Friday, February 22, 2008

In the Old Days


As if having no microwave weren't hardship enough, I didn't count on all the extra dishes, pots and pans needed. Without nuking, you have to use a pan to heat or cook in and then transfer the food to your serving dish. If you nuke, your cooking dish and serving dish are one and the same.
Oh the horror!

And then like a message from above I received a jaunty little email reminding me that I've been through tougher times than this:

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!If you are 30 or older, you will think this is hilarious!!!!

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 BOTH ways yada, yada!And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was noway 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 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 things 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 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' and the graphics sucked! 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 old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, hard luck! Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!

When it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your a$$ 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, you spoiled little !!!And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire.... imagine that!If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled!!!!!!!!!You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Oh yea, and a seat belt was Mom throwing her arm across your chest every time she hit the brakes.Regards,The over 30 Crowd


If I lived through these tough times, I can do this too!

54 comments:

Bee said...

FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bee said...

jean knee!!! One of these days that word verification is going to give me a heart attack and I'll die!
Death by Woord Verificatio, not a good way to go!

Jean Knee said...

how do I get rid of it?

Bee said...

Pretend you didn't see all the mispells on that last comment. Just pretend.

You'll get thru it jean knee. Let's hope your washing machine doesn't give out too. And also, don't you have a dish washer?? Ummm hello!? 21 century!

Jean Knee said...

yes I have a dishwasher but the dishes sat in the sink all week letting the crud harden into a rock like substance that will have to be soaked.


is the verification thing gone?

Bee said...

I'll shoot you some screen shots.

Bee said...

YEAH!! HOOORAY!

Bee said...

NOW I CAN BE FIRST UNENCUMBERED LIKE A CUCUMBER!

Bee said...

Awesome!

Bee said...

You are so rock and roll!

Bee said...

ELEVENTH!!!

Bee said...

I was able to do that fast and quickly do to the removal of word verification!

In. Your. Face Brian.

Bee said...

NCS, maybe next time. ;op

Jean Knee said...

That's not fair, Brian has a hangover and NCS is busy ruining her kid's lives

Bee said...

Oh yeah? Well I'm wearing purple pants and a green sweater! That didn't stop me!

Melissa said...

I hope you can get your microwave fixed... no one should have to live in conditions like that! ;)

Melissa said...

And just out of curiosity... do you always eat out of bright pink crocs?

Jean Knee said...

well, you see, I don't like to waste water so I wash crocs and dishes together.. much easier too

Brian o vretanos said...

I'm not hungover, I'm in pain. Not because of beer, but because I didn't believe the word "Hot" on the tin of chilli con carne, so thought I'd add some more spice.

Microwave ovens were invented during World War II.

Dish Washers are completely unnecessary. I've never had one, and keep seeing adverts for special dishwasher cleaner stuff - so you have to clean the diswasher too! You can't put really cruddy dishes in it. What's the point? Maybe you should swap your dishwasher for a microwave.

I'm glad the woord verificatio is gone.

Jean Knee said...

you sound bitter, are you sure you're not hungover??, maybe you should go pub hopping some more

Jean Knee said...

microwaves were not popularized in the home until the 70's

Lisa said...

HaHa! I love this! This was my life. I remember when my step dad told me to put my seat belt on and if looks could kill....

I use the microwave all the time. Sorry for your pain, Jean knee. How about Taco Bell?

Bee said...

Microwaves have contained/controlled radiation.
And this concludes Microwaving 101

Bee said...

No to Taco Bell! No.

Bee said...

Brian, "I'm glad the woord verificatio is gone", you have become such a smartass!

Bee said...

Okay, now I'm gone.

Brittany said...

I hear you! I preach this to my kids all the time! God, I'd even forgot card catalogs. I think I shall print out your post (with your permission of course) and post it on my fridge...next to my microwave. Thus, saving my breath!! I still throw out my arm in the car F.Y.I. lol!

Brittany
ps, I glittered you

Brian o vretanos said...

Jean Knee:

Go to the pub? Are you trying to get rid of me? The pain has gone now. Quick get over to my blog and get in first or eleventh or something before Bee does.

Tori :) said...

LOL! So so true.
Tristan broke the microwave before we moved to Texas and for 2 weeks I was a lost soul.

