Kids these days. They have no concept of…

1. Staying home sick from school and watching stupid game shows because I felt too bad to get up and change the channel.

2. Crushing on Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island.

3. Trying to get home quickly from Sunday-night church so we could watch Diff’rent Strokes. (These days, I have no idea what time any shows begin. TV is on our schedule…not the networks’.)

4. Being upset when you missed a show, because that meant you wouldn’t see it until reruns came on in the summer.

5. Riding in the rumble seat of our station wagon.

6. Riding in the back of our station wagon with the rumble seat down…and sliding all over the slick surface with each turn.

7. (Related to the two above.) Not wearing seat belts on car rides.

8. Getting our family’s first personal computer: an IBM PC Jr.

9. Learning how to use a computer mouse.

10. The magic of typewriter correction ribbon.

11. Playing soccer against my brother in the front yard while both of us hummed the “Bring out your best!” Budweiser Light jingle to inspire our athletic intensity.

12. Being annoyed because our home phone number had both a 0 and a 9 in it, which you couldn’t dial fast on rotary phones because you had to wait while it spun all the way around.

13. Having a home phone number.

14. Collect-calling home after basketball practice from a pay phone at school so my mom would know to come get me. She wouldn’t accept the call. but she knew it meant practice was over.

15. Cassette singles. And cassettes for that matter. And rewinding cassettes with a pencil. And flipping them over when the side ended.

16. Leaping from the high-dive at the public pool. Stupid insurance regulators.

17. Road trips without movies and videos to watch along the way.

18. Big fold-out paper maps spread over the car’s dashboard.

19. Very Special Episodes of your favorite TV shows.

20. Fun with Polaroid cameras.

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Those are 20 things from my childhood list. What are yours?