I'm at a payphone

My kids love to hear me tell stories about when I was growing up. I've recently started telling them stories about the pizza parlor my parents owned when I was a kid. I never realized how many things I would have to explain and describe to them. Things they had never heard of--like the huge arcade games we had to pay a quarter to play. Or, what 45 RPM records were inside of a jukebox. And the payphone in the corner...it was too much. They can get all of three of those things in a little tiny cell phone now.

They could not for the life of them figure out why somebody would attach a phone to a wall. When I told them we had to put money in it to make a phone call, they thought that was the most absurd idea ever imagined. They looked at my phone and tried to figure out how someone was supposed to put quarters inside. I explained how bulky a payphone was. I told them there was a short cord attached to the handle so you couldn't walk away from this big, huge box.

I tried to share my teenage years of euphoria mastering arcade games including Ms. Pacman, Donkey Kong, and Centipede. They gave me blank stares. I sang, "I've gotta pocket full or quarters, and I'm headed to the arcade!" They said to stop singing so I never finished, "...I've got Pacman fever!" They asked what's with quarters in 1982? Everything needs a quarter. None of this absorbed into their 21st century minds. Machines that nearly touched the ceiling; manipulating a joystick to play or tapping buttons; and least understood of all—more quarters. They concluded that everything back then needed a quarter. 

It’s unbelievable that technology has advanced so much that my children have no frame of reference to understand what I am explaining. The only thing that made sense was Sandy the quarter horse. They got that. Those are still around. But, even Sandy asked for a quarter. Their favorite thing was the idea of a huge refrigerator a person could walk in to. And, an oven so big it could hold almost 40 pizzas. I haven't told them about the soda machine that poured endless multiple flavors of pure cavity causing bliss! That they would get.