Pirate Land and other such fun

We had so much fun at Colin's 6th birthday party. We had it at the Pirate Playground on Folly Beach. What a great playground! And best of all, mom (yes, Page, not me) really got into the Pirate Persona! We had pirate bandanas for all the kids - and of course, eyepatches. Didn't do the hooks or swords - after all, these are mostly six year old boys. Of course, if we poked someone's eye out, we did have the patch to cover up.....

Colin doesn't quite look like the intimidating pirate, in his Piggly Wiggly shirt, does he?

And Colin did have a field trip to Magnolia Plantation. Of course it rained..... And we got stuck on the bus on the way home. Not because anything happened to our bus, of course. The OTHER bus hit a tree in the Magnolia driveway and none of us could go. After half an hour, I suggested that maybe we let the kids off the bus. They were getting stir crazy. I was shot down. Another 15 minutes go by and I make the suggestion again. Sure enough, by this time the teachers had had enough. We got off the bus. Luckily, we were right in front of their playground. We got to play for about another half an hour before they would let us leave. As for the other bus? Those poor kids had to stay on the bus. Yep, about 40 kindergarteners on the bus for an hour plus. For a bus that hit a tree but only had a SMALL SCRAPE on the side of the bus. Mmm hmmm, and we wonder why our public education system is in shambles. Sigh.

Over 30 - and life was HARD

Okay – this was sent to me this morning, and I did have to laugh. One of my friends has just turned 30 (and yes, you know who you are) and had ruminations on her life. I do so remember sitting in my room, with my FATHER’S boom box (was he really cool enough to have one of those?) and waiting to hit the record button on the tape player part – and true, the DJs ALWAYS talked over the beginning of a song or the end of it. Of course, we DID get a microwave when I was in high school, but my parents waited until I was in college to get cable, so I actually only had FOUR television stations to choose from – and yes, one was PBS, so that doesn’t really count. And I remember in 1984 my dad got my mom a cordless phone for Valentines Day. That was, in my eyes, the best present ever because I got to benefit from it. And the call waiting – that’s a biggie. My dad was a doctor who would be on call. On days he was on call, we were not allowed to have conversations on the telephone in case the hospital called. So yeah, I think that is the equivalent of walking in the snow, uphill both ways, to school. Enjoy!

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!

If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways and sometimes, in the snow! yadda, yadda, yadda!! And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!! (The Dewey Decimal system still gives me the shivers……)

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter ...with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! Today the kids can't even write legibly. (And yes, I promise that I will write my ONE FRIEND who corresponds via snail mail a letter today. Yes, that is you, Donna!)

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ usually talked over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like 'Call Waiting'! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, your dad, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders','Pong' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide, that used to cost $0.15, to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards! (But I swear, the cartoons in the 70’s were MUCH better than those today. And today, kids won’t ever learn what a conjunction is. Or the Preamble to the Constitution. Because they don’t have schoolhouse rock. Poor things.)

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a freaking fire... imagine that! If w e wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot!!.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1970!

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

I was looking at my kabillions of photos that I have on the computer (and thinking, I really need to organize them better - but then thinking that my dad has a kabillion plus one photos and they are all titled by a number - no description or NOTHING and felt much better. At his expense, but still.......)!

Anyhow, I found this video of the boys when they were young - sitting on the steps and eating lollipops. Made me smile. They STILL get great delight from lollipops and eating things that turn their tongues different colors. Ah, the simple things in life. I can't think of a single thing that I eat that makes me "happy." I eat lots of things that I like, but usually I think, "Oh, I shouldn't be eating this......!" I must remember to act more like a child. Yes, there are those of you out there who will roll their eyes at that statement and think, "She already acts like a 12 year old!" So, that's my goal for today - find delight in the small things. And maybe eat a lollipop this weekend.

Time to join the tech crowd

Hi All. Thought it was about time to start our own blog. This way you can keep up with what we're doing, and I won't have to send out a million e-mails with photos attached.

Anyhow, hope you enjoy! Please bookmark this page and come back to visit often. It's my promise to you to try and keep it current. I have one blog that I visit (a former cadet and his wife....they've been married almost seven years. makes me feel old.....) and she updates hers almost daily. Sigh. Don't hope for that - you will be disappointed. But often, I promise.