For the over 36 crowd

[erussell]

Found this funny and thought I would pass it on.

If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

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 damn 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 10 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 Napsters 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 @#*% 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?

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 freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn 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.

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 on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

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

[deerpassion]

boy i still remember when i had a beaper, and if i got paged by my mother, i had better find a pay phone or a friends house line to call home OR ELSE! haha....

[wooly]

boy i still remember when i had a beaper, and if i got paged by my mother, i had better find a pay phone or a friends house line to call home OR ELSE! haha....

Ahhhh hell, you're still a young buck! Back in my day, momma used to flash the porch lights or simply slam the front door shut.

If you weren't home by lights out, ya slept with the critters..... not that that was such a bad thing,lol! We all could use a little extended family some days!

[Doc]

Sure, in our house you had to remember that your phone ring was 4 longs and three short rings. Imagine that! and the phone had a separate ear-piece and the mouth-piece was a part of the box on the wall. I had to get a chair to stand on to speak into it.

We still have one dial-type phone in the house just for nostalgic purposes. I laughed my butt off when my grand-nephew tried to use it. He didn't have a clue what the heck the dial was all about.

I remember our first TV. It was the goofiest looking thing, and got a whole 3 channels. Of course it was black and white only.

Oh yeah, I could go on forever ..... blah .... blah .... blah. But over any significant period of time, we do get to see some awesome note-worthy changes.

And the comment about the old days when everyone sat around the console radio staring at it ..... yep, I've been there too ..... lol.

[Paula]

Doc i tried to find an old phone at a garage sale because we went through so many of the cordless phones. I finaly shut phone off, no more house phone. Was it a certain ring because it was a party line?

[Four Season Whitetail's]

But on a side note lets not forget how good we had it. With me pushin the big 50 i can remember when i first started with the friday to sunday party times. I could go out with $5 bucks and tear up a night. For that 5 dollars i could go out on the town or go to the woods with a case of Genny beer and a pack of smokes and get some change back. 99 cents a 6 pack (bottles) and 55 cents for a pack of smokes. Then you threw your change together with yur bud's and got ya's a 5th of southern comfort. Talkin about buds...Well we wont talk about those. lol... Times sure have changed but i sure remember the good old days!!

[Paula]

But on a side note lets not forget how good we had it. With me pushin the big 50 i can remember when i first started with the friday to sunday party times. I could go out with $5 bucks and tear up a night. For that 5 dollars i could go out on the town or go to the woods with a case of Genny beer and a pack of smokes and get some change back. 99 cents a 6 pack (bottles) and 55 cents for a pack of smokes. Then you threw your change together with yur bud's and got ya's a 5th of southern comfort. Talkin about buds...Well we wont talk about those. lol... Times sure have changed but i sure remember the good old days!!

i think i hung out with you lol

[oneidacountyhunter]

oh how times have changed. That brought back alot of memories, Even though I was an 80's kid I can relate to it all, and find myself saying the same things to my kids! Thanks for the laugh this morning

[Deerthug]

Lol! It's funny that i used to hear these from my Dad when I was growing up and now i say them to my teenaged kids.

The classic my Dad used to say: "I used to walk 5 miles to school each way up hill both ways with no soles on my shoes" And each time he told me this the miles got longer and longer!

[sg0331]

Very funny, but so true!!!!

[growalot]

That was great...Gosh I remember party lines...you'd pick up the phone and ppl would be talking and you'd have hang up and wait...or talking and a third voice would appear saying..." I need to use the line".....The Moms or Dads calling out "Bobby!!!Dinner"....."Jimmy home Now!!"

