Smart phones and the internet have really revolutionized the way we do things. You can literally do anything from your phone. You can turn the lights and AC in your home off and on. You can track your kids and your spouse as they move through their day on your phone. You can order lunch or a car on your phone. You can even do all your banking including deposit checks - Google it kids on your phone - on your phone.

All that stuff is great but it makes for a really boring childhood. We used to do all kinds of things that kids these days will never experience because the technology and laws have made it impossible. I know that none of these things sound politically correct nowadays and if my grandkids did any of this stuff they would get a stern talking to from me, but I also think that it made us grow up a lot faster because we had to make decisions on our own without the tether our parents. If we got into trouble, we had to handle it. Here are some things that kids today could never get away with.

1. We bought cigarettes from a free standing cigarette machines - Yes, kids, they used to have these machines all over the place. Restaurants, office buildings, bars, anywhere people were, cigarette machines were sure to pop up. And you didn't have to show an ID, you just put your money in and out popped those sweet, sweet cancer sticks. Parents used to tell their kids to go buy them cigarettes all the time. Totally normal, right? Our parents sent us out to do criminal genius stuff with their money.

2. We thought we were big time when we snuck into an rated-R movie - Rated R movies used to be a bigger deal back in the day. There was no such thing as PG-13, it was G, PG, R, and X. PG was Raiders of the Lost Ark. An R rating was for horror movies or Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Theaters weren't supposed to sell tickets to kids under 17 but they did all the time, but the coolest thing was seeing an R rated movie without your parents finding out. You were a budding criminal genius if you could manage that.

3. Ding dong ditching a house before Ring cameras - Kids today will never know the sheer adrenaline rush of sneaking up to a house, ringing the doorbell and then running like heck to get somewhere where you could watch the adult in the house peer into the night to see if they could see what little hoodlums had just ding dong ditched their house. Yes, we were criminal geniuses.

4. Kill the lights on a car - Nowadays all cars have running lights so if you're running from someone at night, you can't just kill the lights as you turn a corner because those dang running lights will give you away. There is no way to be a criminal genius in a modern car.

Bright headlights of a car driving on foggy winter road
Elenathewise
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5. Lie about their friends - Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat, Twitter, need I say more? You can't have a hood friend anymore without your mom finding out about it. How are you supposed to find out how to be a criminal genius without a hood friend?

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