Talkin' bout my generation

[F250 28614]

I had an employee that falls into the old Millennial category by his age but was culturally a Gen-X. He could relate to 1980s shows, clothes, toys, UHF, rotary phones, Atari 2600, and a lot of other things that he should have been too young to really remember.

One day I asked him how is it he remembers or knows so much about things that ended before his time. He said that he grew up poor on the South Side of San Antonio and everything was outdated. He didn't get AC in school until the mid 90's, no computer labs in school, microfiche through HS, had old toys, no cable tv just an antenna, VHS tapes of old cartoons bought at the flea market, cassettes no CDs, etc.

It was interesting to see how income level has an impact on how one experiences their generational time period. I'm guessing these Generational stigmas mainly apply to middle class Americans. Not people that were still using laser disc videos in school while everyone else was migrated to DVDs.

 

 

[Eastwood 4394]

1 hour ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

GenX were noble,used average height people, and didnt look at the other 3 squares on the screen


Millenials used golden guns,always picked oddjob, and would glitch into the ceiling in the bathroom

Oddjob wasn't allowed in our circle of friends. And you can't get the golden gun off against a RCP90. Then Perfect Dark came out.

[HouTex 1841]

Born in 1962 I’m technically a boomer but being at the tail end I never considered myself a boomer. Coming of age in the Reagan years was cool. And being old enough to appreciate the music of the late 60’s and 70's as it was produced also was cool. Most modern music and much of our modern culture is horrible.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

26 minutes ago, bmbmd said:

I'm a boomer.  We had  great music. 

The best of all rock and roll time, and there ain't even a close second.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

11 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Born in 1962 I’m technically a boomer but being at the tail end I never considered myself a boomer. Coming of age in the Reagan years was cool. And being old enough to appreciate the music of the late 60’s and 70's as it was produced also was cool. Most modern music and much of our modern culture is horrible.

If you grew up with the older generation, grandparents, older uncles, etc then yer definitely a boomer and lived that generation IMO. I'm '62 as well, and had all my grand parents and great grand parents and lived the life of the boomer aged kid.

[JimmyJames 12271]

Peak gen x here (73). The biggest problems with our generation was our womenz wore way too many clothes (think flannel, jeans and if it was cold, turtlenecks) and it was way too difficult to find good porn for a very long time (fuzzy cable channels anyone?). You millennials don’t know how easy you had it with both of those things. 

Everything else was pretty good though. 

[Bateshorn 9853]

1973.  Born in the heart of the Baby Bust and a Gen X for life.  My mom is a Silent and my Grandparents were Greatest Generation. JimmyJames is right:  one of the bummers of being a Gen X was going to college during 3rd Wave feminism.  10 year's later and millenial women were as horny as the men.

My kids are Gen Z and love everything Gen X:  our music, cynicism, etc.

Boomers can suck a dick about the greatest rock.  It's been 25 years since peak grunge.  Fuck yeah.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Bateshorn

[TxEx99 31]

Star Wars Generation.  1977.  I have an older brother, he's 7.8 years older than I am so for me it was his influence growing up in the 70s along with the 1980s.  Nerf football, wiffleball, 8 tracks, Atari 2600, Legos, monochrome computer screen with floppy disks and DOS.  12 channel television that you had to get up to change the channel.  Riding my bike all afternoon where the only rule was be home by dinner.  80s hair bands and the rise of grunge.  We also rode in the back of the station wagon, in the bed of the pickup, being the 3rd wheel when my brother would have to take me somewhere in order for him to go out with his girlfriend.  Making mix-tapes and desperately wanting a cd player when that came out.  Watching Challenger explode live on television during assembly and the Gulf War unfold on CNN in the evening.

Dial up was so damn awesome, till it sucked ass.  I didn't have a cell phone till college.  The VCR changed how we watched television.  The 80s S&L scandal and watching my parents worry about how they were going to make it.  The 90s booming market that paid for my college followed by the bust.

