bwahahahahaha.
They will do the very same thing so not to worry. It always seems to come back to haunt them later. My son is a perfect example.
Have a terrific day. Big hug. :)
I rather fondly remember card catalogs and the way that old libraries smelled, too!
My father was always a big advocate for seat belts way back in the day before they were mandatory or even in all cars. He always said "This car goes nowhere until everyone is buckled up". My Dad was a smart guy! Still, there were no baby seats back then and my brother John made the trip from Connecticut to Florida in a cardboard box when he was a baby!
Oh my gosh...what a flash back I just had. I remember all of these things and have tried to tell Sam about all of them too. Sometimes he just looks at my like I'm crazy. I agree with you...they would not survive.
nice post. thanks.
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