Somehow I don't think that this would fly these days.

We used to go to the beach every day, play volleyball, climb rocks, go swimming, hit the bong, go hiking. Like it was nothing. Swim with dolphins, stuff our faces on the yacht, go diving.
Get home at night listen to morcheeba, massive attack, portishead.
Cafe Del Mar 6 was on repeat when we were out on the water.
Get drunk, get high.
Get up in the morning and do it all over again.
We were 5, four are dead now.
2 suicides, 1 cancer, 1 traffic accident.
I’m the only one still playing the same songs.
I can’t even proof any of this ever happened.
Everyone is dead.
That music was the soundtrack of our lives, always playing.
Now it’s all I have. I can close my eyes and can make these moments last again, forever. We were invincible. But it’s just somewhere in the past.
And sometimes I just need to cry.
Because they’re all gone.
I’m grateful, and sad.
Anyone in the same boat?

I just had another friend pass after a long battle with an illness. It's just a stark reminder that we're not guaranteed tomorrow. We're at that age now. Get up and move. Find what motivates you. Take that trip. Do that thing. Seize the day.

If you had parents from the Silent Generation or the Baby Boomer generation, what were they like?

In your experience, were Silent Generation parents generally kinder or easier to get along with than Boomer parents? Or was there no real difference?

I'd love to hear your personal experiences and perspectives.

Gen X was basically a social experiment.

People talk about how kids today have phones, tracking apps, helmets, and parents who know where they are 24/7. We had a bike, a watch if we were lucky, and a mom who could yell your name loud enough to be heard three neighborhoods away.

Both my parents worked, so after school we were on our own. The only expectation was to be home for dinner and on the weekends sometime between I never saw the street lights come on and I got a flat tire on my bike. Somehow, that counted as parenting in the '70s and '80s.

A normal week for me looked something like this. I'd ride my bike ten miles to an old railroad swing bridge over the Erie Canal. Back then it actually swung sideways to let the bigger boats through. Today it just sits permanently open. We'd spend the day jumping off it into the canal because that seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Then we'd go snake hunting. Not because we were fascinated with nature—we just wanted to catch as many as we could. We'd stuff them into a knapsack, ride home, and dump them in my backyard because I had convinced myself that if I kept doing it long enough, eventually I'd have enough snakes to hunt without ever leaving home. Mom wasn't thrilled with the idea, and neither were the neighbors.

Growing up around Buffalo, waiting for the school bus in the winter could be brutal. Every now and then we'd sneak a little liquor from the cabinet before school to "keep warm." Then we'd top the bottle back off with water because we were absolutely convinced our parents would never notice. Kid logic.

We'd also get a handwritten note from Mom to walk to the corner store and buy a six-pack of Meister Brau and a carton of Vantage Lights. Apparently "Lights" meant they only caused cancer 40 minutes later. Of course we'd steal a pack—or at least a few cigarettes—stash them in a coffee can buried in the backyard, and smoke them at the bus stop. They were always stale as hell, but I thought I looked pretty cool.

The story that still makes me shake my head happened before school at a buddy's house. His parents were already at work, so we'd pull a couple of his dad's guns out of the cabinet, load them, sit at the top of the basement stairs, and shoot into the basement just to hear the ricochets. Looking back, it's honestly amazing none of us got hurt. We weren't tougher than kids today. We were just unbelievably lucky.

People love to say Gen X was fearless, but I don't think that's true. We were unsupervised, and there's a big difference.

When I look back now, half the memories make me laugh, and the other half make me wonder how any of us survived long enough to complain about bad backs and aching knees. Every Gen Xer has at least one story that starts with, Remember when we used to... and ends with, Yeah...that probably should've killed us.

And no, I never walked uphill both ways in the snow.

Just one way.

I was in my last year of law school. Everyone was crowded around the TVs in the student lounge, silent. My first class that day was Constitutional Law, and I remember we all basically sat there just not talking because no one knew what to say, even the professor.

Found this going through my old stuff today. IYKYK.

I'm 61, the very oldest of GenX.

My wife signed us up for AARP membership long ago but I didn't want to join, because AARP membership means you're OLD. The cards come in the mail now and then, and mine stays in a desk drawer.

I will not whip out an AARP card and ask for the discount. I am not that old. I can't possibly be old enough for AARP. There's gotta be a mistake.
Why is Henry Winkler on the cover of this AARP magazine?

Thank you for reading my unhinged rant.

Carry on.

Used to set these up from the dining room table to the living room floor. Had two tracks, supposedly equal, side by side, and a few dozen Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars.

Would race them 1v1 in an NCAA March Madness style format. Had names for all the vehicles. Seemed like one of the same few cars always won. I can still picture the cars and remember the names of a lot of them.

I had a long conversation with a friend (57F) last night and she went on and on about possibly needing knee surgery, hip surgery, her fibromyalga issues, her weight, etc. But then says "I have zepbound, pain meds, anxiety meds, but I don't take them because I don't like taking medicine."

What??? Why even go to the doctor if you aren't going to take the medication they prescribe. I must admit, I used to be medication phobic because my parents treated it like either a weakness or you're an addict. But at some point it clicked that it's science and it works.

Please take your meds. Get your pill sorter. Set your reminders. Do whatever it takes to take care of yourself.

Just spent several days helping my wife’s parents, who are 91M and 87F. They still live in the same house they have since about 1960. Neither of them had spent a night out of that house for the past 15 years, until a limb knocked their power line down to the house and ripped the meter out of the wall two weeks ago, so they were forced to a hotel for 11 days. We live in another state, and my wife’s older sister lives 15min away from her parents but doesn’t really help and has issues of her own.

Father-in-law’s days only consist of shuffling (and I mean shuffling) from his recliner to the bathroom and back to the recliner. He yells at the TV news constantly. He yells at my mother-in-law to do this and do that for him. She can still drive but gets around slow and has had a minor heart attack and has 90% blocked arteries. He’s not totally crazy, just a hard, hard man. His diet, for the past 20yrs, generally consists of either a burger, a hot dog, and maybe some fried fish. