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A Note From The Over 40 Crowd


BrilliantDisguise

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Got this in an email and thought it was funny even though we've heard similar before. Hope it gives you a chuckle. :D

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 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 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 call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH, MYGOSH !!! 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 ass 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!

14) 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!

Regards, The Over 40 Crowd

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It's sad how true #13 is. My mother could throw us outside and there would be kids to play with. Now, even though there are lots of kids in the neighborhood, you don't see them outside too much. It's like a freakin' ghost town. You have to make a playdate.

Thank goodness for summer camp :)

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Funny, I'm not over 40, and most of that applies to me too. I didn't get my own cell phone until I was in college, our family didn't get a computer with Internet until 2002. Before then, I could only use it at school. I've never owned, nor used, a video game system or console. We have a microwave, but I know how to cook, and would much rather make my meals that way.

As for the ones about TV, I don't watch TV anymore. If there's any shows I want to watch, I watch them online, or download the torrent after it airs.

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Oh, it's so so true... but who cares? :cool: All that applies to me too... but when I think of my childhood all I remember is love and care and such a sweet time... my brother and I would change the channel or arrange the TV, we'd go to school and meet friends on our way, we'd wait for a letter and then write and post as well... friends and life were just a blessing awaiting for us to reach for it... :):)

...and no, we didn't have youtube... :laughing: but we were so hungry for life!!

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  • 2 years later...

It's sad how true #13 is. My mother could throw us outside and there would be kids to play with. Now, even though there are lots of kids in the neighborhood, you don't see them outside too much. It's like a freakin' ghost town. You have to make a playdate.

Thank goodness for summer camp :)

I'm over 40 and think you're exaggerating.

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I'm with you Jenny. Most of the kids in our neighbourhood go to different schools all over the city. They don' t know one another and even if they did, they certainly wouldn' t play outside even if their patents would let them.

One of the downsides of living in a big city is that there are enough weirdos about, that parents are reluctant to let their little ones outside unsupervised. Heck, when I was little (somwhere in the dim and distant past) , my Mum would let me go outside in the morning to play and just told me to be home in time for dinner. Mind you, we lived in a town of about 35,000 people.

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I live in a small city. About 3/4 million people. My mom did the same C-A. Our time was spent running around with friends. The only rules:

1-Don't come home unless you're dead or dying

2-If you go out, stay out. No in & out all day

3- Be home for lunch, supper or when it's too dark to see the puck (we played alot of street-hockey)

Kids today do all social interactions over the internet. They're friends with a satellite :badcomp:

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  • 7 months later...
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