Growing up without a cell phone (add your own thoughts)

[paul.karen]

Hilarious! Growing up without a cell phone

If you are 36, or older, you might think this is 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; wha...t 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 a damn 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 damn 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 ass! 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 crap 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 freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn 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.

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, your drug dealer, 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 your ass 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, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

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!

Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd

[paul.karen]

Also our teachers could smack us.  With big wooden paddles with scary names.
Like the splitter, and they would drill holes in the paddle to get extra speed.

[del]

I'm part of that crowd!!!  LOL and remember all those things!!

[Zach]

 p.k

[KICKSTART]

Oh how i laughed at that , its so true ! (Ahem all though i cant remember it myself , ive read history books on it  ) Im still partial to game of Space Invaders even now , especially at D ! 

[okarol]

 

[Poppylicious]

*chuckles*

I loved taping songs off the radio! 

If we were sent to our rooms for being naughty we just had to sit there and twiddle our thumbs ... these days being sent to your room must make your head spin with the frustration of having to choose what to do; watch tv, play games on the xbox or chat online with your friends?!

The kids at school are supposed to hand their phones in but don't because 'what if my mum wants to get in touch with me?' Um, she can ring the school office; if it's that important you'll get the message.

*sigh*

 

[jbeany]

I can kick butt at Pong.  And that was sooooooo cool!  Look!  You can play a game on YOUR TV SCREEN!  Isn't that amazing? 

Now go to bed - there's nothing you kids can watch on TV until Wednesday night when the Disney movie is on.  Prime time TV is only for adults! 

And yes, Bambi's dad gets shot.  So what?  So does that stupid yellow dog.  Toughen up.  That's what life looks like. 

[Chris]

p.k. didn't you have the 8 track as a kid to? God we had that in one our cars and at home. It was how I heard the "oldies" my parents listened to. Plus the big 12' records and on occassion those small 45's that were more common before I was born.
 
 

[paul.karen]

LOL Chris  yes i remember those as well as reel 2 reel music and 8MM home movies.

And the big 12" disc movie players years before the CD was even thought of.

Sidenote:  I didnt make this list stole it off FB.

[knittingdan]

Re: cartoons

Half the time your favorite cartoon got pre-empted by GOLF!  This began a long simmering hatred of rich people in sweaters.

[monrein]

I grew up with no telephone at all, cell or otherwise, no TV til I was 11 or 12 and then only 1 channel from 6-10 at night (the test pattern was fascinating) and wasn't allowed to read comics, only "real" books. 

[carol1987]

LOL Love iT!!

We had a black and white TV until I was in High School... I watched Wizard of Oz every year and never knew that it became color when Dorothy got to OZ!!!


OH and remember having to wait an entire year for the special annual TV showing of WIzard of Oz??  LOL

[Brightsky69]

I remember loving to ride inn the very back of my parents station wagon (no seat belts) hanging out the back window.

[Chris]

I remember loving to ride inn the very back of my parents station wagon (no seat belts) hanging out the back window.

I loved doing that on long road trips, especially when we left at 4 am. Slept on the floor of a car too as a kid

[Brightsky69]

Oh yeah...we slept in the back of the station wagon.

I remember actually biting a boy in my neighborhood once and my mother took me over to his house and made me apologize to him face to face in front of his mother. No one got sued...no lawsuits were filed. I even think we were friends again the next day.
I am thinking I was about 4 or 5.
I remember eating Honey Suckle...drinking out of the garden hose. Do kids no a days even know what honeysuckle is ?

[Sax-O-Trix]

Thanks for the laughs, everyone.  Add:  kids stayed outin the neighborhood to play until the street lights came on or your mom screamed your name for you to come home.  I think my kids would run and hide if I screamed anything at them lol.  Staying out all day?  Oh, my, that would never happen.

[Ang]

recently in oz,facebook took a break for a few hours and crashed


the concencus was after the catastrophe on talkback
OMG how are the youngsters gonna contact any one if this happen again

[RichardMEL]

*chuckle* every so often these sorts of things do the rounds.... and I laugh, but then I realise I'm also sitting there texting and accessing the net on my phone with the rest of them!! 

