Growing Up Without a Cell Phone

mommared53 · January 2011

If you are 30, 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; 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 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!

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!!

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!

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 *kitten*! Nowhere was safe!

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!

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?

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!

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 GOD !!! 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!

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!

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 *kitten* and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

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-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
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 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

Nessarose1 · January 2011

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

NYIceQueen · January 2011

Fan-freakin'-tastic!!!! That's great!

feetypajamas · January 2011

I LOVE IT!!!!

tater8589 · January 2011

Ok, so I'm only 25, But I do remember most of that too. Lmao, this is great. I hate talking on the phone, esp when I'm out doing things. The only exceptions I make for talking is family (because I'm military and away from home) and even then if I'm in line at a store I will make them wait or call them back. When I do have kids, they will not get cell phones until they are old enough to be responsible, maybe even 'pay' for their own.

synchrohobbit · January 2011

I really honestly don't know how academics was done without the interwebs. That would make grade school a billion times harder.

wolf23 · January 2011

Love this...I got excited when electric typewriters came along!!! Even then, no spell check...just a bottle of white out or those plastic sheets to correct your typing mistakes. :noway:

ajbeans · January 2011

:laugh: The stamps one reminded me of the time I tried to send a letter to my friend and I put a bracelet in it, and the postage wasn't enough -- so we taped a dime onto the envelope. It got delivered. :laugh:

We had an ancient Encyclopedia Brittanica (bought from a door-to-door salesman!) that I used for my homework. And if they didn't have what I needed, I had to go to the library at school. :sad: Oh, the horrors!

And I still remember our printer. We had a new-fangled one because my parents ran a small business out of the basement. Remember the green-striped paper with the holes along the edges? YUSSSS! It made an awful dying-duck sound with every line, and that was it's normal sound. And then if you didn't get the paper in quite straight, it would jam and all hell would break loose. :laugh:

About the car seats -- I didn't even sit down in the car! I had to stand because I was too short to see over the dash and I got carsick if I couldn't see. When we got a new car, it had a fold-down armrest in the backseat that became my new perch. :laugh:

jenX1174 · January 2011

My 16 y/o has no idea.......when he gets grounded from the computer, it's the end of the world! It's his lifeline to his girlfriend....he always has the messenger on so he can stay in constant contact with her.

I remember having to wait til school the next day to see or talk to my boyfriend, or wait a whole weekend. The HORROR!!!!

apetty21 · January 2011

Ok, I was born in '84 but I love this! My nieces and nephew have NO IDEA how spoiled they are and how good they've got it! When we rode in the car we had to look outside, play "I Spy", talk to each other, listen to Dad's crazy cassette tapes or read a book. What do they do? Watch dvds! That's it. They don't know what it's like to be in a car without a dvd.

They get Nick Jr everyday. I think it even has it's own channel. I dunno. All I know is we didn't have Nickleodeon at my house. My grandparents did so if I were lucky I could watch it when we visited them. Nick Jr was like, 3 shows and I think I was already in second or third grade before it started. Dora didn't exist. Wonderpets? Nope. Max and Ruby? Who the heck are they? BTW, does Disney even show something other than Wizards of Waverly Place these days?

My 7 yr old niece got an iPod Touch for Christmas. What? I was 10 before I got a Walkman and you couldn't even play Angry Birds with it! At 13 I got a cd player. That's right. 1997. My 5 yr old niece dot a Nintendo DSi for Christmas. Gameboys didn't even exist when I was 5. Not in my house, anyway. I remember the Christmas we got the NES. '89. Oh yeah. When Sega came out I remember my brother and I being amazed at the graphics. Then the N64 came out and you're character could run around almost 3D like. Oh snap!

Kids these days.

downtome · January 2011

Thanks for that, I was laughng my *kitten* off reading that! I like the one where you were told to play outside all day and don't come back until dinner was done or the street lights came on! I must say though, a lot of good memories, I honestly think we had it better back then than the kids do today. We were more creative, more imaginative and happier with our lives and ourselves. I had a great childhood and endured everything you wrote about. I'm almost 42! Ah, the good times we had! Loved that little tidbit, I want more! LOL

I used to have a boob tube TV, black and white in my room and that was a treat back then! Now, kids all have flat screen HD in their rooms. I didn't get the Sega untill 1999 and that was awesome back then and expensive! However, I did have the atari as a kid but it was fun since we didn't know any better!

It also took me 45 minutes one way to walk to school through the forest and up hills, man what was I thinking?! Does anyone remember Elaine Powers gym? I joined when I was 10, lost my first 15 pounds as a chubby child over the summer. So many good memories.

Growing Up Without a Cell Phone

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