Back in the day

The Nanite · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 11:24 am Post subject: Back in the day

***Disclaimer This is a general saturization of the decadent life of American kids***

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-eight I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so freakin' easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a goddamned 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 goddamned 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 freakin' 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 pleasure yourself to the lingerie section of the JC Penney catalog! Those were your options! We didn't have fancy shite 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 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, but back then that was only like 20 channels and there was no onscreen 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 hell I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK, you spoiled little bastards! 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!
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Azrael · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 11:57 am Post subject:

lol,I remember the J.C. Penney's Catalog with fond memories........

And I had a Coleco, not an Atari, we were'nt that well off. I played smurfs on that bish till it fried.

I still remember when MTV started (The original one, not MTV X or MTV2 or even the MTV Ass station). That's one of the reason my mom made my dad get rid of cable, she caught me watching a Van Halen video!!!! I can't remember the name of the song, but the video had some wrestler guy in it, and the kid was telling his dad to go screw himself, and it was all about partying instead of going to school!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhh, those were the best of times............

Damn, now you've got me all misty eyed........
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Under construction!!!

MunkeyEye · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 12:01 pm Post subject:

lol bush!!! that's a pretty good post!! dang, you've brought things up in detail that i've almost forgotten!! esp the radio DJ bit! it was like they JUST KNEW we were all next to the stereo with our fingers on the record-pause button waiting for them to stop yapping and play the darn music!

But everything's relative i suppose! let's hear it from the evergreens on how OUR generation had it so easy!

(+)ASSASSIN(+) · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 12:41 pm Post subject:

even before cable TV, do any of you guys remember ONTV which was like one the first cable TV you could get???? I also remember when MTV came out, and also when Nickelodean had You cant do that on Television??? Remember that show? Ill take it over spongebob anyday GODAMMIT!!!! Hell when I was a Kid I would actually go outside to find something to do, like play baseball using the sewers on the corners of the street for bases or playing tackle football except if you touched them on the sidewalk part it was 2 hand touch (hehe sometimes

) and Garbage Pail Kids, hell I used to BEG for money just to go buy another pack of those things and eat the rock hard dried out 2 year old gum inside of them. Shoveling the snow off the basketball court in februrary just so we could have something to do. BB gun wars, not really a good Idea but fun none the less. ahhhh things were so much better when I was a kid......................
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Killing is my bidness ladies and BIDNESS IS GOOD!!!!

Bright Red Nipples · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 2:18 pm Post subject:

OMG, I shouldn't have read this post. Where's my oxygen tank!! Heheh, Great thread Bush. I remember everything mentioned, even the ONTV. I remember having to walk up to the TV to change the channel or adjust the rabbit ears. I remember my friend getting his first computer, the Commodore 64. Hell I remember listen to records and 8-tracks. And oh yes, Saturday morning cartoons

. I had the Atari 2600 when it was just called Atari. I'm sure the kids nowadays think Super Nintendo is nostalgic, I still have one of those.

But then again I heard all the stories of how my father used to sit around the radio with his family for entertainment. I felt fortunate growing up

.
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God Bless You Blue Ruler

Robert E. Lee · Registered User Joined: 18 Jul 2001 Posts: 2904

Great post Bush.. It took me back to yesteryear.
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Fresh Tofu · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 2:53 pm Post subject:

hehehe Bushido.....

j00 know why!
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punk_fix · Registered User Joined: 07 Dec 2002 Posts: 10

What about microwaves and VCRs? Both those inventions changed things significantly. I remember our first microwave was about as big as my oven is now. It sounded like a Mack Truck revving up too!

My first computer was actually a Commodore Vic-20. Came out a couple years before the 64. Damn that thing was slow. Pre-floppy drives - everything was stored on cassette tapes.

I had the Atari and a Sears console system called the Odyssey. PLaying those games now, you wonder how you spent 12 hours straight playing Pitfall on the 2600 jumping over the same 3 crocodile heads and swinging from the same 3 vines- thinking it was the greatest thing in the world the whole time.

The Nanite · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 3:15 pm Post subject:

Ah the good of days of the Vic-20. Jupiter Lander rewled!!!! I'll have you know I still have my Vic-20, my C64, and my C128. One of the cool things about the Commodore 128 was you could enter a command that would emulate the 64 and play the same game. Can anyone say Jumpman?

Ahh..Pitfall brings back memories. So does making that fat little plumber jump over those barrels.... Do any of the young kids like Mikey and Juvi have a clue what we are talking about? Prolly not, spoiled little bastards!

I remember our first microwave too. Big as an oven, mom told us not to open the door while it was running cause it would flood the house with nuclear radiation and kill the cat!

VCR...ah...can anyone say Beta?

BRN...changing the channels brings back memories. Remote Controls are a luxory. When I was little my dad used to say Boy! Get up and change the channel. Then you sit back down and it's Boy! Get up and change the channel. Remote Controls are the number one reason kids are fat today!

What about Cell Phones? Sheesh...these kids got it easy. Remember when we were young and you had to make a phone call? Had to get up to that rotary dial and start cranking the numbers away. Don't be dialing long distance and make a mistake either. It'd take you 5 freakin minutes to redial the 11 numbers.

One of the guys I work with has a 13 year old daughter. She's got a cell phone, a phone line in her bedroom, a DSL account, and a Credit Card! Jeez I couldn't get my first credit card before I was 19!

MTV used to rock. I remember when all you saw was Van Halen "Hot for Teacher" and some Sting. The best part was midnight on Saturday. Anyone remember HeadBangers Ball?

Does anyone recall playing War when we were growing up? Running around with those plastic guns pretending to kill each other. Remember how much fun that used to be, it was innocent and didn't mean anything but running around with your friends. Can you see that now a days? I think not, the cops would be out in minutes.
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Fresh Tofu · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 3:33 pm Post subject:

True True.... amen Bushido!~

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Paddyjack · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 3:35 pm Post subject:

thewz · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 4:19 pm Post subject: Re: Back in the day

JtH · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 4:25 pm Post subject:

hey i remember when it was so easy back in 1987. all i had to do was cry and my parents came running with a bottle. there were no toilets my height so i just went in my pants. i didnt care. i still remember the day when i was sitting on my paps lap and i pooped and he thought it was mustard from his hot dog and ate it. man those were the good old days. sipping the sizzerp from my bottle. playing with multi colored keys and little toys that made wonderful soothing lullabys. god i miss those days.

sob
jack
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Replica · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 4:30 pm Post subject:

i'm 18, i dind't have allt he cool stuff, but a cell phone thats weighs less than 5 lbs. now thats what i'm taling about!!!!

eat your heart out zack morris!!!
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(+)ASSASSIN(+) · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 4:58 pm Post subject:

What about army men (the bazooka dude rocked

) Transformers? Voltron? GI Joe? HE-Man, Thundercats, GO Bots (generic transformers) MASK, now those were great toys. Saturday morining cartoons???
anyone remember this guy?????

Hankerin for a hunk of cheese, Look a wagon wheel....................

Dungeons and Dragons, Pee wee's playhouse? Smurfs? Pac-Man? Superfriends??????

Technology wise the youngins of today may have it better, but we had such cooler tv shows and cartoons and toys to play with, look at whats popular now? Just doesnt compare man, just doesnt compare.........
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Killing is my bidness ladies and BIDNESS IS GOOD!!!!