How things have changed

[Lakers Fan]

The kids of today cannot fathom that their parents /grandparents did not have cell phones ,cd players ,etc .

I recall my father who was a kid in the 19th.century telling my kids how he spent his leisure time .

How did you spend yours ? Was it listening to the radio ,watching television or something totally different ?

[Lombard]

Originally Posted by Lakers Fan

The kids of today cannot fathom that their parents /grandparents did not have cell phones ,cd players ,etc .

I recall my father who was a kid in the 19th.century telling my kids how he spent his leisure time .

How did you spend yours ? Was it listening to the radio ,watching television or something totally different ?

Building a trolley out of wood and metal bearings for wheels and screaming down the local hill!! Whoop.

[Paul Motter]

I just read an article about what high school (or college) graduates "know."

They obviously know very little about landing on the moon, the Kennedy assasination, The end of the Soviet Bloc & Berlin Wall, Mao's Culture Wars, etc.

BUT they also do not know a world without the Internet, cable TV or cell-phones (since they were old enough to have a phone of their own).

For "toys" I guess many of them had an etch-a-sketch, transformers, Barbi-style dolls and then progressed to Video Games where they pretty much landed.

They barely remember the Internet and computer bubble or when Jeff Bezos was man of the year before Amazoin was profitable. They don't know dial-up modems.

My childhood was about playing in a sandbox, watching shows like Andy Griffith and Dick Van Dyke, going to Disneyland, live music (not hip hop DJs), Comedians who were clean and truly funny like Bill Cosby, Steve Martin and Alan Sherman. Movies like the Singing Nun, Sound of Music and Ben Hur (about real people, not superheros or vampires).

[Trip]

Henry, on 8/26, I posted this Mindest List, for graduates.I guess they do it every year...amazing what "kids" have no idea of what they have missed.

2012 Mindset List

[Lakers Fan]

Originally Posted by Trip

Henry, on 8/26, I posted this Mindest List, for graduates.I guess they do it every year...amazing what "kids" have no idea of what they have missed.

2012 Mindset List

Henry left ,this is Ari .

[Paul Motter]

I love that list, Linda... I posted a little bit more....

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.
For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.

[KellyKayden]

Some of those actually made me laugh out loud, then get depressed....... :-D

[Cruise Cat]

Tonka Trucks and Imagination!!!!!!

I survived Darts, Lawn Darts (jarts), click-clackers, eating mud, jumping in mud puddles, only washing dishes in the sink, eating on plates on counters that have not been "sanitized", and countless toys with sharp points and small objects I could have fitted in my mouth if my mom hadn't trained me not to!!!!!

[Cruise Cat]

Originally Posted by KellyKayden

Some of those actually made me laugh out loud, then get depressed....... :-D

Go Rockets!!!!!!

[KellyKayden]

Originally Posted by Cruise Cat

Go Rockets!!!!!!

Hey! Not many people on this board would know who the Rockets are! Are you a relocated Toledoan? :-)

[balabusta]

The main difference, when we grew up, was that the world was less complicated. Kids did not have many toys, like the kids have today. We lived in a safer world where you could play jacks, hopscotch, ride your bike, or go roller skating without your parents' worrying about your safety. Families ate dinner together and there was always one parent home when you came home from school. You knew your neighbors because people moved around less often. Technology is a great thing, it has brought about many advancements in medicine and our lifestyle but we most never forget the "core values" that we grew up with.

[Mike M]

The graduating class of Cave University in 7000 B.C.

Never knew a world without the wheel. They have never had to drag their Yak back to the cave.

They never knew raw food. They had been spoiled by cooked food because of the discovery of flint to make fire.

They have had "in-cave" heating because of fire. They never knew the hardship of cold nights.

They have always had the luxury of food because they never had to club their game. They had those new fangled spears that made hunting a breeze.

The women no longer feared being dragged back to the cave by their hair because of the ENA (Equal Neanderthal Amendment).

The "Kids have had it easy" comparisons have gone on for thousands of years and will probably go on for thousands more.

Take care,
Mike

[Truck Cruiser]

We were never inside unless it was raining or too cold to go out. We played with our friends up and down the street, building go-karts, having apple fights and playing sports.

Inside we played games like Trouble, Monopoly, Life and go fish. Of course we didn't do anything till our chores were completed.

The scary thing to me is that this generation will be the one running governments when I am retired

[Marsdude]

OK now. I work with kids. I find there are a lot of hard working good young people today. Do they have it easy - h*ll no!

It was much simpler when I grew up and the law enforcement was a little more lenient on youth infractions like drinking beer when underage. Back then they took you to your parents Now they take the kids to jail and they get into the criminal system

[KellyKayden]

Originally Posted by Marsdude

OK now. I work with kids. I find there are a lot of hard working good young people today. Do they have it easy - h*ll no!

It was much simpler when I grew up and the law enforcement was a little more lenient on youth infractions like drinking beer when underage. Back then they took you to your parents Now they take the kids to jail and they get into the criminal system

You know what, i very much so agree with that.

[ToddDH]

You know you're as old as dirt (yours truly being the perfect example) when:

Virtually all telephones were black with a dial face.

In many (probably most) large cities, mail was delivered twice a day to your home.

You remember when they first came out with 45 records (many today have never even seen a "45" certainly not a "78" and probably not many "33's."

You just couldn't understand why your parents didn't run out and get one of those new color TV sets that probably ran half the price of a good used car.

Everyone knew the cop on the beat and ran to him for everything, regardless of whether or not it amounted to a hill of beans and he'd give you the time to listen and then explain.

If the cops tagged you for misbehavior, your father beat the hell out of you and if a cop beat fell it necessary to even give you a dresing down, etc.,from your parents, got no sympathy owhatsoever but were yelled at by a cop, embarrassing them, you really caught it from your Father because you probably not only got your keester really kicked again by your father and if you were old enough to get it from a cop, your dad would use his belt. In short, if you were the normal kid, you only did that one time!

If you did something to be sent to what is today known as, "Time out" it usually consisted of not watching TV for a week or no ice cream for a month. Getting stopped or eve worse, getting a ticket meant you walked or took Public Transportation for six months.

If you got an allowance, your "earned" it.....it certainly wasn't just handed to you. Boys were expected to actually work at things such as paper routes.

And people actually wonder why we're in so much trouble today.

[Dave Beers]

You can certainly see stark differences in younger people today than in 'our' days which are pre-internet, cell phones, and so forth.

The youth of today have poor social skills because they text instead of talk, even when in the same room. They play internet games instead of sitting around a Monopoly board on the kitchen table with their friends and family on a Friday night. I read last week that a LAPD police academy instructor sees these problems manifesting among young officers and their increased use of force in situations where older officers would diffuse it with mere words. The young cops don't know how to cope with situations.

Today's youth is in miserable physical condition because they are sedentary where people of our age grew up outside, constantly running around playing baseball or riding bikes. We made money in the winter in upstate NY by shoveling out people's driveways and sidewalks. Nothing quite like a lifting a hundreds shovels full of wet snow for building upper body strength.