Latest / Feedbag with Nat Lauzon / Episode 22: Things Gen X Did That Kids Today Will NEVER Understand
Transcript
- nat: what Kids today will never understand about Gen X. making a mixtape from the radio. yeah. All the time. remembering your friend's phone number. You're talking, it's like beep beep in your ear and you're like, I'm on the phone the video store Friday night ritual. in the back behind the beads behind the beaded curtain. yeah there were that section. I don't know what that was in there. I never went in there in my life. Actually I never did, did you though? I've been beyond the beads. McDonald's birthday parties. Do they still have the ball pits? ball pits are for when you want to go to McDonald's and leave with Pink Eye. Welcome to Feedbag. I'm Nat and this is Rupert. Hello. what we're talking about today is what kids today will never experience Okay. Ready? Yep. Calling someone's house and asking if your friend is home. Right. Having to get through the the gatekeeper parents or whoever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and you always had to like kind of make niceties with someone else before you could talk to the person you wanted to actually speak to. Yes hello, Miss Mr. Higgins. Is Craig there? There's something that's probably not on your list that I'm gonna bring up. Yeah. Ringing a doorbell. My kids never ring anybody's doorbell. But doorbells still exist. They still exist, but they're like, what do you call that? Grandfathered In or whatever? Because whenever somebody rings the doorbell now, you're like, who the fuck is that? Like you get offended. You get mad. You look on your doorbell cam They don't Ever ring the bell. They just say I'm here. They just say I'm here. Maybe that's why the all the young Amazon drivers never ring my freaking bell and they just leave the shit on the door and I find it like two days later. What Yeah, I wish they would always ring the bell. Yeah, I wish they would always ring the bell. When was the last time you rang somebody's doorbell? Well I'm just not going to people's houses. Okay. watching whatever was on T V because there was no streaming. my god, yes. And no pause button. Right. So it's like you gotta go pee during the commercials or Yeah. Get a snack during the commercials or you just miss it. Too too bad. Yeah. Like appointment television. Appointment television was even a thing like God, I can't even it feels like not even that long ago, but I know that it was. I just remember having conversations at work being like, did you see Breaking Bad last night or did you see you know, and you talk about it. But I guess it was a long time ago. Well, there's still kind of semi appointment TV. Yeah, now they do that. The dribs and drabs of an episode where they're trying keep like I'm watching Reacher season four right now, and I'm like, and I gotta wait a week for an episode and I'm like, Fark. Yeah. And but it reminds me of how it used to be, and our kids won't know that. You had to wait. Yeah and the to be continued was the biggest scam. And you'd know it was coming before like you ever watch a show and it's like They're not gonna wrap this up. yeah, I There's only two minutes left. Wait a second. You can feel that it's not done. And then that it would come up and you get really mad. I get mad with it to be continued. Yeah, I gotta wait a whole week. Kids today will never understand V C Rs. and they don't even need P VRs anymore, do they? Do you know I've never used a P VR? You either, right? I've never used a P V R in my life. We've never used a P V R. Woo And we never will. We never will, 'cause we don't know how. Frankly, and now it's outdated technology. It's outdated. And you ever have well, I guess as part of the VCRs, sometimes it would screw up and it would cut off. Yeah. you record the wrong channel? Yep. And do you remember you couldn't record one channel while you're watching another? No, you can't. Like you're you're recording something and you leave and then your mom's like, what's on TV? And then you just see it whatever she turned it to and you're like what but the wait if you were fancy, you could push pause to get rid of the commercials and then what is you were there. that's fancy. but I had a feature on my V CR when it where you could fast forward the cup the it was a one button fast forward and it was thirty seconds long. that's so you'd go boop, boop, boop, and if there were four ads, you press it four times and then you're perfect. You're done. That was fantastic. That is good. It was. kids today would not understand the video store Friday night ritual. My w my kids would. They would I used to take them, yeah. For reference, give the ages of your kids. Well, my youngest is twenty one. But all three of my kids would remember twenty eight, twenty four, twenty one. They'd all remember going to like it was Videotron was our local video store. They'd remember that. And they probably have some good memories of that because it's like a weird ritual, right? It's an exciting