Growing Up Without Cell Phones!(OMG!)

Hell I remember rotary dial telephones yes I said telephones not phones. Guess that makes an old fart. Lol

For the record, I DID have to walk up hill to school, both ways. Not barefoot but it sure sucked when it was raining or a blizzard.

Me too. My step father kicked and screamed when we tried to make him to to push button when his old rotary died. He was sure that the phone company would charge him extra for that fancy push button service. Laugh. It was hard to convince him that push button was now the standard and there was not an up charge for it.

Several of my friends in high school still had party lines.

We reap what we sow.

Technological advancements and them being made more affordable/ obtainable to the general public= more people using them.

Less people using email/ phone calls/ letters= texting and instant messaging becomes the easier way to get into touch with people.

Lazy parents/ parents that spoil their children/ parents who let their children sit on their bums with no motivation, chores, goals, etc breed lazy children who get what they want and don't do squat.

Seriously, where I live it's awful. I admit I love my cell phone and being able to text my friends, but its getting so bad at my school that the school board is considering cutting off the service in the building so that students can't sneak out their phones in class.

A quarter of the kids in my school drop out/ show up less that 30 days each year.

There are at least 20 pregnant girls in my school, at least another twenty are already mothers [my town ranks in the top 5 in the entire country for teen pregnancy..] Half the kids are failing. A good chunk of the students will not graduate.

Society sucks now, I fear for it in the future, but.. what can you do?

Sorry guys, I been reading about how bad the 40 year olds suffered back in the 1970s. I can't resist but to reply....

I went to school in the mid 1940s. I wore a uniform by order - little schoolboy's cap, white shirt and tie and short trousers. Every boy was dressed the same or he was sent home. It was a boys only school with no girls and no ethnic minorities. Hair was to be kept short, back and sides.
I was slippered and caned by masters for naughtiness. I was sent into detention after school for relatively minor disobediences and a 6th former could beat me with a slipper - if he so choose.
We had a paedophile for a music master with a fondness for pretty boys who could sing treble.
We learned Latin at the age of 11 and if you were in an arts stream you studied the subject for 6 years.
Failing an exam was a disgrace and the errant pupil could be held back for the following year.
Prolonged absence from school by any individual pupil was punished by expulsion from the school.
Alone I travelled 8 miles across London by bus and shank's pony to get to school and the same distance to get home.

It gives me goose pimples to think of it all - but that was just one aspect of life in post war Britain after 6 years of a war against Germany, Italy and Japan. A war which in theory we Brits, being on the same side as the USA, had won.

To make a phone call from home you walked out to the red telephone box on the corner of the street. There was no TV. Many houses did not have running hot water and many of the older properties had the only loo in a brick shed at the end of the garden. At night you took a potty upstairs along with the candle. The window of the any bedroom was opened to sleep in.
Policemen walked the beat protected by a torch and a truncheon.

Computors did not exist and a letter was typed on a manual typewriter on paper interleaved with carbon paper. Secretaries took notes in shorthand,
Which they typed up later.

I'll stop - there is no comparison of the standard of living or the way of life between the 1950s and the twenty first century. Every generation gets it better than the previous generation in the XXIst century - so long as you are
Living in a civilised country.

But a horse forum is not the ideal platform on which to discuss this subject
Although I suppose we could as an alternative write about the horses which at the time pulled the milk carts or carried the sacks of coal which in the cities were delivered to the front door.

One thing, there was no problem with Global warming - in the winter everyone wore at least 4 layers of clothing even when indoors - out in the street you wore an overcoat and a scarf and a hat.

Long distance phone calls had to be connected by a telephone company (Ma Bell) operator. A tourist or business man sailed the Atlantic; airplanes would run out of fuel. Flights over the Pacific Ocean were by flying boat.

Credit was not available to the working classes who rarely had bank accounts. Credit cards had not been devised. Banks opened at 10.0 am and closed at 3.0 pm, five days a week. Cash was king. The Bank I worked at as a clerk in 1954 had hand written ledgers.

The modern politicians like to frighten us all with predictions of financial ruin and despair but fear will keep the proletariat in order. However the thing that really frightens us old timers the most these days is the thought of a power cut. Then life as we now know it comes to an end and we are reminded of how we used to live. My own Grandmother's house was never connected to electricity and she did not die until the mid 1960s.

Don't ever let someone run on about the good old days - they weren't - unless of course you were mega rich.

Barry G

I found it very funny and very true! I am 32...

I'm 14 and don't actually own a mobile phone or want one anytime soon, and have turned down my parents offers for one, pretty much for the reasons stated above. Pretty much all my friends are facebook and text junkies and have all been begging me to get a mobile for the last 3 years, but If I did it would mean getting involved in all the drama they have about boyfriends, break ups, sex, alcohol and blah blah blah which I've managed to keep out of my own free time so far. And plus I wouldn't want to have to pay all the bills when I don't need too. This way I can also avoid random *spot checks* by my parents.
I have my own laptop and to be honest I only send emails to my friends abroad and go on msn only in the evenings and most of the time spent using the computer is something to do with horses :)

My dad is pretty much what your whole text is about, except since he was your typical boy he spend half his time throwing makeshift bombs and stinkbombs into crowds and running off and climbing up tree's and doing pretty much everything outside, so I get the *everythings changed* speach alot

This might sound incredibly snobby, which is not my intention, but since no one can see my expression over the 'net it'll have to do :)

I'm 19 and much of this irritates me. When I see some dude with his pants hanging around his knees and walking like an ape (because who ever heard of BELTS) I'm sorely tempted to either pants him or ask him what he's hiding in there. Also, yes, why the need to text while you're in a conversation?? If I'm boring you with my vocal abilities, I apologize. That must be MY mistake.

And I don't think this has been said, but...for the love of all that is good, can someone PLEASE explain to me why being a teenager equals no grasp of the concepts of correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, or language usage in general?? I can't even understand half the stuff I see on the internet because there are no punctuation marks.

*breathes* Okay, sorry, rant over :) I promise I'm not as uppity as I sound haha.

African Star Dust

Please don't change - you are lovely.

B G

PS Please explain the choice of pen-name 'African Star Dust'-

African - Ok I see you are from Sth Africa

But why: Star Dust?

And you can be 'uppity' for all your are worth.

Why, thank you :)

To be honest, I can't really remember the specifics. A while ago I went through a science phase, and I read somewhere that every form of matter is essentially made of ancient stardust. I have no idea whether or not it's true, but I liked the concept, and so "africanstardust" was born :)

You just reminded me off all the wonderful history I learned about at the Air and Space museum this weekend :) haha
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