So many memories but I wouldn't change being an Gen Xer for anything.  

[tbone_ 14016]

Yes, you did.  As did us Gen Xers.  Everyone else's music sucked/sucks.

This is very correct.

[tbone_ 14016]

UCLA was $430/qtr for as many units as you wanted to take.

My fee bill at UT 86-90 was generally about $5-600/semester for my full load.

[RollLeft 5039]

4 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

My fee bill at UT 86-90 was generally about $5-600/semester for my full load.

That's about what your mom pays for my full load.

[Celery Man 20832]

1 hour ago, JimmyJames said:

Peak gen x here (73). The biggest problems with our generation was our womenz wore way too many clothes (think flannel, jeans and if it was cold, turtlenecks) and it was way too difficult to find good porn for a very long time (fuzzy cable channels anyone?). You millennials don’t know how easy you had it with both of those things. 

Everything else was pretty good though. 

Just to clarify - a large number of millennials watched scrambled cinemax.

[Guest]

Early 80s as well and everyday I can't help but think how much time and potential I've wasted.

I wake up next to the woman I love before the sun rises and I put on my overcoat and trek out into the sludge of rain and cold to drag my community-given plastic trash bin in or else risk the ire of the HOA.

I take a hot shower so that I can try and feel something, anything, before dressing myself in the workmanlike uniform of my generation, a button up shirt with a patagonia vest, just to lose myself in the interactive dash of a Japanese car-- something the generations with something to fight for would never lower themselves to possess-- with the Webex/GoToMeeting/RingCentral/Zoom/BlueJeans muted and my attention still asleep, sitting in traffic.

I am lucky (compared to the younger generation) in that I got a job right before the great recession and was able to ride out the years of 2008-2011 and stay gainfully employed, though my heart skipped and raced every quarter of those years as the chairman or president would write his asparatme dripping emails about how sad he is for the latest round of layoffs. Luckily for me, I spent every dime I made-- money that people with families and responsibilities truly needed-- on drugs and alcohol and drug/alcohol vacations during those days.

I paid my dues in corporate america until it was my turn to be able to convince people to pay me a lot of money based solely off the nominal, cumulative years I was able to string together of employment (I'm not very smart or valuable), but all the time away from my family gets me is a bunch of accumulated Marriott points and airline miles so we can have soulless trips to archaic American traditions like Disneyland. Which is even more ironic because I haven't raised my kids on poison or Disney (or are they the same) and so they are wondering why we are going to some boring place with ancient cartoon characters instead of somewhere cool like the Bahamas (like Abby's family did, gosh) or at least slum it up at Destin again.

I've lived long enough now that I remember thinking "this is cool, I went to college with that guy in the NFL and these are my peers" to now there might be a few NFL players my age or older. I'm looking at you Tom Brady and....Darrell Green? If you get that last joke you are old too and are probably depressed by the thought that kids born when VY was playing on the 40 acres are gearing up for the NBA Draft.

My youth is gone. I've legitimately thrown out my back to where I've needed a muscle relaxer to move and sometimes the most comforting thing I have is knowing that should this fart seat on row 18, seat E (because airlines have made it impossible to really get good status these days) go down in a fiery mess, it might be for the best because my family will have a few million bucks to carve out a nice piece of land to bunker down in until the end of days and the son of man comes. Or whatever.

Probably judging from this stream-of-consciousness, I'm just of the generation of which most of us think we are tragically unique and that every little thing is tantamount to existential suffering, though.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by Guest

[CycleTex87 2952]

54 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

My fee bill at UT 86-90 was generally about $5-600/semester for my full load.

Same here (83-87).  It's crazy when I think about that compared to what I'm paying now for my daughter (no pix) as a freshman at UT. 

[huge 3787]

1975 was a great year to be born...

