Today I am feeling old. As I was listening to my fave radio morning show, they had Vanilla Ice in the studio. They were talking about old times and that got me thinking and feeling old.
There are so many things that kids have these days that we could never have thought would be possible.
I was 14 years old before I ever used a microwave and it was the neighbors microwave that I would use until my parents were able to get one. It was the greatest thing to be able to cook frozen burritos in only 3 minutes instead of 30 minutes in the regular oven.
In Jr High, we did not take a computer or keyboarding class, we took typing class and used actual typewriters. We had to use white out when we made mistakes, yup, there was no backspace button to clean up our mistakes.
The very first video recorder (VCR) that we had was SO COOL, we could not believe that we could actually record and replay a show off of the TV. The first thing my parents ever recorded was the Micheal Jackson video - Thriller.
The first remote control device we had was with the newest and best VCR on the market. We did not have to get off the couch to hit the play or rewind button, but it did have a 50 foot cord that attached from the remote to the VCR.
Our first computer, well we all know how old and slow those were. It was many years before we got one that could play any type of video and we were so amazed by it that we did not think computers could ever get better.
Music and Movies are another big thing. We had cassette and VHS tapes. When CD's and DVD's came out I did not want to switch over because I did not think they would stick around long enough. But, they became about the only format for music and movies. By the time I started getting CD's to replace my cassette tapes, the MP3 thing became popular. I have given up on trying to keep up with all that.
Our first video game system was an Atari 360 and the games were so basic that the characters looked like blocks, but it was amazing at the time. I never could imagine that we would have things like the Nintendo DS and Wii.
Cell phones were not even in our wildest imaginations. We had heard of car phones and that was only for the most elite of the elite. Now kids who are barely old enough to talk have cell phones. And on that subject, text messaging, I still don't know how that works.
Oh and we can not forget about Satellite TV. My dad was looking at one when I was a teen, the dish would have taken up the entire back yard and it cost almost as much as a car. Now we have a tiny dish that is so small it attaches to a house and is free with service.
We are all spoiled these days. I think it would do the world some good if we all went back to horse and buggy.
