Growing up without a cell phone

If you are 36, or older, you might 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 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 damn 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 damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! 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 rat-bastards!

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!

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

But I promise, I had more fun than any of them do today growing up. See the publisher for got to mention,that we didn't have the freaking laws then that these kids have to go by. They are pure born into a prison now compared to then. And the city then was cool, now it will get you killed. JMHO... ;)

Neno wrote:But I promise, I had more fun than any of them do today growing up. See the publisher for got to mention,that we didn't have the freaking laws then that these kids have to go by. They are pure born into a prison now compared to then. And the city then was cool, now it will get you killed. JMHO... ;)

Too true Neno! I remember being able to go just about anywhere on my bicycle and my parents didn't care just as long as I was home in time for supper. Now, I don't want my kids riding beyond the end of our cul-de-sac.

We used to go for hikes, my friends and I, just about anywhere as well. I remember being miles from home, walking down railroad lines, through forests and swamps, etc. I was outside a lot. My youngest son thinks going out on the back porch to play on his mobile device is "playing outside". He doesn't want to go very far at that, because he gets outside the range of our server if he does and can't connect.

When my dad was stationed in Germany back in the late 60s, early 70s, my Boy Scout patrol used to regularly go on three-day, 5 mile hikes; unsupervised. That's right, no adults, just us scouts. 5 miles out, camp and the 5 miles back. All summer. Sometimes even in the winter (that was cold!). All we had to do was get permission from the local forestmeister. I can't imagine that happening today here in the US, much less in a foreign country (one that we had been at war with only 20 years or so before no less. And yes, we did find unexploded ordinance while exploring the countryside).

Things are very different today.

my wife worried me to death trying to get me to get a cellphone. my argument against it was , they call me all day long at work, they call me all night when i'm home.i sure as hell don't want them to call me when i'm driving down the road. so i compromised and got one.that was in 2004 . to this day,when i drive i turn it off! to me a bad day is when i'm sick.but to today's youth a bad day is when the internet is down.

I still don't have one. It makes no sense to pay for a phone that is going to sit in a hot car all day most of the time. Where I work I can't bring it into the building. So what's the point? I really can't see any downside. My wife doesn't like it because she can't call me on the way home to pick up this or that - but I wouldn't answer it while I am driving anyway. There have been a few times when it would have been nice to have one, but way more when it wouldn't. I really do like the fact that I am pretty much incommunicado when I am out. How the heck did everyone ever manage to live when they weren't able to get ahold of anyone they wanted to 24x7?

Your old school elandur, that is for sure. Even tho I agree with you, I have adapted, took me awhile and have myself became dependent. It is the way of things for the future, got to roll with the changes like from horse and bugging to a automobile, we all adjusted. I am learning tho how to be compensated at the same time which will make it all worth it... ;)

I agree with some of this.I can say this,when we stoped our kids from draging main street,on week ends and evenings,they had nothing to do but hide and do some of the stupid stuff theydo.We should have figured out something to keep them busy before we did what we did.Man I had fun in the day,stoping at stop lights or signs,and some of the gang would switch cars to shoot the breeze for awhile.Turn the radio up with your date next to you and just cruise without a worry in the world"o yes and still living at home".lol

LOL, we would be out of the house after breakfast with a packed lunch so we didn't have to go home til dinner. After dinner we would be back outside ( no friends could come in, or us in their house) until the street lights came on. Once when i was in 3rd grade we all walked the few miles to the Peace bridge and wanted to swim at a beach on the Canadian side, so we walked over only to have customs stop us. When we told them where we were going they told us we had to have a note from our parents! Needless to say we never got a note, by the time we walked all the way back home we were to tired to go back. Ah those were the days. BTW i still don't have a cell phone.

Neno wrote:Your old school elandur, that is for sure. Even tho I agree with you, I have adapted, took me awhile and have myself became dependent. It is the way of things for the future, got to roll with the changes like from horse and bugging to a automobile, we all adjusted. I am learning tho how to be compensated at the same time which will make it all worth it... ;)

Well, my wife has a cell phone (as do all my kids of course) so when I am with them I can call whomever I need to. It only becomes a "problem" if I am out by myself. And you would be surprised how many times my wife forgets to bring hers along. The kids, of course, never forget!

Then there is the fact that I can't read the darned thing unless I put my reading glasses on...