I got this in an email and thought I'd share it here. Lots of changes since we were kids.

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious stories about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... Uphill BOTH ways

Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay that on 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 Utopia!

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 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!

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'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

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!

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'. 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!

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 lady with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see.

Sure, we had cable television, but back then there were only like 15
channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You had to use a
little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on ! Forget channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel. 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.

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had
to use the stove or go build a fire.. imagine that! If we wanted Popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove Forever like an idiot.

So you kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. And you wouldn't have lasted five minutes back before 1980.

Sounds right to me, Dotsie. When I was born and Mom spent 7 days in a very small hospital (where she rested and recouped before going home to two young sons with a new baby....she always said how she was ready to jump back into life because she had the energy and the readiness....but I digress...) Anyway, my Dad brought home the family's first TV that week that she was away...a couple of black and white channels where she said she'd watch boxing during my 11 PM feedings....we had a black and white set until I graduated from highschool and left home! Then when newly married, my husband and I had an old black and white set with 3 channels and rabbit ears AND an elastic to hold it on the channel! In spite of this and our old '66 Chevy, we were blissfully happy! Now there doesn't seem to be the little apartment or small starter home. So many want to start off with everything imaginable.....don't know how they do it.

One of the biggest changes I can think of, especially during summer, is that we didnt' have air conditioning. I recal some miserably hot summer nights. We eventually had fans, then very much later, window units, but only in certain rooms.

In fact, yesterday we celebrated our 23 year-old son's anniversary from when he arrived from Korea at three months of age. While reminiscing, I mentioned that we didn't have air conditioning and that was in this home. We had a unit in our bedroom and that was it. We eventually got a huge one that cooled the whole first floor, then of course, central air, but it wasn't all that long ago.

I love having it, but if I lived alone, I wouldn't use it as much as we do. I much prefer having the windows open and feeling the fresh air.

I, too, miss the fresh air....we're going through our intense heat/humidity spell which usually doesn't last all that long up here. I love being able to throw open the windows and doors and feel the air. It was quite normal "back then" to have just a fan. Our car wasn't air conditioned either. I remember some pretty hot, humid nights trying to sleep....it was something everyone just accepted in summer. But then, it was a hot, steamy mid-July night when my only child was conceived (**smile**)

I remember running into a former teacher of mine when I was quite, no actually very, young. She told me how easy our generation had it compared to hers. I guess each generation feels the same.

I think that's so true, Anno. I remember my parents and teachers felt the very same way and that makes sense. With technology going at break neck speed, every generation will be flooded with more and more "stuff." I don't think that's necessarily good. I remember when being sent out to play, I ran with absolute glee! I couldn't even imagine wanting to stay inside at any age. Rainy days were absolute torture!

My late Mother in law would describe how she did her laundry in great detail.
Boiling white clothes and starching baby bonnets..she would repeat this as I washed terry nappies and muslin inner nappies in a twin tub machine .Hung baby gowns and nappies and sheets/towels on the line.

I also hand washed pure wool baby jackets mitts and hats.Laid them flat to dry.
Felt that doing this every day was hard work but according to her it was not.
Seemed as if she resented that my old hoover twin tub came too late for her.

By the time my son was born no baby gowns but stretch suits were in vogue..that made for less work.

I try never to say "how things were" unless sharing person memories.People learn for themselves.
Mpuntain ash