# Remember When... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 13, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-when/148383 "2003-01-13T21:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![7string](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/8baadc/32.png) [@7string](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/7string)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-when/148383/1 "2003-01-13T21:56:55Z")
I’m sure all or most of you have recv’d this E-Mail. For those of you who haven’t, here it is: 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 blizards, 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-nine, I can’t help but look aroud and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so fuckin’ 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–if 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 fuckin’ 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 begining and fuck 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 jackoff to the lingere section of the JC Penney catalog! Those were your options! We didn’t have fancy shit 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 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 fuck 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! This is SO true! I remember when MTV (Music Television) actually played music on it… all day! I also had the original Pong game. My brother and I were so good at it my father would bet his friends that they couldn’t beat us. He must’ve made a fortune off of us.🆒 How 'bout you guys? ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-when/148383/2 "2003-01-14T03:30:33Z")
I remember when I could lock my checked in luggage at the airport. It seems so long ago… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-when/148383/3 "2003-01-14T03:41:57Z")
Pong? We shot marbles. ---
**Author:** ![Lure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@Lure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lure)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-when/148383/4 "2003-01-14T06:02:49Z")
Deja Vu?Or is the email in Norman notoriously slow? I recall a thread like this way back in '02.You 2003 OK kids wouldn’t last a day back then. 🙂