thing to do. It is. Or supremely frustrating. I would get frustrated because it could I never got frustrated. Do ever go with like your boyfriend at the time? Yeah, we went all the time. And would you argue about what to get? No. well that's Or you'd get like multiple. I never thought about movies because it's always like we wanted the same one or we'd see one that was there and it was always like exciting. remember there was a little round sticker with like velcro and it'd be like this is in or this is not in? Yes, at some of the video stores. And some of it would be gone. They'd be gone. You'd be like, no. yeah. And then sometimes they'd have like it would be the box and the real box was behind. It would be the fake box in front or the commercial box but then yeah and you'd and you'd grab the Yeah, it was fun. Grab from behind and And then in the back behind the beads behind the beaded curtain. yeah there were that section. I don't know what that was in there. I never went in there in my life. Actually I never did, did you though? Is the fifth of does the Fifth Amendment exist in Canada? Podcasts are international water, so so I can't be tried for these crimes? No, you can't. Yeah, I've been I've been beyond the beads. Beyond the beaded curtain. What is beyond the beaded curtain? See, I never went beyond the beaded curtain and now I'll never know. What do you mean you'll never know? I could tell you what's beyond the beaded curtain. Yeah, but now I'll never experience it for myself. No, but there's so much shame. You don't want to experience that. Yeah, but are beaded curtains Just in like sex shops or are were they at like Blockbuster or other video rentals? They I think there had to be some form of door so people couldn't see in, kids couldn't see in. It must have been some kind of law. but it was always in a separate room. Yeah. And there's always a one way in. Yeah. And a lot of them had the saloon swinging doors. So it would make a noise when you came out. So you could really like make an entrance or exit. Yeah. Hey everybody, I was looking at porn. yeah, I've been beyond the beats, but not a good place to be. Is there a separate cashier be on beyond the meeting? No. So you have to like get your It's it was Skinflick. But do you get a skin flick plus a normal one so you could hide it? No, because they're not gonna fall for that shit. They know what you're doing. No, they're like, We know why you're here. We know you're renting you're not really watching. You're not here for finding Nemo. You're not good finding Nemo. Yeah. Yeah, those were the horrible old days of where regardless of the shame you could you'd still do it. And it always be a woman working at the cash whenever I would do it too. sometimes and I don't care anymore, but like back in the day I would feel a little bit of like if I had to buy something some personal item at the pharmacy. Canoid cream. Hemorrhoid cream. And then it's like, I feel like I need to also buy chocolate bar and some cleaning spray. You weren't fooling anyone. I know. It's like I'm not hiding it. I'm not hiding the canestin. No, but you were like That's really why you were there. That's really why I was there. But I bought some. And that's why I was beyond the beads. That's really why I was there. making a mixtape from the radio. yeah. All the time. From the radio, yes. And from my experience when I was a kid on CHOM there was one hour of heavy metal Claude Rajotte had a thing called the Metal File. And it was one hour, and I think it was Saturday nights at ten or something like that. And I'd be there with my tape deck ready because it'd be bands I'd never you could never hear of. And this is what my kids don't get. Yeah, that that's where you heard new music. You heard new music f I've discovered U2 on the radio. I would have never known they existed. all the stuff that you find on the radio. Yep. And yeah, it's unfortunate that kids don't have that now because everything is instantly available. Yeah. It's not the same. No like hunting for it anymore, no seeking out no like specialty programming. There's no shared experience of like Did you hear that? You get the album, I got the album, my god, and you listen to it and your friends come over and you listen to the album and Yeah. When I got a new album, I'd always take out the liner notes because I always wanted to know every single I wanted to know all the words. So I would like read along with the song. That's how I experienced an album with like reading the liner notes as the album played. yeah. I'd read who produced it, who mixed it. And it's I didn't know what those people did. Yeah. But it was like, it was mixed. It was mastered by Andy Simmons of RCA Engineering. I'm like, whatever that means. Good job. Yeah. Yeah. I used to love the I'd read all of them, all the credits. Read them all. I sort of come at that with a different perspective because I was a radio DJ for thirty six years. Maybe I will be again, but I've done that for thirty six years. And so I've