Are Kids Today Spoiled?

I received this in an email today:

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 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 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!

>> Oh yes! I remember my Dad telling me tall stories like these… LOL

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 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!!

>> I actually worked in a library with the card catalog system. Up until several years ago, they still used it. You had to have several skills: Know your alphabet, Know how to read, Know how to write the Dewey Decimal #’s down, and Know to how walk the stacks!

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!

>> Ahhhh, email makes it so much easier. BUT, kids today don’t have the etiquette either, such as writing Thank You notes to Grandma for the lovely gifts they get.

There were no MP3's or Napsters! 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 messed it all up!

>> I remember one New Year’s Eve, us kids listened to Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve on the radio and YES, we taped the songs off the radio in order to have the latest music. Cassette tapes to boot!

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! 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!

>> Didn’t dare answer the telephone! That was for adults only. To this day, my parents don’t like using the telephone. Answering machine? The only reason they have one is cuz us kids bought it. Do they check it? Nope. LOL Do they leave messages for us? LOL, uh yea. Here’s a sampling: “This is Dad.”

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked ! 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 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!

>> Us kids begged and begged our parents for an Atari! I think my Dad was pretty proud of himself in getting us one several years after they were out. We didn’t care! WE FINALLY HAD ATARI!! And we loved it!

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!

>> Only went to 2 movies as a kid. Was I deprived, or what?!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You didn't get to channel surf!! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel 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, you spoiled little brats!

>> Yup, Sat morning’s was the highlight of the week. Didn’t have cable, still don’t. And yes, I still watch Sat morning cartoons.

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up . we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire . Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot. That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled.

>> Microwaves came out when I was a teenager. Thinking back now, it’s quite hilarious thinking about my Dad trying out the “microwave” recipes, and splattering egg all over the inside of it cuz it exploded while cooking! JiffyPop? Oh no, we used a pan and lid! Now, that’s old fashioned!

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

>> Ah the 80’s...