Over 30 crowd had it tough!!

palebluedot

Active Member
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... barefoot...

BOTH ways

Yadda, yadda, yadda
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way 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 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 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! 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 the tape would come undone. Cause - that's how we rolled, dig?

We didn't have fancy cr@p 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 either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it 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 Playstation video games 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 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!!!

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 brat!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

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 or before!
 

Rigmover06

Well-known member
Amen

Yuppers on that one.
The other thing was he had respect for our elders and the authorities..:D
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
For many of us, there was a draft board to deal with when you got your high school diploma. We all couldn't get deferments, run to Canada, or smoke dope in England.
 

Peteandsharon

Well-known member
I always like this:

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the


1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!






First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they

carried us.



They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.



Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored

lead-based paints.



We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we

rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took

hitchhiking.




As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.



Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.



We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE

actually died from this.



We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but

we weren't overweight because



WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!


We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back


when the streetlights came on.



No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down


the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the

bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.



We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no

99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell

phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat

rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!



We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no

lawsuits from these accidents.



We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.




We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,

made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.


We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang

the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!



Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't

had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!



The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They

actually sided with the law!


This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers

and inventors ever!



The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.



We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned



HOW TO

DEAL WITH IT ALL!



And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!




You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as

kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.



and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.



Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
 

bigredtruck

Well-known member
I hear there is a movement to get back to the good old days. My neighbourhood full of 1 - 13 year olds is certainly trying!
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
How about
- breaking open thermometers to get mercury out so you could coat a dime or hit it with a hammer and watch the mercury splatter all over the place.
- picking up the no dial telephone and have the operator say "number please"
- picking up the telephone and listen in on the party line
- listen to the stories like the Lone Ranger, Dragnet, The Shadow on the radio because there was no television
- eating paste
- drawing on the sidewalk with chalk
- actually using a shovel to shovel snow and not a snow blower
- using a lawn mower with no motor
- stoking the coal furnace
- reading a book that you checked out from the library
- waiting until Saturday to see the next episode of the Western serial at the movie theater
- Drinking a Coca Cola in a 6 1/2 ounce glass bottle and then looking on the bottom of the bottle to see what city was printed on it.
- Pulling your wagon around to collect 'coke' bottles and then turning them in a the grocery store for your spending money
- Buying gasoline for 17 cents a gallon
Yup, Good old days????
 

skyguy

Well-known member
- waiting until Saturday to see the next episode of the Western serial at the movie theater
- Buying gasoline for 17 cents a gallon
Yup, Good old days????

Or even better. the Flash Gordon serials!! And the movie cost a quarter! (Dime?)

And I remember filling up my Honda motorcyle with a quarter's worth of gas!

Shooting an arrow straight up in the air, because we could...

Camping with ALL the neighbor kids in tents we'd build in the park - large enough to hold us all!

Yep those were the good ol days...

But my Dad (God Rest His Soul) topped me with -
BB Gun fights
Jellyfish fights

Both on the beach in Texas as a kid - still had BB's under his skin too...
 

Bob&Patty

Founders of SoCal Chapter
Yes, I do remember those days. There is only one afternoon that I dont really remember. My mother, rest her soul, was giving me the dickens (13 year old kid) about something. Well after it was over, I mumbled..."OH SHUT UP" ........dont remember much after that. And......well.........my dad, rest his soul, found out.................:eek: Never did that again. Razor straps HURT. And no one went to jail for it. Bob:D
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Yes, I do remember those days. There is only one afternoon that I dont really remember. My mother, rest her soul, was giving me the dickens (13 year old kid) about something. Well after it was over, I mumbled..."OH SHUT UP" ........dont remember much after that. And......well.........my dad, rest his soul, found out.................:eek: Never did that again. Razor straps HURT. And no one went to jail for it. Bob:D

Yeah, I remember the days when waiting for Dad to come home was like waiting for the Executioner to arrive. Getting swatted with a belt was standard punishment for bad behavior. They weren't love taps, either. And I never had to go for therapy as an adult because of it.
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
Yep Me too..
O’Henry, Sky King, Lone Ranger, The Detectives, Green Lantern, Amos and Andy, on an old beige portable radio in my room with the doors closed on Sunday.

Got our first TV in 1961. B&W Zenith 19". We lived in the country and the only channel we could get was 3 and it carried all the NBC, ABC & CBS. Dad would not let me stay up and listen to Johnny Carson.

