I'm not even that old yet (compared to geological formations) but I understand why the older generation is that way, I'm starting to become that way myself. They definitely are getting crankier, but for good reason. I think the younger people today are getting dumber. There's a lot of truth in all these funny replys. Things have been getting easier and easier for kids, to the point that they're almost not able to think for themselves anymore.

[start rant]
when i was a kid, there were no computers everywhere. When you went to the library and wanted a book, you looked it up in the card catalog. There was no browsing by keywords, if you didn't know the title or author, tough luck. It was all done by the Dewey decimal system. If someone else was looking at the drawer you needed, you had to wait. And if somebody was lazy enough to rip out the card rather than right down the number, you were screwed! Cuz there was no way in hell you were gonna find it now.

We didn't have remote controls growing up, when you wanted the channel surf, you stood right beside the TV changing channels. Fortunately, there were only 7 channels. There was no TIVO, Netflix, or even VHS. If you weren't around to watch your show, you didn't see it until it came back on reruns. No fast-forwarding the commercials either, you sat through them and got brainwashed. And how many kids nowadays have ever had to fiddle with rabbit ears or that damn dial around the channel changer while watching their favorite show? Sometimes you just listened to your show while watching a fuzzy white screen.

Don't even get me started on the 10 year olds with cell phones and computers. I still have my rotary phone, no such thing as push buttons back then. If you didn't have the skill to spin the dial around all the way on the first try, you had to hang up and dial the whole number again. Those phones had actual hooks too! So when you say you left the phone off the hook, it really meant something.

[end rant]

The funniest part about that first letter above is the part about video games. It's true, every video game back then ended the same way. You died. There was no end, there's no cool story or special treat for finishing. The game just got harder and harder, until you were killed. The best you could hope for was getting a high score, which you then got to brag about by putting your initials in. I don't know if that's a sign of the times, not wanting to hurt childrens egos by having them experience failure. Guess what, people are gonna fail, whether you protect them from it or not. I just can't stand some of these new laws and restrictions that are trying to isolate children from failure. It's a part of life, deal with it. this whole thing reminds me of a quote from John Wayne. "Life is tough, but it's tougher when your stupid."

Anyway, to get back to the original subject, yeah, there are a lot of cranky old people out there. But even more annoying is the arrogant young people out there who think they know it all because they read it on the internet. The interenet is full of pimply faced 16 year olds debating over which is the best car, when most of the most of them can't even drive yet and have never gotten behind the wheel. Same thing goes for just about every other subject. The net allows everyone to exchange information much easier than before, but the actual information is pretty much the same. So just because these kids are able to surf for info better than anyone else, doesn't mean they know more about it than some of these older guys. In fact, in almost every forum out there, the most prolific posters probably aren't the ones that know the most, they just spend most of their time on the computer regurgitating facts. Because the guys with the real knowledge aren't the ones sitting in front of a computer typing.

Of course they do. There is no point in living long enough to be a GOM (Grumpy Old Man) or a GOG (Grumpy Old Git) unless you can do it properly. Young people want to live to be old. Not disposed of young because someone didn't like their tone of voice. Once you become a CD (Coffin Dodger aka anyone over 50, aaahem, sorry......60.) there is nothing that they can do to you that isn't going to happen anyway.

Coffin Dodger. I saw that for the first time on the acronym list the other day. I still laugh when I read it. Ah.... the British. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I guess I qualify as old, as a kid I used to sit before a radio (TV, what was that???) half the size of Miami, with only two knobs, and listen to The Whistle and The Shadow, getting the bejeezes scared out of me. So I guess I could/should be rude, cranky and crabby, but the older I get the less I am able to stop some youngster from kicking my butt. So I try to be nice and friendly to everyone...

NO, WE DO NOT!!!!!! AND JUST WHO THE HECK ARE YOU TO ASK?!?!?!? HUH?!?!?

You young upstarts have it sooo easy today. Why, when I was a young boy, we only had ONE, yes one, McDonald's in town. And it only had ONE window at the drive up. And they didn't take any credit cards, oh no sir! Cash only. And they only had TWO sizes of fries.

And we didn't have this internet thing. We had to talk to other people FACE TO FACE, or on the telephone. None of this Forums or Chat Rooms. And we didn't have all this porn on demand. All we had was a Sears and Robuck catelog and our imagination! We had to think, son!

And phones had round dials, back in the day. None of this Space Age push-button thing. Boy, our fingers were strong back then! And when you dialed long distance, it really ment something. I think it cost my dad a month's wages just to call Baton Rouge. For five minutes.

We saw Velcro as a wonder - a sign that the New Frontier had arrived. We watched rocket launches - live - on all THREE TV channels we could get. When I was a boy, we thought the greatest cultural phenomenon that would change the age was.......... pet rocks. When I was 12, a digital calculator cost more than Doug's Ritter's car.

So cut us old-timers some slack, will 'ya? If I want to get cranky, I got reason. You will understand once you realize what your future holds - that you will be taken care of by the folowing generation, who will see you as merely rude and cranky in old age.

(wink, wink) <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

.....CLIFF
(like, who else?)

You had one MacDonalds actually in your town? We had a Carroll's, the predecessor to Burger King & it was 20 miles away. When I was in college, the computer (the school had only one) was a collection of boxes the size of refrigerators. Your computer "homework" was a stack of punched cards. In the math bldg. they had a calculator for the students use. It had a modern calculator type keyboard & display, but was attached to a processing unit the size of a loaf of bread. All it would do is regular arithmetic & sq rts. On my first job, we had to use a mechanical calculating machine that had buttons you pressed to input your data, then you turned the crank, and after much clunking, you read the answer on little metal wheels with numbers printed on them. It didn't do decimal places, so you had to figure out where the decimal point went. BTW, gas was 30 cents / gallon

Had to drive approx. 23 miles to go to McDonald's. Gas was 33 cents per gallon. Then we thought the TI digital calculator we got Dad for Christmas was really something! -- only half the size and weight of a brick and only $50. It didn't even do square roots either, but did keep a decimal point. He probably still has it. Would make a good paper weight.

I got to listen to those on the radio as reruns on public radio when I was little. Now that was talent- no wires, no visual effects department, and no hiding behind a pretty face. Pure storytelling! That's what kids these days need, to be told stories, rather than being shown a bunch of airbrushed hacks babbling lines they don't even understand.

*grumbling*

Going to your uncle's... to get a date..... Uhmmmmm....

I wouldn't admit that if I was you, Lance. *passes Lance a banjo*

NO! WE DO NOT GET CRANKY AND RUDE!!!

Now about your post...


Your said "cranky, rude". It should have been "cranky and rude". You young moron.
Now what kind of fool would say that? We're not "dam" rude, we're "damn" rude! Sheesh!

Now you got me so worked up I just piddled myself, and I'm out of Depends. Life sucks!


<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />