(Fwd) In my day

[Guest guest]

>From a Washington Post Report from Week 228, in which readers were

asked to tell Gen-Xers how much harder they had it in the old days:

Second Runner-Up:

In my day, we couldn't afford shoes, so we went barefoot. In the

winter we had to wrap our feet with barbed wire for traction.

(Bill Flavin, andria)

First Runner-Up:

In my day we didn't have MTV or in-line skates, or any of

that stuff. No, it was 45s and regular old metal-wheeled roller

skates, and the 45s always skipped, so to get them to play right

you'd

weigh

the needle down with something like quarters, which we never had

because our allowances were too small, so we'd use our skate keys

instead and end up forgetting they were taped to the record player

arm

so that

we couldn't adjust our skates, which didn't really matter because

those

crummy metal wheels would kill you if you hit a pebble anyway, and in

those

days roads had real pebbles on them, not like today.

( Beland, Springfield)

And the winner of the velour bicentennial poster:

In my day, we didn't have no rocks. We had to go down to the creek

and wash our clothes by beating them with our heads.

(Barry Blyveis, Columbia)

Honorable Mentions:

In my day, we didn't have dogs or cats. All I had was Silver Beauty,

my

beloved paper clip.

( Hart, Arlington)

In my day, attitudes were different. For example, women didn't like

sex. At least that is what they told me.

(Tom Witte, Gaithersburg)

When I was your age, we didn't have fake doggie-do. We only had

real doggie-do, and no one thought it was a damn bit funny.

(n Bassett, Columbia)

Back in the 1970s we didn't have the space shuttle to get all

excited about. We had to settle for men walking on the crummy moon.

( Beland, Springfield)

In my day, we didn't have days. There was only time for work, time

for prayer and time for sleep. The sheriff would go around and tell

everyone when to change.

(Elden Carnahan, Laurel)

In my day, people could only dream of hitchhiking a ride on a

comet.

( Ronka, Charlottesville)

In my day, we didn't have fancy health-food restaurants. Every day

we ate lots of easily recognizable animal parts, along with potatoes

drenched in melted fat from those animals. And we're all as strong

as. . .

AAGGKK-GAAK Urrgh. Thud.

(Tom Witte, Gaithersburg)

In my day, we didn't have hand-held calculators. We had to do

addition on our fingers. To subtract, we had to have some fingers

amputated.

(Jon , Washington)

In my day, we didn't get that disembodied, slightly ticked-off

voice saying " Doors closing. " We got on the train, the doors

closed, and

if your hand was sticking out it scraped along the tunnel all the

damn

way to the Silver Spring station and it was a bloody stump at the

end. But

the base fare was only a dollar.

( Beland, Springfield)

In my day, we didn't have water. We had to smash together our own

hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

( Hugue, Bowie)

In my day, we didn't have Strom Thurmond. Oh, wait. Yes we did.

(Peg Sheeran, Vienna)

Kids today think the world revolves around them. In my day, the

sun revolved around the world, and the world was perched on the back

of

a giant tortoise.

( , Garrett Park)

In my day, we wore our pants up around our armpits. Monstrous

wedgies, but we looked snappy.

(Bruce , Washington)

Back in my day, '60 Minutes' wasn't just a bunch of gray-haired

liberal 80-year-old guys. It was a bunch of gray-haired liberal

60-year-

old

guys.

( Beland, Springfield, & Jerry Pannullo, Kensington)

In my day, we didn't have virtual reality. If a one-eyed razorback

barbarian warrior was chasing you with an ax, you just had to hope

you could outrun him.

( M. Wolford, Hanover)

Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company

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