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SF18C
01-23-2008, 16:07
If you are 30 or older you will 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; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill 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 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 thirty , 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. 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!

3. There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! 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!

4. 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!

5. 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 school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

6. We didn't have any fancy Xbox 360 video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like " Space Invaders" and "asteroids" and the graphics were horrible! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one sc reen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! . Just like LIFE!

7. When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!

8. Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 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 either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons!

9. And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove or go build a fire ... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing or a pan with HOT oil and Real popcorn kernels and shake it all over the stove forever like an idiot.

10. When we were on the phone with our friends and our parents walked-in, we were stuck to the wall with a cord, a 7 foot cord that ran to the phone - not the phone base, the actual phone. We barely had enough length to sit on the floor and still be able to twirl the phone cord in our fingers. If you suddenly had to go to the bathroom - guess what we had to do.....hang up and talk to them later.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled .

You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

echoes
01-23-2008, 16:17
Hate to say it, but yes...this is all true!
(Anyone remember Zork I, II,& III? on Atari?) :lifter

Bravo, and thanks for posting this Sir!

Holly <-----Big grin here.

bricklayer
01-23-2008, 16:27
That is great stuff.

I remember the only toys I had as a kid was an erector set and lincoln logs, and there was no way you could tear me away from them!

My wifes kids are 18,21, and 25. The 25 YO just moved out and the other 2 still live at home with Mommy and the Evil Stepfather wich is 31.:D Picture that!

None of them know how to start a lawnmower or use a vacuum cleaner, and throwing it at them dont help! Oh and the 25 YO just found out she is pregnant. Guess where she is gonna live! PLEASE NO SYMPATHY QUOTES:D:D

I screwed myself!:boohoo

bricklayer
01-23-2008, 16:28
Hate to say it, but yes...this is all true!
(Anyone remember Zork I, II,& III? on Atari?) :lifter

Bravo, and thanks for posting this Sir!

Holly <-----Big grin here.

My favorite was Pitfall.

echoes
01-23-2008, 16:42
My favorite was Pitfall.

LOL! We used a real "floppy" disk, into a modem the size of a toaster oven.

Ahh, the good old days...(am only 34 though):D

Holly

blowfish
01-24-2008, 04:57
Ah yes, Zork :)

Who needs 3d graphics? All you needed was pencil, paper, and most importantly, your imagination.

Infocom put out some great text based games.

Anyone here ever try programming your own in Basic? Or inputting the pages of free code from a computer magazine and then having to figure out why it wouldn't work?

Good times. :D

http://retro-treasures.blogspot.com/2008/01/zork-i-atari-st.html

bricklayer
01-24-2008, 05:45
I'll tell you what, if Milwaukee Lite Beer cans really did fall from the sky, there would be alot of flat kids out there.

This would only be funny if you have seen the commercial on ESPN.:p

emoore
01-24-2008, 07:00
SF18C -- Here is a couple more.

1) I would drive 20 miles to my sister's house to play PONG.
2) 5 TV channels and I was my dad's remote control.

Just a couple that came to mind.

Ed

MtnGoat
01-24-2008, 08:47
I remember when we got HBO, WOW~!!

Best video game I played Joust.

How many kids play D & D now of days. I remember being the deviel kid on the street.

Great post

GratefulCitizen
01-24-2008, 09:21
Forget delayed gratification.

It's the instant gratification generation.

The video games can be fun.

I still do a PBM (play-by-mail) game where each turn takes two weeks.

Needless to say, nobody under thirty is playing that one unless they were recruited by their parents.

Kyobanim
01-24-2008, 10:38
I still do a PBM (play-by-mail) game where each turn takes two weeks.

Needless to say, nobody under thirty is playing that one unless they were recruited by their parents.

Don't you mean 'humoring' their parents?

SF18C
01-24-2008, 12:00
Forget delayed gratification.

It's the instant gratification generation.

The video games can be fun.

I still do a PBM (play-by-mail) game where each turn takes two weeks.

Needless to say, nobody under thirty is playing that one unless they were recruited by their parents.

Wow funny you mention this...my daughter (10) plays chess with her uncle (24) and they email each other their next move. They have been going on 2 months now, email about every 3 to 4 days (he works…she has school). I know it is not quite the same as snail mail but in this day of online everything I was surprised that they were doing this...oh it was not brought on by any parent!

Ah yes, Zork :)

Who needs 3d graphics? All you needed was pencil, paper, and most importantly, your imagination.

