Got It Too Easy!

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jimLE

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
Joined
Apr 3, 2013
Messages
8,826
Location
deep east texas
Got It Too Easy!
=====================

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 I was going to lay 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 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 Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today 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 library and
look it up ourselves!

And there was no email or texting!
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!
If you wanted to steal music, you had to go to the record store
and shoplift it yourself! Or, we had to wait around all day to
tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the
beginning and mess it all up!

You want to hear about hardship?

We didn't have fancy stuff 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, 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 videogames with
high-resolution 3-D graphics!

We had the Atari 2600! With games like "Space Invaders" and
"Asteroids"! 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 was no such thing as
stadium seating! All the seats were the same height!
If a tall guy sat in front of you, you watched his hairstyle!

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!

That's exactly what I'm talking about!
You kids today have got it too easy.

You're spoiled!

You guys wouldn't last five minutes 30 years ago back in 1984!

~30ish Author Unknown~
 
just wish I was back in 1980's, if I had listend to my captain,my career would have been different...very different
 
We could all say something similar I'm sure, trouble is when you're young you know it all.
 
Totally agree with this one. . . I grew up in the Atari's time period and cable but we never had either growing up. We played outside
 
Idk if kids got it easier than we had it. I totally agree with the things you had in the 80s and eventually came over to us in the 90s. Lol.
I sometimes whatch my 15 months old son, surrounded by hundreds of dollars worth of toys, playing with a pack of kleenex and its the best toy in the world for him. We all have been the same up to a certain age. The only difference is the enviroment we grow up in.
I cant help myself and wonder what the world will be like when hes 15.
Look at him, he will grow up not knowing what a camera film is. Or vhs, or how a pencil and a music casset are related to each other. He grows up with a gazillion choices of entertainment, video games, music from all over the world, new designer drugs, countless tv stations and everything is on demand.
He grows up surrounded by cell phones which hold the entire knowledge of humanity, but are used to look at pictures of cats or monkeys throwing feces.
He grows up beeing always available, always beeing in contact with his friends and classmates. The social rules of society are changing and we as parents cant teach them because we dont know any better either.
Of course I had an atari and I played on a NES system till I finally rescued that damn princess. Now i enjoy playing super realistic 3d car racing games on my PS4 and my 4k LED TV. Thats how times change. Life and our environment changes constantly and we have to adapt. There is no other way.
The only thing we as parents can do is to prepare our kids, teach them values and open their minds.

Now I wrote way more than I planned. But back to my initial thought.
I dont think they have it too much easier. I think its gonna be harder for them to pick their path in life. With everything available at their fingertips its an information overload. Im glad Im still young enough to keep up with technology to guide my son through the first years. With the rate new stuff gets invented today its not gonna be long till he shows me how to use the newest gadgets.

Not bashing anyones opinion, just giving my two cents...
 
OK, now we need a version from a 60ish author :)

I could come up with one involving

Getting entertainment from radio programs because the single channel VHF TV only played boxing matches.
45s (records, not guns) - we didn't even have cassette tapes
prop airliners (our airport couldn't handle jets yet)
No A/C in school, and only sometimes at home
polio
party line phones
"duck and cover" bomb drills (like your desk is going to stop a nuclear blast...:rolleyes:)
Having the president assassinated (I remember exactly where I was, and I remember the teacher's name that told us about it - Miss Prichard.)

But there were some advantages
full service gas stations
35 cent packs of cigarettes
hot rods
and single screen movie theaters with REAL stadium seating
(entrances on three floors)
 
Well, now that I will be seeing 60 in less than a half year.

Come to think of it I guess we did walk up hill both ways to get to school. lol We walked up one side and down the other to the bus stop and reversed it coming back home.

Now when it came to gaming...if it was summer it was playing softball in the road after all your chores were done and having enough sense to get out of the road when a car was coming. If the weather was cold or bad gaming would be playing Monopoly or Crazy Eights (spread out on the floor) inside.

Remote control? You were the remote...by walking the footage across the living room and changing the channel on the TV that got maybe 3 channels if you were lucky. And, if you were real lucky and lived in the right area, on a clear night you might be able to get a fourth by adjusting the antennae, accomplished by Dad climbing up on the roof and twisting the antennae into the right position. Finding the right position was done by Mom or kids yelling out the window when to stop turning the antennae. Results were iffy.

Yes, we were expected to get good grades and do chores. If you got in trouble at school you just hoped they handled it there and did not call home. Because, if that call was made you could guarantee your parents, being on the teachers side, had all day to think of some sort of punishment that was going to be done.

We also knew to say "yes, ma'am...no, sir" and you did what any adult told you to do.

Doing chores was expected and not paid for....money was made by doing extra work.

Wanted to call one of your friends? If they had a phone, and someone on your party line was not on the phone you could call. (Party line) Several different households on the same phone line...so, if someone was talking you had to wait your turn and you better not get caught listening in. No, we did not have caller ID...the ID part came in after you answered and found out who was on the other end.

If you saved up your money (when you got it for doing things) you might be able to go to town to a matinee on Saturday afternoon. The movie choice was the ONE movie the theater was playing that day. The best movie was being able to go to the drive-in in the summer...pop your own corn, bring your own drinks and load up the car and head out. If you had a pick-up you pulled in backwards and everyone piled in the back on blankets or lawn chairs to watch or the kids threw out a big blanket on the ground in front of the car. The drive-in was the best!

A/C in home or school consisted of opening the windows and creating a cross draft....if there was a breeze.

The best thing about Christmas wasn't wondering what store in the Mall had the right gift. It was wondering what you could make with your own hands that would be the right gift.

The thing about then was appreciating everything you had and making the best of what was on hand. Not taking others and belongings for granted. Respecting others even if for nothing more than respect for yourself.

Now, coming up through the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and into the 2000's all I can do now days is shake my head and hope for the best for my growing grandchildren. Hoping that the good Lord keeps me around long enough to help them through these times and maybe be handy when the SHTF.
 

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