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The Over 30 Crowd

Yanuck

Well-known member
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 ass! 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 ass 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
 

per

Well-known member
When I was a kid I am pretty sure there were Lap Belts in the cars. I don't believe they ever saw any use.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
Mama had a 1966 Cadillac. Had a fold down arm rest in the front seat. That was MY seat. And ever time we came to a stop sign or red light...she thru her arm across me to keep me from flyin forward lol
 

burnt

Well-known member
". . . and if your head hit the dashboard . . ." well mine did in a '64 Plymouth. In those days the dashboard was METAL! No nice soft vinyl padded dash until later.

Dad hit a guy who came shooting out the end of his driveway w/o stopping. BOOM forehead onto metal dashboard is recipe for instant Unicorn look . . . :cry: :cry: :cry:

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 

leanin' H

Well-known member
Explains sooooo much! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
We went everywhere together as a family of five in a single cab truck with no a/c. Seatbelts were cut out on purchase as they created bad wedgies. When my folks finally bought their first car it was an old station wagon. You could of landed aircraft on the hood it was so big. We headed to town one day. My little brothers were roaming the back seat and wagon area while I rode "shotgun" up front. We hung a sharp left turn out onto the highway and my door swung open. I just sat there looking at the ground fly by while mom swung the car sharply to the right causing the door to slam shut. :lol: She was pretty cool under fire! :wink: Another time, Mom took us 3 boys and headed for the ranch in our old pickup. Me and my middle brother got to ride in the back while the littlest rode up front with mom drinking a bottle of milk. Mom was tooling right along when we hit about a 2 foot deep washout. We hit hard. Me and my brother were ducking lug wrenches, spare tire, chain, toolbox, axe, ect. as we came back to earth. When the dust cleared Mom was laughing uncontollably. My littlest brother had milk from heck to breakfast and still had the severed nipple from his bottle clamped firmly in his teeth! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: We still call that place on the road "Rich's wipeout wash"! :lol:
 

Mike

Well-known member
All my family used to load up on the back of the 1-ton flatbed and go to the drive-in picture show.

We'd back up to the speaker poles, get out the lawn chairs, cut a watermelon and watch the movie..........

Oh yeah, we brought our own popcorn and sody water too.

Sometimes we wouldn't get home til midnight...................with kids asleep on the back of a flat bed truck? :shock:
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
My dad and his brother had adjoining summer pastures way down in the hills, forty miles by road but only thirty miles cutting across when we trailed the cattle. One Sunday afternoon, we decided to go check those pastures and have a picnic at the overnight "shack" on my uncle's pasture. Our two families and another neighboring family all went together on this outing. My dad drove our pickup, which was a 1963 single-cab 3/4 ton Ford 4x4 with a narrow box and running boards. In the cab with him were my mom, my aunt, and the neighbor lady. In the box were my uncle, the neighbor man, and the nine kids from the three families. There was about 20 miles of highway and the rest was two track trail road. We had an enjoyable picnic supper, checked the nine windmills on the two properties, and headed for home by the light of a full moon. On one straight stretch of trail road a coyote was running down the track. Dad stepped on the gas and chased the coyote until we hit it and did it in. All of us in the back were rooting for Dad and encouraging him all we could. The neighbor lady wasn't quite as impressed as she was hoping the coyote would get away unscathed. It was a memorable evening, and quite a few people were transported quite a few miles on a minimum of gasoline. :wink:
 

Kato

Well-known member
When we were kids we took a family vacation to B.C. Mom put two coolers on the floor in the back of our 53 Pontiac, Dad got the mattress off my baby brother's crib, and put it down on top, making it level. Then they added a pile of comic books and four kids, way we went! It was so much fun! :) :) We could flop around wherever we liked, and crash and sleep whenever we liked, and there was no fighting over who got to sit by the window.

When we weren't travelling in the car, it was six in the cab of a half ton. Ah the good old days...... :wink:
 

burnt

Well-known member
I remember taking family trips to my grandmother's hometown of Crogan, New York to visit our cousins. Something like a 7 hour drive with my 6 siblings and mom and dad all packed into our either '57 Plymouth or later, a '62 Plymouth.

Yup 9 read NINE of us in that big old boat. Four in the front and five in the back. Mom always packed a lunch and the water jug traveled with us. No McDonald's in those days and if there were, Dad wouldn't have stopped anyways!

Being the youngest of the 7, I had the best view of all - sitting on Mom's lap all the way. Poor mom. Toward the end of the trip she used to make more frequent mention of my "sharp little bum bones wearing my legs through . . ." :lol:

If they're still sharp, at least they are better padded than they once were!

When the scrapping got too loud Dad would only need to say "Do I have to stop this car and come back there?"Worked every time.

:nod:

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
 

OldDog/NewTricks

Well-known member
In 1957 (Yuma) we put a Sofa on the back of a 55 ford Flat Bad and hit the late shows at the drive-in - I drop every one else off at 1, 1:30 AM - go to the ranch to saddle up for working the cattle by 2 AM - by 7:30/8AM it was to hot for the Horses and we were done for the most part...
On the way out we pass the Watermelon field - Pick a nice one and put it in a cannel - it'd be nice and cold on our way back - Good Days!
 

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