Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Showing My Age

The Fantabulous 80's 

                                                                                                                               

 

 WAY BACK IN MY DAYS

 

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 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 malarkey like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

 

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

 

I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damned Utopia.  I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't even 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 library and look it up ourselves! And there was no e-mail! 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 a mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! And there were no iPods, iTunes, MP3's or Napsters!  You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Try sticking an LP Album under your jacket, buddy. Or we had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up!

 

You want to hear about hardship? We didn't have fancy stuff 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 graphic sucked!  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, the game just kept getting harder and faster until you died!

Just like LIFE.

 

When you went to the movie theater there was no such thing as stadium seating!  All the seats were the same height! If 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 hell I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK, you spoiled little twerps! 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 80’s!

 

I did not write this. I stole it from someone sometime ago because it is funny. Thought I'd share the laughs...

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was hillarious!  Thanks so much for making me laugh

dave

Anonymous said...

This was soooooo funny and true too! hehehe
Carlene

Anonymous said...

ROFL! That was great!
http://journals.aol.com/astaryth/AdventuresofanEclecticMind

Anonymous said...

The best thing about the 80's is the music, hu?  Thanks for the laugh & reality reminder!  - Julie -

Anonymous said...

Very funny!  I used to love Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

Anonymous said...

LMAO!  I love this!  So true, hard to believe kids of today don't even know life before cds, suvs, im, email and have never heard of the 8 track!

Tammy

Anonymous said...

Hehehehehehehehehehe!!!!!!!
V

Anonymous said...

Oh this was good! Soo true!! Thanks for sharing
Rebecca

Anonymous said...

Hats off to you for a great entry  I remember thease days to I am old lol 29 , I remember it all to well been so busy like heck trying to find time to comment as been crazy

Anonymous said...

Too funny...I got this in email a few years ago and save it too. I want to read it to my son one day. ;-)

Anonymous said...

And don't forget.  If we were driving and needed a phone, we had to actually find a pay phone, have the correct change, and get out of the car to make a call.  And the worst horror, it took 20 minutes to cook something in the oven instead of 2 minutes.  My kids look at me in horror when I tell them these things, lol.  

Anonymous said...

You think that's bad, young lady? Let me tell you about the 60's...

Anonymous said...

Oh Gawd, I'm reminded of the party-line we had on our telephone at home back in the day.  The old bag next door would never get off her phone!  Sheesh...she never shut her pie hole long enough to hang the darned phone up!      ...and don't get me started on the stupid tv antennas, used to put tin foil on them just to get decent reception.  ARGH!!!!!!!
I don't care if you lifted this entry from Timbuktu, this is hilarious stuff!  Thanks for sharing it.
Best,
Judith
http://journals.aol.com/jtuwliens/MirrorMirrorontheWall

Anonymous said...

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO True.......its like one of those "I'll never say that to my kid"...yeah right.....thanks for sharing it....
Jodi
http://journals.aol.com/jouell3935/Haveyoulostyourmind
http://journals.aol.com/jouell3935/Messages/

Anonymous said...

ROFL!!!! That is the funniest thing I think I've ever read. At first I thought it was you writing it and I was kinda like that doesn't sound like her...lol.
-Haley

Anonymous said...

This is so funny!  Thanks for sharing it.

Anonymous said...

You had me laughing the whole way through it and I even fell off my chair when you were talking about answering the phone and it could be your drug dealer! That was priceless! Thank you.

Anonymous said...

great entry.... how much times change and how they stay the same. judi

Anonymous said...

I laughed my butt off!  In fact, I think I'll put in a link in my journal to this.  :)
~Dona

http://journals.aol.com/delela1/BlueSkiesandGentleBreezes

Anonymous said...

You make me feel like putting on my skintight Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and riding my bike 10 miles to the local Dairy Queen to play Ms. Pac-Man!!!
LOL               Lisa

Anonymous said...

It is very funny. I grew up in the 90's though so I know what it was like and remember everything changing. I often forget that I used to have to go to the library a lot. Forget about asking mom or dad- Just ask JEEVES!

Anonymous said...

Ha!! That was really funny! I read it out loud to my co workers! Hats off to the writer :)

Anonymous said...

This is great!  Thanks for sharing~

Anonymous said...

....yeah. Another thing that I hated about the eighties is that you had to go to an adult book store for pron and hope nobody saw you go in or out. So much easier now with computers. Moreover, when people lied about who they were and what they did they had to do it face to face. Now we can lie in these Instant Message boxes. We have it so much better now.

http://journals.aol.com/abrasivist/Abrasivist

Anonymous said...

Loved this!!  I need to share this with my kids.  They have no idea about the old days.  LOL
Michele
http://journals.aol.com/samnsmile5/lettingitallsinkin

Anonymous said...

That is hilarious!