In response to all the wonderful posts from folks to the news story about the "abused" kids who had to walk a mile and a half to the school. Who can come up with the best "when I was your age" story? How bad was your childhood? How much tougher were kids in your day?

My personal favorite: "When I was a kid we had to walk 30 miles to school, barefoot. When it snowed we wrapped barbwire around our feet for traction!"

"Uphill both ways!"

When I was your age we only had one pair of shoes. We only wore them on sundays.
Thats why my feet are tough as steel.
I can chop down a tree with my toe nails and a few quick kicks!


this is true story from my father

Well I didn't want the story to sound contrived...

we didn't have computers or video games. we played outside with sticks and dirt.

Well, my dad truthfully rode on a buggy from the farm to the nearest place the schoolbus could go.

He would often tell us that he only had one pair of shoes to share with his brother, so on that long walk that was uphill both ways he'd wear the left shoe on the way to school and the right shoe on the way home, when it was so cold that the mercury had frozen.

I always knew to call BS on him, there's no way his mom, my darling grandma, would let anybody outside without being bundled up when it is so cold the mercury freezes.

You had barbwire? You were lucky.

We had to tie rabid ferrets to our feet and pray that their teeth were strong enough to break the ice and give us traction.

I'll never forget the day little Timmy didn't make it to school. Blasted ferret bit down too hard and broke a huge hole in the ice and we never saw poor Timmy again. When we got to school, the teachers asked us why Timmy never showed up and we had to tell them he weaseled out.

Well, my childhood was actually better than my kids'.
We had a good community in school,
from 5th grade on we had dance parties every month, some of them was somewhat formal, but most of them wasn't. Good strong social life.
Starting at 5th grade we had every year one day longer field trips payed mostly by the school. The last year it was 8 workdays. + the two weekends made it a very nice vacation during the spring semester.
Rented bus, payed motels, the stops organized by us, the only thing the school requested to take 2 teachers with us.
With all these I had a far better education too. sure it was more intense, more work, more aggravation, more sadistic nerve crunching performance checks during regular school days, but there were the perks too, and the teachers went far more out of their way to help us cope with the workload.

I grew up in Fruitvale, a very tough town. I definitely walked over a mile to get to school (it took 30-40 minutes and apparently humans walk at about 3 miles per hour). My best friend and close neighbor had it really tough though, he had the WORST paper route in the world. It took him an hour and a half and he only delivered like 14 papers, at one point he had to basically scale a mountain to deliver one paper at the top.

I also remember once, when I first moved to Fruitvale, I was walking with some friends and all of a sudden this truck full of older kids pulls up beside us and all I hear is "get the gun". Well we all ran in different directions but they came out of the back of the truck on bmxs and chased us down with paintball guns.

ahh small towns, at least when I got older I was the one that got to do the chasing :)

I was just relating to my husband that for a lot of my childhood, my siblings and I rode (unrestrained in any way) in the back of a pickup truck to and from town, on 55mph highways. My dad put a cap on the truck so we couldn't be seen, and so he wouldn't get pulled over.
I thought it was fun. We put a couple sleeping bags down so it was soft, and the three of us would just sack out and play cards.
Now that I'm an adult, and have a kid of my own, I kind of think he was a douche.

When I was under 5 or 6, he also used to take me for rides (no helmet, of course) on the back of his motorcycle, with only the advice "Hold on tight- and don't let your leg touch the tailpipe!".

Chuck Norris?

Wait...

that would only take one kick.

when I was your age.. MTV played music videos 24/7.

I definitely remember almost falling off the back of my Dad's dirtbike when I was about 8. That puppy could get up and go.

I was not a wimpy kid, and he scared me s**tless.

When I was your age ...we play outside we don't even know "Super Mario" until I'm in high school. Life is much easier then than now.Imagine you could buy lots of candies with 1 piso and you still have change.... Those were the times... great times....

When I was your age Pluto was a planet and television programs were much better.

"When I was your age..."
...is right about where my kids start rolling their eyes, "Here he goes again!"
MTV was The Ed Sullivan Show.
JOLT, Rockstar and Monster energy drinks were solid and called Sugar Puffs, Sugar Smacks and Sugar Pops.
When things broke, you didn't go buy a new one. You fixed it with purloined and scavanged parts. Thus, your bicycle was an amalgamation of four or five different bikes.
Your first car had an oil cooler made from old refrigerator parts and had three different brands of tires.
Kids did not drive $25k vehicles.

...gazing in wonderment at the McDonalds sign that proclaimed "Over 2 million sold!".

When I was your age...there was no such thing as a flat screen tv.

Or the internet.

or..iPhone.

That's about as far back as I can go :D

Barbie had big huge knockers and didn't have molded-on panties.

And I had a trampoline that didn't have that stupid idiot guard around the sides. The only thing to keep me from falling off was Dad's threat that if I did something dumb and broke a bone, he'd kick my ass into next Christmas.

Depends.

How old are you?

Assuming you're 18:

I could fill up the tank of my VW for $5.

Rent for a 1 BR apartment in a nice neighborhood was around $225/month, even my place on the beach at Willoughby Spit.

All soda came in glass bottles, and usually came from a chest refrigerator.

My parents didn't think twice about letting me walk 5 or more miles to and from school any day it wasn't raining. I wouldn't have dreamt of letting our daughter do that. But, they enforced a 11 PM curfew.

There was no such thing as thong underwear, and no Victoria's Secret.

Abortion had just become legal.