Talkin' Bout My Generation

Every generation, no matter which one you're from, always thinks it's better than all the rest. It's human nature. We point to problems and find faults with older and newer generations, while claiming how fun we had it, especially growing up as kids. While our parents had "kick-the-can, hide-and-seek and tag," how can that compare to electric football, rod hockey or baseball cards? With today's generation, Playstation and Xbox are mind numbing and breeding a generation of couch potatos.

But thanks to the wonderful world of Ebay, it's now possible to search for your lost treasures that were either broken or thrown out by your mother. When I first joined Ebay, I started with the basics: old comic books, football magazines, old movies and board games. Then I tried something harder, NFL player stamps that were given out by Sunoco gas stations in 1972. Each NFL team had 24 players and you pasted them in an album the way your mother did when she got stamps from the grocery store. Ebay had them. Next were missing electric football men. Ebay had them. It was time to try the big one. In 1971, my parents had gotten me the "greatest Christmas present of all-time," a Brad Park endorsed New York Rangers rod hockey table, made by Coleco. My friends, family and I played that game so much, the life expectancy probably was a 1/4 of what it was supposed to be. It took a long time, but I finally found that exact game a few years ago.

After fixing it up, there was a letdown, because now I had no-one to play against. My kids tried, but it was too BORING for them. Of course it was. No explosions or killings. Plus, they couldn't control or spin the rods, since Xbox controllers only allow teens to use their thumb and pointer finger. So, by chance, I brought it in to work. I found out there were plenty of friends, around my age, who had played it as kids and we started playing games during lunch. My fellow contributor to this blog, Hockeyman96 and I even custom-made Ranger and Islander "all-star" teams to go against one another. My Ranger team: Tikkanen, Messier, Duguay, Leetch, Park and Giacomin has taken his Islander team: Bossy, Trottier, LaFontaine, Potvin, Jonsson and DiPietro a few times, but when he subs-in goalie Kelly Hrudey, it's a whole different story.

If I was born 30 years prior, maybe kick-the-can would be the greatest thing or if I was born 30 years later, killing 200 warriors in WarCraft the ultimate. But I'm satisfied with my time period in history and now concentrate on all the stuff I STILL have to find on Ebay.

It's human nature.