The Spoiled Under Thirty Crowd

reply to post by AccessDenied


Oh my goodness, I haven't thought about stickers or friendship pins in YEARS. My favorite stickers were my Star Trek ones. I'd cut them out and put them on the "bridge" that I'd draw out. The smelly ones were cool, but I never wanted to scrath them cause they would lose their scent too quickly then.

Wow, talk about nostalgia. When you "liked" someone we'd rip the tab off the top of a can of coke and give it to them.

Oh the memories!

Well, I'm nostalgic, too. But this thread was specifically about young'uns being spoiled.

I grew up in a "richer environment;" largely because I was among the rural poor in the 70's and 80's. Agriculture has chores that unspoils just about anyone.

I remember chopping the ice out of stock tanks with an axe in the winter, and then scooping out the chunks with a hayfork, so it wouldn't freeze back before the cattle got a drink. Putting out hay after school.

The first paying job I got was driving a John Deere 95 combine during wheat harvest. I had to hitch a ride with a man because I was only 14. Imagine a piece of heavy machinery with a manual clutch, armstrong power steering, and the patented Godsown air conditioning system.

I got paid mininium wage, $3.35 an hour. My parents took my check to buy groceries for the family.

But I still spoiled when I went off to college. I wasted a lot of time, got into drugs, and had to mature all over again from square one.

While hard work as a kid taught me lessons I quickly re-learned, spoiled is a state of mind. I guess I had to take remedial classes in the school of hard knocks because I wasn't paying attention the first time.

My kids have chores that are not optional. I give them money, but not enough to get into trouble. They have to help pay for big ticket items they want. It helps them be stakeholders in their techno-goodies.

The one car I took the best care of was the first car I ever owned, that I had purchased with my Christmas bonus the year feeder cattle hit a dollar per pound. I checked it over every saturday. My current car, I don't even know when the last time I check the trans fluid. Of course, it has an electronic sensor for that, but I have no idea whether it works or what it's warning looks like.

all the best.

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


Most farm kids I met were hard workers and very discipline. There were a few that loved to party even if it meant getting in trouble by their parents later. There's just so much to do now days that weren't possible back then. The internet, gaming with awesome graphics, burning songs/movies, cartoons all day etc... If I live thirty more years I wonder what my grand kids will have.

Originally posted by Solarskye
I'd like to say that I wrote this but I did not. It rings so true to my ears because I'm over thirty and remember those days so well. I got this in an email and wanted to share it with everyone. I have know clue to who wrote this so I hope I don't get in any trouble for posting it here. Those over thirty will understand and those under will never really know how hard we had it back then. Does this ring true to anyone over thirty? Does anyone under thirty have anything to say about this? And will those under thirty be able to say just how hard they had it in the future to their kids.

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 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'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 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 library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!! 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 would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! 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!

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 mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances. 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!

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 tail and walk over to the TV to change the channel and 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 ... Imagine that! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

[edit on 12/2/2008 by Solarskye]

recently i was on a dateing site and the under thirty crowd is the most disgusting group of people on the face of the planet. they are weird. they dont eat, take baths, or whipe themselves properly.


then i look at older when and it reminds me, this is what the y2k conspiracy is all about. apparently beauty died when y2k spread accross the homeland.

reply to post by raver2005


No-No #1: Excessive quoting of the OP.

recently i was on a dateing site and the under thirty crowd is the most disgusting group of people on the face of the planet. they are weird. they dont eat, take baths, or whipe themselves properly.


then i look at older when and it reminds me, this is what the y2k conspiracy is all about. apparently beauty died when y2k spread accross the homeland.

So, you can tell from a dating site that all those under 30, have an eating disorder, an issue of uncleanliness, and don't use enough toilet paper...???
And that has WTF to do with an unrealized computer glitch?

JUST FREAKIN' WOW!
All I can say to you is...
JUST SAY NO

reply to post by Solarskye


Oh yes Galaga.......
Not exactly a youth when I lost 2 years or so playing this in my early twenties. There is a PC clone called Warblade that's shareware and my wife and I play it now to the tune of 2 hours a day.

Growing up in the 50's we had a huge Philco quad- fi system with a round TV...
First radio was a crystal set ...
Feeling real old and I do get pissed at the Kids Kids demanding the newest best thing the minute it comes out.

reply to post by andolin




When I was around 6 or 7 my mom got me a Frogger hand held video game, which was shaped just like a giant arcade game only smaller. All you did was push the little stick and try to make the frog safely cross the street. Nothing but little bleeps and dots and funny noises...I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

My brother got the same only his was Space Invaders. We must have burned up 50 AA batteries on Xmas day alone.

reply to post by andolin


Now that looks cool. I'm downloading Warblade when I get home and trying it out. Those old games are priceless and still worth playing. I now play games like Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty, Need For Speed, Motorstorm etc... It's just amazing how far video games have come and what the future holds for our kids.

I used to have the frogger hand held game Blackops and played it for hours before my kid grabbed it out of my hands and said you've played it long enough Daddy it's my turn. Well, I didn't get to play it much after that. lol





[edit on 12/4/2008 by Solarskye]

reply to post by BlackOps719


My kids had Coleco Vision and Pong , later an Atari, which wasn't a bad system in it's day..And when they screwed up[ and lost privileges to those systems it meant something to them. No handhelds until they got old enough to buy their own.

reply to post by Solarskye


I think you will like it. I use a logitech controller and once you learn the levels it's quite fun. Use a profile set to normal so the "specials" can get unlocked for you. There are fan sites that have FAQ's with hints and tips if you find yourself getting into it.

Did you know that you can download and install these things called "Emulators" off of the web that will allow you to play all of the old school original Nintendo games on your PC?


I have Tyson Punch Out, Techmo Bowl, Donkey Kong, Kung Fu, the original Ninja Gaidan, Superstars of Wrestling with Amazon man and Starman etc.......it rocks.