The Grumpy Old Man Thread (or, Why Today Sucks)

[Trollheart]

You kids think you have it made these days with your in-ter-net and your X-Box! Don't know you're born! Here are some of the things you have never experienced....

1. Wondering how you're going to get more money for the weekend? You took out what you wanted at the bank and now it's closed. Too young to have a credit card, and what are ATMs sonny?

2. Waiting to make a phone call in a public box. Many houses didn't even have phones, and there was no such thing as a mobile or cell phone. If you were out and wanted to check in, find one of these,

hope it wasn't vandalised, make sure you had change on you (phonecards? What are they?) and if someone wanted to get in touch with you while you were out, well, just tough. No way to do that.

3. Watching all the ads. No such thing as pausing live television. No way to record anything till about the eighties and even then video recorders were damn expensive. Programmes were shown once (usually once a week) and that was it. No repeat. No plus one channel. No weekend catch-up TV and definitely no On Demand service.

4. Going to a cinema to see the latest movie. No downloading of pirate copies, no Netflix or YouTube or Hulu. And when the video did come out, much later, expect it to be in the region of about fifty to sixty quid.

5. Dialling on a rotary phone. Took ages just to dial one number, and if it was busy, back around the dial you must go.

6. Buying all your albums on vinyl. Record to cassette tape only. Your record collection would fill shelves, even rooms. Ensure you had a good sound system to play them on.

7. Paying the conductor on a bus rather than the driver as you got on.

8. The only way to take photographs was with a real camera, and you had to have some sort of half-decent knowledge to be able to use one. Except for Polaroids and Instamatics.

9. The only way to see the time was on a clock or a watch

Back with more later; I have to have my afternoon nap or I'll get even grumpier.

Fellow grumps, feel free to add your own experiences.