From a Washington Post Report, in which readers were asked to tell
Gen-Xers
how much harder they had it in the old days:

Second Runner-Up:

In my day, we couldn't afford shoes, so we went barefoot. In the winter we
had to wrap our feet with barbed wire for traction.
(Bill Flavin, Alexandria)

First Runner-Up:

In my day we didn't have MTV or in-line skates, or any of that stuff. No,
it was 45s and regular old metal-wheeled roller skates, and the 45s always
skipped, so to get them to play right you'd weigh the needle down with
something like quarters, which we never had because our allowances were too
small, so we'd use our skate keys instead and end up forgetting they were
taped to the record player arm so that we couldn't adjust our skates, which
didn't really matter because those crummy metal wheels would kill you if
you hit a pebble anyway, and in those days roads had real pebbles on them,
not like today.
(Russell Beland, Springfield)

And the winner of the velour bicentennial poster:

In my day, we didn't have no rocks. We had to go down to the creek and
wash our clothes by beating them with our heads.
(Barry Blyveis, Columbia)

Honorable Mentions:

In my day, we didn't have dogs or cats. All I had was Silver Beauty, my
beloved paper clip.
(Jennifer Hart, Arlington)

In my day, attitudes were different. For example, women didn't like sex.
At least that is what they told me.
(Tom Witte, Gaithersburg)

When I was your age, we didn't have fake doggie-do. We only had real
doggie-do, and no one thought it was a damn bit funny.
(Brendan Bassett, Columbia)

Back in the 1970s we didn't have the space shuttle to get all excited
about. We had to settle for men walking on the crummy moon.
(Russell Beland, Springfield)

In my day, we didn't have days. There was only time for work, time for
prayer, and time for sleep. The sheriff would go around and tell everyone
when to change.
(Elden Carnahan, Laurel)

In my day, people could only dream of hitchhiking a ride on a comet.
(David Ronka, Charlottesville)

In my day, we didn't have fancy health-food restaurants. Every day we ate
lots of easily recognizable animal parts, along with potatoes drenched in
melted fat from those animals. And we're all as strong as AAGGKK-GAAK
Urrgh. Thud.
(Tom Witte, Gaithersburg)

In my day, we didn't have hand-held calculators. We had to do addition on
our fingers. To subtract, we had to have some fingers amputated.
(Jon Patrick Smith, Washington)

In my day, we didn't get that disembodied, slightly ticked-off voice saying
'Doors closing.' We got on the train, the doors closed, and if your hand
was sticking out it scraped along the tunnel all the damn way to the Silver
Spring station and it was a bloody stump at the end. But the base fare was
only a dollar.
(Russell Beland, Springfield)

In my day, we didn't have water. We had to smash together our own hydrogen
and oxygen atoms.
(Diana Hugue, Bowie)

In my day, we didn't have Strom Thurmond. Oh, wait. Yes we did.
(Peg Sheeran, Vienna)

Kids today think the world revolves around them. In my day, the sun
revolved around the world, and the world was perched on the back of a giant
tortoise.
(Jonathan Paul, Garrett Park)

In my day, we wore our pants up around our armpits. Monstrous wedgies, but
we looked snappy.
(Bruce Evans, Washington)

Back in my day, '60 Minutes' wasn't just a bunch of gray-haired liberal
80-year-old guys. It was a bunch of gray-haired liberal 60-year-old guys.
(Russell Beland, Springfield, & Jerry Pannullo, Kensington)

In my day, we didn't have virtual reality. If a one-eyed razorback
barbarian warrior was chasing you with an ax, you just had to hope you
could outrun him.