My Generation

My generation is the greatest of them all. That’s what every person has been saying about their own generation for as long as time itself. Recently when I went on a school field trip with my youngest son I was able to really see the difference between both our generations. The luxury’s he takes for granted now was unknown technology when I was his age. I once suggested to my two boys that they should live one day with the technology I use to have. They fled to their mother almost in tears saying I was torturing them. Eventually she stopped laughing.

A long time ago before Wal-Mart and Target invaded America there was a small department chain called Maxway. It was clothing, arcade center, toys, electronics, food, auto and more; a mini version of what Wal-Mart is today. My mother was the assistant manager at one of these stores in Zebulon, North Carolina. And I was spoiled by nearly all the new technologies that were coming out during the 70’s and 80’s.

I got to play all the new arcade games for free when my mother closed up the store at nights. She would open the panel door so I could keep playing. When they did night time inventory, she would let me stay overnight in the store so I could play all the arcade games. I held all the top ten spots on all the machines. When the Atari game system came out she would bring it home at nights so I could play it then take it back to work with her the next day.

They used to rent out the VCR player when it first came out, as well as the movies to watch; a precursor to Blockbuster Videos. You had to pay a $100 deposit that was given back to you when you returned the VCR unit but not for me. The best part was that a lot of the movies that were coming out on VHS tapes during this time were B rated movies with lots of nudity and violence. And I got to watch every one of those movies for years without having to pay.

But time moves on as the place now sits empty. The store was split into two different shops as one is a Dollar General Store and the other one still sits empty right next to a Piggly Wiggly store. But at one time, this place was the busiest store for miles with the latest tech toys and games. I bought the very first water proof Walkman cassette player. I got first pick of all the new Transformers, GI Joe and Voltron toys before they went to the shelf. I had the best childhood ever.

Now my kids have a gaming system that does things that was considered science fiction when I was there age. My wife’s MP3 player is smaller than my thumb. My computer talks to my TV and cell phone more than I do. My satellite receiver can copy over 100 hours of programs with a trigabit of extra storage space of over hundreds of channels for me to choose from. Cellphones working like mini computers that can turn cars on or off as it orders pizza for you. So many different forms of technology to make everyone live a more joy-filled life.

I know my son loves being a kid, taking for granted things that weren’t even invented when I was his age. He feels like he’s in heaven but I still feel like I had the greatest childhood. Because with all the technologies that I grew up with, the biggest joy I had was getting out of the house and exploring the woods behind my house on foot or on my bike. Something I feel many kids nowadays lacks.