Playing video games without the need to sign in, use server, update for a goddamn hour when I only have 45 min to play, and games made for fun rather than cookie cutter eye candy.

Oh I definitely have to wait before I can play games.

I had to go and buy a bunch of CDs to install World of Warcraft because otherwise it would have taken about 6 years on my dial-up internet connection. Then my father would probably have called, broken the download, and I'd have had to have started all over again.

Big concerts with crazy amounts of people and you got a $20 ticket made out of paper that you could save to display in your photo album.

God yes, affordable concerts that were actually performed live rather than lip-synched. And Ticketmaster had not become the monopolistic scum of the earth they are now. You could actually get really good seats at a reasonable price if you were willing to get on the phone and dial like a monster or wait in line at the box office. Very rarely would anyone overpay. Even scalpers' prices were reasonable compared to average list prices today.

No cops in school, no school shootings. Parents were not our chauffeurs, either. They might grudgingly drop you off somewhere or pick you up but you could not expect them to do both without a lot of cajoling and pleading or bribing.

Summers from 6th grade on were just incredible. I'd wake up whenever, head out and not come home until dark. If I was going to be later than that, I'd have to call and let the parental units know or there would be hell to pay but other than that I was free to do whatever....but I wasn't getting any money from the parents to do anything. If I wanted funds for my activities, it was up to me to figure out what kind of work I could do to earn money.