I feel bad for kids /young adults now....Having to be/feel connected to someone /some thing all the time...I rather enjoyed being with just my own uninterrupted thoughts at times...taking in every thing around me...probably why I enjoy the outdoors so much

[Elmo]

Coming here as an immagrant in 1980, I had to grow up poor in some pretty harsh neighborhoods. So when I talk about walking miles to school in the snow with holes in my shoes, I am not exaggerating. Now, my nieces get pampered and I find myself giving them the hard old days stories already. My brother and my parents do everything for them. I remember when I was 12 years old, my dad gave me several hundred dollars in an envelop and told me the electric bill is due today. Go to the ConEd office and pay the bill. When I asked where was the ConEd office, his response was "Go find out. Why do I work so hard to send you to school?" So I checked the phone book, called the office, checked the bus map, took the bus, and paid the bill. Now, my nieces are 17 and 13 and we still do a lot for them. When I asked my dad how come he does so much for them but when I was their age he made me do everything myself, he simply said "Times have changed."

[Marti375]

I'm over 40 and convinced that even though times have changed, there still tough. I think were just grumpy because we miss our youth. My video game was a .22 and what ever junk I could find to shoot at. I wish I could be 10 yrs old at my grandfathers camp just once more.

[nyantler]

You forgot how there were no laws against smoking in public... as a kid I sat in the car while my mom and dad smoked like chimneys.. they smoked on planes, in restaurants, even in the doctors office! Seems crazy now.. but it was so normal back then. My parents both smoked a few packs a day, so I figure I did about a pack a day of 2nd hand smoking as a kid..

Edited September 10, 2012 by nyantler

[nyantler]

How about the hunting clothes and boots back then... lucky some of us didn't freeze to death before we were 18... a snowmobile suit and snowmobile boots were the warmest clothes you could get... and they didn't come in camo or blaze orange... most of the time it was cotton long underwear and jeans.. and maybe a Woolrich coat if Dad had the extra money. Maybe thats why the cold doesn't bother me so much now.. or maybe at 53 I'm just numb from the neck up.

Edited September 10, 2012 by nyantler

[Doc]

Doc i tried to find an old phone at a garage sale because we went through so many of the cordless phones. I finaly shut phone off, no more house phone. Was it a certain ring because it was a party line?

Yes. I believe that if someone wanted to they could listen in on your conversations just by picking up their own phone when they heard the ring. I was pretty little back then so I don't remember ever actually using it more than once or twice. Kids didn't get on the phone much back then .... lol.

[Doc]

Speaking of changes, I have to mention the old 3-holer that was a nice 5 minute brisk walk from the house on a cold winter night. I never could figure out why you would put 3 holes in an outhouse. Were there some people that needed company when they answered the call of nature? ..... lol. Things were a lot better when we finally got that nice chemical toilet a couple of years after we moved onto the new farm (you don't want to know about the old farm .... lol. And the trips out to the well for water were a nice touch also. What a great deal when we finally got indoor plumbing. Ha-ha, I haven't thought about those early years in a long time. Thanks for posting that article. It's been fun.

[ncountry]

Ahh the good ol days.lol .. I remember taking a shower everytime we got a hard rain (esp.. thunderstorms) under the valley on the house .It beat the heck out of sharing the tub with my little brother while mom poured boiling(at least that is how I remember it) water off the cookstove over our heads. We lived on a small 100 acre farm and there was nowhere that we could not hear dad's whistle .When he whistled you best be home in 5 min or less or it wasn't good. Hell, I am 41 years old and I still run 1/2 the time to go get a tool or what ever else I may need to work.Lollygagging wasn't allowed. Starting the old hand crank tractors when I was 12, throwing the bucket down the dug well and pulling it back out..Do you know many gallons 17 horses, 2 cows,and 3 pigs can drink in a day? I cannot remember but it was a lot. Come to think of it I am really spoiling my 8 year old girl.

[Fletch]

Great topic!!

I was born in 67 so I qualify!!

The biggest difference I notice is we were outside ALL the time. After school, all summer and all winter. I have a 10 year old and 12 year old and there is no way I would let them out of my site from dawn to dusk like we were. You did not have to worry about so many wackos and shit when we were kids. And all the neighbors kept an eye on all the kids. My neighbors had permission to chew our asses! Now I have lived where I am now 10 years and still do not know some of the neighbors! I certainly do not trust people nowadays.