Infocom put out some great text based games.

Anyone here ever try programming your own in Basic? Or inputting the pages of free code from a computer magazine and then having to figure out why it wouldn't work?

Good times. :D

http://retro-treasures.blogspot.com/2008/01/zork-i-atari-st.html


Funny...I use to have a Commadore 64 (before the "invention" of the internal hard drive and before I got the 5inch floppy drive!) I would type in the pages of code, debug it (by reading line by line when I had an error) and then play some crappy little game that I thought was the bomb. I would get so pissed whenever my Mom would turn off my C-64! She never realized that she just erased everything!

JGarcia
01-24-2008, 12:14
Now THAT, was funny. I'm emailing that shit.

warrottjr
01-24-2008, 12:26
I programmed my first computer in 1967. It was a desktop, a Monroe, had a limited instruction set, and a memory for only 32 lines of code. It took me all 32 lines to solve the quadratic equation.

x SF med
01-24-2008, 23:09
The 25 YO just moved out ...
Oh and the 25 YO just found out she is pregnant. Guess where she is gonna live!
I screwed myself!:boohoo


Context.... reading it this way, there is a question about the last statement that will remain unasked...


Now back to the regularly scheduled thread - as a kid, ther ewere no 'real' video games - a friend got PONG, about 3 years after it came out - and it burned an image in the black and white tv it was hooked to. Cable wasn't available until I went away to college (prior to joining the Army) and it was expensive as hell.

Any one remember typewriters, or the Army's wonderful Wang Word Processors, and carbon paper DD Forms...

Bleh, I'm older'n dirt. I will go bury myself now.

GratefulCitizen
01-25-2008, 01:19
Wow funny you mention this...my daughter (10) plays chess with her uncle (24) and they email each other their next move. They have been going on 2 months now, email about every 3 to 4 days (he works…she has school). I know it is not quite the same as snail mail but in this day of online everything I was surprised that they were doing this...oh it was not brought on by any parent!

Couple of friends of mine had identical chess programs on their respective computers in the early 90's.
While attending different colleges, they would have their computers play against each other via email. :confused:
The downward spiral begins...


Funny...I use to have a Commadore 64 (before the "invention" of the internal hard drive and before I got the 5inch floppy drive!) I would type in the pages of code, debug it (by reading line by line when I had an error) and then play some crappy little game that I thought was the bomb. I would get so pissed whenever my Mom would turn off my C-64! She never realized that she just erased everything!


My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20.
What I would have given to have a UPS back then. One brief power outage and everthing was gone.
After teaching myself to program on that one, I would still debug reading line-by-line years later. :rolleyes:

My buddies and I programmed knock-offs of the computer simulation used in the PBM game so we could play more for free.
Some of us playing the game nowadays are still trying to reverse engineer the algorithm.
20+ years of accumulated data and sophisticated mathematical analysis have cracked some stuff, but parts still remain elusive.
(It's good to know that my college education turned out to be useful for something :D)

bricklayer
01-25-2008, 06:48
[QUOTE=x SF med;196986]Context.... reading it this way, there is a question about the last statement that will remain unasked...


QUOTE]

Geez, now that I look at it your way that does look messed up!
:eek:

Monsoon65
01-25-2008, 15:45
Now back to the regularly scheduled thread - as a kid, ther ewere no 'real' video games - a friend got PONG, about 3 years after it came out - and it burned an image in the black and white tv it was hooked to. Cable wasn't available until I went away to college (prior to joining the Army) and it was expensive as hell.

I was just going to add "Pong" to the list. I remember getting that for Christmas and we thought we were shit hot! And we had to use the "old" TV because of the image being burned into the screen.

Cable? We lived in the boonies. No cable out there until about 5 years after I enlisted.

echoes
01-25-2008, 16:26
Ah yes, Zork :)

Who needs 3d graphics? All you needed was pencil, paper, and most importantly, your imagination.

IMHO, the best Friday or Saturday all-nighters, up until I was around fifteen.
Me and my twin sis and bro would invite our best friends from next door, and have cold Pepsi's, popcorn (from the stove-top), and mini reeces peanut butter cups--brand new and very "cool!" :lifter

A person could stay up all night solving puzzles and having fun!

I dare to think what kids today do for fun...cannot believe I just typed this, I sound like my parents! :eek::D

blowfish
01-25-2008, 19:51
I hear you. The older I get, the smarter my folks become =)

I remind myself of this every time I start sounding like them.