Kids today think they have it so tough. They have every convenience, including their cell phones... all that convince in their hand... no idea what they have right in their hands verses how things were when we grew up.
Today's cell phone generation verses what we had as kids. If you never had it growing up, you appreciate everything you now have... if it was handed to you, as kids have today, your don't appreciate what you have or how they got here.
So many advantages simply taken for granted. Not only taken for granted, but considered a necessity and a right.
As a kid, I walked 1 1/2 miles a day, roundtrip, to school and back home everyday... hot, cold, rain, snow, sunny... my grandkids think we should drive them to the end if the driveway (30 yards) to get the school bus. They think it's a hardship to have to walk that far, to the end of the driveway, and to stand there waiting for the bus.
But I digress.... 60 years ago verses electronics today. Ahhh... the smart cell phone.
The smart phone... phone, camera, calculator, clock, alarm, maps & directions, music, news, weather, calendars, and information at your beckoned call beyond that have any encyclopedia and library. Today's kids... library... What's a library?
Reflecting back on those days of yesteryear...
We went to the school library or walked / rode our bikes to the county public library. We actually had to look in the "card catalog" to located books, then find the books, then read to located the information we trying to find located in that book, then actually write down our findings on paper. TODAY... just voice ask and you will receive the world at your beckoned call. Want news... there was radio and TV news and the old favorite the newspaper... no computers back then .
Want to make a phone call... well you had to be at home and use that old rotary dial phone or find a public phone booth.... be sure to bring your dimes. Why? Because you needed 10 cents in coins to make a phone call. Don't know the number? Ya looked it up in a phone book ... at home you had a hand written personal phone directory. A yes, you actually had to dial the entire number on the phone.
Want to listen to music? Well we had the family radio in the living room, and a portable version... the transistor radio... only "am" channels ... very poor quality, no stereo. We also had the record player... find your record and listen to the single play "45" song... repeat to hear additional songs. Yep physically remove the record, and replace it with another record to hear a different song. Of course we also hard "LP" records... long play records that had 6-8 songs on each side. Side? Yes, you had to physical flip the record over to hear the other side songs.
Entertainment... yes we had televisions. Blank & white picture (no color), and generally 3-5 channels. 2 were fairly clear, others snowy. And you had to physically adjust the rabbit ear antenna to get the picture clear and physically get up to change the channel and adjust the sound (no remote controls back then). Want to know what coming on? We got the schedule of shows out of the newspaper, and later the "TV guide".
Communicate with family or friends? We had the telephone but there were no messages... You either got the fall or missed it ... try again later. Then there's the letter or post card. You got your paper & pen and physically wrote a letter on the paper (no word processors or computers back then). Put the letter into an envelope, sealed it, put a stamp on it, and physically took it to a mailbox (or the post office) to send it. Days later, they'd get the letter... and if they write back... days later you'd get their letter.
Conveniences of everyday life. Want to know what time it is? House clock or wristwatch... That's about it. Wake up alarm was the old trusty wind up alarm clock with the two bells on top... Completely mechanical, no electronics here. Forget to wind it up.. it stopped working... no alarm for you. Calendars... physical paper calendars that you wrote on and had to remember to look at to remember what was happening or appointments that needed to be kept. Calculators... nope! You did the math on your head or on paper. Businesses had big mechanical adding machines, but on a personal level, we had ourselves and later that handy little mechanical pocket physically slide contraption that would let you add subtract and multiply like magic. Then there was the camera... a box looking devise that allowed you to take personal photographs via photographic film on a roll. Photos were black & white only, and you took the "exposed" roll of film to the drug store, dropped it off, and a few days later you picked them up to see your wonderful photos. You got 8 or 12 pictures per roll. Later you got 24-36 and color photos was the latest creation. Then you stored them in a shoe box or photo album to look at later or share with friends.
Travel and places. You had your assortment of travel maps, which were usually free from a local gas station. The maps relied on your sense of direction, knowing where you were on the map, where you were going, the best route to take to get there, and your ability to stay on that route to get to where you were going. A car compass was also handy if you got turn around. You usually got turned around at some time or another... which generally necessitated to stop and ask someone for directions. Generally, mom was nagging dad to ask for directions, he resisted , knowing where he was going, we got more lost, and finally mom won, we had to stop and get directions after we had gone miles and miles the wrong way. There was no GPS or electronic maps... no distances other than estimated distant charts on the maps, and no travel times or traffic conditions, other than what you found yourself stuck in, after it was to late.
Yep... Today's kids have no concept of what we had when we were kids. No appreciation for what they have today... how easy everything is for them. Yet they complain about how hard they have it. When we played our biggest asset was our imagination. Could you imagine giving kids today a bag of marbles, or green army men, or matchbox cars, or a rubber ball... and telling them to got outside... yes... outside and play? They would think we have lost our minds.
Sometimes, now that I'm older, I truly get some of the things my grandfather said to me... comparing his childhood to mine. At least I didn't have to go outside, hand pump water from the well, and bring a bucket of water back into the house. Catch the chickens for dinner, milk the cows, grow the garden, pick the crops, and feed the livestock. Of course, fishing seemed to be more fun back then. A loaf of bread was 3 cents, and the old Model T was better then a horse and wagon. So he had it better than his grandfather too.
Perhaps someday, my grandkids will come to the same realization, and appreciate more of what they grew up with, verses how I grew up.
Kids today... They have every convenience, they just don't realize it.