Of course it wasn't always that way. I work in IT - one of the most tech indulgant industries. For many years (until around I guess 1999 oir so) I *refused* to own a mobile/cell phone. My justification was if I'm not at my desk I'm either doing something important like deep into fixing a server or something, or I'm at lunch and I can't help you anyway. This used to piss people off no end - specially job recruiters who expect you to be at their beck and call all day (of course this rule does NOT apply the other way around!). When I needed to go to working contracts and often got calls I caved in and got a phone, and admit I haven't looked back, but I did resist for many years and was seen as a bit of a luddite by my co-workers who had to have the latest and greatest the minute it arrived. Indeed I only just upgraded from a bare bones "talk and text" phone to a smartphone with 'net access etc about a month ago (when I was stuck in hospital post my transplant and I had no way to get on FB, or to IHD to update people that's when I knew I needed something like that!). So even still I don't jump onto the bleeding edge.

As a child I grew up in the 1970's. My that was a time. Like others have said if it was the weekend we were encouraged to leave the house in the morning and don't come back till it gets dark. Nobody would know where we were unless we happened to have some kind of arrangement to go to Timmy's house or whatever. Of course we may leave Timmy's and go wherever and nobody would know! More to the point nobody really cared as long as you got home safe and sound. Oh if you had some scrapes.. well hey you're a kid that's what happens. No big deal. band aid it up and kiss it better!

And yes stranger danger and all that was just the same back then, but somehow we lead a much more liberated lifestyle compared to today's kids. Somehow all the xboxes, smartphones (and kids having their own phones younger and younger.. wtf?) and internet plus a fear of letting your kid out means they really don't get exercise (apart from organised sports, and it seems less are going if they can sit in their rooms and play WoW or something) and experience lifes ups and downs. Sure, I had a few hairy experiences when I was let out there - got lost a few times (wound up at a strange station once, but I went and told the stationmaster who called my home and they came get me!). And you know I'm reasonably well adjusted and nothing too serious happened to me.

Yep things were simpler back then, but at the same time more difficult in some ways. I guess you can see pros and cons. I do worry about the kids of today but I think most of that is due to their parents, who are MY generation, who somehow seem to think that respect and discipline is something that isn't requred these days. Some of the behaviour I see out in public that is tollerated or mollycuddled or excused (or simply ignored) by their parents is mindblowing. I would have got my backside belted for even a hint of what some kids get away with out there.

Anyhoo I best get off my soapbox now....

[Poppylicious]

When I was little (early 1980s) we used to go out on our bikes to play, and mum was very insistent that we never go beyond such-and-such a place.  We always went way beyond such-and-such a place. Just recently we had a conversation and I mentioned that not only were we always going beyond such-and-such a place, but we went all the way to Witches Wood (across fields and all sorts).  'I know!' she said. 'But I was aware of who you were with and where you were so I just let you think you were pulling a fast one on me' (that's paraphrased, my mother is nearly seventy and doesn't talk like that!) I can't imagine my sister-in-law being like that with her three boys and yet they live in a delightful little secluded Welsh village. 

Some of the behaviour I see out in public that is tollerated or mollycuddled or excused (or simply ignored) by their parents is mindblowing. I would have got my backside belted for even a hint of what some kids get away with out there.

But children have 'rights' now. And they know it.  I do sometimes wonder if it's fear of accusation which stops some parents correctly disciplining their children these days. I'm not sure what it's like in other countries, but in the UK it sometimes seems as though the 'fear culture' is prevalent; it makes for an easier life to let little Trixibelle-Lollipop-Lolita do that thing she shouldn't be doing, or give in to her demands, than have Mrs. Mangle ring the poilce and social services just because you told her off in the supermarket when she was screaming and playing up.

I'd like to think that when (if) I have children I'll be one of those mum's who is firm but fair, loving but not stifling.  But I know it won't be so; I worry about my cats when they bugger off for a few hours and don't come home when I call them ... I'd be frantic with a child who did that!  (But perhaps that goes back to 'fear culture' - we're now programmed to expect the worst because the media lets us think that bad things are going to happen the moment we turn our backs.)

*climbs off Richard's soapbox too*

 

[kristina]

I also belong to the over 40-crowd.

