Spoiled and “over” 30.

So my wife sent me this email that she received from her mother.  Now I’ve read this and I am over 30 (32 to be exact) and I remember how things were before some of the conveniences mentioned here, but I’ll comment more on this after you read…

  
THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!

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 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 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!
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!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter with a pen or pencil!

 

 

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!
There were no MP3’s or Napster! 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 record it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!
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 Boxes 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!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn’t see, you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! 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 and 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 or go build a frigging fire. Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.
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! Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

 

 

Now that you’ve read how old times used to be like, here’s what old times were like for me.

Yes, I have used a pen and written letters, I also typed a few as well. Mail was still a walk to the box or you could give it to the Mailman directly.

We may not have had the MP3’s or Napster, but I had a duel tape deck stereo that I used to make my own mix tapes on. I mostly barrowed tapes from friends or from the library. And yes I did steal some of my music. Hell, about a third of my CD’s were acquired with my five finger discount.  I had a walkman and later a diskman, Music was mobile, but just more cumbersome. And yes, Dj’s ruined the radio.

We got the caller id box when I was in High School and some people could never wrap their head around how I was able to answer the phone by saying “What’s up Bob?” (I never knew a Bob, this is just the name I’ve rounded everyone into to make my point) If it makes you happy prior to the Caller ID we did have a wall mounted Rotary phone and that thing really sucked.

I never had the Atari 2600, but when I was 13 or 14 I did get a Sega Genesis and man that thing was awesome to have. I played Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Combat 1, 2 and 3, Earthworm Jim 1 and 2, Ecco the Dolphin, Golden Axe and Justice League Task Force. I remember having to convince my mom to take me down the o the video rental store so I could rent some games. Ah, good times. I also got a Playstation at 19 (1996) and the PS2 at 23 (2000) now I’ve got a WII and am trying to decide between PS3 and Xbox 360.

I remember having most of the good cable channels in the 90’s, but in the 80’s it was all about Saturday morning cartoons. He-man, Transformers (only the original) Spider-man and his Amazing Friends(Man, the dreams I used to have about Starfire, and that was just last week), the Smurfs (they were the smurffiest)

I did have a microwave the entire time growing up. I never used the Jiffy Pop over the stove concoction, but I did use the Orville Redenbacher Popcorn Popper.

I may not have been spoiled, but I wouldn’t trade those times for gold… well maybe gold or cash money.