When I was 14 I would walk from the house through a strip mall parking lot, across a very busy road, through the bowling alley lot to the woods to rabbit, squirrel... hunt. No body looked at me twice. If a kid made that walk now with a gun the cops would be called how many times?? And this was the burbs not out in the country.

And criminies with all the helmets for the bikes and skate boards and safety this and that........ How did we ever survive!!

[Dinsdale]

Thanks for posting.....

Us 3 kids got a Atari pong game one Christmas (and that was it for toys, just cloths and stuff we needed for the rest.LOL)Mid 70's I'd guess?

We left it on attached to an old black and white. Eventually it ghosted the screen and you could always see the lines in it when trying to use it as TV.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Starting the old hand crank tractors when I was 12,

how many times have you gotten the crank to the back of the hand when it ung up. I can remember that.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Great topic!!

I was born in 67 so I qualify!!

The biggest difference I notice is we were outside ALL the time. After school, all summer and all winter. I have a 10 year old and 12 year old and there is no way I would let them out of my site from dawn to dusk like we were. You did not have to worry about so many wackos and shit when we were kids. And all the neighbors kept an eye on all the kids. My neighbors had permission to chew our asses! Now I have lived where I am now 10 years and still do not know some of the neighbors! I certainly do not trust people nowadays.

When I was 14 I would walk from the house through a strip mall parking lot, across a very busy road, through the bowling alley lot to the woods to rabbit, squirrel... hunt. No body looked at me twice. If a kid made that walk now with a gun the cops would be called how many times?? And this was the burbs not out in the country.

And criminies with all the helmets for the bikes and skate boards and safety this and that........ How did we ever survive!!

Mom and dad send my tot he old counrty store at 5 for Cigs...lol. go figure.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Thanks for posting.....

Us 3 kids got a Atari pong game one Christmas (and that was it for toys, just cloths and stuff we needed for the rest.LOL)Mid 70's I'd guess?

We left it on attached to an old black and white. Eventually it ghosted the screen and you could always see the lines in it when trying to use it as TV.

I think I still have one in my parents basement. single or double player. had tennis, hockey and squash. no multiple levels...just faster and faster.

[Dinsdale]

I think I still have one in my parents basement. single or double player. had tennis, hockey and squash. no multiple levels...just faster and faster.

That's the one!

[greybeard]

No air conditioners in cars, and no one had one in the house...Black and white t.v.

Could never imagine that a snow blower would be invented.

Mowed the lawn with a push mower.and pulled out dandelions and crabgrass with a screwdriver.

Bodybuilders weren't all juiced up with steroids.

When someone committed murder they "GOT THE CHAIR"

You could buy army surplus rifles from barrels in a dept. store. I bought a British Enfield carbine for $28. and my girlfriend, now wife of 41 years, bought me an 1873 45-70 Springfield carbine for $45.

Learned Taxidermy from the Northwestern School of Taxidermy (mail order). Smoked non filtered cigarettes and didn't worry about it.(but we all were told that Arthur Godfrey got cancer from smoking) You could smoke in supermarkets. You could buy non filtered cigs for twenty cants and could buy small packs of 3 at some places, and no age restrictions for cigs.

Tattoo parlors were closed in NYC.

I never knew anyone who sued another person. We knew how to talk to each other and negotiate, and compromise.

My parents gave us a kids book "Rob Whitlock, A pioneer Boy in Ohio", which was about a boy who hunted and trapped, and no one thought that a book like that was unusual for a boy to read ( I still have it). We all had coonskin caps because of Davey Crockett ( Fess Parker).

No one used narcotics, and didn't know what they were...... but drank some Thunderbird wine with the boys at night.. Pitched pennies..I had fun...