If You're 30 or older, You Might Find This is Hilarious!

I think this is great! I'm only 25, but I can still absolutely relate to a lot of the things in the OP. But what's great is I think I can still see things from both sides of the fence.

I'm immersed in some of the new technology and whatnot but at the same time still remember waking up at 7:30 on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons, spending all the time I could outside playing whatever we could.

It's funny, because you really don't take the time to reflect on the past as often as we should I think. I consider myself fortunate to grow up when I did and have my parents force me to get outside and let me handle my own scrapes and bruises. "You fell down? Bandaids and bactine in the hallway closet." Then it was back outside until the next cut came about.

It really is a great discussion though. In some ways kids today have many more restrictions and rules to follow but then again they have access to some resources that makes their lives easier in basically every aspect.

I know I'm simply echoing what everyone else said for the most part, but damn it feels good to think back! This inspired me to bail on the chores tonight and take the girl mini-golfing and out for ice cream! Thanks OP!!!!

My dad used to tell me stories about growing up during the depression.

Great stories. They didn't have much money. Handmedowns were a way of life. Everyone he knew was pretty much in the same boat. He and his brother used to fish in the bay. It wasn't recreational, it was to put food on the table.

He would tell me how easy our life was. We had three square meals a day and didn't have to worry about anything.

I think that each generation, when they get old enough, reminisce about how things were when they grew up and how soft this generation is....

Personally, I think that the more that things change, the more they are the same. It's still all about figuring out who you are and where you fit in.

OMG ROFL thank you sooo much for this. I was very much in need of a good laugh.

:-)

Harm None
Peace

It's hard to realise that only ~30 years ago it was like that and my childhood really was like that for the longest time.

We didn't get fancy things until the 90's came.

I am 28 and will be turning 29 so I think I qualify for being 30, while not quite yet.

Gen X for the win.

It's saddening that I can relate to most of this, and I feel like I'm a kid still.

I can certainly relate to all of this being 42. The overwhelming thing I can comment on and so did my dad was how fast technology came on during my life. I still remember when we had a 20 inch colour tv with 3 channels and thought that was amazing. Today it's a 57 inch plasma, GB internet, Blackberry's and every computer game under the sun.
I think it would serve kids well to put down their technology every so often and experience a simpler time. It might quiet the minds of a lot these kids. And in that respect I think kids just suffer from information and sensory overload today. There is no escape.

Originally posted by thunderabove
To the OP-
May I ask, as i child, how many times were YOU: shot at, chased by groups of people YEARS older than you, given drugs to stash, skipped school to flip some of what you got cause you have to do what you have to do to get by.

How many times did your mother tell you there would be no supper that evening because your father blew all of the grocery money on blow?

Kids are having it easier today? Their parents are going crazy wasting time and money on things that will never better humanity.

This is a load of generalized bull#.

Kids today couldn't have survived in 1980???? PLEASE! Stop acting like things were that bad back then, When today we have corporations openly running government, wars over an energy source that isnt even NECESSARY.

How can you say the world is any better present day?

Nothing pointed out in the email is relevant. This post is nothing more than bashing the youth of today, and i ask the mods that it be (EDIT) moved to another section because it deals not with philosophy nor the metaphysical world.

[edit on 19-3-2010 by thunderabove]

[edit on 19-3-2010 by thunderabove]

Sounds like you're upset. Relax. Well, let me start off with the fact that I grew up in a Communist country where it was a great luxury to be able to buy and wear jeans. It was a great luxury to have a pet dog, because the government taxed you for having dogs so not everybody had one. You wanted to take a vacation? You could.... to Cuba, China or Russia. Fun! You didn't know when someone would turn you in either because they didn't like you, or because they were Commies and you were not. Interrogation and intimidation was commonplace. My parents lived in fear that they would drag them off to jail any moment for being anti-communist. We were lucky to have bananas and oranges once a year, and we were forced to participate in silly Commie parades, worshiping the Russians and their great empire, the USSR. Let's drop the commie thing for a minute and move onto immigration. We arrived in the U.S. and ended up in one of the worst neighborhoods around. We had drive-by-shootings, drug dealers and all that jazz you mentioned in your post. We didn't have a penny to our name, and my father worked his ass off to get to where he is/we are now. It took years.

If you think that abusive households, drugs and crime didn't exist back then, then you are gravely mistaken. I'm sorry if you had a terrible childhood, but don't think for a second that back in the day bad childhoods didn't exist. This thread is supposed to be light-hearted. It's not out to get you, and nobody is trying to take anything away from you. You had it bad? So did a lot of people. Am I trying to make it seem as though you've had it easy? Not a chance.