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

Jean Knee-
I'm just curious to know, what do you cook in the Croc shoes? I noticed them in with your dirty dishes.
And seeing as how I'm in the under 30 crowd, what with my being 29 and all, I couldn't relate to any of those.
Except maybe the remote thing. My father had a remote, me. He'd yell for me from the other end of the house and I'd go running to see what he wanted and he'd say "Oh I just wanted to say "Hi" but while you're here could you turn on channel 5?"
And the Jiffy pops rocked. Except my mom always burned it. We had one catch on fire.
But other than that, I totally can't relate to you 30 somethings.

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

Shoot, I read the other comments after I had already posted my comment and now instead of looking all witty about the crocs like I was thinking to myself and snickering while I typed it, I look like a copy cat since the crocs have already been called out. Now I feel like a moron.

Dan said...

Jean Knee
Wow, I didn't know you had such a tough childhood. I did have to walk like 5 miles to catch the bus for school. ( I just now realized that my keyboard doesn't work well, I knew I wasn't that bad of a speler.)

I'm going to Brian's blog, he has a spell check thing.

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

Jean Knee-
You know, I just thought of something. I could send my son over to your house to teach your husband how to do those dishes. Come over to my blog and read my recent post. This comment will make sense then.

Dan said...

Tracy
Sounds like you need some dishes broken

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

Daniel (this is my angry mom calling you by your full name thing.)
Just because your momma didn't raise you to be the perfect man doesn't mean I can't for my son. Don't be so jealous. If you come over here I'll have him teach you how to do the dishes too.

Super Happy Girl said...

When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!

THE HORROR!!

Super Happy Girl said...

Bee: back then we had no spell checkers either! If you wanted to know how a word was spelleted...

Super Happy Girl said...

In the old days no one was 11th and we liked it!

Super Happy Girl said...

Crock soup.
Yum.

Super Happy Girl said...

I meant croc.
Yeah.
In the old days we had not fancy crock to cook tortillas on!

Klin said...

I lived through all those things. I was the remote control- for SEVEN channels. I was the dishwasher- AND dryer and put-er away-er :(

You know, those things seemed a lot easier than the few days I had to cook with out my microwave. Few days because I am a wimp and don't like to wash pans;)

Jean Knee said...

and, even worse I lived in the country and had a party line which meant you shared a phone line with other people--horrible

you'd pick up the phone to make a call but too bad for youu someone's already on it

then you had to listen for a certain number of rings to see if an incoming call was for you or your neighbors.

plus they could listen in and tell on you---bummer

Jean Knee said...

I share everyone's pain

thank you for sharing with me, I feel much better now

Jean Knee said...

next week I will be doing my laundry and dishes in the same sink...yess

anyone wanna come over for dinner?????


Father Al hates wastefulness

Bee said...

I was just 11th on Tracy's blog! So what if you're crafting, that's no excuse!

elasticwaistbandlady said...

I waited to tape Christopher Cross' 'Think Of Laura' for weeks. I finally got the chance one weekend while in the car with my Dad during his visitation weekend.....despite me telling him to shut it, he talked all over the song.

"Think Of Laura and.......so, how's school going, Laugh Don't Cry, I know, you're getting a pimple beside your nose, she'd want it that way, I bought a new puppy instead of paying my child support this month. You're going to love him."

*Actual Recording*

elasticwaistbandlady said...

My foot almost got severed as a toddler because my mom had me on the back of her bike without a spoke protector and my foot got stuck in it.

1976= No Bike Safety Rules. No Bike Helmets. Ride At Your Own Risk, p*s*y.

elasticwaistbandlady said...

How come you have fancy turquoise pans?

See, aren't you glad to live to the day you would be able to trade in your harvest gold pans and avacado appliances for better colors?

Anonymous said...

We approve!

elasticwaistbandlady said...

My mom decorated everything with mushrooms and macrame and shades of brown.

I'm lucky to have survived so much ugliness in my childhood.

Anonymous said...

Pink crocs are the best.
But clean pink crocs are the bestestest!

Lisa said...

I traveled from Texas to New Jersey in the back of a Tercel with the seats down laying with my head on my tape recorder listening to my taped version of Journey! Other than the idiot step father, good memories!!

karlascottage.typepad.com said...

Yes, but weren't cartoons worth waiting all week for back then?

Millie said...

I LOVE IT!!!!!!

I remember 1980. Thems were hard times.

Uh, I love the pink Crocs in the sink... do you normally microwave those too?