Kids, Envy them or Pity them?
Nintendo Wii, Sony’s PS1-3, PSP, Nintendo DS, Microsoft’s Xbox, Xbox 360, of course your trusty P4’s and core 2 duo machines. These are just a few of the gadgets that kids have today or kids spend time and play with today, not to mention Apple’s Ipod, Toshiba’s Gigabeat, Creative Zen for their musical needs. All of these are nifty gizmos that even I own a few of and hell yeah they sure are fun and must haves if I may say. But to kids of this generation live at par in terms of enjoyment when it comes to playing compared to us, I mean those people living in 30’s, let us not widen the generation gap here and exclude our grandparents, oh hell, let me include our parents which are most probably in their 50’s.
Let me first share to you the joy and experience of a common Filipino kid living in one of its provinces, Cavite to be exact. During my time, I was blessed with a console game system, the Atari 2600 with its simple 1 button joystick and a switch in the back of the machine that lets you choose between 2 modes, the novice and the expert. Hee hee hee, I still remember it, well I think I still have that system somewhere in my room now. I remember the countless hours of playing pacman, missile command, centipede, air raid and other stuffs in that machine, hey wait a minute, before that system came into my life I have a little digital buddy, yes I bet most of you do have 2 or 3 game and watches. I think I have fire escape, western gun and Popeye. Those were my eye strainers back then. Having all those machines back in my elementary days was so cool for me, but I still enjoyed the Filipino street games, those things that I call now as real games. Hagarang upo, Sikyu, sipa, jolen, text, gagamba, salagubang, sumpit, taguan, tumbang preso, luksong baka and so much more. Man these games really pumps blood in your body and burn up that grease inside of it and of course it molds those muscles into shape.
Food wise, we did not have that much of junk foods, I mean we have our share of it but if I remember correctly, we Cavitneos have to drive to Manila just to buy those Jollibee hamburgers. I still remember the frenzy that took Cavite city when its first branch of Smokey’s hotdog opened up, man everybody loved that chili dog. But now, in almost every street corner you can find those fast food chains, restaurants that offer real meals are gone and almost every household has instant noodles to tide them up in their hunger, in my days I think we only have Nissin’s Ramen and Maggi Instant Noodles but now all sort of noodles in plastic packs can be bought be it Pancit Canton, Bulalo etc.
Health wise, now here is where the major difference lies I guess, I mean, back in my days, we used to stroll down the rice fields to fly our kites in a lazy summer afternoon, we can swim in the river and cross another field full of watermelons where we would steal a few and gobble up while waiting for the owner to spot us so that we can tease him and have him run after us hee hee hee. I can race my BMX bike all around our subdivision without worrying of hitting someone since the place isn’t that crowded. And I think the healthiest thing will be socializing with friends in person, as in face to face and not in front of a glowing box with your webcam on, well we also have our share of being a couch potato but that was only when Voltes V and Shaider was playing on TV.
Well having said all of these, I really don’t know if I will pity the children or be envious of them, I think that it is a matter of perspective since both generations have their ups and downs. So I leave this question to you guys to ponder with, and I hope, like in any matter at hand, that you will try your best in thinking and not just blubbering nonsense in your mind.
Jai Guru Deva Om
Let me first share to you the joy and experience of a common Filipino kid living in one of its provinces, Cavite to be exact. During my time, I was blessed with a console game system, the Atari 2600 with its simple 1 button joystick and a switch in the back of the machine that lets you choose between 2 modes, the novice and the expert. Hee hee hee, I still remember it, well I think I still have that system somewhere in my room now. I remember the countless hours of playing pacman, missile command, centipede, air raid and other stuffs in that machine, hey wait a minute, before that system came into my life I have a little digital buddy, yes I bet most of you do have 2 or 3 game and watches. I think I have fire escape, western gun and Popeye. Those were my eye strainers back then. Having all those machines back in my elementary days was so cool for me, but I still enjoyed the Filipino street games, those things that I call now as real games. Hagarang upo, Sikyu, sipa, jolen, text, gagamba, salagubang, sumpit, taguan, tumbang preso, luksong baka and so much more. Man these games really pumps blood in your body and burn up that grease inside of it and of course it molds those muscles into shape.
Food wise, we did not have that much of junk foods, I mean we have our share of it but if I remember correctly, we Cavitneos have to drive to Manila just to buy those Jollibee hamburgers. I still remember the frenzy that took Cavite city when its first branch of Smokey’s hotdog opened up, man everybody loved that chili dog. But now, in almost every street corner you can find those fast food chains, restaurants that offer real meals are gone and almost every household has instant noodles to tide them up in their hunger, in my days I think we only have Nissin’s Ramen and Maggi Instant Noodles but now all sort of noodles in plastic packs can be bought be it Pancit Canton, Bulalo etc.
Health wise, now here is where the major difference lies I guess, I mean, back in my days, we used to stroll down the rice fields to fly our kites in a lazy summer afternoon, we can swim in the river and cross another field full of watermelons where we would steal a few and gobble up while waiting for the owner to spot us so that we can tease him and have him run after us hee hee hee. I can race my BMX bike all around our subdivision without worrying of hitting someone since the place isn’t that crowded. And I think the healthiest thing will be socializing with friends in person, as in face to face and not in front of a glowing box with your webcam on, well we also have our share of being a couch potato but that was only when Voltes V and Shaider was playing on TV.
Well having said all of these, I really don’t know if I will pity the children or be envious of them, I think that it is a matter of perspective since both generations have their ups and downs. So I leave this question to you guys to ponder with, and I hope, like in any matter at hand, that you will try your best in thinking and not just blubbering nonsense in your mind.
Jai Guru Deva Om
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