I’m 30 with 3 kids, the eldest is 7 and in 2nd grade. Some days I still can’t believe it. My parents have always been the “adult”. Now when I hear my daughter calling me the “adult” it feels so weird.
Anyways…at age 30 I’ve realized that there are things now which my kids won’t ever know about:
The beta vs VHS competition?
The VHF and UHF dials on a TV?
Using bunny ears for a TV?
When HBO was the single premium channel which required an antennae?
When station wagons were popular?
An Atari2600, Commodore 64’s, Intellivision, Calico, and others.
The first PC’s my friends and I had were 4, 6, or 8Mhz (and some had a turbo button to make it go 12Mhz).
When the 5in. floppies and a paper hole punch could make them double-sided.
Watching Captain Kangaroo and “picture pages”.
Telephones with the circular dial.
I’m sure they’ll think automatic garage doors, dishwashers, remote control and wireless everything is the way things have always been. Maybe instead of the stories about walking two miles to school in 2 ft of snow, I’ll be able to amaze them with stories of having to get off the couch and walking to the TV to change channels. [;)]
I can remember further back than that. A bottle of Coca Cola cost five cents, a loaf of bread cost six cents, gas at twenty five cents a gallon. For a penny you could get a pack of bubble gum with five baseball trading cards. We didn’t know what an airconditioner was. We slept with the windows and doors open in the summer with a flan blowing. Girls with full skirts, bobby socks and saddle shoes. Boys had short hair. I like Ike buttons. Sputnik. Wind up clocks. Wind up watches. Telephone party lines. We were so happy when our parents got their first TV. Black and white and if you were lucky, you could get three stations. TV antennaes on the roof. Getting paid fifty cents an hour on your first real job. I could go on and on.
That sounds like a story of early American Living from out of the archives at the Smithsonian. [:p][:)]
I should have clarified my previous statement of “Anyways…at age 30 I’ve realized that there are things now which my kids won’t ever know about:” to say these were things I knew as a kid which they won’t know about. [:)]
Amazing how back then a copper penny was worth something. Now people are trying to do away with them.
i was at work today and the guy i work with was talking cars (no problem there) and we got onto the subject of the driving test. He asked me when i passed mine and i said 1988, he said “man i was only five years old!!!” oh god i now feel old. AND i am SUFFERING another birthday tomorrow…AAAAGH. (my 38th)
on the plus side i was walking with my missus the other month and she bumped into an old school pal, she said to Bev hey how did you manage to get hold of a toyboy?i had to laugh. Bev pointed out (rather bad temperedly) that i am two years older that her. now THAT really made my day…Greg
Dave:
Come on, I’m not that old and I drive a station wagon!
My kids make rude noises when I tell them about 13 channel tv dials and we only got 4 (and one of those was French!).
My youngest (13) saw an older movie the other day and asked what the guy was doing when he dialled the phone with the rotary dial!
Bruce
I never did feel old until my daughter was watching I Love the 70’s on VH-1 and she kept asking me. “what is that thing, who was that band, did you have one of those things?” I answered all her questions like a good dad and she looked up at me with her six year old eyes and said" you guys sure dressed funny back in the old days" Still floors me everytime I think about it. But I guess I do look older than I am because shortly after that a kid came to my office at work and noticed a few awards and such on my wall from my time in the Army and told me “my dad retired from the Army, he was in Vietnam, did you ever meet him?” I was born when we started withdrawing from Vietnam! I’m only 30! He said sorry and left.
To be 30 again, your not old, your in your prime. I’m 43, our house in Whittier, Ca. cost $16,000.00 U.S.D in 1964. This house was 285K when purchased in 1998 here in Alta Loma,
Ca. Growing up in our middle class neighborhood with 1 RCA black & white TV, a SW and a 54 Chevy. My dad, a father of a family of 6, raised us on a single income. Our modest little home had no carpeting, and like mentioned in other posts, what A/C, a single rotary phone on the kitchen wall. Life seemed so simple then.
