Childhood

[azeli73]

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

But....

Now that I've reached the ripe old age of twenty-nine, 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.

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet--we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves!!

And there was no email! 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 the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

And there were no MP3s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the goddamned record store and shoplift it yourself!!

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?

You couldn't just download porn! You had to bribe some homeless dude to buy you a copy of "Hustler" at the 7-11! It was either that or jackoff to the lingerie section of the JC Penney catalog!!

Those were your options!!!

We didn't have fancy s*** 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 graphics sucked ass! 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 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! A tall guy sat in front of you, you were SCREWED!

And sure, we had cable television (not until I was 10), but back then that was only like 20 channels and there was no on screen 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 heck I'm saying!?!

We had to wait ALL WEEK, you spoiled little brats!!!

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 1984.

 

[Sir Nuke]

very ture.....but for me there are a few other things that were just a little off in my case.

the video came we had was PONG....and that didn't even come along till I was in highschool...

TV....NO CABLE....and we didn't even have a color set till I was in the 6th grade!

Yep...the kids today have it made in the shade!

 

[blynzoo]

Perhaps.
Kids today also deal with
epidemic drug use;
gang violence, this time with guns instead of fists;
1 in 4 girls ***** or sexually assaulted;
decaying public schools;
polluted air and waterways that lead to higher cancer #'s and younger victims;
a culture that now, more than ever, rests it's praise upon the physically beyond-perfect, the super-sexual perfect lover, the material.

 

[Kooldino]

Thank you, blynzoo. And not to mention, today's kids are expected to know more and grow up faster.

Although a lot of little things are made easier now (pr0n being a big one here).

 

[Rogue]

I think each generation has had both its hardships and easy-goings, as blynzoo and azeli73 pointed out.

Over time technology has made life "easier." Technology, though, comes at a price. Not only money, but it also widens the gap between the "haves" and "have nots." You have to have money in order to take advantages of the things that are mentioned by azeli73. If not, you're still using snail-mail, going to the dollar theatre that has no stadium seating, copying music from the radio. And sometimes the "have nots" have to resort to violence described by blynzoo. I'm not saying, at all, that violent acts are only committed the "have nots." Please don't think I'm trying to stereotype anyone. I'm just stating my opinion.

But yes, this generation has pros and cons over the previous. So did that generation over the one before it, and so on.

Thanx for listening
(2thumbs)

 

[KzA]

bah..you old people are just jealous

 

[PA_MP3_Man]

That sounds like a rant that Dennis Leary would go on. One thing that comes to mind now is crime and punishment. Say a buncha friends from highschool got caught at a party in the 70's or 80's, what happens to them? Usually nothing, party broken up, people sent home. Now with zero tolerance laws, kids get in a lot of trouble for underage drinking and tobacco use. I'm not saying that they should be able to, and I'm not saying that I didn't do that stuff but man I'm glad we didn't get caught. Lose your license till your 18 or 21. And how bout road racing? Theres some serious fines and penalties now, back then I'm not too sure what happened but probably not as bad as losing your car or license for a year or so.

So yeah, we have it made, but we also have to be more responsible and face more sever consequences for our actions. Ok I"m done .

Oh and porn, no doubt that's what the inventor of the internet had in mind

 

[azeli73]

This is why I put this in the humor section. We are all well aware of the issues kids deal with these days and it's rough. I was looking at things on a lighter end.

How many here had a Commador 64...

 

[20ESGUY]

Never had a comodore but i did have a franklin ACE 1000, no hard-drive and an external 5.25 drive. Personally, i tend to think kids today really do have it easy as hell. They don't notice it either, which honestly neither did most of us when we were their age. The problems i see is that alot of them are just flat out and out lazy bums, they will do nothing to better themselves or society. All they really wanna do it seems is sit around, get drunk, play PS, or goof on the net. Not sayin all youngins are like that, just seems to me that the majority of the ones i run into are.

 

[mountjonas]

i had an apple IIe. i was always jealous of my friends with commodores or amigas

 

[Rogue]

The problems i see is that alot of them are just flat out and out lazy bums, they will do nothing to better themselves or society. All they really wanna do it seems is sit around, get drunk, play PS, or goof on the net. Not sayin all youngins are like that, just seems to me that the majority of the ones i run into are.

I'm 23, but you sound just like my dad.

 

[20ESGUY]

I'm 23, but you sound just like my dad.

I really hate to tell you this.......but i'm also only 23, I've got a younger sister who's not quite 18 yet, so i get to see alot of the highschool kids goins on.

 

[NC_MP3]

Damn, I miss the good ol days. Back when Saturday morning cartoons were plentiful. Captain N, TMNT, Duck Tales. Now you are lucky to get any cartoons on Sat, and if you do it's friggin Pokemon or some s***!

Back when wrestling meant something. Hulk Hogan was the man! And being the champ meant something, it didn't change hands every week at a pay per view. I cried when Hogan lost the belt to the Ultimate Warrior, that was such a great Wrestlemania though.

Back when being a rock star was the coolest. Axle Rose made every young boy want to trash a hotel room and dress like a girl. Now everyone wants to be a "thug".

Nintendo, regular old 16 bit Nintendo. I have an X-box, but I still play old Nintendo games on my emulator, those games are priceless. I will kick anyones ass in Tecmo Bowl, Bo Jackson is the man on that game!