[Wally Fairway 5503]

28 minutes ago, huge said:

1975 was a great year to be born...

it was also a great time to start your senior year of high school

[irishtexan 11434]

59 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

Early 80s as well and everyday I can't help but think how much time and potential I've wasted.

I wake up next to the woman I love before the sun rises and I put on my overcoat and trek out into the sludge of rain and cold to drag my community-given plastic trash bin in or else risk the ire of the HOA.

I take a hot shower so that I can try and feel something, anything, before dressing myself in the workmanlike uniform of my generation, a button up shirt with a patagonia vest, just to lose myself in the interactive dash of a Japanese car-- something the generations with something to fight for would never lower themselves to possess-- with the Webex/GoToMeeting/RingCentral/Zoom/BlueJeans muted and my attention still asleep, sitting in traffic.

I am lucky (compared to the younger generation) in that I got a job right before the great recession and was able to ride out the years of 2008-2011 and stay gainfully employed, though my heart skipped and raced every quarter of those years as the chairman or president would write his asparatme dripping emails about how sad he is for the latest round of layoffs. Luckily for me, I spent every dime I made-- money that people with families and responsibilities truly needed-- on drugs and alcohol and drug/alcohol vacations during those days.

I paid my dues in corporate america until it was my turn to be able to convince people to pay me a lot of money based solely off the nominal, cumulative years I was able to string together of employment (I'm not very smart or valuable), but all the time away from my family gets me is a bunch of accumulated Marriott points and airline miles so we can have soulless trips to archaic American traditions like Disneyland. Which is even more ironic because I haven't raised my kids on poison or Disney (or are they the same) and so they are wondering why we are going to some boring place with ancient cartoon characters instead of somewhere cool like the Bahamas (like Abby's family did, gosh) or at least slum it up at Destin again.

I've lived long enough now that I remember thinking "this is cool, I went to college with that guy in the NFL and these are my peers" to now there might be a few NFL players my age or older. I'm looking at you Tom Brady and....Darrell Green? If you get that last joke you are old too and are probably depressed by the thought that kids born when VY was playing on the 40 acres are gearing up for the NBA Draft.

My youth is gone. I've legitimately thrown out my back to where I've needed a muscle relaxer to move and sometimes the most comforting thing I have is knowing that should this fart seat on row 18, seat E (because airlines have made it impossible to really get good status these days) go down in a fiery mess, it might be for the best because my family will have a few million bucks to carve out a nice piece of land to bunker down in until the end of days and the son of man comes. Or whatever.

Probably judging from this stream-of-consciousness, I'm just of the generation of which most of us think we are tragically unique and that every little thing is tantamount to existential suffering, though.

 

 

This explains so, so much.

I just became a man this year at 40. I consider myself Gen X, even if I'm party of the Xennial gap generation. Shit, I saw Nirvana on the In Utero tour. No one that's seen Nirvana can be a millennial?

[ImissWallyPryor 9044]

20 hours ago, Kyle said:

Gen X. We were bitter growing up because of our narcissistic Baby Boomer parents and bitter as adults dealing with the narcissistic Millenials. Ironically, our parents were the first ones to broader prefer working to rearing us, and Millenials are the first to demand parenting in all aspects of life. We're just sort of squished in the middle of idiots who created idiots.

Kidding (Gen X is cynical but Baby Boomers and Millenials seem to lack humor) ... sort of.

It really is all the Baby Boomers' fault who instilled the feminine ethos across our culture that is fully manifest in the Millenials.

 

The thing about generations is that one generation is not really the product of just one other generation.  In your case, the first half of Gen X had mostly Silent Generation parents while the second half had mostly Boomer parents.  Some generations span a long enough time for kids to have young parents of the same generation, then there are kids born to parents 40+ who may be two (or even three) generations older.

It's a complicated business.  /Trump

 

 

Oh, yeah.  Boomer (but not Sooner) hand raised.

Edited October 17, 2018 by ImissWallyPryor

[SimonBolivar 10889]

It makes me happy to know that I should, in theory, out live you fuckers.

