Life Pre Internet

I was going through some old Hometown View scripts and came across this one which originally aired just over a year ago and deals with one of my favorite subjects….the difference in growing up today as opposed to just 30 years ago.
Even relatively young parents with teen-agers admit that in many cases their kids have it much easier than they did:

It was not that long ago when the Internet did not exist so if you wanted to know something you had to go to the library and look it up. By the way those libraries did not have coffee shops in them either.

There was no email…you actually had to write letters on paper with a pen. Then you placed a stamp on it and had to walk or drive and put the letter in a mailbox which would take a day or two before it was delivered.

There were no MP3’s or Napster or ITunes. As for “stealing” music…well you would have to go to a record store and shoplift it yourself. Some people would actually wait for their favorite songs to play on the radio and they would tape the music. Remember this was before CD’s and there was a pretty good chance you had a tape deck in your car. Sometimes when removing the cassette or cartridge the tape would get stuck and tangled and you might have to throw it away.

There were no cell phones so when you left your house it meant you would be out of touch with your friends for more than ten minutes. Can you imagine not being able to make or receive a call or texting on a 24/7 basis? By the way there was no call waiting so when you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a thing called a “busy signal.”

In the old days like the 70’s and 80’s there was no Cartoon Network. If you wanted to watch cartoons you pretty much had to wait for Saturday morning. After school or on weekends you did not play with Xbox, Wii or Nintendo but you actually went outside and played with friends. That’s because if you came inside you might get stuck doing chores. Also child protective services did not care if your parents wacked you once in a while…as a matter of fact your friends’ parents also had permission to give you a shot when needed.

Times certainly have changed. Today’s pampered younger generation could not have lasted five minutes back in the 1980’s or any time before that!