seen like a big change 'cause I started in like eighty nine, ninety, because back in the day people listened to the radio and that's how they consumed new music. Yep. And they also taped from the radio. As late as Like two thousand one, two thousand two, yeah, people were t yeah, 'cause they would call me. Yeah. And they would say, Can you please not talk over the end of that song or the beginning of that song? I wanna record it. Yeah. And so a time or two I remember saying, I would be like, So and so wrote or so and so called and they really want to hear the song without me talking over it. So I'm gonna start it right now without that in three, two, one, and I would do it for now. that's awesome. I would do it. But not at the end, because if a song fades out, it just sounds shitty. Right. Like on the r if you can't if you gotta talk over it. Yeah, fade outs are we were just talking about this yesterday. We were we're talking about it's not fade out the ultimate cop out. It's a bit wussy to fade out a song, but whatever. Anyway, so taping songs off the radio is not something your kids will ever do. They're not gonna tape anything. Yeah. Well they have voice everything's digital. They're even listening to the radio. No, they don't. Even satellite radio they barely listen to. My son, the first thing he does when he gets in the car is he connects to Bluetooth and starts playing his music. Yeah. It's the first thing he does. things that kids today will never understand is remembering your friend's phone number. Right. And calling them by memory. So Do you remember Lori's phone number when you were? Yeah, two three five five one five five. Okay. What was your phone number? Mine was two three five five nine three three. Okay. And this is mine, I don't know how old you are, but we didn't used to have to do the area code. Like the whole five one four four five didn't do any of that shit. Yeah. And it was just the number six three two two two two six five. yeah, but when 'cause I grew up in South Porcupine, super small town in northeastern Ontario, and when when I was born, we had to we were just four numbers. Like my number would have been five nine three three, like an extension. Just four numbers. Four numbers. And then they added two three five and we were all like whoa was everybody two three five? 235 in South Porcupine, yeah. You had little you had a little phone book. My mom had that old phone book. There's some comedian, like I had you ever have did you have the rotary phones, or do you remember you had boobooks? We had rotary phones. You remember having that? Yeah. Okay. And there's some comedian, I can't remember who it was, but it's Probably a comedian I like because I've seen it more than once, where he said that you'd hate your friends if they had a zero because it would take forever for it's like You're like, I'm not calling that piece of shit 'cause it's got a zero in his number. Everybody had ones and twos. You'd love those guys. And then sometimes if it was a zero and you wouldn't do it all the way. And it was like, your finger would slip sometimes as you're going around. You're like, You gotta start over again. Start the whole phone number over again. Zero one six. But I also would like to mention as an aside, because I feel like people who hear us giving our phone numbers are gonna be like You should never give your numbers because people use them for passwords and shit and none of my passwords have my phone numbers. Mine either. So Or Aileen's or Lori's. Right. I'm using Lori's phone number as my password, actually. I go change it now. Okay, great. when I was a teenager, I talked on the phone all the time. Like a typical teenage girl, I love to speak on the phone. And my dad would be at work and he'd call and they would always be busy. Like a busy signal is something that kids kids today. Don't get yeah. Now they have call waiting, which we didn't have when I was younger, but then it came when I was like still. But they don't even care about call waiting because they could they'll just text. Like they don't even make calls. No, and e they don't even I don't think I don't think kids leave voice messages messages anymore either. Like On an answering machine. My kids don't even have that on their phones. We used to talk be on the phone a lot more because you'd have to call the bank, you'd have to call everything. Now I'm never on my phone. But I'm always on my phone, but I'm never on my phone. I get it. But my so my dad would call and he'd get really frustrated because of the busy signal. Yes. And then so they got me my own line. Yep. They got me my own telephone line, which was like my god. I had my own line too. Yeah. In my bedroom. We could have talked all day. We could have, but we didn't know each other. It's long distance too would have cost a fortune. So yeah, and so I just talked up a storm on that phone and my dad likes to tell the story of when he was at work and he was Trying to call home. Yeah. And he was still getting a busy signal. This