 

Born in 89 so a millennial, but the millennial experience varies greatly. I didn't have internet in the house until I was 11 or 12 and no cell phone until I started driving at 17. That's a big difference than those who were raised 10 years before me, but also a big difference for those that grew up a few years after with smart phones and always having the internet.

 

That said I'll match you old fuckers in Andy Griffith Show, Seinfeld, or M*A*S*H trivia any day.

Edited October 17, 2018 by SimonBolivar

[Kyle 207]

4 minutes ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

The thing about generations is that one generation is not really the product of just one other generation.  In your case, the first half of Gen X had mostly Silent Generation parents while the second half had mostly Boomer parents.  Some generations span a long enough time for kids to have young parents of the same generation, then there are kids born to parents 40+ who may be two (or even three) generations older.

It's a complicated business.  /Trump

 

 

Oh, yeah.  Boomer (but not Sooner) hand raised.

Of course. You cannot artificially group people into 20-year calendar groups. It is less about literal calendar years and more so the ethos of that generation, i.e. late Silent Generationers likely had more in common with Boomers than those born in 1921 - they missed the Great Depression, WW2, etc.. If you survived, being born in 1930-35 was probably a pretty badass time to live. You survived the Great Depression, did not get drafted into WW2 or Vietnam, and you got to really build your career in the booming 50s and 60s and roll into retirement in the booming 80s.

[ImissWallyPryor 9044]

My whole point was that we Boomers do not claim you.

[ABSR 5286]

17 hours ago, Parliament said:

Gen X. Our women wore flannel.

And had BIG hair.  Top and bottom.

[SimonBolivar 10889]

6 hours ago, gurt said:

This describes me to a tee.  Friends still played outside and built forts in the woods, but then went inside to play Goldeneye.  

no Oddjob pussy

[DaysOff 7784]

Gen X (Nov. '66). All music after 1987 can lick my ball sack. My eldest daughter (22 no pics) thanked me for raising her on classic rock.

[tbone_ 14016]

 
That said I'll match you old fuckers in Andy Griffith Show, Seinfeld, or M*A*S*H trivia any day.

Go

[HouTex 1841]

Same here (83-87).  It's crazy when I think about that compared to what I'm paying now for my daughter (no pix) as a freshman at UT. 

A few years ago my dad gave me a file from my college years and there was a UT bill from spring 1982. It was around $300 total and tuition was less than the Cactus.

[gmr548 16417]

This describes me to a tee.  Friends still played outside and built forts in the woods, but then went inside to play Goldeneye.  

Born a little later, 92, but this was my MO as well. Was still playing football/ basketball in the street til dark into high school until actual HS football became such a time-consuming activity.

First job out of school was teaching, and there is definitely a gen Z. Kids born from the late 90s on basically can't remember life without broadband or smartphones. 9/11 was a historical event. Social interaction/hierarchy is dominated by social media, Snapchat/Instagram in particular. They think Facebook is for the olds. They are different even from us millennials.

Millenials are a mixed bag. We're the largest bloc at this point so obviously not a monolith, but a lot off the stereotypes ring true. I definitely catch myself sighing at some of the ridiculously basic, stupid stuff that people my age do in real life that is totally meme material for aunt Janice on Facebook. Still, we aren't all bad. As a generation that generally came of age around the great recession I think we've picked up some good traits - bullshit detection, sense of common good, less materialism, etc.

Boomers are just disappointing. Could y'all possibly have done less with more? Run the world into the ground and still have the nerve to bitch about kids these days lol.





Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[David Dennison 18472]

Gen X.

Clearly the best generation.

