For all the youngsters who think life is hard...

[guero]

Got this email a few minutes ago. I'm sure there are other things we can add to the list, but I'll leave it be and if you have things you want to add, the thread could get fun...If you are 30 or older you will 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 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 ofcrap 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 tomy 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!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ usually talked over the beginning and messed it all up!

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 whoit was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, 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 Play station 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 were no such things 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 ass 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 little bastards!

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

If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop 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!

[shudder]

I remember watching Papillon starring Steve McQueen and a young Dustin Hoffman on HBO when the channel first started up. The movie showed over and over again, and between showings there was just SNOW onscreen until it started up again.

We only had PONG... and that was at the local pizza place. That was it for video games.

And I ain't as old as you think! I was in high school in the '70s!

shud

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EDIT

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Okay, maybe I am as old as you think I am... O_o

[roadkillross]

i <3 jiffy pop

[Pain Freak]

And cell phones. How many people could imagine life without a cell phone?


Growing up we didn't have cable till I was in my 20's. We had 3 network channels and then the other 3 channels which just showed reruns of stuff you wouldn't have watched the first time either. We spent a LOT of time outside playing, mostly in the streets and we got the hell out of the way when a car came by. Not like today's kids who just might swagger away as you approach them.Touch button phones were a thing of the future, we used a rotary dial. And you had a wide variety of colors as long as it was black. You might have a pair of PF Flyers or a dress pair of shoes which were called Hush Puppies that you only wore to church for the first 6 months of having them, then you got to wear them everyday after that because you'd be growing out of them soon. I better stop now I could go on for a long time.

[jfromlv]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

And cell phones. How many people could imagine life without a cell phone?


Growing up we didn't have cable till I was in my 20's. We had 3 network channels and then the other 3 channels which just showed reruns of stuff you wouldn't have watched the first time either. We spent a LOT of time outside playing, mostly in the streets and we got the hell out of the way when a car came by. Not like today's kids who just might swagger away as you approach them.Touch button phones were a thing of the future, we used a rotary dial. And you had a wide variety of colors as long as it was black. You might have a pair of PF Flyers or a dress pair of shoes which were called Hush Puppies that you only wore to church for the first 6 months of having them, then you got to wear them everyday after that because you'd be growing out of them soon. I better stop now I could go on for a long time.

Wow, you have a pretty good memory for someone with you're.........uh .....experience? Last time I was out hitting some of the local jumps, I took my helmet off, the kids there say, "Oh man, I have to do it now, the old guy's showing me up!" STUPID KIDS!

[Pain Freak]

Originally Posted by jfromlv

Wow, you have a pretty good memory for someone with you're.........uh .....experience? Last time I was out hitting some of the local jumps, I took my helmet off, the kids there say, "Oh man, I have to do it now, the old guy's showing me up!" STUPID KIDS!

LMAO...STUPID KIDS

[tkblazer]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

And cell phones. How many people could imagine life without a cell phone?


Growing up we didn't have cable till I was in my 20's. We had 3 network channels and then the other 3 channels which just showed reruns of stuff you wouldn't have watched the first time either. We spent a LOT of time outside playing, mostly in the streets and we got the hell out of the way when a car came by. Not like today's kids who just might swagger away as you approach them.Touch button phones were a thing of the future, we used a rotary dial. And you had a wide variety of colors as long as it was black. You might have a pair of PF Flyers or a dress pair of shoes which were called Hush Puppies that you only wore to church for the first 6 months of having them, then you got to wear them everyday after that because you'd be growing out of them soon. I better stop now I could go on for a long time.

then again, back in your day the NFL players had leather helmets, color tv wasn't even invented yet and man had yet to land on the moon.

[guero]

Speaking of the NFL....Anyone of you guys remember "You Make The Call" sponsored by IBM on Monday Night Football? I used to look forward to those! It was a segment where they'dd show a clip of some wild play and you had to guess the ruling on it.

[Pain Freak]

Originally Posted by guero

Speaking of the NFL....Anyone of you guys remember "You Make The Call" sponsored by IBM on Monday Night Football? I used to look forward to those! It was a segment where they'dd show a clip of some wild play and you had to guess the ruling on it.

Yeah, we'd go nuts betting on the calls during the commercial break. After they'd come back and tell us the call, invaribly there'd be a fight because someone still refused to believe it and wouldn't pay up. Good times.

What's wrong with leather helmets?

[SAR_boats]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

And cell phones. How many people could imagine life without a cell phone?

Yeah, A cell phone was James Bond stuff-

Our moms would ask us where the hell we had been and why didn't we call and our excuse was that we didn't have money for a pay phone. ( A pay phone being a device that, when given a coin, would allow you to make a call. Typically they could be found at gas stations and outside liquor stores. If you found one that was vandalized beyond the point of recognition you knew you were in a bad area of town)
From then on mom would always ask if we had a dime for a pay phone whenever we left the house. That way we had no excuse! And if we couldn't find a pay phone it was our bad luck because it was our fault!
And it was a dime! How much does a pay phone, if you can find one, cost now? Like a buck-fifty?

[ThinkFast]

What about when having suspension meant you had a full 1.5 inches of travel? Only cost ya about 350-400 bucks.