--- If you are 40, or older, you might find this amusing!

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 waitALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little brats!

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 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 ::hal::

I'm just shy of 30, and all that applies except the microwave. We had the internet "early" for my father's work, and I was nearly at some states' driving age by that time.

Oh, we had the original Nintendo by the time I was walking, but we had an Atari system for a few years yet.

You forgot the part in number 5 where during the song as it builds and builds, builds up to a certain point then, ka-chink...it skips to the next track to finish the song.

...and if you wanted a car?

You worked and saved for it and then it sat in the yard until you saved up enough to pay for insurance.

Awesome... being 41 here I can relate to all above. I love the CPS part! Yes, there were no safe houses when I was kid. You 'effed up and somebody was there to put you in your place, as it should be!

I would add that the lucky had "cable tv" which meant you got 12 channels rather then 3 or 4 with an antenna.

May I suggest..

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/m.../image0044.jpg

Funny stuff and mostly accurate.

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

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!

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We had one of the original Pong games... we didn't get an Atari until a few years later...

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Originally Posted by Dave04

We had one of the original Pong games... we didn't get an Atari until a few years later...

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Atari was out when I was young, and many friends had it. Mom bought a Pong console from a garage sale and told me to consider myself lucky. Mom drove a 450 SLC, dad drove an XJ12, and I got a garage sale Pong... I wasn't feeling too lucky. Mom called it tough love.

I beg to differer. There were remote contols for TVs back then. I was one of them. :)

But Yes I agree with everything.
We called all the ladies in the neighborhood mom and they all had permission to tan our hides good if we deserved it.
We Played tackle football on a crumbling asphault street. If we hurt ourselves the first question was "Now what did you learn?".
I Didn't have everything I wanted but always had everything I needed.
We would spend all day outdoors and complain when we had to come in for dinner.
My rich relatives had a pong machine. It was awsome.

I remember the first video game I ever saw. It was a Pong console in the lobby of a movie house. I was probably 25 or 26. We had cable at home when I was a kid. It was real CATV so we could get 5 or 6 channels including the local station.

You punks get off my lawn.

Before cable, the thing to have was an 'electric' antenna up on a tall mast. There was a big box with a dial that sat on the TV that controlled the rotation. That would get us an extra 4-5 channels back in the day. ::hal::

Thanks onething I was starting to feel old!
POS, You nailed it, but wait until your 51: you had an Atari in your house? I remember when the first Pong was was put in a grocery store and that was a big deal. It was next to the tube tester (never mind kids).
I’m assuming the “Tape” you’re referring to had 8 tracks (possibly 4) and not of those fancy cassette things you kids grew up with.
I would show this thread to my mother but she would remind me I had it made because she grew up with bomb shelters that she would run to when the sirens went off (True story).

Please excuse me while I grab a shot of Geritol…

The games I played when I was a kid included rocks and sticks. :)

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Originally Posted by motorollow

The games I played when I was a kid included rocks and sticks. :)

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Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. :)

27 here and just about all of it applies.

Hot Wheels toy cars came out in 1968. I believe I received a Hot Wheels race track for Christmas in 1969. I remember buying the cars for $1.00 which is the current price at Big Lots now.

Senior citizens are constantly being criticized for every conceivable deficiency of the modern world, real or imaginary. We take responsibility for all we've done and don't blame others.

HOWEVER, upon reflection we would like to point out that it was NOTthe senior citizens who took:

The melody out of music
The pride out of appearance
The courtesy out of driving
The romance out of love
The commitment out of marriage
The responsibility out of parenthood
Thetogetherness out of the family
The learning out of education
The service out of patriotism
The Golden Rule from rulers
The nativity scene out of cities
The civility out of behaviour
The refinement out of language
The dedication out of employment
The prudence out of spending
The ambition out of achievement or
God out of government and school.







I'M A SENIOR CITIZEN!

I'm the life of the party even if it lasts until 8 p.m.

