the over 40 crowd- friday funny

If you are not over 40 some of this may seem harsh and possibly very odd you. Forward it to your mother, she will completely understand. I am over 40 and if I did forward it to my mother she would call and ask how to make the RAT work. 
 “mom, it is a mouse, don’t call it a rat.”

This came in to me as one of those group e-mails that has been around a hundred times but it still is so relevant. Not sure who wrote it, but kuddos to you.

Hilarious!

 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 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  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 $%#^#! 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 stuff 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 freaking’ cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn’t make a 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,  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 the couch 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 wait ALL WEEK for cartoons.

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, 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!

22 comments

  1. Dorris in Illinois says:

    If I remember right we had a remote control for the TV. It was us kids sitting on the floor and Dad saying"Boy turn that station for me." We had it good because if we went outside and turned the antanna we got 3 stations..not 202 like today.
    I wonder when my kids are 50 or 60 what they will say about these "good old days"

  2. OH Lissa, I loved this post. This hits the nail on the head for those of you born in the mid 60s/70s…BUT, for those like me (I'm 62 today) born in 1950…TV wasn't even available to the general public until I was about 5 years old! Then if you were lucky, your parents were able to afford one by the time you were 6 or 7. Three stations, NBC, CBS, and ABC…that was it. Father Knows Best, Lorreta Young Show, Gunsmoke, Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriot, were the fare for viewing, along with others of the same ilk. OH, I forgot the real goodies that I loved like the original Twilght Zone, 'good stuff' Movies??? The only movies were broadcast on the weekends. Here in Utah, it was "Kennecott Family Theater", made for TV movies for our Sunday evening family viewing pleasure, set up the TV trays and cook that Swanson's TV dinner, "Hurry, the movie is about to start". Mom yelling, "Save the trays from the TV dinners so I can freeze left overs in them"!!! BUT…if you had really cool parents, Saturday nights at 10pm we had "Nightmare Theater". OH, the horror of those flicks makes me shiver, LOL. Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Lon Cheney Jr as Dracula, Frankestein and The Wolf Man. All in black and white of course. I didn't have a color TV until I had been married for almost 10 years.
    We were telling our 18 year old grandson these things last night, after the conversation about texting started up when I had him help me with an APP on my Smartphone, LOL. When we told him that TV was just introduced at the Worlds Fair in (I think but could be a year or two off) 1944, his jaw dropped. His statement when he recovered was "WOW, you guys really are old"!!! I cracked up. Then I told him that when his grandpa was in Vietnam, we had to WRITE LETTERS for 13 months, though the last two months he was there, we were able to send taped messages back and forth…using the old 'Reel to Reel' tape recorders, then he was really horrified, LOL. It is so funny how every generation says "I remember when". One thing hasn't changed yet but it will have to for my grandkids remembrances…they will NEVER be able to say "When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…. Uphill… Barefoot… BOTH ways…yadda, yadda, yadda." Because in most areas now, you can't swing a dead skunk without hitting a school. Ah yes, the good old days. Each of us has a fondness for our memories don't we? Hugs…

  3. Vickie says:

    I'm still laughing, oh the memories you reminded me of! I remember watching Twilight Zone and an announcer coming on and saying the monster was live in our part of town and we should "Beware"! My mom wasn't home and I was halfway over the neighbors fence when she drove in and proclaimed it a hoax. Oh my gosh thanks again for the memories.

  4. Pamela says:

    My husband and I talk about this all the time! LOL at the kids being the remote – I remember that, too. And I noticed you didn't even bring up the price of groceries or gas (those were some of the things my mom always talked about – a loaf of bread was a nickel for her!) I could fill up my first car for what it costs for 1 gallon today.

  5. Monica says:

    Hahahaha! #3 brought back memories. My dad had a paddle that he spanked my brother and I with. On it, it said "Heat for the seat. Apply when needed." I can't count the number of times my seat was heated…LOL.

  6. Sherri says:

    I get this…I still remember when my parents bought the microwave and the Beta tape player. Who would have ever imagined the internet back then?!!

  7. gale says:

    Love it! Haha! I have to laugh when my kids ask me what computer games we played when we were kids or what kinds of dvds we watched. Heck, we didn't even have VCRs when we were kids. If we wanted to see a movie we had to go to the theater.

  8. Sandy D says:

    I am well over 40 and this is soooo funny. I am going to send it to my daughters who range in age from 34 to 40.My 7 year old granddaughter just "interviewed me and she had never heard of games like pick up sticks or jacks.

  9. Trudi says:

    lol This is so TRUE! I'd forgotten all about the safety arm! and have guilty of that one myself! And we only had 3 chanels back in the 70's here in the UK, BBC1 BBC2 and ITV! Thanks for the memories 🙂

  10. Michelle says:

    So true….and so funny.
    I loved it.
    We were lucky if we got to watch the cartoons for an hour because as soon as mum got up that was it, the T.V was turned off.
    No seatbelts in cars,oh my!!
    We did survive though.
    I remember getting "the" video recorder when I was about 16…
    Times really have changed.

  11. Eu não tinha nem eletricidade em casa,banhos na casa de avó com fogão de lenha e serpentina,rádio com pilhas economizadas para ter notícias,roupas novas só no natal,mais tarde tv preto e branco na varanda da casa do vizinho,colégio era km de casa,carregar água antes e depois da escola,Fui ver tv color copa do mundo de 1970.O brasil ter sido tri-campeão não foi nada perto de tv a cores rhahaha.Só fui comprar tv a cores em 1982 com sacrifício de prestações.Atares usados meus primos ganharam.Meu DEUS…Minhas filhas tem hoje toda tecnologia e modernidades que surgem,eu tenho um certo medo ainda.Estamos gargalhando aqui,só que eu choro por mim e por elas em sentidos opostos.Obrigada por lembrar nossas lembranças.Um grande beijo e VIVA A TECNOLOGIA E MODERNIDADE.

  12. SherenaT says:

    And how about no air conditioning in homes or cars. Homes had box, oscillating, or ceiling fans. Cars had those side vents in the front windows. (Could still use those today to save the hair-do – LOL) And crank handles to roll down the windows. No remote key entry either. I remember getting our first clothes dryer back in the early 60's. We, and our children, are so spoiled today. I, for one, am very thankful for many of the changes. I miss the handwritten letters, tho. In the future, we'll have nothing to read to bring back some wonderful memories of families and friends. Thanks for the memories. It's been a fun look back in time.

  13. Vivian says:

    They forgot to mention cable phone service with no per minute charges. Now you can talk as long as you want and your parents don't get mad. When I got my first job while I still lived at home, that was the first bill I asked to help pay so I could stay on as long as I wanted!

    The scary part is my DH and I have already told alot of these to our kids over the years!

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