When I Was a Kid Things Were Tough.

[SamBally]

When I was a kid things were tough–so much tougher than the kids today have it. The toughest part for my generation was that it was so hard to find anybody to complain to about how tough things were. The kids today can whine once on Facebook and immediately reach hundreds of people. But when I was a kid, if you wanted to complain, you had to call each friend and complain to them one at a time. After three or four phone calls, you’d grow exhausted and forget what you were so upset about. It was terrible.

And sometimes you would muster up the courage to call a girl just so you could commiserate on how bad you both had it, but her dad would answer the phone and call out, “Heather, one of your girlfriends is on the phone!” because your voice hadn’t deepened yet. Things were tough.

And these phone calls were made using a telephone, and the phone was attached to the wall, and your family only had one telephone that everyone shared. And if you called a girl to complain about how bad you had it, sometimes she wasn’t home and you had to leave a message on her answering machine and your mom got on the telephone while you were recording the message and yelled at you to get off because it was past your bedtime and the machine captured everything. Things were pretty bad.

My parents had it even worse. When they were kids they had to walk uphill in the snow for hours and hours just to find one person to hear their complaint about how much they hated walking uphill in the snow.

 

[SamBally]

And don’t get my grandparents started on how bad they had it. My grandparents had to spend all day gathering wood just so they could light one fire and send smoke signals across the valley to let their neighbor know how much they hated the smell of smoke. Things were tough.

And when I was a kid we didn’t have video cameras on our phones and movie editing software on our laptops. if we wanted to make a movie, we had to use the family video camera and record on VHS tapes, and the editing was impossible, and none of us knew how to add sound effects or music, and we’d spend two weeks of summer vacation working on the movie before we would eventually lose interest, or lose Dad’s camera, whichever came first.

Last week my nine-year-old son The Fonz decided he wanted to run for VP of his elementary school. He thought he had to give a speech on Friday, but his mom reread the note on Tuesday night and realized the speech was the following morning. In place of a speech, The Fonz suggested making a movie trailer, and in less than an hour, he and his twelve-year-old brother made a movie that was ten times better than any movie I ever made as a kid. Or as an adult.

The Fonz won the election. But he has no appreciation of how easy he has it. When his grandparents were in school, they never voted on who got to be in student council. They only voted on who got eaten.

 

[LadyOnArooftop]

My first memories of 'life' were in the womb, I remember it well, little did I know they were going to be the best days of my life. I am born
No private bupa hospital for my birth, our mam gave birth to me holding on to two branches. Yes, we were living in a tree at the time. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea. A cup of cold tea, without milk or sugar, OR tea! In a filthy, cracked cup if we were lucky. Most times we never had a cup, we used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper. Sometimes the best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth. But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor. At one time we were living in one room, sixteen of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing. We were all huddled together in one corner for fear of falling! Then we lived for two years in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of mouldy bread, go to work down coal mine for eighteen hours a day. When we got home, our dad (a Yorkshireman) would thrash us to sleep with his pipe, and we were grateful for it!
Then I discovered UKchat forum, and suddenly life was worth living. I'll never be sad or lonely ever again.

 

[hell2bwith76]

And don’t get my grandparents started on how bad they had it. My grandparents had to spend all day gathering wood just so they could light one fire and send smoke signals across the valley to let their neighbor know how much they hated the smell of smoke. Things were tough.

And when I was a kid we didn’t have video cameras on our phones and movie editing software on our laptops. if we wanted to make a movie, we had to use the family video camera and record on VHS tapes, and the editing was impossible, and none of us knew how to add sound effects or music, and we’d spend two weeks of summer vacation working on the movie before we would eventually lose interest, or lose Dad’s camera, whichever came first.

Last week my nine-year-old son The Fonz decided he wanted to run for VP of his elementary school. He thought he had to give a speech on Friday, but his mom reread the note on Tuesday night and realized the speech was the following morning. In place of a speech, The Fonz suggested making a movie trailer, and in less than an hour, he and his twelve-year-old brother made a movie that was ten times better than any movie I ever made as a kid. Or as an adult.

The Fonz won the election. But he has no appreciation of how easy he has it. When his grandparents were in school, they never voted on who got to be in student council. They only voted on who got eaten.

When i was a nipper only the Rich had a private telephone . There were single telephone boxes ,painted Red ,in various places dotted around the Town,Lucky if you lived near one . You had to put ya money in a slot then dial the number you wanted ,e.g. Dr ,police etc . Those Red phone booths are worth a fortune today !lol .
At least kids today don`t have to face the trials and hazards of a 20 minute walk to school ,300 metres away. Mummy and Papa chauffeur them to school in a nice warm or air conditioned Limo ( Ford SUV).

 

[SamBally]

Ooarrr, Red Phone boxes that ponged of stale piss and 'innocent' snogging sessions out of the rain or the dreaded pips as the 10p ran out. "Yes, where shall we meet tomor..." PipPipPipPipPip!


They also make them into showers these days or just as a feature in a garden.

 

[hell2bwith76]

Todays little monsters collect Video games , Designer clothes, Action Man cards ,etc. I remember collecting used matches . Pebbles from the garden and dead Flies ,which i`d killed . I used to bury them in a fancy cardboard box with some bits of stale bread ,for their "afterlife". They didn`t come back though .

 

[SamBally]

Eeee Yer must av been a posh lad to av a cardboard box!

 

[hell2bwith76]

Eeee Yer must av been a posh lad to av a cardboard box!

some kind neighbours . Matchboxes .