I'm very good at opening childproof caps - with a hammer.

I'm awake many hours before my body allows me to get up.

I'm smiling all the time because I can't hear a thing you're saying.

I'm sure everything I can't find is in a safe secure place, somewhere.

I'm wrinkled, saggy, lumpy, and that's just one leg.

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

I'm a walking storeroom of facts - I've just lost the key to the storeroom door.


Yes, I'm a SENIOR CITIZEN and I think I am having the time of my life!

But I used large type so I could read it.

Don't forget hide and seek, kick the can or watches that only told you what time it was, and it was analog. Records and free love.

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Originally Posted by Ataim

Don't forget hide and seek

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That was a fav, along with knocking on doors and running. Innocent fun.

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Originally Posted by jrj512

That was a fav, along with knocking on doors and running. Innocent fun.

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onething, it WAS jrj52!!! last night!!

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Originally Posted by Electro

Awesome... being 41 here I can relate to all above. I love the CPS part! Yes, there were no safe houses when I was kid. You 'effed up and somebody was there to put you in your place, as it should be!

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I got spanked at school by the principle, then again at home for getting spanked at school, then by my uncles who strangely seemed disappointed with me too for being in trouble...

It is true, we were told to be outdoors if it wasn't raining or freezing. The edict was to be back on the front porch by dark. If you wanted to come inside, you'd better be bleeding or planning to do chores. Anyone else remember what happened if the phone rang during dinner? Not a damn thing! No answering machine either, you just let it ring, and they'd call back if it was important. Anyone remember what happened if one of your friends called late at night (after 9 at my house)? Someone was getting an ass-whipping. Not sure how, but parents could somehow will your friends into telling who was on the line. Mind-boggling.

Not even going to get started on typewriters...

Also, some games I remember with my 3 brothers:

Buns-up - (played with a tennis ball against a garage door, involved getting hit really hard in the ass/back)
Speargrass - (near our bus stop in Austin, certain grasses grew that made perfect "spears", you'd pick a handfull of dry ones, then nail someone in the back!)
Pencil Wars - You'd try to break someone's pencil by striking it with yours while they held it sideways. If you didn't break it, they got yours, etc.)

Also, we'd stand under the streetlight in our cul-de-sac on summer nights and throw our shoes up in the air, then watch bats chase them almost to the ground. If you had the balls to stand under it and catch it, you were the "man!"

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Originally Posted by OZMDD

Buns-up - (played with a tennis ball against a garage door, involved getting hit really hard in the ass/back)

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We called this wall ball or spread eagle. Played with a raquet ball if we could find one.

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Pencil Wars - You'd try to break someone's pencil by striking it with yours while they held it sideways. If you didn't break it, they got yours, etc.)

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I played this with a painted chopstick. I was snapping a lot of pencils before someone figured it out ;)


We had a neighborhood pool that was our babysitter for most of the summer. Every day we'd be at the pool when it opened until it closed.

We shot each other with play guns, darn it!

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Originally Posted by goofygrin

I played this with a painted chopstick. I was snapping a lot of pencils before someone figured it out ;)

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Why do I have to be 30 to figure this out?????? heck, at our house, we had more chopsticks than pencils! SMH

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Originally Posted by jrj512

We shot each other with play guns, darn it!

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That's nothing...remember Jarts?!

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Originally Posted by jrj512

We shot each other with play guns, darn it!

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We used pump-action BB guns. One pump was "legal" for anything but far shots, in which case you could use an "appropriate" amount of pumps. When my brother got me in the side with one of those pointed hollow point BBs that had to be muzzle loaded, nobody would play with us after that :(

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Originally Posted by Rob®

We used pump-action BB guns. One pump was "legal" for anything but far shots, in which case you could use an "appropriate" amount of pumps. When my brother got me in the side with one of those pointed hollow point BBs that had to be muzzle loaded, nobody would play with us after that :(

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We had a lot of new houses being built in the area, so they made excellent BB combat areas when no workers were around. Yep, one-pump rule, too.