[Dropout 355]

87 millennial. Absolutely are a separate generation. The transition stuck in the middle of technology and a changing world. Macs in school was a pretty cool experience. All glowing in neon colors like alien technology. MTV/BET music videos before school. I’m assuming when you olds say new music sucks you’re referring to rap. Just know there’s a difference between the “hits” you halfway hear/pay attention to on the radio and the real rap songs. I’ll listen to anything and I’d put the real rap music/songs up against any genre or artist from any year. There is real messages and depth in some songs. If you’ve already written it off though and don’t have an open mind then I’d agree don’t bother. Napster was great for exploring music as a young man. We still went outside but also had no problem playing video games to relax. 

Pretty sure was close to 10k in debt for a year and a half at UT. Great way to start out and real smart on my part as username checks out. Horns won the NC so I called it even making the best of that shit situation.

19 hours ago, destroya said:

Educate me please. Is there really a difference between millennials and gen z? Baby boomers spanned around 20 years, gen x around another 20. Now born in 96 is considered gen z? That seems more of a creation of marketers and half employed writers on jezebel trying to define their own demographic snowflake than something of actual demographic value. 

I’d vote there’s a difference. Technology and specifically the Internet changed everything. As the Internet continues to change every little thing matters. Like mentioned earlier subtle changes like different types of social media matter. These kids really grow up early bc it’s all out there. They find what they’re looking for no matter what obstacles you put in their way. I thought millennials had this down but it’s nothing compared to Gen Z. They won’t put up with any bullshit or lies. They don’t need and probably don’t want your help. Figure it out on your own will be ingrained in them from birth. Millennials got this gift/curse right in the middle of growing up.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Dropout

[Texas_Rocks 346]

Must’ve been pretty exciting when you guys discovered fire.

I missed that, but watching the advent of the wheel was pretty exciting.

[Bat Guano 359]

I came along during the last dying rumblings of the Boom – too late to really get the best parts of the Boomer experience. Of course that means the sex - by the time I came of age the AIDS scare was under way. I was still too young to appreciate the peak 60s experience, which I consider to be 1968, for both the highs and lows; it kinda went over my head at the time. The music was, and still is, great - but it led directly into disco, so 'nuff said about that. Graduated college to a deep recession and missed a lot of the economic boom years in my early career that those a few years older enjoyed. But I never really identified with the coddled, spoiled Gen Xers either; there really was a change in outlook over those few years. I think there should be a separate intergenerational Boomer-X hybrid designation, for those born 1960 – 65 or so, for those of us who don’t really feel like a part of either generation.

Wait a minute – self-absorbed, resentful, greedy, a bit of an asshole; holy shit, maybe I am a Boomer after all.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Bat Guano

[F250 28614]

13 minutes ago, Bat Guano said:

But I never really identified with the coddled, spoiled Gen Xers either; there really was a change in outlook over those few years.

I don't think Gen X has ever been called a spoiled or coddled generation. We were called the latch key generation for a reason.

 

[Bat Guano 359]

27 minutes ago, F250 said:

I don't think Gen X has ever been called a spoiled or coddled generation. We were called the latch key generation for a reason.

 

Get off my lawn.

[JimmyJames 12271]

22 minutes ago, F250 said:

I don't think Gen X has ever been called a spoiled or coddled generation. We were called the latch key generation for a reason.

 

Yeah generation x was the opposite of coddled. For the most part we were basically ignored, which meant we were allowed to do what we wanted but it also meant for most of us if we wanted a peanut butter sandwich after school we had to make it ourselves. I had many friends in high school where there was the kid section of the house and an adult section and never shall the two intersect. 

In hindsight, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. 

[elfenix 34161]

29 minutes ago, F250 said:

I don't think Gen X has ever been called a spoiled or coddled generation. We were called the latch key generation for a reason.

 

i remember when latch key kids were the ruining of america back in the '88 or '92 presidential election. 

[Parliament 14083]

Gen X'ers were whiners though. I was. Still am.

[F250 28614]

41 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

Yeah generation x was the opposite of coddled. For the most part we were basically ignored, which meant we were allowed to do what we wanted but it also meant for most of us if we wanted a peanut butter sandwich after school we had to make it ourselves. I had many friends in high school where there was the kid section of the house and an adult section and never shall the two intersect. 