It's amazing to me that people can find just about anything to be offended over, even in a thread where one is laughing at him/herself.

reply to post by 2manyquestions


I'm not going to lie, when I read this thread I got a little frustrated. Atleast enough to where I felt the need to post my opinion on the topic.

Being an 18 year old, I am offended by this "chain-email". For one, because of the quote "oh you kids don't even know how annoying you are"; regarding texting. That really put the ketchup on the hot dog for me.

It would help if I could address the writer of the email directly, but the second closest person would be the OP, I guess.

On behalf of all "awake" people my physical age, Screw you.

I find it ironic that an 18 year old has to come into a thread like this and tell you that WE DON'T CARE about this junk. This is top of the line practice of polarization in the human race.

A majority of those "adolescent delinquent juvenile teens that live in utopia" are, in reality, most likely on an entirely more excelled path of evolution both spiritually (I'm not talking about Jesus) and physically (I'm not talking about creatine).


Now don't get me wrong, there are pleeenty of teenagers that fit the description of your email perfectly. BUT, you fail to acknowledge the fact that there are, just as easily, pleennty of people YOUR OWN physical AGE that fit the description the same.

So please, get over this "physical age" bull# already. I can tell you for damn sure that physical age isn't everything when it comes to determining your synchronicity with the harmonious creator.

It isn't hard for me to comprehend the fact that the people of different generations will obviously have different perspectives and experiences on "growing up". So why is it that you feel the need to put a big ol' boulder on the trail of learning? (The boulder being this thread, and the trail being ATS).

All I'm asking for here is simple. I want you all to realize that HEY it does not make any sense to say you know the difficulty of living at a certain age in a certain era when YOU clearly haven't even experienced it! I don't care if you talk for a year about how it was growing up for you, but Damnit don't even start comparing it to your assumptions of what it's like for us.

Us "kids" don't make little "chain-emails" talking about how annoying you "adults" are, so honestly, what is going through your head when you do that?

Give us some respect, eh? Then you might notice karma treating you nicer.

Actually the next generation of children (if not this one)... will probably have it the worst.
The next generation of children will go through all types of hell.

I think we've finally reached our peak of comfort provided to our children.

Originally posted by ExScientiaVeritas
reply to post by thunderabove

 

I'm not really sure why you like to hit your head against the wall so much by continuously browsing and commenting on this thread. Are you really that hard up for entertainment or do you simply not get it?

Just a little reference to your accusations that this thread shouldn't be on ATS under the Philosophy and Metaphysics banner. According to princeton.net, philosphy is defined in part, as the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics. Further, they go on to say that philosophy is any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation. Based on those definitions, if this subject matter is not philosophical in nature, I don't know what is!

My suggestion to you is to either skulk around on another thread or kindly take your bicycle helmet off so that you can actually experience the intensity of your head banging and hopefully come to your senses.

Ex Scientia Veritas

Thank you! Thanks for taking the time to answer this burning question in my stead. I'm at work so I haven't had much time to post a reply, but I see you've summed it up quite nicely. I'd also like to thank everyone for participating. I'm having a great time reading through all the posts and "reminiscing". Many of them put a big grin on my face.

For the couple of you wondering why I felt this post was appropriate for this particular forum, it was because the thoughts it brought to my mind were philosophical. I prefaced the list by explaining (maybe I could have done a better job at it) that we move through life always encountering brand new experiences and moving through certain age "clubs". We hear an elder describe a feeling or thought, and we hear them but we don't UNDERSTAND until we reach that person's age and experience that feeling or word for ourselves. How many times has it happened that at the age of 20 or 25 you FINALLY realize the true meaning of some word? You've said it, you've heard it being said, but you never UNDERSTOOD it? Simple things such as a root canal, earning your first paycheck, learning the value of a dollar, giving birth, becoming a parent,... all these things we read and hear about, but we don't know how they feel or what they are until we're right in the middle of it all.

So,... one of those things I've come to finally understand is my parents telling me "You have no idea how easy you have it, you spoiled brat". I had to laugh at myself. I was imagining that if one day I had kids I'd be naming this list off to them (just like my parents did), feeling they've got it easy now that they don't have to wait a week for a letter to arrive (for example). It's funny to me that one day I'll become my parents and I'll repeat that human cycle in which the elders tell the youngsters.... YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW EASY YOU HAVE IT!

Please, don't take offence to the thread. Alcoholic, abusive, schizophrenic, poor/broke parents and bullies existed since the beginning of time. They're not going to go away anytime soon. As much as I love my parents, they were not the easiest to live with. I won't go into detail, but be sure I've had plenty of drama while growing up. We've had to go through it, you have to go through it, and your children's children will probably have to go through it too.

