Uphill both ways!
I am turning into my father. I now understand his impatience with clueless spoiled kids.
My two daughters were snuggled under the covers this morning on the sofabed watching a DVD of cartoons. The same cartoons I watched when I was a kid. One kid starts to complain that she didn’t want to watch this cartoon, and her remote control doesn’t work. Mind you, this was only her remote control. Her sister, less than three feet away, had another just like it.
“You know, when I was a kid, we didn’t have DVDs, or VCRs even.”
You didn’t watch any cartoons? they asked.
“Yes, we did, we watched these same cartoons. Those are about 70 years old. But we watched them on broadcast TV. We couldn’t pick which one we watched. The TV station played them, and we watched.”
So you didn’t have a remote control? You couldn’t switch them?
“No, we didn’t have any remote control! We got up and walked to the TV set* and changed the channel! We only had two channels, so you had a choice of whatever one was showing, or the other. When the weather was good.”
You couldn’t pick out which cartoon you wanted?
“Duh, haven’t you been listening to me? No. And you could only watch cartoons right after school. Or on Saturday morning. Thats all.”
Wow! Did they have fireplaces back then?
I had to laugh. “I’m not that old! But no, my family didn’t have one. We just had to freeze to death.”
Was I like that when I was a kid? Did I take our two TV channels and phonograph for granted? I would ask my mother, but I know what she’d say....
“Oh I don’t remember, that was so long ago!”
Thanks, Mom.
*Uphill both ways.
posted by Miss Cellania at 3:13 PM
4 Comments:
this is a big topic for conversation around here, as my 4-year-old has become very acquisitive. She wants everything. Now.
I know it's mostly my fault for simply buying her too much, but I also realize that there is so much more to be bought. We went to the grocery store as kids, the worst thing was candy, and my mom just said no and tht was that. Now there are books, toys, games, candy, and every other thing in the world at the store.
She will never understand growing up without everything she takes for granted, just like your kids. It's unfathomble.
Take away the remotes. Make them walk to the tv (which was black and white when I was a kid, even though I am still a veritable child myself). And perhaps a few days without scene seletion. Like in the poineer days.
Heh, heh.
Moms, gotta love 'em...
I remember we got our first color TV when I was eight years old, I remeber watching Bat Man, and his car was PURPLE, I thought I was going to pass out, I was so excited.
We had four stations, and they all sucked, some things never change. Heh, heh.
Batman's car was purple? I recall The Wizard of Oz aired once a year, and all the schoolkids would be talking about it the next day, and how wondrous it was when the color came on. I felt something was wrong, because our color never came on. And I was an adult before I got the "horse of a different color" joke.
We had 4 stations as well. I can remember racing home from school to watch Scooby Doo.(Scooby still makes me smile.) Saturday mornings were the best!
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