In my day...

[deucemagnet]

From a Washington Post challenge, in which readers were asked to tell
Gen-Xers how much harder they had it in the old days:

Second Runner-Up:
In my day, we couldn't afford shoes, so we went barefoot. In
the winter we had to wrap our feet with barbed wire for traction.
(Bill Flavin, Alexandria)

First Runner-Up:
In my day we didn't have MTV or in-line skates, or any of that
stuff. No, it was 45s and regular old metal-wheeled roller
skates, and the 45s always skipped, so to get them to play right
you'd weigh the needle down with something like quarters, which
we never had because our allowances were too small, so we'd use
our skate keys instead and end up forgetting they were taped to
the record player arm so that we couldn't adjust our skates,
which didn't really matter because those crummy metal wheels would kill
you if you hit a pebble anyway, and in those days roads had real
pebbles on them, not like today. (Russell Beland, Springfield)

And the winner of the velour bicentennial poster:
In my day, we didn't have no rocks. We had to go down to the
creek and wash our clothes by beating them with our heads.
(Barry Blyveis, Columbia)

Honorable Mentions:
In my day, we didn't have dogs or cats. All I had was Silver
Beauty, my beloved paper clip. (Jennifer Hart, Arlington)

Back in the 1970s we didn't have the space shuttle to get all
excited about. We had to settle for men walking on the crummy
moon. (Russell Beland, Springfield)

In my day, we didn't have days. There was only time for work,
time for prayer and time for sleep. The sheriff would go around
and tell everyone when to change. (Elden Carnahan, Laurel)

In my day, people could only dream of hitchhiking a ride on a
comet. (David Ronka, Charlottesville)

In my day, we didn't have fancy health-food restaurants. Every
day we ate lots of easily recognizable animal parts, along with
potatoes drenched in melted fat from those animals. And we're all
as strong as
GKK-GAAK
Urrgh.
Thud.
(Tom Witte, Gaithersburg)

In my day, we didn't have hand-held calculators. We had to do
addition on our fingers. To subtract, we had to have some fingers
amputated. (Jon Patrick Smith, Washington)

In my day, we didn't have water. We had to smash together our
own hydrogen and oxygen atoms. (Diana Hugue, Bowie)

In my day, we didn't have Strom Thurmond. Oh, wait. Yes we did.
(Peg Sheeran, Vienna)

Kids today think the world revolves around them. In my day, the
sun revolved around the world, and the world was perched on the
back of a giant tortoise. (Jonathan Paul, Garrett Park)

In my day, we didn't have virtual reality. If a one-eyed
razorback barbarian warrior was chasing you with an ax, you just had to
hope you could outrun him. (Sarah M. Wolford, Hanover)

Taken from www.comicsidontunderstand.com

[Suich]

1. We used to put a penny on the needle arm!

:hi:

[Maine-ah]

6. you know, I'm a gen-x'r and I remember doing that

along w/other things in that list like roller skates w/ metal wheels. :hi:

I think that list needs to be aimed at the Y's.

[Rhythm]

2. There are days when the "Style Invitational" is the only good reason to read the WaPo

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. 'Oo would've thought, 30 years ago,

we'd all be sitting 'ere drinking Chateau de Chasselet, eh?

Ay, ay.

Them days we were glad to 'ave the price of a cup of tea.

Ay! A cup of cold tea!

Ay!

Without milk, or sugar.

Or tea!

In a cracked cup and all.

Oh, we never used to 'ave a cup! We used to 'ave to drink out of a rolled-up newspaper!

The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

But you know, we were 'appy in those days, although we were poor.

Because we were poor!

Ay!

My old dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't bring you 'appiness, son!"

'E was right!

Ay!

I was 'appier then and I had nothing! We used to live in this tiny old tumble-down 'ouse with great big 'oles in the roof.

'Ouse! You were lucky to live in a 'ouse! We used to live in one room, all 26 of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of fallin'.

You were lucky to 'ave a room! We used to 'ave to live in the corridor!

Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would 'ave been a palace to us! We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip! We got woke up every morning by 'aving a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! 'Ouse, ha!

Well, when I say "'ouse," it was just a 'ole in the ground, covered by a sheet of tarpaulin. But it was a 'ouse to us!

We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground. We 'ad to go and live in a lake!

You were lucky to 'ave a lake! There were 150 of us living in a shoebox in the middle of the road!

A cardboard box?

Ay!

You were lucky! We lived for three months in a rolled-up newspaper in a septic tank! We used to 'ave to get up every morning at six o'clock and clean the newspaper, go to work down at mill, 14 hours a day, week in, week out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home, our dad would thrash us to sleep with 'is belt!

Luxury! We used to 'ave to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a 'andful of 'ot gravel, work 20 hours a day at mill for tuppence a month, come 'ome, and dad would beat us around the 'ead and neck with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

Well, of course, we 'ad it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of the shoebox in the middle of the night and lick the road clean with our tongues! We 'ad to eat 'alf a 'andful of freezing cold gravel, work 24 hours a day at mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got 'ome, our dad would slice us in two with a bread knife!

Right! I 'ad to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, 'alf an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work 29 hours a day down mill and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got 'ome, our dad would kill us and dance about on our graves, singing 'allelujiah!

Oh, ay. And you try and tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you!

[QMPMom]

5. OMG, I am laughing so damn hard, Oeditpus Rex!

Your post reminds me of when my Dad tells about the apartment he and my mother had when they first got married. I swear, that damn apartment was about the size of a matchbox (a small matchbox!) to hear him tell it. I don't know how they managed to conceive me in it.

:toast:

[chknltl]

4. Gee kids, in my day we had "pong"...what's that you say?

Tell you what, next time a republican comes around and starts preachin to you about the good ol days ask him about "pong"

and remember kids...your vote actually counts