We had 1000s of acres of state land less than 100 yards from our house growing up in NJ. So we'd just go in the woods and play. We'd get all camoed up at times too, and just generally try to kill each other without getting shot ourselves. There were a few old abandoned houses scattered about back there, but we'd try to keep those in somewhat good order for parties and whatnot.

We'd also ride our dirtbikes on that land, but mostly on the streets. That was when you'd get pulled over - if you didn't feel like running, or couldn't find a clearing into the woods soon enough - you'd just get told to walk the bike "home." Cop would follow you for about the worst 20 minutes of your life, then drive away so you could just ride to wherever you were going in the first place. About when I left the area was when they started suspending licenses and fines galore for riding on the streets...cops got fast 4-wheelers and would start chasing you inthe woods. As much fun as it was to run from that, kids that didn't have racing experience ended up getting seriously hurt. Ah..the good ole days

Playing with marbles. You set them up, drew your line, if the person hit they got to keep them. That was big in the early 80's.

Still a young 36 but 40 ain't far away.

33 and I *never* played marbles. Were you born in mayberry?

This was in Albuquerque NM, had to have been 1980-82 or so.

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Originally Posted by sammm

That's nothing...remember Jarts?!

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Those big lawn dart things? Remember "Klackers"? My brother and I saw some show about South American Gauchos who used something similar to hunt with. They wind up and throw those things at animals legs and it would get tangled up and trip the animal. Of course, we thought'd it be neat to have each other run around the yard while we threw the klackers at each other's feet.

Haha! We used screwdrivers instead of lawn darts. Throw as close to the outside edge of the other person's feet as you could. If you hit them, you lost and caught a beating. If you missed, they had to spread their legs out to where the screwdriver was in the ground. Repeat till someone bled or fell over from not holding a split.

Also remember when you could play in any yard in the neighborhood. We had two yards hat where "off limits” one had a big mean dog and other a WITCH lived there. A real live one. Years later I talked to her and was as nice as could be, but as a little kids she was scary as hell. Kind of like this
http://mjsbigblog.com/wp-content/upl...2-16-47-AM.jpg

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Originally Posted by Rob®

Haha! We used screwdrivers instead of lawn darts. Throw as close to the outside edge of the other person's feet as you could. If you hit them, you lost and caught a beating. If you missed, they had to spread their legs out to where the screwdriver was in the ground. Repeat till someone bled or fell over from not holding a split.

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We called that "Stretch" and used our pocked knives, not screwdrivers.

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Originally Posted by AlanP1964

Remember "Klackers"?

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I've still got my "Klackers" in a box somewhere. We called'em "Click-Clacks" back then. Mine are purple with silver metal flakes. Can't believe they banned them just because a few shattered and flew apart or a few kids got smacked upside the head with them. Also still have my Whee-Lo if anyone remembers those. And at the risk of this going in the gutter real quick... I could still have a "Wooly Willy".

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Originally Posted by Rob®

Haha! We used screwdrivers instead of lawn darts. Throw as close to the outside edge of the other person's feet as you could. If you hit them, you lost and caught a beating. If you missed, they had to spread their legs out to where the screwdriver was in the ground. Repeat till someone bled or fell over from not holding a split.

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We played a similar game using pocket knives only you started out with your feet spread as wide as you could get them. you took turns throwing the knife into the ground between the other persons feet. If it stuck in the ground then they'd have to move the foot closest to the knife to that new location. It continued until your feet were really close together and someone eventually chickened out (or got stuck in the foot).

Growing up in the country and having an electric cattle fence also provided amusement when our city friends would come out to visit. you'd get them really close to the fence then grab them first and then the fence (in that order). The electricity would flow through you with no effect but shock the crud out of them. That was always good for a lot of laughs (maybe not from them but for me anyway).