06/22/2024
Interested in your thoughts:
So, I spend a lot of time on “Gen X” related groups and post a bunch. It seems odd how most of the posts are just insulting anyone younger than us, pretending people think anyone outside us thinks we look younger and reminiscing about child abuse and sampled and shallow hairband music. I was a teenager in the 1980s and grew up middle class in a medium size city sandwiched between two large cities. So, to quote my favorite singer, “Does anyone feel the same way I do?”
We had electricity, air conditioning and video game units, computers, VCRs, and cable television! I was not sitting in a creek with swamp-ass looking for critters as a teenager. I did play games outside with friends but also played video games, learned Basic programming (a skill I should have stayed with) and watched a lot of MTV and sports.
We all knew people who unfortunately were getting beat up by their unruly parents. We didn’t celebrate it and I would never dream of hurting my children ever.
I didn’t call my parents “sir” and “ma’am.” And yes, I called my parents’ friends by their first names, and nobody fainted! I am also part of the divorced latchkey society and called my stepparents by their first names. Many of you sound like Sam from Different Strokes calling your mother’s husband, “Mister Dee!”
As for the “We ate what was served or starved” memes, I always felt that was a stupid concept! Why would you ever eat something your taste buds hated? When I was 17, I became a vegetarian so why would I eat meat to be “polite?”
When music started to suck in the late 1980s, I bucked the trend and hated shallow hairbands and sampled shallow pop. I discovered Classic Rock during that period! Then, I fell in love with the lyrics and music from Grunge! Once Kid Rock and Fred Durst ruined it, I was overly picky again. I never followed trends I hated.
I never smoked. Besides having bronchitis, I hated the smell and knew it was horrible. I also was too scared to try drugs. I did drink in college but went cold turkey at 24 for various reasons not related to me. Then, I became a workaholic, no time to drink.
Speaking of college, high school had a few moments, but if your best days weren’t at college, you missed a lot!
I don’t look down on my kids and their friends. Like us, they are trying to find their place in the world and have so many less prejudices than we did.
Finally, I hate trends. I think Beavis and Butthead, hearing “Bohemian Rhapsody” a million times a day, and watching mothers compete with their kids by using their slang is pathetic! And I agree with Gen Z on the sock debate!
Do any of you agree with this?