is after you had your phone? After I had my own line. He was still getting busy signal. And he was so frustrated that he drove home, like, what is going on? And he went up into my room and I was on both. I was on both at the same time. Talking to two friends. That must have driven him absolutely mental. He was so mad. Yeah, and I get it. Yeah, that's pretty good. But also come on, man. I'm like sixteen. Don't give me access to two phone lines me too. But mine couldn't reach, so I was only ever on mine. Yeah, like we had to be tethered to a wall. Tethered to wall. Talking on a phone in the kitchen. And there's like a giant we had a really long wire on one of them so you could go really far. Like you go up to like thirty feet. Woo! And then snap, it would rip you back. Roll yourself like in it. yeah, man. Phones completely different. thing about the phones too is when you were on the phone and your mom would pick up, you'd hear that click. yeah. and be listening to your conversation if you heard a click it'd be like my my sister's listening. And then you just had to kinda wait. Get off the phone. Get off the phone, Dawn! Yeah Get off the phone. yeah. Or somebody would just start dialing. You're talking, it's like beep beep in your ear and you're like, I'm on the phone and they don't hear it because they're still dialing. I'm on the phone like you're screaming at them. So frustrating. So it's like it's like so abrasive. It's so bad. It's like mom I'm on the phone. What? And then they're listening for the ring because they didn't hear out you saying that. I'm on the phone. It's me. Mom, it's me. What? get off the phone. I need to call Jason or whoever. well buying an entire album for one song, 'cause you had to. Unless you bought a casingle, which you never had. Ca single. You never had casingles, but I did. No, but we had forty fives. That's true. You didn't have forty five? A casingle, I know it existed, but then it's like, why would I buy that? 'Cause that was like three bucks or something and the whole album was like ten. I'll just buy the album. Yeah, but I didn't want the other songs. I just want the songs that knew. Yeah, well. the only cassingle I ever remember having, and it might have been the only one I ever bought, was Go West. Go West? Go West, King of Wishful Thinking. No way. Yeah, I'll get over you. I know I will. I'll tell myself not sinking. But I'm tell myself I'm over you. I'm the king of wishful thinking. McDonald's birthday parties. Still exists. Oh. But did your kids ever do it? Yeah. McDonald's? No, but we did like the the movies and they don't have McDonald's birthday parties anymore. They got the ball pits? Do they still have the ball pits? Yeah, if you'd like to go to McDonald's and they're all McCafes now. I don't think they have the The ball pits are for when you want to go to McDonald's and leave with Pink Eye. is that what it's for? Yeah. Okay. this one I'm actually really super grateful for. What? No generation now, including your kids, will ever have this again. Which is? Which is smallpox. well the way things are going to stay, so get measles again. getting caught do so doing something embarrassing and knowing there was no camera to record it. yeah. Like I think about university, not that I like was a party animal. idiot in university, but like there's probably some certain things that I would have not liked to be on on camera. W and they weren't. So it's like, thank God for that. No, there's like there was a reasonable expectation of privacy in public, even though you're in public, it would only be well, only people who were there saw it. Yeah. But that is why, and I don't know if this is true, but I've noticed that kids, I'll say kids, but I mean like teenagers, young adults, don't dance. Like they used to. Like my son is also like a a DJ and he does shows and stuff like that. Let's give him a plug. yeah, Seb Todd. He's awesome. And I went to one of his shows and like the crowd dancing now is not moving your body other than raising one hand and just kinda going this. You're doing like a it's like a chopping wrist motion. Like your the queen waving? Well n I don't think you do the twist. I think you just do the chop. It's kinda like And sometimes one finger, it's kinda like yeah. Like it's like and this is how everybody dances. That's weird. and I heard it was because somebody'll film you and you'll be embarrassed. And it's I guess everything everything's filmed now. this it's a part of the cultural underbelly that you don't want to be recorded. And so now it's just part of the fabric. Yeah. Wow. okay, and that's it. That's it? Yeah. You think you'll get good stuff out of this? God, let's hope so. And that's what kids today. Kids today will never understand about Gen X. Yeah. Hey, listen, if you liked this episode, would you mind subscribing or liking or commenting? It all helps us grow, right? thank you for being here. All right. You're welcome. We'll see you next time on Feedbag. Feedbag. I'll get over you. I know I will. Okay,