Anyone relate to this? Got this from my brother forward to me for a laugh...thought I'd share it here. THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!! 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 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 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 damn 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 damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!! 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 ass! Nowhere was safe! There were no MP3' s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn 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 crap 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 ass 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 rat-bastards! 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! Regards, The Over 30 Crowd
you forgot one big thing, cell phones. My cell phone was a dime that i kept in my shoe. And the cartoon thing is the truth.
I'm not 30, but kinda close (2 however I don't see it as "kids today have it easy" so much as "I really appreciate what I had." For instance, what I find odd for myself, people in my age group, is we grew up with a lot of this tech being fresh for the public. So half our lives we did things the "old way" than we had this stuff start kicking up (I was 13 when my family got our first PC and 14 for the internet) and were still kinda kids with the "new way" (I count being a teenager a kid, for myself at least.) I feel though that the "old way" pushed an independence that's not so prevelant today. Not to say kids are idiots, there are lots of idiots of all ages and I'd say in equal numbers per generation, but there's very much a lack of self-reliance. Part of it is their parents for sure, but part of it is they didn't need to go to endless "Cons" to find weird bootleg VHS of strange movies no one's heard of. They didn't need to hit countless record stores to find that 1 song on an obscure vinyl. They didn't need to hit every Toys R Us and comic shop for the short packed Star Wars toy. They just point and click, and so do we, all of us. It's all gone. I love it, for the most part, but my instinct misses a lot so I like these toys a lot because my "hunter" is occupied. I mean, I still hit a lot of old used toy shops and used record stores too, but if I just want 1 song or a Rude Ralph, I just hit the internet. With all the time I don't have anymore, it's nice. But again, my instinct thrives for more. I just appreciate what I had to grow up with. A perfect mix of the older ways and the dawn of the newer things. It was exciting as shit to be 14 and start seeing all these things start to happen tech wise. Sorry, I really enjoy conversations about generational differences, not old "kids have it easy" type ones, but more an appreciation of what different generations grew up with but not in a weird and weak nostalgic way but a "pros and cons" type way. I work with people from 50 something to 18, so it's usally fun and intersting to me.
I'm 41 now and I'm so happy I grew up when I did. I mean some of the things on that list I can recall getting in my early to mid teens. Call waiting/ and 3 way calling were definitely around by the time I was a teenager, CD's by the time I was a junior in highschool. Internet was around only a few years out of highschool. Like BD said, for me also it was a great time to be around because I got to do things the old an new way and it gave me an appreciation for things. Like seeking obscure music or sifting through tons of zines to find out about new music. I think that's what kids today are lacking with instant gratification. Then again, I totally appreciate being able to "point and click" with Japanese toys. Something I'm sure oldskool collectors will tell me was not possibly 10 years ago.
Here's a few of mine: Having to use the switch for pulse/tone dialing. Rotary phones. Full-service gas stations (are there any left?) "Pay at the Pump?!?" WTF is that? When someone walked around in public talking to themselves, it was because of a subtance/mental condition... not an "earbud." Having to buy an RF modulator to plug in your Atari/NES, the kind where you had 2 screws in the back of your tv. And that reminds me, let's add tv's with antennae. Pagers/Beepers Polaroids Once upon a time, there weren't security cams everywhere... they had these big dome/dish shaped mirrors on the ceiling & in corners of stores. Not having to produce proof of age to buy lighters, matches, model cement, or spray paint. Changing typewriter ribbons. Everybody smoked cigarettes-everywhere. Principals had paddles in their office. The smaller pop-top holes (which was the standard) in canned beverages. Collecting bottlecaps... or getting a glass bottle of soda out of a machine The times, they are a-changin'
I was 9 when ROTJ came out. I would not trade that for the World. FTW! (you had to steal music from the music store instead of from Napster...lo f'n l.. I got busted at target with 5 cassette tapes down my pants and a 'hit parade' magazine in my backpocket...) Did I learn my lesson? Yeah, Target sucks.
Holy jebus that was funny. I think I gave that speech to my 13 year old just last night,LOL I think the only consolation I have (specially when they smart ass on you) is that they'll go through the same thing one day
Before I received this email today, I was trying to figure out a way to record vinyl onto mp3, my dj sets and finally something for the radio show. I went through the same process as I did 20 years ago with cassette deck recording from vinyl only now I am using an M-audio recorder which acts much like a cassette player. Then burning a mixtape on dvdr for my friends. Most of the songs I recorded today are Chicago and acid house records so getting that email only made me realize I am doing the same thing after 2 decades. I am glad some things haven't changed. I also feel there are a lot of 30-40 year olds still young at heart, more so than previous generations? Maybe it's the friends I hang out with who are like that or the rejects who refuse to grow up haha.
This is totally me. I don't know if it was lack of a career (never wanting one) or proper job my whole life, dj'ing/music, living in nyc and other cities, but I really don't feel any different than I did when I was 25. My g/f constantly tells me I need to grow up and I go "What is that? Me in docker pants, sitting at some desk job, fixing up the house on weekends?" Not in this life.
I still act/feel the same as I did when I was 21 (now 33). My wife tells me all the time that I need to grow up.
I love how this whole list is pretty much superficial bullshit & trying to make it seem like pre-internet/technology life was SO hard.
I agree. I really don't think it was any harder life, in fact I think life was easy back then. The only big difference was that with the internet its a lot more convenient to obtain wanted information. We know more now and not that its making us any more happier though.
Remember when we had to pee on ourselves to stay warm than hope the "Great Bear" didn't sniff us out? Crazy times.
You know, the biggest difference between being 30+ now and these young whipper snappers is easy credit and the messed up delusions it brings. I’m grateful I grew up understanding the difference between credit and cash because practically everyone I know now who is really in financial dire straits had easy credit feed their delusions of grandeur. Yes, max out your card now to put your CD out. In a few months some executive will hear it and throw gajillion dollars at you. Oh wait? That didn’t happen? Boo effing hoo to you you not winning the lottery. I've been going through old ticket stubs for concerts and stuff, and when I look at all the bands I've seen and respected, Fugzai and Dischord is still at the top of the list. As an adult their POV makes even more sense; don't sell yourself short. Slow and steady growth doing something you love will add up to more in your life than some short term record deal. Also, you neighborhood kids get off my @&%$# lawn already!!!!
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! I love this.
I hated waiting all week for cartoons, but the fall season cartoon previews were a huge deal for me. Luckily there were UHF channels that had Ultraman, Gamera etc. I do like that I can get practically any Japanese toy I want now as opposed to a few specialty stores back in the day.
Get off my lawn. That is all. I'm 38 now, and I really wish I had the Internet when I was growing up.
Actually, I miss game rainouts on local TV. Since that’s when I’d discover Odd Couple, Abbott & Costello and Three Stooges reruns. I genuinely miss the filler programming that TV stations would create to fill in empty spaces in schedules like that. Also, back in the day there would be TV show hosts and even kids shows that were purely local and awesome. Here in NYC I’m grateful I got to watch Wonderama, The Magic Garden and The Uncle Floyd Show. Those shows existed because TV stations could still be viable with local programming. Now everything is national... But... Here's one tip. I think it's a local WNBC NYC tradition to show that Star Trek episode that was kind of Halloween episode at like 3:00 AM. The one with the big cat and witches. Barely watchable, but a nice late night surprise. And hey, remember when TV stations went off the air at night?