In hindsight, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. 

A lot of the things our parents were allowed to get away with back when we were kids would result in state intervention these days. I think we as a generation definitely overcompensated for our lack of oversight as kids and have gone to far in the other direction.

 

 

 

[JimmyJames 12271]

38 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Gen X'ers were whiners though. I was. Still am.

Truth. Bitching about everything is a gen x staple. 

This party sucks. This popcorn sucks. Why do we live in a town where everything sucks. 

[JimmyJames 12271]

4 minutes ago, F250 said:

A lot of the things our parents were allowed to get away with back when we were kids would result in state intervention these days. I think we as a generation definitely overcompensated for our lack of oversight as kids and have gone to far in the other direction.

 

 

 

Oh there is no doubt about this. In middle school (6th grade) a friends dad and his I guess girlfriend drove us all down I 35 to sclitterbahn while we rode in the bed of the truck. Dropped us off in the morning then later picked us up at 6:00 pm to drive us all back. Today cops would have been called for sure. 

Many times I heard my friends whose parents were divorced and almost never saw their dad say they wouldn’t treat their kids that same way and would spend much more time with them.  And they have spent much more time, despite all getting divorced anyway. 

[Spur08 381]

'85 here.  Millennials are pussies and I don't identify with them.  Long live "I Dream of Jeannie" reruns at my grandparents, Number Munchers, and Oregon Trail

Edited October 18, 2018 by Spur08

[GopherRock 1765]

There is a clear difference between millennials and Gen Z. Millennials have a coherent memory of where they were on 9/11. Gen-Z was either not born or too young to remember any of it. 

[SHOOTER12 8776]

Late timeline baby boomer here, born in 1957.  I've never felt like a baby boomer, or even understood what it was supposed to mean.  I do feel however that I would not change my time here on earth for any other generation.

So often we hear of people saying, "I was born 20 years too early, or 20 years too late".  I think, and am grateful that I was born at the greatest time I could have been.   As the saying goes, "they were the best of times, they were the worst of times".  The things I've seen since my childhood, and the changes that have come to pass have been beyond awesome.

I remember as a kid in a small town in South Texas playing baseball in ankle deep sand in the middle of the street.  White, black, and hispanic kids without a worry in the world.  My father owned a grocery store and meat market and a trailer park that took up a whole block,  one block from our simple 2 bedroom cinder block house.  All the parents were worried about us playing ball in the street and my dad told us if we would clean up the back lot of the trailer park we could use it as a ball field.  Since that part of the property was never used, it had grown chest high in weeds etc.   Using sickles and scythes, we cleaned up the old lot, and my dad laid out and measured the base paths and my mom made the bases out of old burlap potato sacks from the store.  Most days after playing for hours we would see my dad pull back to the lot in his 56 International pickup with a washtub of 10 oz bottled Cokes on ice for us to take a break.  Great times.

Being able to walk anywhere in town at 5 years old with nothing to fear.   Doors unlocked at night, cars left running and unattended. Never had a worry in the world.  Of course as the world changed and modernized I saw rotary dial phones give way to push button phones, party lines give way to private lines.  Soft drinks go form 5c-10c-25c-50c and on and on.   Candy bars were a nickle.   We prowl the neighborhood to look for soft drink bottles to turn in for the deposit so we could get a Coke and a Milky Way for a snack.  Later worked in my dads store for $5 a week, and later before he sold out when HEB came into town, had gotten a raise to $10 a week.  Then hit the big time, working at a new super market for....wait for it.....wait for it....$1.65 per hour, oh hell yeah.

Hunting with the family on a lease in the hill country that cost $50.00 per year including use of hunting cabin.   Hell, now I can't even afford to hunt even if I wanted to.

