Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

When I was your age...

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » The DU Lounge Donate to DU
 
northzax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:35 PM
Original message
When I was your age...
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-fivemiles to school every morning uphill both ways through year 'round blizzards carrying their younger siblings on their backs to their one-room schoolhouse where they maintained a straight-A average despite their full-time after-school job at the local textile mill where they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving to death! 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 kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But....
Now that I've reached the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so f*ckin' easy!

I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a goddamned Utopia!
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-we wanted to know something, we had to go to the goddamned library and look it up ourselves!

And there was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter-with a pen!--and then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the f*ckin' mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

And there were no MP3s or Napsters! You wanted free music, you had to go to the goddamned record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or we had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over some part of it and f*ck it all up!

You want to hear about hardship?

You couldn't just download p*rn! You had to bribe some homeless dude to buy you a copy of "Hustler" at the 7-11! It was either that or jack-off to the lingerie section of the JC Penney catalog! Those were your options!

We didn't have fancy sh*t like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was it could be your boss, your mom, a collections agent, your drug dealer, you didn't know!!! You just had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

And we didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation videogames with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600!
With games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked a$$! Your guy was a little square! You 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 faster until you died!

Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! A tall guy sat in front of you you were screwed!

And sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 20 channels and there was no onscreen menu! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!

And there was no Cartoon Network! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning... ...D'ya hear what the f*ck I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK, you spoiled little bastards!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled, I swear to God! You guys wouldn't last five minutes back in 1984
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
Maple Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:40 PM
Response to Original message
1. ROFLMAO
Loved it.

And when 'I' was a kid...I thought I was the only one whose dad claimed to have walked to school barefoot in the winter uphill both ways........yada yada...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:40 PM
Response to Original message
2. HEY! YOU had it bad????
Edited on Wed Jul-23-03 04:41 PM by Skittles
I WATCHED MAN WALK ON THE MOON - LIVE, BACK WHEN WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE PACMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! x(

on edit - did you have to MANUALLY ROLL THE CAR WINDOW DOWN? :D
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
WildClarySage Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:45 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. And
you had to keep your foot on the gas pedal the WHOLE trip, none of this fancy-schmancy CRUISE CONTROL for us!

(my 100th post!!!)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
jmm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:44 PM
Response to Original message
3. Hey, I really did have to walk uphill both ways!
When I was in high school, I lived on top of one hill and my school was on top a bigger hill so technically I walked up hill both ways.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Exultant Democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:45 PM
Response to Original message
4. LOL
Best ridiculous diatribe ever! I remember Atari from when I was 4, frogger was the best. But I also remember being able to watch cartoons every day of the week, and I have to say back then cartoons were pretty damn good compared to today. Thundercats, Transformers, Voltron, He-Man, M.A.S.K., and Hethclif were all awesome, today al the kids get is pokemon or newer crappier versions of shows that were good 17 years ago.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
jedicord Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:51 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. You mean you've never seen Futurama?
Classic already! MAJOR political inferences. 10P CT on Cartoon Network.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast!

Ed Edd & Eddy!

Powerpuff Girls! (over commercialized, but they throw in stuff only adults can understand)

Ain't it grand having a 9 year old!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Exultant Democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:59 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. Futurama is great
so is Family Guy, but they aren’t for the kids, even Powerpuff Girls cuts it pretty close with the drug references. Try turing on Fox in the afternoon and watching for 3 hours, thats what the kids these days get to watch.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:45 PM
Response to Original message
6. Hey.. don't you be dissing Space Invaders..
I was the champ in our house. I used to beat the pants off my sons.. They would all be mesmerized watching Mom play INVISIBLE Invaders and beat the damned game :):)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ZenLefty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 04:52 PM
Response to Original message
8. Asteroids...Did...NOT...Suck...A$$
I still play the original version. :freak:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
trof Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 06:07 PM
Response to Original message
10. When I was your age
I was already 30.
;-)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
SiobhanClancy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 06:12 PM
Response to Original message
11. Be thankful..
that you were never exposed to the sheer hell of having to live with only three television channels!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
CBHagman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 06:15 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. And black and white TV!
Why, I had a black and white TV until I was 30!

And parents didn't sue the coach if you didn't advance enough on the team.

And sometimes you got picked last for sports and if your self-esteem was damaged -- well, no one had heard of self-esteem. We didn't have self-esteem when I was a kid. We did, however, have siblings, which meant you were subject to bullying and teasing and fighting, which meant you had no self-esteem anyway.

Also, if you got in trouble at school, it meant you were automatically in trouble at home.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 06:19 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. We could not even afford an antenna for OUR TV...
Edited on Wed Jul-23-03 06:23 PM by SoCalDem
we used that old flat cable and attached it to our neighbor's metal fence:)..and a coathanger for inside..

They both worked fine :)

looked kind of like this

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
GOPisEvil Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 07:05 PM
Response to Original message
14. Remote control?? *I* was the remote control in my house.
Let me quote my dad, "Dave, get up and change it to channel 4." :eyes:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
leftist_rebel1569 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-23-03 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
15. Hey....look at it this way
think about my kids (WHEN i have them...i'm 15 now) and how easy THEY'LL have it. The internet? They'll have ungodly connections when we have to deal with 56K and crap. Not to mention, they'll prolly be able to connect to the internet with a friggin wrapper from a Snickers Bar! E-mail? Oh no...they'll come out with something that'll make it so you can write it on the back of your hand and then you can send it to them...and not being restricted by computers! MP3s will be history. They'll be able to implant some chip into your brain that'll download music and play it in your head or something! Oh...porn, you say? Two words...sex robots. Sad as it may seem now, it just might happen - you watch. Phones prolly won't exist...they'll have like portable videophones or something that fit in your hand. You think Playstation 2 and Xbox are good? Well...wait til you see Playstation 9...no, you don't play the game...YOU'RE IN THE DAMN GAME! Movie theaters, you say? oh...they'll have some sort of thing where you can see through the people in front of you or something...oh, and don't start on cable, or satelite, or beamed-from-Mars, or whatever the hell they come up with next. They will have thousands of channels categorized and micromanaged throughly. And, yes, they will have a channel dedicated to the manufacturing of toasters...you wait and see. And the thing with Cartoon Network? Hell, if they don't like the cartoon they could just turn on Cartoon Network 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or however many they make.

Oh, and how about your parents? They were right...they did have it worse. And the next generation had it better. And this generation has it even better. And the next will have it better, and the next will have it better...see my point?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Mon May 06th 2024, 11:57 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » The DU Lounge Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC