IF you are 30 or older you will think this is their tedious discription about how hard things were


When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with

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 live in a freakin
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.
If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the
dang library and look it up ourselves, in the card
catalog!!

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!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal
music, you had to hitchhike to the dang 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!

And talk of about hardship? You couldn't just
download ****! You had to steal it from your brother or 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, 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,
a collections 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" and the graphics sucked ! 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 onscreen 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 ........

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat
something up . we had to use the stove or go build a
frigging fire ... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use
that stupid JiffyPop 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!

 

I like what you have to say here,back up another 15 years then you are in my world and that was almost as much different as the one you are talking about.I did make it though.

 

How about when you screwed up in school, and you actually did get the strap? Or part of your detention was cleaning chalkboard erasers? Know what a chalkboard is? Heck yeah, kids nowadays sure got it easy.

I remember cell phones and pagers being confiscated if I even brought one on school property. Oh yeah, and text messaging? We had to pass notes.

Still on the pager thing, yeah they were convenient, as long as you bucked up for a toll free number. Then you could check your voice messages for free from a pay phone.

Yup, back then, only doctors and contractors had cell phones, and they came in a bag. More often than not, they were called "car phones" because they were so big and cumbersome, that you were better off leaving it in the car.

Wow, way off in left field huh?

How about this one.

When I was a kid, if I drove to school, I had to park 3 blocks away, because all the closer parking spots were taken.

 

hahah i really feel like im getting old now

 

I'm not quite 30, but I'm almost there. Heres my take on it.

Kids today do have a lot of technology that they like to use, and does make some things easier.

That said, there is a BUT to that. Kids today are also expected to learn quite a bit more than even I did in High School, and if you think all that technology is easy to use, your wrong. Most people that old won't even try using that stuff, because they say, "Oh, I don't need that stuff."

I saw something the other day talking about how well children today multi-task. This is because of all of the stuff that they use today. Think about it, how much homework did you have in school? I had one, two assignments a day. My sister came home, and called me the other day. She had THREE, count them THREE 5 page essays to write. Shes not the one to wait to start either, so don't think that she just put them off and then had three, she had three at once. And this isn't out of the ordinary, physics, English, and and social sciences are the courses. She has things like that happen all the time. I know I might get two papers to write for some of those courses in a year.

 

What really erks me is the work ethic I see in these young ones (16-20's), not just the odd one but ALL of the ones I've seen. My dad told me to work hard no matter what job I had, and if an employer ever had a problem with me and phones my dad to discuss about it...boy watch out cause I was gonna get it!

 

our parents tried too hard to give us everything. it's their fault.

 

Go back a few more years no cable at all lucky to have 4 tv channels,all phones were on party lines unless you were rich and only had to dail 5 numbers to get who you were calling.Forget about Atarti we had woods hills and gullies to play in unless you lived in town.

 

i think kids these days have it worst than before. i feel sorry for them at times. they are constntly reminded about how tough the "real" world is all the time, and must be serious, no acting like...well.....kids!

i remember back being able to do this and that, ride bikes at night, steal some mags, ride bikes anywhere for that matter, when i got my dirt bike, being able to cruise with that on the gravel roads, such fun involved with it all.

now, heck, there are curfews everywhere it seems now days, someone seeing a kid ride a bike at nite thinks"he is up to no good, his parents are criminals", the constant drug pushing on younger and younger kids, and the "eductaion is the most important thing" so kids spend most their life studying, heck, even over the summer in some places.

and in HS, getting some beeer from somewhere, cruising the gravel roads, haveing a party down by the lake, criusing the "lap" pulling into parking lots and talking, in my old hometown thats the way it use to be, but not anymore. curfews for those under 16, no assembling in parking lots(private owned is why) and if you get caught underage with a drink, the trouble you get into is way more serious than it used to be, even though someoen can join the military at 18, get stationed in europe and drink legally just fine.

poor kids, their life is supplmented with technology and doodads, live life behind a dsl line, they are socially deprived, absent of the experience that made america what it was in the past and today. now everyone is paranoid about everything. yes, i rather grow up when i did than now days.

did i really just write that much!!!!!!!!!! wow!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I may just be the oldest guy here (almost 72), but I can honestly say that I grew up in the best of times and wouldn't change a thing. My only regret is that my children and grandchildren, with all their technology and conveniences, will have to face far greater challenges than I did. I grew up in a time when we were the world's manufacturer, the largest lender nation, respected and envied all over the world; a time when opportunity was everywhere. I have watched with sadness as industries disappeared and our economy grew dependent on foreign money. I have made sure my children are educated and understand that prosperity in the future will require them to work from the neck up. I regret I will not leave the country as good as it was. Rant over.
Dono

 

that's funny about the walking to school uphill both ways story, i sometimes use that on my kids as i heard it when i was younger, one of my ex-next door neighbors used to spin a yarn about an uncle he had that didn't own shoes and used to step on warm cowpies on his way to school in the morning!

 

I'm 19, and fading out of the 'kid' stage. I'm now entering the "I'm a stupid 20 year old that doesn't know what to do with the world" stage. I think the door swings both ways.

People that grew up a few years in the past had to work harder and had less of today's nicetys. Everything was less convenient.

Today's kids are in a blundering mess of Political correctness, forced 'diversity', and fear. If a kid needs to make a decision, he has to refer to at least 3 sources before he/she can't do anything. It's a pretty twisted system we have for kids today. I personally can't stand it, and am going to snap in college acedemia. This place is so politically correct, and personally stifling. I can't act like who I am, because it may offend someone. I can't say what I think because someone won't feel equal. It's restrictive, and un-American. I wish I could've grown up a few decades ago...

Ryan

 

Did anyone in 1980 have a 5 page essay to write in 1980? I dont think so, then again im not from then so i wouldnt know, im pretty sure it wasnt 5 pages.


Today we get report that MUST be 5 pages or larger, i dont know about any one else, but without the computer, i pretty much would be failing every class i had that made sucha report.

Im not saying this minor fact out weighs the life of the "good ol days" but then agian, back in thos times, there werent as many ***-holes as there are today ethier, people showed some respect to you that you didnt directly know.....idk, i think its all just got easier and harder....just a basic change if you will

 

My dad did. He went to university the hard way, part time with 3 kids and a wife to support. He had many many essays to write, in LATIN no less.

The worst I had it was a couple 5 pagers for my final exams in high school. How's that? No prep, no reference material, basically make it up in your head, and try to formulate it on paper. While trying your best to not make up any facts.

 

Yeah, its really easy to say kids have it easy. They don't have it easy, as has been stated. They don't have the luxury of getting out of high school, finding a crappy job and working their way up to a respectable well paying position. Now, you graduate high school, opt to go into a labor type job without a degree, thats where you stay. Rarely do you advance. Moreover, everyone and their dog has a degree today, a BS degree today is nothing more than a fancy HS diploma of back in the day. You want more, you pretty much need to get into grad school. Not to mention the POS 'schools' kids have to go to today. My biggest worry in junior high was getting beat up and losing my lunch money for the day, now kids worry about Neighbor Joe's psychotic mal adjusted teenager coming to school and shooting up the joint. Moreover, they have to worry about what kind of second rate education they are getting from teachers that could care less if they learn or not. Im 26, and i believe the US is in a sad state regarding how kids have it these days. Ive heard people complain about having to go to night school, and support their wife and kids, and how hard it is. I didnt find it that difficult...then again, i didnt knock up my high school sweetheart and bring un-needed hardship upon myself.