Are We Getting Old?

In honor of my husband's 39th birthday which is tomorrow... I thought I would share my thoughts on getting older.

Lately when I have been traveling, I notice young people on the plane or in the airport.  When I see them I think to myself, this person is too young to be traveling alone... and shouldn't they be in school or something. The problem is, they are NOT too young to be traveling alone.  I usually find out by striking up a conversation with them they are in college or recently graduated. Which means they are the age I was when I got married. What does that say about how old they must think I look?... not to mention the fact they call me "Mam". I'm all about manners, but... you know... it does make you feel old sometimes.

And... this really pushed me over the edge. My step sister is in college.  She is in a sorority. Tonight they are having an 80's mixer. That means they think my generation is so old they can dress up like we did for 70's mixers and poke fun at our clothes, hair and makeup. Hey... I still like big hair and I still have some clothes from the 80's, I just can't fit in them anymore. 

Then I received this email from a friend a while back.

"The Spoiled Under 30 Crowd

As a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning... uphill BOTH ways, in the snow... yadda, yadda, yadda.

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of junk like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that...

I am over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a dang Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1. When I was a kid, we didn't have the internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the dang library and look it up ourselves... in the card catalog!! (Do you even know what a card catalog is? Didn't think so!)

2. There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter...with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

3. There were no MP3's or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the dang record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!

4. We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the p hone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

5. And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!! You had to pick it up and take your chances mister!

6. We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like Space Invaders and Asteroids and the graphics were horrible. Your guys was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

7. When you went to the movie theater, there was no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat or big hair sat in front of you and your couldn't see that was your tough luck!

8. Sure, we had cable television, but back then it was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!

And there was no Cartoon Network or Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. Do you hear what I am saying?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons!

9. And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove or go build a fire... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing or a pan with HOT oil and Real popcorn kernels and shake it all over the stove forever like an idiot.

10. When we were on the phone with our friends and our parents walked in, we were stuck to the wall with a cord, a 7 foot cord that ran to the phone - not to the phone base, the actual phone. We barely had enough length to sit on the floor and still be able to twirl the phone cord in our fingers. If you suddenly had to go to the bathroom - guess what we had to do - ha ng up and talk to them later.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy! You're spoiled!!

You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!"

Now I pose the question to you guys... Are we getting old?

I would love to have your comments on other funny things that make today different from the 80's.

Oh...  And Happy Birthday Sweetie!!! I love you!!