Kids Today

Okay, at the risk of sounding like an old fogie (too late. Does anyone still say, "Old Fogie"), kids today live a different world than I did. I know. So did our parents. Still, I think about the differences. Last night, as we got ready to drive back home from visiting relatives, I looked into the back seat and marveled. My kids have a great setup for driving.

1. Car seats with cup holders, containing a drink and a snack.
2. A fully heated backseat. (The old station wagon my parent's had heated the front seat too much and the back seat not at all).
3. A warm blanket each, to snuggle under while the car drives.
4. A DVD player, to watch a Disney movie all the way home.

I know, my parent's probably marveled as well. We, after all, did have a heater in the car, even if it didn't work for the back seat. If asked, they would probably talk about putting heated bricks on the floor to warm up the car (or horse-drawn buggy).

But there are things we had, or were able to do, that our kids never will.

1. Do you remember laying down on the back seat of the car? Nodding off watching the street lights go by? Forget car seats. We used to lay down like it was a couch.
2. How about wandering around the car while it was driving? Are any of my readers old enough to remember playing in the far back of the station wagon? Just a wide, flat floor and a pile of toys. We were mobile. We weren't strapped into anything.
3. We had highways that went through towns, instead of super-highways that travel over the towns. We stopped in every dumb road-side attraction (and I really liked them. I still like to watch the old state park films on local histories and geographic features).

And what do kids miss out on the most? Being able to complain about how worse their life was compared to modern life. But, then, every generation really can do that, can't they? Our grandparents had to carry water from the well. Our parents had to heat bath water on the stove. We were lucky to have a shower in my day. What will our kids complain about?

"In my day, we had to use water to take a shower. You kids today get clean using phasers to burn off all the germs along with the filth."

And if they have "sonic showers", I wonder if they can watch movies while showering, since there's no water. Or will they have cranial computers inside their heads where they can watch a movie any time they want? Think about it. A movie beamed directly to the pleasure center of the brain. Watch the movie inside your head.

"In my day, we had to use our eyes to watch a movie."

Waiting

Yep. That's what I'm doing. Waiting.

• Waiting for my tea to cool. Hey, tea is cool. It's Earl Grey. (Picard is still cool, isn't he)?
• Waiting to find out if my Math 201 test arrived in time to get credit, or if I've been dropped from the class.
• Waiting for Christmas. To find out if my wife likes her gifts. Actually, I did pretty good this year. I'm certain she'll like them. I'm doomed, aren't I?
• Waiting for the construction company to finish my workspace, so I can get back to my regular building.
• Waiting for the kids to fall asleep so I can go to bed. (If I go up now, they'll run around like wild savages.
• And, yeah, I'll admit it. Waiting to see what I get for Christmas.