How well do you remember life before the digital age?
Zombie: New Rules for Old Farts
Zombie never fails to entertain. Read Zombie’s article and the comments that follow, and see how many of the rules apply to you. Here are a few examples:
- If you remember when budgets were measured in billions, not trillions, you are an old fart.
- If you want to go back to measuring budgets in billions like we used to, you are really an old fart.
I remember budgets being measured in MILLIONS.
- If you played with toy guns when you were a kid, you are an old fart.
- If you remember when tech support answered without an accent, you are an old fart.
- If you remember when campus revolutionaries fought against The Man, and weren’t yet The Man themselves, you are an old fart.
- If you’d welcome a death panel at this stage, frankly, you are an old fart.
Now that last one is a temptation to the sin of despair.
How Did We Make It this Far?
This list has been making the rounds on the Internet, at least since 2002, and probably before.
How much more liberty have we lost since then?
Somehow we survived!!!
Looking back, it’s hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have…
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day.
No cell phones. Unthinkable.
We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight … we were always outside playing.
We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this?
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cellular phones, Personal Computers, internet chat rooms, … we had friends. We went outside and found them.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them.
Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
We ate penny candy, swallowed bubblegum -and our intestines did not stick together because of it.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Some students weren’t as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade … Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility,! and we learned how to deal with it all. And you’re one of them. Congratulations!
Please pass this on to others that have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good?
Not.
Evidently, I’m not merely older than some dirt, I’m older than ALL dirt!
Do you remember when school supplies consisted of the following – and nothing else?
- One plain three-ring binder (covered in rough blue cloth)
- One pack of wide-ruled filler paper
- One set of notebook divider tabs
- Two ordinary #2 pencils
- One plain rubber eraser
- For younger kids: A pack of crayons and a pot of paste
For older kids: Exactly one (1) ball point pen
Home computers did not exist – and neither did pocket calculators. Back in the day, some offices had Comptometers or other mechanical adding machines, but nobody carried them around anywhere.
No videos. Teachers occasionally showed filmstrips, or even 16mm educational films, to the class.
No whiteboards. The teacher had one slate blackboard with real chalk and a felt eraser. When it got too dusty, she’d wash it down with a bucket of water and a sponge.
No photocopiers. Tests and handout sheets were printed on a spirit duplicator or a mimeograph machine.
Nobody had rolling backpacks, or even book bags. You carried your books in a stack. Everybody walked to school.
No air-conditioning. Every room in the school building had windows that opened. Kids actually got some fresh air!
No vending machines. If you got thirsty, you drank from the water fountain.
You used paper grocery bags to make covers for your textbooks.
You sharpened your pencils at school with a hand-crank sharpener, or your dad or grandpa sharpened them for you at home with a penknife.
The typing class had manual typewriters. No white-out, no correction tape. Any erasing had to be done with a typewriter eraser. If you were using carbon paper, you had better get everything right the first time!
Mary Hopkin: Those Were The Days
Uploaded by friedlypersuasion on Dec 28, 2007
THOSE WERE THE DAYS MARY HOPKIN
Once upon a time, there was a tavern
Where we used to raise a glass or two
Remember how we laughed away the hours,
Think of all the great things we would doThose were the days, my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we’d choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our wayDi di di di di di
Di di di di di di
Di di di di di di di di di diThen, the busy years went rushing by us
We lost our starry notions on the way
If, by chance, I’d see you in the tavern,
We’d smile at one another and we’d sayThose were the days, my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we’d choose
We’d fight and never lose
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the daysDi di di di di di
Di di di di di di
Di di di di di di di di di diJust tonight, I stood before the tavern
Nothing seemed the way it used to be
In the glass, I saw a strange reflection
Was that lonely woman really me?Those were the days, my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we’d choose
We’d fight and never lose
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the daysDi di di di di di
Di di di di di di
Di di di di di di di di di di
Di di di di di di
Di di di di di di
Di di di di di di di di di diThrough the door, there came familiar laughter
I saw your face and heard you call my name
Oh, my friend, we’re older but no wiser
For in our hearts, the dreams are still the sameThose were the days, my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we’d choose
We’d fight and never lose
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the daysDi di di di di di
Di di di di di di
Di di di di di di di di di di
Di di di di di di
Di di di di di di
Di di di di di di di di di diLa la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
Wikipedia: Those Were the Days (song)
Wikipedia: Mary Hopkin
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