When I was growing up...

[countryboy]

If you are 30, 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 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 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. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn 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! Stamps were 10 cents!



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 ***! 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?



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!


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 GOD !!! 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!

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 !

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 *** and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

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-finks!

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 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: When I was growing up...

If you are 30, 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 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 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. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn 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! Stamps were 10 cents!



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 ***! 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?



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!


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 GOD !!! 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!

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 !

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 *** and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

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-finks!

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 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

And the congregation said....AMEN. Preach on, Preach on.

Although, there are a few kids that know when to be seen and not heard. They'd survive just fine in the 80s.

My mom had eyes and ears all over my town. I was too scared to try anything foolish. Everyone had permission to beat me on sight. And then you'd get it when you got home.

The worst was having to get your own switch for your whipping. And then hear the phrase...."this is gonna hurt me more than it's gonna hurt you" followed by "Stop crying before I give you something to cry about"''

Those were the days.

[bcruise]

Re: When I was growing up...

I'm close enough to 30 that I can relate to this.

For me, the biggest thing ties several of the above things together, and that is the advent and growth of the Personal/Home Computer.

Yeah, sure, they existed in '81, but obviously they're nothing compared to what we have today in terms of functionality.

[youvalss]

Re: When I was growing up...

Internet is a wonderful thing. But it totally destoyed all the mystery of the world.

[stlstudios189]

Re: When I was growing up...

this just made my day.

[Speedy]

Re: When I was growing up...

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!!

The internet today is what makes the teenagers of this generation so argumentative and cocky/arrogant.

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 [beat us]. Nowhere was safe!

You ain't lyin' there. My dad used to whoop me to the point that it looked like he was possessed..he was looking up in the ceiling or something. It was like a short electric chair! My mom would tell me to go outside and get a hickory switch...that's just plain cruelty to ask a victim to choose what weapon he will be hurt with. I still don't get the line "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you"...bunch of hogwash!

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-finks!

Ahh, Saturday morning. I miss the Looney Tunes: Bugs Bunny, Daffy, Foghorn Leghorn, Popeye, even Doug...way better than all the crud on there now.

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!

We also drunk sodas, ate sugary snacks and still weighed a little more than toothpick. Children today are obese because their entertainment is sitting down watching/playing TV rather than doing physical activity. I used to play roller bat with my siblings all the time, as well as ride bikes as far as my little legs would take me.

[Anavar]

Re: When I was growing up...

Love this thread.

I used to get the belt when I talked back to my father. And I'm talking like the Henry Hill teenager beating he took from his Dad when his pops found out he was skipping school.

[bcruise]

Re: When I was growing up...

Back when I was a kid, if you wanted to beat a videogame, you had to spend time learning about all the secrets and improving your skills. These days, the ADHD kids out there cry and whine if there's no walkthrough posted on the web the moment the game is released, or if the game takes longer than 8 hours to beat.

Oh, no worries there, now they can just pay real money to unlock everything in the game without actually playing it (some games, anyway).

On this point, frankly I'm amazed that Bradygames and Prima are still in business, what with Gamefaqs having been around for so long now.

[Scottdau]

Re: When I was growing up...

Pretty much!

[Kramer5150]

Re: When I was growing up...

Great post Countryboy....I can relate 100%,and know everything (with great detail) you speak of.
I will add however...not sure how old you are,but I remember 8-track players in my parents cars...you could record on them sure,but then the song would end on a certain track,but to continue to the end of the song you had to switch tracks on the player.

To sum it up,1 song could use a track and a half to get the whole thing
I would also agree,reading through various forums and what-not,kids have NO idea how good they have it. It's what I like to call the "instant gratification" syndrome in kids now-a-days.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: When I was growing up...

When I was growing up.............

grew up in a 1 Bedroom apartment with 3 sisters......there was no such thing as having a bedroom for kids.......

If you wanted to go somewhere, you rode the CTA bus or took the subway......

School buses didn't come to my area of chicago, so you made it to school the best way you could, which was either walking or taking the CTA bus.

There was no tv remotes, it was you get off your butt and turn the knob yourself to turn the channel. And if the knob was broken off, you got pliers to turn the steel bar to turn the channel.

There was no microwaves, if you wanted something heated up, you threw it in the oven for 5 minutes or so.

There was no telephone, because it was cut off, so if you wanted to talk to your friend, youi actually had to walk over there to their apartment to talk to them.

Didn't have a watch growing up, so to tell time you watched for the street lights to come on or for the prostitutes to come out on their corners to know it was evening time.

There was no calling 911, because police didn't come to my hood, so therefore you learned how to fight and handle your business at a very early age. So if somebody stole from you, you went after them and beat their butt the best way you knew how to get it back.

There was no gfit cards......if you wanted something, you went outside and hustled for money.

There was no ask, google, yahoo, etc. If you didn't know the answer to something, you better found you a dictionary and looked it up or your butt was S.O.L

[sb24]

Re: When I was growing up...

I got this email a while back. There are some really good ones floating around.

[HealyMonster]

Re: When I was growing up...

If you are 30, 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 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 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. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn 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! Stamps were 10 cents!



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 ***! 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?



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!


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 GOD !!! 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!

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 !

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 *** and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

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-finks!

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 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

LMAO- Classic Man.

I remember I had this little recorder with a microphone attached. I used this tape "hits of the 70's" and I would put tape accross the top and put it on this recorder and it let me record over it. It became like a blank tape when you did it, and I would watch MTV all freaking day so I could hold the recorder up to the speaker on my TV so I could record the song.

God forbid my sister walked in and said something while I was in the middle of it. I would then have to wait until the top 20 came on again or just watch and hope the video would come on of the song I wanted to record.


I remember me and my friend playing one day in the winter and it was "chores" or outside and we were freezing and went into hi shed to get out of the cold wind we were like the heck with this Id rather vaccum then be this cold. my friend was like Im going to hang out lol.


The "getting beat" by your friends parent s is classic too man. LOL. I rememebr we were "throwing rocks at cars" one day man, it was my friends moms boyfriend whooped me up dude, then my mom got me, then I sat in my room for 3 hours waiting until "My father got home" then it was the grand finale. LOL. Nobody came to my rescue, and pretty much the whole world agreed the I deserved it. lol


And the letter thing is classic too. Today, its facebook,etc. But back in the day when you went to camp, or had a neighborhood kid come out in the summertime, the rest of the year they were "pen pals". I remember keeping in touch with kids writing letters,etc. Whats funny is I would "sneak" during class writing the letters when the teacher wasn't looking. Kids are doing the same thing today but its texting and facebook,etc on their cell phones.




what a trip down memory lane man. classic post.

I remember snoop dog murder was the case. That song took me a month to record perfectly. I had listened to it so many times trying to record it that when I finally good a good recording of it, I was tired of hearing it lol.

[bgeno]

Re: When I was growing up...

hahaha... every generation is the same way...

[MassNole]

Re: When I was growing up...

It was awesome having these things come along as we got older. Our generation got to play with NES as young kids, SNES/Genesis in Junior High/HS, then the PS1/N64/Saturn in the latter part of HS. In college we got the PS2/Xbox and now as adults we have the PS360. The evolution of gaming has just been awesome to grow up with.