I have had a cell phone in my hand-bag for many years (in case of emergency) and I have never used it,       
hopefully I won’t need it either. I am amazed about people in the streets running into each other whilst they are on the phone.
I find it much more interesting to study buildings, people etc. whilst walking.

I only started to get interested in the Internet around two years ago
to find a better diet & keep my pre-dialysis kidney function going for as long as possible
& thanks to the Internet and IHD it has worked so far.

A wonderful side-product of being on the Internet is the fact that
“in the old days” whenever I was researching I was lost
when I could not find certain reference books to continue my research
& Public Libraries were not open in the evenings,
so the Internet is wonderful in that respect.
Whenever I have an idea, I can look it up.

As a child I only had two hours of TV per week
& I made my decisions very thoughtfully, to get as much out of it as possible.
Laurel and Hardy always won, they were half an hour each episode,
so I could watch them four days a week and I just loved their escapades.

I also wonder about children these days because when I was a child
I was able to walk around for many hours on my own without meeting or seeing anyone.
I was in the woods, in the meadows, climbing up little hills etc., investigating plants, observing animals etc.,
I was always on my own, sometimes with a book to read & nothing ever happened.
I don’t think that would be so easy for children now
and it may be more hazardous?

[Stoday]

Didn't the Over 40's Crowd have it cushy?

I was a kid in the 1940's:
No television;
No tapes, only 10-inch shellac gramaphone records that broke as soon as you looked at them;
No bananas or other exotic (for the UK) fruit & vegatables;
No swings and kids' amusements on a Sunday, they were all locked up by laws kowtowing to the church;
No shops open on a Sunday.
There were exciting bomb craters to play in though.

I remember a plane got shot down in our village; I wanted to play on it but my mother wouldn't let me.

[RichardMEL]

Aww Poppy sweetheart U kujed seeing you on my soapbox. You look so cute up there!!!!

I understand what you mean about the "fear culture" - it's like all these child locks and kid proof this and that for fear something might happen to the little dears. Yes, I understand that but I think there gets to be an overcompensation which can be just as unhealthy for all concerned. The end result, as we're seeing, is a bunch of teenagers and now into their 20's generation of kids who have (again, in general - there are some fantastic young people out there) an entitlement complex but also have little or no respect for the law, older people, society in general.

It's when I heard schools were accepting ENGLISH essays in "txtspeak" that I knew we were well and truly doomed. I figure imagine these kids getting out into the workplace (if they can put in a job application that would be accepted!) and wondering why they don't perform well? But then no, it's not their fault, it's clearly ours and we need to make alloweances for them, blah blah blah.

I also worry that poor behaviour left uncorrected at a young age (oh we'll let Johnny scream till he's done, Suzy's got ADHD-we can't do anything, Jack likes to pull the cat's tail.. oh that's harmless) can lead to more disturbing trends later on in life - like bullying of others, cruelty to animals(soon tail pulling is not enough for Jack... ) and then of course, violence to their fellow man. In a way the "fear factor" is directly leading to the kind of situation we're most afraid of where it really IS unsafe for kids to go for a ride and play in the local area.....

Maybe this view seems a little extreme - like I wrote above there are plenty of well adjusted(in my view), respectful and well mannered young people out there doing all they can to find their place in this world, but there's also those who expect it all on a plate and if they don't get it they either sue you for neglligence/divorce their parents or simply beat you up out of frustration. If I make it to 60+ these are the folks who will be looking after me... *shudder*


Poppy... hold me?! 

[Jean]

Having been a single mother of 3 kids, of course I had one that actually would have lost his head if it was not attached to him. The thought of having to buy cell phones and X-boxes and WII games to entertain them is indeed frightening. My kids always ran off to play and returned at a mealtime. ( those kids never missed a meal ). At that time we never had to worry about them beign outside and playing, but if I were young now and starting a family, I dont think I would want to do it. Too scary nowadays.

[Brightsky69]

Horrible things have always happened to children and adults alike since the beginning of time. It's just that we hear more about the horrible things since we live in such a electronic (internet) age.
A lady I work with told me about a tombstone she saw in a cemetery. It was for a little girl about 8 years old. It said she was murdered on her way to school. The year she died was 1897. You wouldn't think stuff like that happened back then....but it did.Just like it happens today.