Saw the moon landing, the Dallas Cowboys win their first superbowl, the building of the wonder known as the Astrodome, then many other domed marvels.  My first mobile phone was in a company truck, and the only way to make a call was to dial "0" for the mobile operator to place the call for you at about $5-6 per minute, now  mobile calls as well as land line calls almost seem free by comparison.  Cars and transportation technology has evolved beyond what anyone could have imagined "back then".  That's not even to mention computing technology being born and developing at an astronomical rate.  Yep, pushing the old 62 year mark, and just from the things I've seen,  I wouldn't have traded for any other period in time, and I know I'll see more miracles before my time is done.

 

TLDR:   Damn, wouldn't change a thing, I lived during a great period in human history.

Edited October 18, 2018 by SHOOTER12

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

32 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

Truth. Bitching about everything is a gen x staple. 

This party sucks. This popcorn sucks. Why do we live in a town where everything sucks. 

Peak Gen X:

Look, we're gonna spend half the night driving around the Hills looking for this one party and you're going to say it sucks and we're all gonna leave and then we're gonna go look for this other party. But all the parties and all the bars, they all suck. I spend half the night talking to some girl who's looking around the room to see if there's somebody else who's more important she should be talking to. And it's like I'm supposed to be all happy 'cause she's wearing a backpack, you know? And half of them are just nasty skanks who wouldn't be nothing except they're surrounded by a bunch of drunken horny assholes. And I'm gonna tell you something T. Are you listening?

Yeah, I'm listening.

I'm not gonna be one of those assholes. Alright? It just makes me sick. It's like, some nasty skank who isn't half the woman my girlfriend is, is gonna front me? It makes me want to fuckin' puke!

[F250 28614]

4 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

Oh there is no doubt about this. In middle school (6th grade) a friends dad and his I guess girlfriend drove us all down I 35 to sclitterbahn while we rode in the bed of the truck. Dropped us off in the morning then later picked us up at 6:00 pm to drive us all back. Today cops would have been called for sure. 

Many times I heard my friends whose parents were divorced and almost never saw their dad say they wouldn’t treat their kids that same way and would spend much more time with them.  And they have spent much more time, despite all getting divorced anyway. 

I've seen the same thing regarding Gen X men spending a lot more time with their kids as fathers. I think the song "Father of Mine" is somewhat of an anthem for many Gen X males.

 

 

[F250 28614]

13 minutes ago, SHOOTER12 said:

Hunting with the family on a lease in the hill country that cost $50.00 per year including use of hunting cabin.   Hell, now I can't even afford to hunt even if I wanted to. 

This is a different topic but how the hell did this happen?

 

[El Diablo 4232]

Every generation has their trials and I've heard it said that you won't know what you had until it's gone but I can tell you that that's just not true.

It was the clap.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

17 minutes ago, SHOOTER12 said:

Late timeline baby boomer here, born in 1957.  I've never felt like a baby boomer, or even understood what it was supposed to mean.  I do feel however that I would not change my time here on earth for any other generation.

So often we hear of people saying, "I was born 20 years too early, or 20 years too late".  I think, and am grateful that I was born at the greatest time I could have been.   As the saying goes, "they were the best of times, they were the worst of times".  The things I've seen since my childhood, and the changes that have come to pass have been beyond awesome.

I remember as a kid in a small town in South Texas playing baseball in ankle deep sand in the middle of the street.  White, black, and hispanic kids without a worry in the world.  My father owned a grocery store and meat market and a trailer park that took up a whole block,  one block from our simple 2 bedroom cinder block house.  All the parents were worried about us playing ball in the street and my dad told us if we would clean up the back lot of the trailer park we could use it as a ball field.  Since that part of the property was never used, it had grown chest high in weeds etc.   Using sickles and scythes, we cleaned up the old lot, and my dad laid out and measured the base paths and my mom made the bases out of old burlap potato sacks from the store.  Most days after playing for hours we would see my dad pull back to the lot in his 56 International pickup with a washtub of 10 oz bottled Cokes on ice for us to take a break.  Great times.