When Bob Hope passed away, it was like losing an uncle. Yet, when I brought this up in my office, one of the kids (actually a 22 year old) ask who he was??? Talking about picking the jaw off the floor, I couldn’t believe I had to explain to someone who Bob Hope is was and forever in my mind will always be.
From the days of the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, micro buses, muscle cars,bell bottoms and Twiggy. The days when calculators weren’t allowed for our Algebra tests and Apple is what kept the doctor away. Those were the days, no one knew what a “crip” was, the only “gang” I knew was on Ch 52 and that show was in black and white with a dog named petey and a kid named Alfalfa.
Forever young at 43. I keep remembering a plaque that hangs at the back wall of the gym at California High School in Whittier, I’ll try to remember it’s wording, but basically says “within these walls you’ll enjoy the best 4 years of your life”
At the time I didn’t realize how true that really is. Your 1st girlfriend, your first car, your first date, new friends, puberty, teenage shenanigans, life was good those 4 consecutive years.
I haven’t had 4 consecutive good years since I graduated high school, oh yeah I’ve had great years, marriage, graduation from college, birth of our son, my days in the navy, on and on, but they have not been consecutive. Thanks for this excellent thread.
You feel old?
I think I know how you feel - how’s this for scary? I got completely fed up with my job (after 20 years in the workforce), went back to university to study mechanical engineering (did quite well, too).
I have been married for almost as long as many of my fellow students have been alive - I’d graduated from high school before many of them were born.
The cool thing was is that I seemed to fit right in - they didn’t look at me as if I was the “old fart”. I’m only 40 but look closer to late twenties - what can you say about genes?
That was all a real culture shock, but it was fun.
Now I’m doing something with my life that I want to do.
Cheers, y’all
LeeTree
Well, at least I have a better idea of what to look forward to. I’m 32, married with one child and have been feeling old because of such things as hearing top-10 songs from my high school and early bachelor days on the “oldies” radio stations.
How about a collection of orignal GI joe’s.
I have about one thousand Records and a turntable that still plays.
Remeber when a 16oz coke in a bottle was 20 cents and a candy bar was a dime.
And finally i could buy a good model for 5.00 dollars.
Ok one more Airfix figures were 97 cents per box.
OK, let me add some more …
I was at an airshow just a few years ago and talking with one of our pilots who was flying a T-33, he told me the date placard on the airframe said the plane was older than he was.
Another pet peeve from Canada is why do all the tourists ask me if I know their cousin/parents/best friend who lives in Toronto? (I am 2,000 miles and about 10 million people away)? Do you guys from other countries get that too?
Seems like a day for venting …
Bruce
This last week, I didn’t feel so old. With a new grandson just one week old, it has a tendency to make you feel young again.
Also my son came to me for advice on his house remodeling. He told me that I knew things about that, and he doesn’t. He asked all kind of questions and I had most of the answers.
Before they left, my eleven year old grand daughter gave me a big hug, kissed me on the cheek, and said I was the best grandpa in the whole world. [:I]
Now, don’t go bursting my bubble. Let me live the moment for a few days. [8)][8)]
There is nothing better than hearing the words “I love you daddy” or “Your the best daddy in the whole world”. [:I] Simple, yet effective, makes the day seem a little brighter.
I hope that someday I’m as blessed with grandchildren as you have been Berny.
“It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it.”-R.E.Lee
Dude, be careful about saying things like that…
I’m only 17 and I can remember ALL of that stuff(there’s a benefit to living in Japan for a few years, Japan is culturally about a decade behind everyone else!)!
Great, now I feel old! Most non-triumphant, dude!
Oh, and I still have a box of about 30 or so Betamax tapes, and all of the home movies from my childhood are on Beta…
To the max!!
Bruce
Speaking for myself, I’ve never really encountered that down here in the U.S…But I have a favor to ask. My mother’s family lives in Nova Scotia. Would you please say “hi” to them for me next time you see them?..Thanks a lot!!!