Show you what a dinosaur I am, I remember Sears delivering a 26" COLOR t.v., 1964. Big old brute, looked to me at the time to be the size of a washing machine.
Just in time for a showing of Wizard of Oz. Was a neighborhood event. Adults and all were awestruck when the color part started, dad directing a couple of us kids on how to adjust the rabbit ears, and after a couple of years, how to stick the matchbook just right between the tuner and the set.

Originally posted by Doomsday 2029
Actually the next generation of children (if not this one)... will probably have it the worst.
The next generation of children will go through all types of hell.

I think we've finally reached our peak of comfort provided to our children.

Nah. Every generation thinks their youth was more golden than the current one. Music was better and times were safer. Every generation has elements that fear the next generation will be the one that tips us into the abyss. 'OMG! The end is nigh!' (check out the Daily Mail).

There's graffiti on ancient Greek monuments. Some of the graffiti is equivalent to 'Mark loves Helen.' We have inscriptions complaining that the 'youth of today' have no respect for their elders. The older generation complained that the next generation were promiscuous, reckless and would ruin society.

Once upon a time, rock-throwing dad spat in disgust at his son's fancy new spear...

Technology advances, but people don't change at all and the generation gap remains the same.

Originally posted by Kandinsky

Technology advances, but people don't change at all and the generation gap remains the same.

Until technology and medical advancements make us have longer lifespans that is.

Originally posted by Kandinsky
...
Nah. Every generation thinks their youth was more golden than the current one. Music was better and times were safer...
There's graffiti on ancient Greek monuments... We have inscriptions complaining that the 'youth of today' have no respect for their elders. The older generation complained that the next generation were promiscuous, reckless and would ruin society.

There's a wonderful passage in the Iliad, where Nestor stands up in front of Achilles, Odysseus, and the rest, and complains that heroes today are not like the ones he knew when he was a lad!

Originally posted by LadySkadi
This is a great thread - fun memories.

I think the thing that sticks out the most for me when I was a kid, was the non-issue of being outside with friends and "out of sight" meaning, none of us had to stick close to home. We could be gone all day and as long as we made it back for dinner (and than after dinner, back by dark) we were golden... Nobody really worried about that being "dangerous".... as they do now.

So true! Certainly one of the best aspects of it. Not to mention that homes at best had fences, now most have walls surrounding them, security cams, last generation alarms all the crap needed to give us a relative feel of safety.

I remember making bombs with my brother and blowing up our trash can. Mom hated it but Dad thought it was cool.

Sitting on the roof of the house to sunbath.

Never less than twenty kids in the neighborhood to play with.

Building ramps in the road and the cars would stop and let you take the ramp down so they could pass.

How did mom get us in for dinner? Not with a cell phone, we had a whistle.

Camping in the back yard was an adventure.

I lived in a small mining town in the late 1950s early 1960s.

Our fun was playing with M80s Half Sticks and Cherry bombs.
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

Though being a mining town we also "found" Dynamite, blasting caps and ANFO.

And since ether our fathers or grandfathers worked as miners we all knew how to use explosives.

Out of the 5 guys i hung out with 3 of us became blasters.

We all had guns mostly .22s though i had a 30 carbine also.
and we had dirt-bikes or dune buggies that we rode all over the hills in the desert around town.(50 miles)

We also explored all the mines in the area and sorted through the mine dumps for high grade ore that had been missed. this is where we got our spending money.
I also worked with my grandfather in his small mine during the summer from the age of 12 as my grandmother wanted someone to keep a eye on my grandfather.
My last mining job a couple years ago was as a mine superintendent so i must have learn a lot from him and the other old timers around town.

The funny part was the old timers though me and the group i hung out with were the "good" kids in town.

I built my first still when i was 17 from plans i found in my grandfather papers after he died he had some good moonshine recipes left over from the depression when he survived off the money he made making shine..

The funny part was one of the kids I hung out with father was the local sheriffs deputy so we kind of got away with more then most.
though we did get a "talking to" more the most of the local kids.

Originally posted by Mayan_Soul
reply to post by 2manyquestions

 

So please, get over this "physical age" bull# already. I can tell you for damn sure that physical age isn't everything when it comes to determining your synchronicity with the harmonious creator.

It isn't hard for me to comprehend the fact that the people of different generations will obviously have different perspectives and experiences on "growing up". So why is it that you feel the need to put a big ol' boulder on the trail of learning? (The boulder being this thread, and the trail being ATS).