Being able to walk anywhere in town at 5 years old with nothing to fear.   Doors unlocked at night, cars left running and unattended. Never had a worry in the world.  Of course as the world changed and modernized I saw rotary dial phones give way to push button phones, party lines give way to private lines.  Soft drinks go form 5c-10c-25c-50c and on and on.   Candy bars were a nickle.   We prowl the neighborhood to look for soft drink bottles to turn in for the deposit so we could get a Coke and a Milky Way for a snack.  Later worked in my dads store for $5 a week, and later before he sold out when HEB came into town, had gotten a raise to $10 a week.  Then hit the big time, working at a new super market for....wait for it.....wait for it....$1.65 per hour, oh hell yeah.

Hunting with the family on a lease in the hill country that cost $50.00 per year including use of hunting cabin.   Hell, now I can't even afford to hunt even if I wanted to.

Saw the moon landing, the Dallas Cowboys win their first superbowl, the building of the wonder known as the Astrodome, then many other domed marvels.  My first mobile phone was in a company truck, and the only way to make a call was to dial "0" for the mobile operator to place the call for you at about $5-6 per minute, now  mobile calls as well as land line calls almost seem free by comparison.  Cars and transportation technology has evolved beyond what anyone could have imagined "back then".  That's not even to mention computing technology being born and developing at an astronomical rate.  Yep, pushing the old 62 year mark, and just from the things I've seen,  I wouldn't have traded for any other period in time, and I know I'll see more miracles before my time is done.

 

TLDR:   Damn, wouldn't change a thing, I lived during a great period in human history.

The Beatles, Stones, The Who, the Dead, CSNY, The Doors and Jimi all say fuck yeah 

[Tom 2959]

On 10/17/2018 at 7:34 AM, Wally Fairway said:

why don't you all just f-fade away

and get the fuck off my lawn

Y'all are just pissed because we got to ride in the back of pickup, backwards in a station wagon,  in the rear window ledge and without seatbelts. We played jarts, put mercury in our hands in science class, bought cigarettes from a vending machine, paid 35¢ a gallon for gas as a kid, didn't need helmets for bikes, ate Chef-boyardee pizza, had to find dad's stash of Playboys to see nudes, hitchhiked, built our own treeforts & tunnels, hell we didn't need all those vaccination - our parents would set up play dates with other kids who had chickenpox if it was a good time to get them.
Now where was I .... damnitall, I forget .... just get off my lawn

 

Millenial here and most of these things aren't foreign at all to me.  Every generation seems to think they're unique and the last to play outside.  You're not.  The 35 cent gas thing is probably the furthest from my experience.  I remember paying around 98 cents at the turn of the century.

I guess the vaccination thing also doesnt apply to my generation, but thank God for that.  Good luck Generation Z with your polio.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Bicentennial Gen X checking in.

You jackoffs who claim good music doesn’t exist after the year you first got your dick wet just don’t know how to find it. Every year since rock n roll became a genre there has been great bands and albums.

Ride your bike until dinner time
CHiPs reruns
Fruit roll ups
First generation gaming consoles (for my brothers and I it was intellivision)
Dialing into BBS’s
First cell phone I owned was in 2000
Remembering where you were when the challenger exploded and Kurt cobain’s body was found (whether you liked nirvana or not)
Parties in fields or dead end streets
Driving around endlessly looking for parties or anything to do


Latch key kid por vida bitches.

[Sbbruin 21690]

2 hours ago, F250 said:

I don't think Gen X has ever been called a spoiled or coddled generation. We were called the latch key generation for a reason.

 

I would regularly leave my house on a Saturday morning on my bike with the instructions to "be home for dinner."  No question of where I was going.  And this was basically from age 9 or 10 on.  Before that the question of "where I was going? "   We had a small beach house and I would head to the beach in the morning, come back for lunch, and head back out until dinner without a moment of adult supervision.  And I survived.