When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were.
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 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.
Compared to my childhood, the new generation lives in a darn Utopia! I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!
When I was a kid we didn’t have The Internet. We had no choice but to depend on the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
Email was not an option; we had to actually write somebody a letter. On real paper! After you wrote your letter there was no send button. Walking to the mail box outside as actually required!
Getting spanked was a common consequence of your actions. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butts!
There were no MP3′ s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to record it off the radio on a tape and wait with your finger on the pause button when the dj would talk. .And we though it sounded dam good! Cause – that’s how we rolled, dig?
There was no call waiting! When someone called and the phone was in use they got a busy signal. You had to rush home announce to everyone you were expecting a call and guard it with your life, or you were out of luck.
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!
Playstation with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’. 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!
The TV Guide was the most precious item in the house! I know when my dad came home after work at least once a week I heard him yell “Where’s that dam TV Guide again?” And if you had it last you better find it quick or just deny it! There was no Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Not for us. We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons. Some of us did not get our own channel until MTV was born. And you were lucky if your parents let you watch it!
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!
So, to my Over 40 buds, Much Love and Stay Real.
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