All I'm asking for here is simple. I want you all to realize that HEY it does not make any sense to say you know the difficulty of living at a certain age in a certain era when YOU clearly haven't even experienced it! I don't care if you talk for a year about how it was growing up for you, but Damnit don't even start comparing it to your assumptions of what it's like for us.

Us "kids" don't make little "chain-emails" talking about how annoying you "adults" are, so honestly, what is going through your head when you do that?

Give us some respect, eh? Then you might notice karma treating you nicer.

Please read my reply to you very carefully and try not to be blinded by the disdain you feel for this thread. I'll be honest. If I were your age, I'd probably/maybe feel the same way you do. I would feel like this thread undermined some of my suffering. Aside from that, nobody likes to be called a brat.

Have you ever laughed at yourself or felt ashamed of yourself when you realized you're doing the exact same thing you hated (or at least disliked) about someone else? Sometimes I catch myself doing something I swore I'd never do, but in life sometimes we're presented with situations where it's easy to slip up, or when it feels appropriate.

Do you have younger siblings or maybe a nephew/niece? If so, have you ever had them take your things? Have you taken it back from them and explained to them that this thing belongs to you and they cannot play with it? When you do that, ask this three or four year old how they feel about having this thing taken away from them. Do they cry? Do they feel you're being unfair? They don't yet understand the meaning of ownership, nor do they understand that they have not yet reached an age at which you would trust them to handle fragile things that belong to you. Eventually they'll grow up to be your age and to understand that little children should not handle certain things that can easily be broken.

Here I am at 30 years of age, looking back on my childhood and remembering what my parents used to tell me. When I was crying about something I felt was important to me, they yelled at me to stop my crying, because (they said) I had yet to learn what REAL pain was.

At the time I felt they were being incredibly insensitive, but as the years passed I got to experience some truly painful things. When I look back on myself as a teenager and I think back on the problems I thought I had, I suddenly understand why my parents said what they said. Were they being insensitive? From my perspective, yes! On the other hand at their age they already knew and had learned that the situation I'm crying over could be so much worse. They lived it, they knew, and I didn't.

As we move through life from one year to the next we begin to understand some of the things our elders said to us. They hear us say "Aww man, I hate waking up at 7:00 to get to school every morning". Their response to that is: "What do you know about pain? You never had to wake up at 5:00AM and walk five miles to the train station to get to school every morning!" They hear us say "Man, I'm bored. There's nothing to do." Their response is; "Bored? BORED?! You've got Cable, PS3, Internet, a theater across the street, a bowling alley a mile away, an arcade at the mall, tennis courts over there, basketball courts over here,... you know what I had when I was a kid? A stick to play with! Try that on for size!"

This thread is for us 30 and over people to laugh at ourselves and realize that what our parents had said and done to us, today we find ourselves saying/doing the same to the youngsters in our lives. The thread is not intended to insult young people. We were 15, 16, 18 once upon a time, we know and remember what we went through and how we felt when "adults" tried to pass judgement on us.

When you're 30 + and someone writes a chain mail similar to this one with comments/memories of your generation, you too will laugh. At least I hope you'll have a sense of humor that will allow you to laugh and reminisce.

reply to post by 2manyquestions


I laugh at this. First, I'm not a kid and not quite 30 yet. However, I wouldn't say we had it easier then you guys. People of your age, grew up when it was all about peace and love. Now kids are only interested in fighting and drugs. I'm sure back in your day you could get a job twice as easy, save up for your car, do this and do that with ease. Now everything costs so much more and people with degrees are taking the fast food jobs because thats all there is; leaving no chance for a 16/17 year old to get their foot in the door, everything has rules upon rules, and there is so much more indifference, in my opinion atleast, because of all the electronics. So, when you remeber you childhood, you remeber it as bad? Because if kids have it good now, that only means that you had it bad back then...

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

This was my personal favorite of all the points mentioned. Apparently it is also upsetting to some.

While it is true that this can apply to those over 30 as well these days. But the point is, those over 30 did not have cell phones when they were "teens". Even if they have them now.

I recall hearing or seeing something similar when I was a teen, coming from the "older" generation.

Things like....... growing up with no TV at all.

Phones did not have push buttons they were rotary, and god forbid the number you were dialing had any 0's in it.

Computers were fairly new in the 80's (remember the commodore 64?)but before that, no one had one.

We had cassette tapes, which could be recorded and also played in the original sony walkman(Ipod lol). Our elders had to use those huge 8-Track tapes.

We had beta and VHS tapes to watch movies on our VCR's. Our parents had to actually go to the movies.

nice thread! thank you OP