Thursday, November 7, 2013

An Oldie but a Goodie :: When I was a kid...




 
Originally posted 09/24/09


When my parents said it, I would roll my eyes incessantly. We would hear one of them say "When I was a kid..." and my brother and I would cut them off with "We know, the only thing you had to play with was a stick and a box. You could buy a Hamburger for a nickel and go to a Movie for 25 cents!" We really had a way of bursting their bubbles.

Well, now I'm the Mama, and I find myself telling my son about when I was a kid. Luckily, he finds it wildly entertaining at this stage and will ask questions like..."Mom, when you were a kid did people drive cars?' I'm not that old but I have found myself telling him some really hilarious facts about being a kid in the 70's.

Things like...

"When I was a kid, we didn't have a remote control. I had to sit on a pillow in front of the TV and actually turn a knob to flip the channels. My dad would make me sit there and be the human remote control. There was no such thing as cable yet so luckily I only had about 8 channels to have to flip through."

"When I was a kid we didn't have cell phones. If we were not at home and needed to talk to someone then we had to find a pay phone. A pay phone is a phone that anyone could use that was sometimes in something called a phone booth. You put a quarter in the phone and then you could use it for as long as you wanted. Yes...it did spread germs."

"When I was a kid there was no such thing as Cartoon Network. If I wanted to watch cartoons, I had to wait until Saturday morning. We would wake up at 7 am and watch cartoons until noon. Saturday morning cartoons were the best!"

"When I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we needed to learn about a subject we had to go to the library or read and Encyclopedia. An Encyclopedia is a book that is filled with information about topics, kinda like Google but in book form."

"When I was a kid we didn't have DVD players that you could watch in the car. When you were riding in the car you would look out the window or play car games for fun. A car game is when everyone in the car agrees to look at the world around them and make up a game to play. Like Car Bingo or looking for the letters of the alphabet in street signs."

He thinks that these are fascinating facts. He just can't imagine that a world like the one I speak of ever existed.

Ah...the salad days!

4 comments:

Katherine said...

I do the same thing with my kids. I know it drives them crazy, telling them how lucky they are that they have remote controls and don't have to rewind VHS, and can watch shows without commercials.

Angelwithatwist said...

I can remember Bill Cosby doing his stand up routine and discussing his father telling of walking to school, both ways, in snow up to his knees, uphill both ways, fending off bears with a lunch pail and a stack of books. I used to crack up, and now I am suddenly Bill Cosby's father. Although I do at least include the bus. My kids still can't believe there didn't use to be internet in their lifetimes.

Unknown said...

Love it!

Wendy Schreiber said...

Hahaha...this is hilarious. And I totally am there with you!