When I was a Kid...

I was looking through Father's day cards and found a silly one that talked about the "olden" days. Something about walking to school uphill both ways. It made me think about how much things have changed when I was a kid, and what I'm going to someday be telling my kids...

When I was a kid, we rode the bus to school, without an ipod.

We had to stay outside the entire time at recess, regardless of rain, snow, hail or sleet.

If baseball practice was canceled, we had to sit at the park and wait until it would have been over anyway, and Mom came to get us. Because Cell phones didn't exist.

When we went to the mall we had to be waiting on the curb at exactly the time we told our ride we would be there, otherwise our parents would call the police to report a missing child.

Pagers were the cool accessory in High school, don't ask me why.

We wrote reports and papers the old fashioned way, using the library and books. We actually had an assignment to use Google, and learn how to use the internet. I thought it was ridiculous, when it was so easy to walk over and use the card catalogue.

When I was a kid we had card catalogues.

When I was a kid we waited all week for the Saturday morning Cartoon binge, because cartoons were worth watching. Sometimes we were so TV starved we would watch the infomercials afterwards.

When I was a kid Remote controls didn't exist, or at least for our TV. If you wanted to change the channel you had to stand up, walk over and turn the nob, clicking through the static channels until you hit one of the 4 that came through clear. Same with the volume.

When I was a kid we bought cassette tapes and played them on boom-boxes.

We were fascinated with the new Laserdisc technology, and watched educational films in school on those giant CD's.

Phones were attached to the wall by 10 foot coil cords, and 3 way calling was the big thing.

That is, before caller ID came along and therefore the end of prank calls.

I don't ever remember sitting in a car seat, or a booster seat. I only vaguely remember my younger brother (10 years my junior) riding in one as an infant.

I remember visiting the NOVA site on the internet and playing the most pixely terribly animated games in the world, but it was amazing.

When I was a kid, if you wanted to hear a song, you had to call the radio station and request it, or if you wanted to know the name of a song, you had a call the radio station, sing a line or two and hope they could tell you.

In high school if you put $2 in the gas tank on the way to school it would actually get you somewhere.

Crazy how things change.