Growing up Gen-X

Old millennial (1983)

Gen X music is what I grew up on and will always love most.
I’m 1981. So I’m on the “cusp” but am the youngest of 6. So all 5 older brothers are Gen X’ers. So certainly have a lot of Gen X sensibilities.

Also, I prefer the term “Elder Millenial” :)
 
That is the official symbol of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. You can get a tee shirt, hoodie, or ball cap with that symbol on it. The funny thing is my sister (an early Boomer born in the 40’s views that as the symbol of her 1950s teenage years.
 
I too did the miles of creek/pond exploration in and around my neighborhood. I'd grab my rod and reel, some hooks, sinkers, a bobber, get what I wanted for bait along the way and spend 3-4 hours just walking and fishing (solo 99% of the time since most of my friends didn't like fishing as much as I did). I found some old ponds so far off the beaten path, that if anything did ever happened to me, I would've been lucky to be found in a timely manner, if ever (pretty scary thinking about it now). And then there was the bike trips to friends houses that lived miles away and exploring old meandering gravel/dirt roads along the way, not knowing what they lead to (almost always had someone with me on those). I did find an old abandoned house once by myself and after just one step inside the front doorway, I saw a wooden leg just standing there upright in the middle of the room. Needless to say, I got out of there pretty quickly but I did take a couple friends back to show them since they didn't believe me (creeped them out too).

Anyway, I thought this shit was pretty funny and accurate.


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Born in 67. So 70's am radio, Saturday morning cartoons, wrestling on WRAL on Saturday nights...in studio, Evel Knievel wind up motorcycle toy, K-Tel records, Kiss albums. Then the 80's...high school, 80's music (specifically U2, Simple Minds, the Police, and Big Country), fumbling through the cassette tape case while driving, OP t-shirts, first iteration of mullets. 86 off to Carolina where I heard the Replacements, REM, 10,000 Maniacs, Hoodoo Gurus, among a thousand other new sounds on 2nd West Granville. Noon football games, litte frat court after game parties, Glass Moon playing at big frat court (Sigma Nu porch?), really bad fake ids, He's Not, eary Dillon Fence in the basement of some frat, lots and lots of beautiful sundresses in spring. Gen X has been very good to me.
 
Best thing: no cell phones or social media!!!

Sure I wish we had more home movies. But my God I'm happy I went to high school and college where everything wasn't filmed and documented

Late Xer here
Everyone is unique, for me I would have preferred the technology. Though it probably would have made me more socially disfunction than I am.

I always loved technology. I had a PC before anyone else I knew of.
 
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Didn't even know that there was a Stomper Action Track System but it looks pretty cool. No telling how many of these things I trashed modifying them. We would run a wire/cord to the battery compartment and out the back to as many batteries as you had to tape together. Those little things would fly, that is if you didn't over do it with the batteries and burn the motor up.
 
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Everyone is unique, for me I would have preferred the technology. Though it probably would have made me more socially disfunction than I am.

I always loved technology. I had a PC before anyone else I knew of.
I had an IBM PC Jr. That was cool. I just enjoyed living a life without the addiction of screens and the psychological damage that kids experience from social media.

Did anyone else have that terrible "football" game where the metal table vibrated and the players moved around with this little foam ball? I was never sure how it was supposed to work. Dumbest gift ever.
 
I had an IBM PC Jr. That was cool. I just enjoyed living a life without the addiction of screens and the psychological damage that kids experience from social media.

Did anyone else have that terrible "football" game where the metal table vibrated and the players moved around with this little foam ball? I was never sure how it was supposed to work. Dumbest gift ever.
Look above.

Loved me some Electric Football!
 
I had an IBM PC Jr. That was cool. I just enjoyed living a life without the addiction of screens and the psychological damage that kids experience from social media.

Did anyone else have that terrible "football" game where the metal table vibrated and the players moved around with this little foam ball? I was never sure how it was supposed to work. Dumbest gift ever.
I'm an old boomer and had one of those as a kid.
 
I had an IBM PC Jr. That was cool. I just enjoyed living a life without the addiction of screens and the psychological damage that kids experience from social media.

Did anyone else have that terrible "football" game where the metal table vibrated and the players moved around with this little foam ball? I was never sure how it was supposed to work. Dumbest gift ever.
I still ran around and built forts, etc. But I loved tech.

A lot of the issues with texh fall at the feet of the parents, using it as child care.

I read a story about Bill Gates, he said if it were not for his parents pushing him to experience life, he would have been content to read in his room 24 hours a day.
 
It's crazy to me thinking about growing up in the 70's and 80's.

We had 24 inch TV sets with 3 channels, and a TV guide we studied to know when we wanted to watch it.
We had phones that had to be plugged into the wall.
We did not have microwaves.

What the hell did we do with all our time?

Read books, I guess, went for walks, played outside, played games with friends or neighbors. Sat in our room and listened to cassette tapes and flipped slowly through books or magazines with pictures in them...
 
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