My Era Sucked?

Whenever I mention how something that I've recently tried is so much better now than what I remember growing up, my kids always come with the same refrain, "That's because most everything from your era sucked." My era? What am I a dinosaur? Here's just a couple of things off the top of my head that we've discussed recently as being "new and improved" since my era...

3-D movies - I refused to go see "Avatar" or "Alice in Wonderland," and have gotten annoyed at so many new movies being released in 3-D, because I hate 3-D movies which I felt were always crappy and gave me a headache. The kids have tried to explain to me, numerous times, that they no longer use the cheap cardboard one eye red - one eye blue glasses and instead have upgraded the quality to what looks like a Blues Brothers black frame plastic pair with darkened lenses. Apparently these glasses work much better and doesn't give the patron a headache. I wouldn't know since I have yet to put a pair of the new ones on. It is my understanding that admission is higher for 3-D movies as well. I won't be going with my husband to see one anytime soon as he only has one working eye so 3-D is sort of useless for him.

Yogurt - I hated yogurt growing up. It always left a nasty after-taste, and the only type you could get were the ones where you had to mix up the fruit from the bottom. There weren't many flavors either and my mother always seemed to buy the crappiest ones they had. Since my daughter re-introduced me to yogurt with flavors like amaretto cheesecake, coconut custard and cappuccino I eat at least one a day. I even like the plain Greek yogurt which I mix with a little cottage cheese, fresh fruit and almond slivers or chopped walnuts. I don't know how much of a diet food it is with that combo, but it is delicious.

Video games - I loved Pong. When I had to give up my Pong game in my first divorce I practically cried. "Take the house, not the Pong!" They don't make games like that anymore and my kids say, "Thank God!" after I bought a bootleg version which is nowhere near as cool as the original round-knobbed one. They lump Pong with Atari which I also liked, just not as much as Pong. You know what video games are popular these days and none of them appeal to me, except maybe Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but not even those anymore since my son upgraded his television. Now there's a lag so that I cannot play drums like I used to. Well, I still play the same way but it doesn't register as me hitting the notes at the right time. The kids say it's me, but I know it's the tv, which brings me to...

HDTV - I hate it. I bought a flat screen for my son for his 18th birthday. Apparently that's all you can get now - HDTVs. Well, if you don't have HDTV service the picture stinks. It looks all distorted to me no matter which of the nine settings you use. My son doesn't have a problem with it because using it for his XBOX Live or World of Warcraft from the computer, makes everything look "amazing." And since he doesn't watch "regular" tv much he could care less and thinks I'm being too critical. Since I wouldn't be using it for playing video games I pray my regular old television hangs in there a while longer.

Thermometers - I agree with them, digital rules. I grew up with the old-fashioned mercury thermometer. They don't believe me when I say whenever one of the thermometers broke I would play with the "metal ball." "That's mercury!" Hey what can I say, I had crappy and dangerous toys, including a glass cutting machine. I would take jars, or glass bottles and put it on this device which rotated the glass so a blade would cut it. Then I would take a sandpaper-like pad and file down the glass so that it had a smooth edge. My fingers would usually bleed a bit but I could drink from the new "glass" if I didn't mind getting a cut lip. Could you imagine buying such a "toy" for your child nowadays? Haha!

I guess some things from my era did suck a bit...Care to add to the list?