Back when Jordan was good, you saw him everywhere. Like Mike! If I could be Like Mike, and I am not talking about that damn Lil Bow Wow movie.

Michael J Fox was the man, had his own commercials and everything.

And transformers! Damn I loved transformers, those were the best toys ever made. The toys you get now are so gay. Transformers ruled. I cried when Optimus Prime dies in the movie.

Yep, those were the good ol days.

 

[PA_MP3_Man]

Yeah I hear ya about transformers, man that was good stuff. And x-men. All I remember was the huge "Pheonix Saga" but what a great story. That was pretty cool. Oh and of course, the real american hero GIJoe. Those were always cool. Getting the toys that had spring loaded plastic missles to shoot 10 inches.
And how about TGIF. Anyone remember that.

And Nintendo was only 8 bit, sega was 16. But both were awesome systems. I just remember getting a nintendo game that had 180 games on it some how and I just played my heart out. But I was really good at RC pro am. That was a cool game.
And sega's biggest game at the time was Altered Beast. Who wasn't into that? Changing into a dragon and s***, that was good stuff. And then the mother of all games hit....Mortal Konbat. I can remember spending hours at the arcade just watching people play cause it was so cool to see someones head get ripped off, or heart get pulled out.
Then came the turbo grafix 16 and atari jaguar. Neither of which I played or have actually seen for that matter.
Well I guess that's enough remenising (Sp?!!?) for now.

 

[Stealth5]

1 word for EVERYONE (every human being on earth) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>chill<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

 

[blynzoo]

Damn, I miss the good ol days. Back when Saturday morning cartoons were plentiful. Captain N, TMNT, Duck Tales. Now you are lucky to get any cartoons on Sat, and if you do it's friggin Pokemon or some s***!

MY ULTIMATE BEEF WITH MODERN TIMES.
God, Saturday morning cartoons used to start at 5:30 AM and they were good. Transformers, Thundercats, Smurfs, Voltron, all the Hanna Barbera stuff, Looney Tunes (for TWO HOURS), and then you could close with the ABC mini-movies. And THEN it would move on to cool-ass educational shows on PBS (like Mr. Wizard) and other networks. Popular Mechanics for Kids (which is still on), and all sorts of nature programs (Wild America).
And then of course the RACING would come on.
I would spend a good 7 hours in front of that thing before I even moved.

*sniff*

 

[Stealth5]

i like the car shows on TNN staurday and sunday mornings...i like Trucks even tho im not into trucks and i like C&D TV

 

[1sty]

"I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet--we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves!!"

true but we were there anyways dicking around in some class.

"And there was no email! 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 the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!"

You mean no constant viruses and 200 useless spam links to get to on email from your girlfriend that wrote "hi":wtf:

"And there were no MP3s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the goddamned record store and shoplift it yourself!!"

Or just borrow your buddies tape a dub the bastard, still a better quality then a 128 bit MP3

"You couldn't just download porn! You had to bribe some homeless dude to buy you a copy of "Hustler" at the 7-11! It was either that or jackoff to the lingerie section of the JC Penney catalog!!"

All you had to do was go to a construction site and raid the bulldozers, PORN JACKPOT!!

"We didn't have fancy s*** like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal!"

Now you have to talk to 2 asshole that you didn't want to call at once, yippy!

"And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either!"

Everyone has a blocker so whats the point?

"And we didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation videogames with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600!"

Atari and NES are the best games ever. I am playing metroid right now, and later maybe some pit fall.

"With games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked ass! 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 just kept getting harder and faster until you died!"

Both great games, I have one in arcade form!


"When you went to the movie theater there was no such thing as stadium seating!"

Rent the bastard! The movies are way over priced and all suck ass anyways!

"And sure, we had cable television (not until I was 10), but back then that was only like 20 channels and there was no on screen menu! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!"

So know we have 300 channels of crap instead of 3. And those on screen menus are slow as hell. Takes 20 minutes to find out whats on at 10pm tomarrow, still easier to use the TV guide.

"And there was no Cartoon Network! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning... ...D'ya hear what the heck I'm saying!?!"

Now there are no Satureday morning cartoons just news BS :wtf:
no wonder kids are killing each other!

 

[cbcbd]

Next generations always have it easier. In some cases...

But even though we do have the PS2 now and to us it is the s**t, 10 years from now we'll be complaining because our kids (I'm 24, don't have kids yet) will be playing this godly console.

For the time being I'll enjoy the happy memories of the past like He-Man, and GI Joes. This site has a bunch of old 80s commercials: http://www.x-entertainment.com/

And just because it has an "x" in the url it doesn't mean it's porn, although the name does suggest that it could be.

Ah He-Man, you'll always be my hero

 

[1sty]

The problem with new game consoles it that somehow the programming genouses thought that useing EVERY button of the 14 was a good IDEA! :wtf:

Nintendo Rulled, Direction pad and A and B button not
a,b,x,y,l1,l2,r1,r2 or whatever. You can't possible keep a good grip on the cotrolers trying to do all that s*** at once. If I can't do it with 2 button, **** YOU, I'm not doing it at all!
A woman takes less caressing then the damn controllers do to get the desired response. Hell a combo in mortal kombat takes 27 button presses now and I STILL CAN"T FIGURE OUT HOW TO JUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!