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Tales for spoiled brats

TexLaw

Fussy Evil Genius
The few that get the kids more worked up than anything else are:

1. All phones were anchored to the wall somehow, even if just by a cord.

2. There was only one phone line in the house, and you couldn't use it if Mom or Dad were expecting a call. If someone tried to call while the phone was off the hook (sometimes literally), then it was just the busy signal, and no one knew if someone was trying to call you while you were on the phone.

3. You had to speak on the phone. There was no instant written (i.e., silent) communication.

4. My first modem was all of 300 baud (bps).
 
No, that's true. If a kid fell these days their parents would sue the tree, the owner of the tree, or both.

I always wanted one of those big tree houses you saw in American TV and movies. Sadly, Aussie trees are unsuited to children's property development.

The neighbors might have sued me when their daughter fell out of my tree and bruised herself. However, the mom had fallen out of it first, and damaged her elbow.
 
Let's see, some things from my childhood (which began in 1980 and ended however many years from that childhood lasts) which my kids (12, 9, 8, and 2) don't believe.

To this day they think I'm putting them on when I tell them about Saturday morning cartoons. The same with our 4 (later a 5th) television channel. The Big Three and PBS. I didn't have a proper remote control, but I did have a little sister (still do, actually) which worked out to be the same thing.

Free play is a difficult concept for my children's friends. But all the neighborhood kids meeting up at the big field at the end of the block in summer and just goofing off. Nothing scheduled or structured. Not even adults. Just be home when the street lights come on.

Someone already touched on dealing with bullies. I had a problem with a bully and my old man taught me how to throw a right hook. And called it "Standing Up for Yourself". Also, bullying took place in person directed at you. And if it wasn't physical, it wasn't bullying.

Any of my stories involving tobacco. Ash trays in malls and grocery stores. The drug store had an aisle that was candy on the right side and cheap pipe tobacco and cheaper cigars on the left. A very young me running to the corner store with 6 quarters to get a pack of Tarryton lights for my old man.

They cannot wrap their heads around the Cold War. Anything beyond that's where the modern idea of what a spy is, it's gibberish.

And the entire idea of looking anything up in a book makes so little sense to them that the whole idea is deemed silly and dismissed out of hand. Growing up, the most common question in acquiring knowledge was by far "Where is vol. __ of the encyclopedia?' It's been replaced with "Hey Siri/ Alexa..."
 
The trouble with telling kids such things today is that they are a lot smarter than we were at the same age.

Based on what is going on, that's not true.
They are much more inclined to be adept at working electronic gadgets, but that's about it.
 
Let's see, some things from my childhood (which began in 1980 and ended however many years from that childhood lasts) which my kids (12, 9, 8, and 2) don't believe.

To this day they think I'm putting them on when I tell them about Saturday morning cartoons. The same with our 4 (later a 5th) television channel. The Big Three and PBS. I didn't have a proper remote control, but I did have a little sister (still do, actually) which worked out to be the same thing.

Waking up to go to school was a serious chore.. Waking up at 5:30 on a Saturday to be ready for cartoons at 6 was easy.
 

Legion

Staff member
Waking up to go to school was a serious chore.. Waking up at 5:30 on a Saturday to be ready for cartoons at 6 was easy.
I remember trying to be quiet and not wake up my family. Not much luck. A six year old cannot make breakfast quietly, even if they try.
 
Based on what is going on, that's not true.
They are much more inclined to be adept at working electronic gadgets, but that's about it.

If you tell them something that they think is bunk, they will use their electronic gadgets to check it out on the Internet, just to prove you wrong.
 
4. My first modem was all of 300 baud (bps).


The memory on computers boggles the imagination as well.. somehow we've gone from 35K to 640K to low megabytes to low gigabytes and now cell phones have 4-8 gigabytes and if a computer only has 4 gigs on it, somehow it could not possibly used for such complex tasks as word processing

Regards
Avi
 
My daughter has on several occasions told me that my father (who died before she was born) couldn't have punished me by making me mow the lawn with a push along lawn mover because apart from petrol, they've always been electric and the newer ones are now battery powered. This is based on her reckoning that lawn mowers have only been around for about 35 or 40 years. Before that they were cut by hand! 🤡
 
I remember push along mowers. They were hard graft when you're a kid. I remember going back to the old house after being away for years and being gob smacked at how small everything was. Those lawns and garden were huge as a kid.
 
I remember push along mowers. They were hard graft when you're a kid. I remember going back to the old house after being away for years and being gob smacked at how small everything was. Those lawns and garden were huge as a kid.
Those push mowers are still hard! I picked one up just in case I lost my gasoline mower and have tried it a few times just for "fun."
 
I remember push along mowers. They were hard graft when you're a kid. I remember going back to the old house after being away for years and being gob smacked at how small everything was. Those lawns and garden were huge as a kid.


Yep, went back to moms house after she'd retired to a rest home to just clean it up and even though it seemed massive ot was tiny, the rooms, garden, shed all of it. Kinda heart breaking really to know it would never be the same again.

Brother and I sold it to a "hipster"couple who seem to have returned it to its former glory and put back / found a lot of its late Victorian features. Looks better now than it ever did. 🙂
 
I had a reel mower a few years ago. Neat contraptions. It worked well when I used it very frequently. They're great on short grass, but if you skip a weekend, the grass gets tall enough that the reel just lays it down rather than cutting it.
 
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