It's A Hard Knock Life

I’ve done several pieces in the past about things that remind you that you’re getting older…I should say we’re getting older. Part of the theme always centers on how older adults talk about how hard things were when they were growing up, which in truth they were…in some cases. Here’s one I received in which a 30-year old goes on and on about how today’s kids have it so good compared to his childhood.

· When I was a kid we didn’t have the Internet and if we wanted to
know something we had to go to the library and look it up in the
card catalog.
· There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter,
with a pen. Then you had to walk across the street and put it in
the mailbox where the person would not get it for a few days.
· There were no MP3’s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music
you had to go to the record store and shoplift it yourself.
· There was nothing like Call Waiting…if you were on the phone
and somebody else called you they got a busy signal. Plus with
no caller ID when the phone rang you had no idea who was
calling….if could be your school, your mom, boss or ex-girlfriend.
You had to pick up and take your chances.
· There were no SONY Playstation video games with high
Resolution and 3-D graphics. There was Atari 2600 with games like “Space Invaders” and “Asteroids.” Your guy was a little square and you had to use your imagination.
· When you went to the movie theater there was no stadium seating
and if a tall guy or some woman with a hat sat in front of you,
you were screwed.
· Okay there was Cable TV but no 100-plus channels and no on-
screen menu and no remote control. You had to look in TV Guide
to see what was on and forget channel surfing. You actually had to get up to change the channel. There was no Cartoon Network
and you had to wait until Saturday morning for cartoons.
· Plus there were no microwaves and if wanted to heat something
you had to use the oven. And when you wanted popcorn, there
was that stupid Jiffy Pop thing which you had to keep shaking and
half the kernels never got cooked anyway.

You kids today really have it easy…you wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes back in 1980.