When I was a kid...

[tremo]

Warning: Copious use of exclamation points!!!

---
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 through year 'round blizzards, carrying their younger siblings on their backs to their one-room schoolhouse where they maintained a straight-A average, despite their full-time after-school job at the local textile mill where they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving to death!

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 got it! But...

Now that I've reached the ripe old age of twenty-nine, 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! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet -- we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damned library and look it up ourselves!

And there was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter -- with a pen! --and 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!

And there were no MP3s or Kazaa! You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or, we had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and f@#* it all up!

You want to hear about hardship? You couldn't just download porn! You had to bribe some homeless dude to buy you a copy of "Hustler" at the 7-11! Those were your options!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal! 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 boss, your mom, a collections agent, your drug dealer...you didn't know!!! You just had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

And we didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! There were games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids", and the graphics sucked ***! Your guy was a little square! You 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 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! A tall guy sat in front of you, you were screwed!

And sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 20 channels and there was no onscreen menu! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! And there was no Cartoon Network! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning......D'ya hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK, you spoiled little bastards!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled, I swear to God! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

[OKCTundra]

Originally Posted by tremo

When I was a Kid

Tremo, that was freakin' hilarious AND perfectly accurate!(another one of those exclamation marks)

[HockeyFreak]

Preach it TREMO!!!! Add another thing to the list....Cell phones! If our parents wanted us to come home for supper they leaned out of the door and yelled for us to come home!

[MustangSally]

Originally Posted by HockeyFreak

Preach it TREMO!!!! Add another thing to the list....Cell phones! If our parents wanted us to come home for supper they leaned out of the door and yelled for us to come home!

I grew up on a 73 acre farm. My mom had a whistle she'd blow whenever she wanted to round up us kids.

~MS

[wylcat]

Originally Posted by MustangSally

I grew up on a 73 acre farm. My mom had a whistle she'd blow whenever she wanted to round up us kids.

~MS

mine would whistle like that too . you could hear her all the way out at the creek (about a mile behind the house, thru the woods) and if you didn't come running you got an A#@ whoopin.

[Lazy Ace]

Well stated tremo but I gotta tell ya, when I read through your post, one of my first thoughts was “You had 20 channels?”. Man, back in the late 50’s and early 60’s we only had 3 and two of them didn’t come in very well at all. Another thing is that those 3 channels were at a neighbor’s house because not everyone had a television, and those that did normally had a smallish, round, black and white!

Yup, every generation was spoiled in the eyes of previous generations. I can only imagine what’s in store for future kids.

Oh yeah, by the way, pick up trucks only got between 8 and 10 mpg. Boy are we spoiled!

[TundraBear]

Originally Posted by HockeyFreak

Preach it TREMO!!!! Add another thing to the list....Cell phones! If our parents wanted us to come home for supper they leaned out of the door and yelled for us to come home!

or, you had to "check in" every hour. that was such a pain in the a$$ because you could only get ½ an hour away!

oooh, and what about clubhouses and secret handshakes?

and then riding ice blocks down hillsides or sewer sliding (us kids in the city would take trash can lids and ride in the street sewer tunnels) or cops & robbers where it was all about the honor system. BANG! i got you so you're dead!

[shelbix2020]

damm Im old ... I drove my neighbors kid to school for a couple days, the same school I went too, lol. I was like, when I was your age I had to ride my bike to school, uphill, in the rain, 7 miles, sometimes snow ... he was like no you didnt, your dad drove you he was right...

[H2O_MAN]

Good read -
Try lasting five minutes in 1970!

[TundrastruckDave]

Yeah I have to a agree with everyone's interpretation...

At least in the '60's and '70's you (sometimes) had to get out of the house to "CREATE & MAKE" your own fun... not to mention to just find anything to do sometimes!

Today, most kids have their noses "stuck" to a TV screen or computer monitor! My nephew is a prime example... he's 17 years old... doesn't have his drivers license yet (and doesn't seem to have much desire to get them)... AND.. AND... his sorry butt won't even try to get a summer job!! Worst of all... his mother is a single mom!

Thank GOD! I grew up when I did and have a few values... at least!

[tremo]

Just to clarify, I didn't write the essay below. Wish I had because it's funny as hell! I'm also a bit older than 29! (See my Profile for my DOB.)

I'm glad I am older as I can relate to all the posts so far! Had to earn everything I bought; we'd cut grass in the hot summer sun (Ohio and Illinios), rakes leaves in the fall and shovel snow in the winter.

I remember buying my first black and white TV at around 12 years old with my own hard earned cash. It had a "Cincinnati Bengals" orange case and was $98 bucks, a deal back then! Bought my own stereo, speakers, turntable (all Radio Shack "Realistic" brand...the big thing back then was "Quadra-phonic"...oh yeah baby!), my first car ('69 Pontiac LeMans, it was only 11 years old in 1980!), etc, etc.

Earning your own money to purchase what you want gives you a sense of accomplishment and pride. Funny, I do the same thing with the money I earn from my RAPS sales. It goes into a "GTO" savings account which I've been primarily using for mod's to my truck. (It's gonna take me awhile to get into a GTO at this pace!!) I like the feeling of earning it...

I'm glad they created a new thread...keep those posts coming...I'm enjoying reminiscing.

Seee-ya!

Jim.

[Ryone]

I'd give my left arm to grow up without all the "conveniences" we have today. Yeah, we have it easy as far as physically (cell phones, e-mail, 200 channels, life-like video games, etc...) but all this technology just makes people want things done too fast. There's no waiting around anymore. There are very few kids that grow up to be sane adults.
Everyone wants the magic pill or technologically advanced treatment to lose their fat @zzes instead of going to the gym or doing anything physical.
Kids know waaaay too much waaay to early, but they're not intelligent. There's no anticipation anymore... no eager waiting for anything.
You can't speak your mind... everyone is offended by everything.
If your kids join little league sports, they'll never win... since "winning" doesn't matter anymore they don't even keep score. Kids are raised to be spineless zombies with parents who won't discipline them for fear of "hurting" the childs fragile mind, or even going to jail.
You get in more trouble for a DUI than you get in for doing drugs or stealing.

I envy those who grew up in the "good ol' days"... I really do.

[H2O_MAN]

Originally Posted by tremo

Just to clarify, I didn't write the essay below. Wish I had because it's funny as hell! I'm also a bit older than 29! (See my Profile for my DOB.)

Welcome to the old fart's club

Originally Posted by tremo

Funny, I do the same thing with the money I earn from my RAPS sales. It goes into a "GTO" savings account which I've been primarily using for mod's to my truck. (It's gonna take me awhile to get into a GTO at this pace!!)

Jim.

A little off topic -- I would like to help you get that GTO -- How well does RAPS work with an ARB bumper?
It looks like the inlet would need to be relocated to take advantage of the ram air effect.

[tremo]

Originally Posted by 7.62mm

Welcome to the old fart's club

A little off topic -- I would like to help you get that GTO -- How well does RAPS work with an ARB bumper?
It looks like the inlet would need to be relocated to take advantage of the ram air effect.

Thanks for your interest/potential contribution! I sent you a PM...

Jim.

[Buzzard]

Funny=======I know its hard for the "Old Farts Club" to keep up with all the new stuff that comes out. Im still learning new things every day. For instance--I bought a portable radio at a garage sale the other day for my shop. Its got a hole to stick a plastic box in. I KNOW this is gonna be hard for some of you people to believe but that bugger has got 8 TRACKS ON IT. I didnt believe it myself til I heard it play. Ill bet it will be hard to buy 78 rpm records in a few years.---Buzz