Gen X: The Generation That Never Existed

I threatened to have my dad beat up my PE teacher in 5th grade.

My discipline was the teacher told me to flush the threatening letter down the toilet

the principle of my elementary school had a paddle and would beat kids with it . I assume parents had to sign off on that but idk

xp lol
and the metal was as hot as the sun in the summer
I just drove by that school when I was back home. The "new" (new when I was in 5th or 6th grade I think), enlightened-design playground had been ripped out. Even THAT was too dangerous for kids today.

I’m a 78 kid and I’m not a millennial, I’m comfortably late Gen X. I got into EDM before it was called EDM and all my young adult touchstones have been turned into t-shirts and movies e.g. http://www.roadkilltshirts.com/Assets/ProductImages/PS_0149_NEVER_FORGET.jpg

xp yep it had "Board of Education" written on it. I don't think it was ever used, but we of course heard stories that it was used often.

The vice principal Mr Mike (we couldn't pronounce his last name) must've had a side job as a swimming instructor. I only remember being held underwater by him as my dad watched. No biggie, just 2 male authority figures traumatizing me as standard practice. Still can't swim.

when men were men

No corporal punishment that I remember but there was a (male) third grade teacher who gave students birthday spankings. Full over his knee 9 spanks shit.

Last generation to grow up without internet & cell phones ubiquitous seems like a big deal. I'm hoping it's an asset, that we'll have better "people skills" & be valued for those. But it's prob gonna be that we're not quite computer savvy enough to be useful and will all be working as Walmart greeters til we're quietly exterminated.

when men were men

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, October 18, 2019 3:22 PM (four minutes ago)

and as we know, boys were boys

those times actually sucked imo. not nostalgic for middle school/"growing up" whatsoever.

a thread on square dancing in schools, and white supremacy, and henry ford etc. etc.

Turns out, square dance is the official state dance of like, almost every state that has an official state dance. VERY STRANGE. https://t.co/MTnQ7XqOH0

— Robyn Pennacchia (@RobynElyse) December 7, 2017

(xp) this
I was born in 1974, the 80s were terrible. Actually had a discussion about it at work with two Millenial colleagues, sparked by one of them streaming an all-80s-all-the-time radio station on his mobile while he said "I like 80s music!".

y'all are just doing boomer memes now??

yeah I mean I was trolling but you're proving my disingenuous point

I love 80s music! My sis born in '74 does too.

I had a millennial co-host for my radio show who was into "80s cheese" - I failed to keep my mouth shut about how crap it was, that may be why he is no longer my co-host.

I was born in 1974, the 80s were terrible.

my daughter (who listens exclusively to the retro-80s radio station) has often expressed a desire to experience what it was like in the 80s and I feel sorta bad being like "I hate to burst your bubble but... the 80s really sucked"

that's literally what my mom told me when i said i wanted to live in the 1960s. she was like "actually you would have hated it, you would have had two career choices and you would have been miserable"

then she told me she wasn't allowed to wear pants when she started teaching and i did feel grateful that i was growing up in more enlightened times (even though they were not particularly enlightened by today's standards)

the 80s didn't suck. your 80s sucked.

haha yeah I had a similar 60s-obsession as a young 80s kid (and a similar reaction from my mom)

xps

she was like "you can wear the clothes and enjoy the music, but don't wish yourself back there; it sucked for us"

ok fine. if you were a scrawny nerdy Jewish kid in the whitebread conservative CA suburbs (yes, Virginia there did used to be such a thing!)...the 80s sucked

xp

"you mean you didn't spend all day in malls and going to night clubs dancing to Cameo?"

xp

same for me re 60s, and my mom and aunt kind of dumping on the idea

tbh though they were still really mad about "hippies" well into the late 80s, and how feminism and drugs (and *the blacks*) destroyed what was once a perfect pristine country thank you very much

I had a good 80s, Torville & Dean, Sam Fox, Geoff Capes, Shakin Stevens, Eddie The Eagle, good times all round.

tbh though they were still really mad about "hippies" well into the late 80s, and how feminism and drugs (and *the blacks*) destroyed what was once a perfect pristine country thank you very much

lol yeah my parents seemed insulted when I asked if they had been "hippies"

Every decade sucks.

The only cool thing about the 60s to me were some movies and tv shows and like radical leftists fucking with authority

I was born in 1979, and back in the '90s, when Generation X was a hip thing to talk about, I definitely wasn't part of it. IIRC back then Gen X was defined as those born between 1965 and 1975, i.e. folks who were voting age but younger than 30 in the first half of the 1990s. So basically those people who could relate to the protagonists of Reality Bites.

I remember wondering what my generation was then, and there were even attempts to give a name to the new generation of young people born after 1975, such as "Generation Z" or "Generation Q". So yeah, extending Gen X all the way to 1980 is definitely a retcon.

other than pop music on the radio & my walkman i was too young to properly enjoy what the 80s had to offer and it's probably for the best.

except for neil young's, maaan

I knew my dad wasn't a hippie, he looked like a big nerd that came out of the womb a Radio Shack manager.

My mom looked like Leslie Gore so I thought maybe she had been

Ehh I definitely remember X going through or past 1980 in some definitions even in the 90s. I remember arguing that I wasn't one and having people my age say they were and throwing articles at me.

My parents were flattered re being asked if they had been hippies... “We weren’t cool enough to be hippies” was the answer... my momz two younger sisters were both hippies

Totally does my head in thinking how "the 60s" were less than 20 yrs in the past when I was young yet were already so mythologized and seemed sooooo long ago.

came out of the womb a Radio Shack manager.

irl lol

yeah i can remember the fuss around sgt peppers' *20th* anniversary and thinking how ancient it was

^^christ yes

there was a PBS special about it

and an LA Times supplement (thx Robert Hillburn)

imo if Ghostbusters and Back to the Future were movies you saw when they were new, or you cared a lot about them, you're Gen X, if you saw them when they were old and didn't care about them you're a Millennial. If you have no memory of 9/11 you're a Zoomer.

Every decade sucks.

― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z),

What if you saw them a few years later on VHS, cos you were too young to see them when they were new, but you still loved them to death? That's the camp I fall into and I still don't feel like I ever was Gen X.

(xpost)

Even something like Saturday Night Fever seemed like an artifact from a time long long ago. It wasn't even 10 years old when I 1st saw (parts of) it. A lot of that is due to the disconnect of not having directly experienced the time, but idk I can't imagine something from like 2009 hitting kids today the same way.

sorry Tuomas if you like those movies you're gen x

Tuomas I will grant you honorary GenXhood if you can name the two co-leads of Lost Boys

if you have no memory of 9/11 you're a Zoomer.

lol isn't that a Connor Roy line from Successions

Tuomas you're only 1 yr younger than I am, and I saw both those movies in the theater.