Dad didn't use a razor strap. It was mom that used a glass studded leather western belt that hung on the side of the door frame in the kitchen. I hid it one year and she went out in the garage and got an 18"x1x1 board and put it over the door frame and told me it better not disappear.

Those were the good old days... ???

Well I sorta like the days that I am living now. Just wish I were younger.

You know what they say... Youth is wasted on the young. We should come into this life old and enjoy the end of our life. May not be very smart but would have a lot of fun.

BC
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
"Through the brightest day and the darkest night, no evil will escape my sight", Green Lantern

"Look!, Up in the Sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, It's Superman."

"Holy nightmare, Batman", Robin

"Whoa NellyBelle, Whoa", Pat Brady

"Hi, Ho Silver, Away", Lone Ranger

Fond memories....
 

skyguy

Well-known member
Yes, I do remember those days. There is only one afternoon that I dont really remember. My mother, rest her soul, was giving me the dickens (13 year old kid) about something. Well after it was over, I mumbled..."OH SHUT UP" ........dont remember much after that. And......well.........my dad, rest his soul, found out.................:eek: Never did that again. Razor straps HURT. And no one went to jail for it. Bob:D

OMG this is stirring up some OLD memories.... my brother and I had a pop bottle "fight" in the bathroom - did you ever take a nail or ice pick and just poke a tiny hole in the cap of a sode bottle? Then you could shake it up and squirt the fizz pretty far... we had pop all over the bathroom, and as I remember we got tanned pretty good for that one, except I had a moment of inspiration, and donned a second pair of pants. Don't think my Mom caught on to that, but I had to fake the yelling and screaming to make her think I was getting whipped good. Only time I EVER tried that...

Yes those were really the good ol days:D
 

SouthernNights

Past South Carolina Chapter Leader
OMG this is stirring up some OLD memories.... my brother and I had a pop bottle "fight" in the bathroom - did you ever take a nail or ice pick and just poke a tiny hole in the cap of a sode bottle? Then you could shake it up and squirt the fizz pretty far... we had pop all over the bathroom, and as I remember we got tanned pretty good for that one, except I had a moment of inspiration, and donned a second pair of pants. Don't think my Mom caught on to that, but I had to fake the yelling and screaming to make her think I was getting whipped good. Only time I EVER tried that...

Yes those were really the good ol days:D

What really makes them the good old days was the discipline for pulling a prank like that.

Now the bleeding heart libs want you reason with a three year old..yea right.

I hated getting spanked( which means I got caught) -but I am so glad my parents did:D
 

Netem

Well-known member
I remember when you got spanked at school then came home and got another one. Now my daughter ( a teacher ) has the parents call her and cuss her out and say its her fault the kids are failing or that their kids couldn't have done anything wrong.
 

timdebs

Well-known member
I also remember my parents taking us camping in a canvas tent that if it was raining you did not dare touch the sides because it would leak, my dad getting up in the morning cooking breakfast on a coleman stove and that bacon smelling soooo good. Those were the good ole days that we are trying to give our boys. Maybe one day they will be on a great forum like this one in their Heartland camper that flys saying "you remember when Mom used to get so mad at us for not taking our dirty shoes off before coming in the camper". Camping Days are always the "good ole days" both past and present...especially in a Heartland.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
What really makes them the good old days was the discipline for pulling a prank like that.

Now the bleeding heart libs want you reason with a three year old..yea right.

I hated getting spanked( which means I got caught) -but I am so glad my parents did:D

Reminds me of one evening at the station, after a call. Frantic woman calls up from a local fast food joint that another woman is abusing her (not the caller's) child. I tell her this is the FD, not the PD, but ask if the woman is actually striking the kid. NO, she's yelling at her for not behaving. Took me a moment not to vocalize what I thought of the caller.

If I misbehaved in public with my parents, I'd get my ears boxed in from both of them...simultaneously. Oohhh, where's my therapist??

If you really want to punish a kid, send them to their room and trip the circuit breaker. Now that's abuse.
 

bigredtruck

Well-known member
I don't really remember getting spanked (although I'm sure I was) but I do remember my mom having great aim with her slipper while she talked on the phone. and she broke more than one wooden spoon, mostly smacking the counter to scare the daylights out of us. It worked...none of us are ax murderers!
 
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