When I was a kid

[TOMCAT21]

Dred, nice post. ....Daycare didnt exist from what I remember, I had a stay at home Mom(domestic engineer as she refered to herself) and my dad supported (comfortably) our family of five. I remember when gas was 49 cents a gallon and my dad still thru a fit. Parents paid cash for everything and I still have Steve Miller Band on 8 track and cable tv bill was originally $8.00 a month.

[1Boner]

We did have a really cool "fighting" game though!! 

[gyrene81]

LOL...I have 2 teenagers in the house, 2 PS2s, a wii, 4 computers, 4 cell phones, digital cable with on demand, 3 televisions and 100 movies on DVD...the most common words from the teenagers daily - "I'm bored".

I'm just a bit older than Drediock but when I was a kid, there was no such thing as "bored". My days started at 0600 and ended at 2230 while school was going on, unless I was going to do something with my dad on the weekend then the day would start at 0430. In the summer, my feet would hit the floor at 0600 and I'd be on the go until I fell asleep. Nobody had time to be bored, there was always something to do and a life to experience.

[druski85]

You couldn't pay me to be a kid these days.

Back in my day, sex couldn't get you dead.

Back in my day, I'd have had to have fallen a long, long way before encountering drugs that would kill you. Now a bad batch of eccies in a nightclub and you're done.

Back in my day, an ordinary working man could pretty much count on getting a nice, quiet house on a quarter acre block in the burbs and still have the time and money to go fishing. Pipe dream now.

Back in my day, you could tell kids to study hard and the future would be bright. I now know chronically-unemployed engineers.

Back in my day, capitalism worked. Now outsourcing has left just the carcass and derivatives speculation is leaving the bones clean. We all now depend on the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China.

The truth is so much less enjoyable than anecdotal retrospect.

[Shuffler]

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.

8) 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 bellybutton 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 brats!

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!
 

 

[greens]

1) kids cannot walk nowadays
2) kids cant stay still n be quiet
3) they always yapping back at ya
4) if theres no tissue they wont wipe w newspaper
5) a $1 aint enough
6) 11pm curfew is too harsh <puh in HS i had to be home at 9pm even summer break>
7) kids nowadays are relying too much on parents to house them even after they graduate <GED is the easy way>
8) when i was a kid i watched wiley coyote every sat morn dont see it nemore 
9) ur wrong they are right
10) we parents suck no matter what we get them or do for them

[fbWldcat]

Haha, I remember back in my very young youth.....

If I stepped out of line once, I got the flyswatter or actual punishment, none of this "go to your room," BS I also had the corner for when my friends were over as embarrassing punishment.

I didn't even know what an iPod was until a couple years ago. Before that I had the Tape Deck in the car to listen to Roy D. Mercer and the Eagles from point A to point B.

I played out in the sun 24/7. Having adventures and picking up bugs and pissing the neighbors off.... Good times indeed

I remember bruises, cuts, broken bones, twisted ankles, grass stains, splinters, faceplants when you tripped on a tree root.

I remember fishing every chance I got and still do. Playing in the creek, shooting hoops in the fall.

My parents got me a gameboy when I was 7 because I wanted one so bad and you know what? I used it for a total of probably 10 hours my entire life.

I think a lot of today's children's problems branch from parents not hitting their kids upside the head when they do something they aren't supposed to. Kinda like that screaming little bast### in the Wal-mart or Big K-mart sitting in the cart baby seat even though he is about 4-5? And the parent(s) just sit there like nothing is happening, shopping and carrying on their daily business?.... I will discipline my children when I get over, not "go to your room." I will bring out the paddle or the flyswatter or the good 'ole hickory beatin' stick.  

[CAP1]

1) kids cannot walk nowadays
2) kids cant stay still n be quiet
3) they always yapping back at ya
4) if theres no tissue they wont wipe w newspaper
5) a $1 aint enough
6) 11pm curfew is too harsh <puh in HS i had to be home at 9pm even summer break>
7) kids nowadays are relying too much on parents to house them even after they graduate <GED is the easy way>
8) when i was a kid i watched wiley coyote every sat morn dont see it nemore 
9) ur wrong they are right
10) we parents suck no matter what we get them or do for them

wile e coyote.......bugs bunny.........all those old loony tunes....i miss them.

[BulletVI]

wile e coyote.......bugs bunny.........all those old loony tunes....i miss them.

That sounds like a bunch o todays teenagers CAP1  

[Jayhawk]

I consider myself lucky enough to have experienced a lot of stuff in the OP, at least in my early life.

But be careful, remember you are the parents of the generation you're talking about.

[mensa180]

Only way you can get a job now is if your a teacher or a pilot. Im gonna be a pilot.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but a pilot job is one of the hardest to find, even when times are good.  Even more so now that we have so many 1500+ total hour guys unemployed and looking for work usually taken up by guys looking for their first CFI gig.

[Hoarach]

Only way you can get a job now is if your a teacher or a pilot. Im gonna be a pilot.

I agree with Mensa.

Jobs that you are almost certain to have when graduate are certain engineers, IT specialists, and medical field personal.   

[CAP1]

That sounds like a bunch o todays teenagers CAP1  

 

[Raptor]

Only way you can get a job now is if your a teacher or a pilot. Im gonna be a pilot.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekedrXxqVck&feature=fvw
Regional Pilots make less than a manager at a fast food restaurant.

And the way things are right now people want to invest in schools, but many state budgets are cutting funding for schools and getting rid of teachers, making fewer teachers teach more students. This is apparent at universities and primary schools.


Not to take away from the original subject. Being 22, several of these even applied to me! I would say the thing that changed the most about my childhood was the advent of the internet, after the internet I was inside a lot more.

[Flench]

1Boner , I still have my Rock-um sock-um . That thing has to be 40 year's old . That and Mr peanut ..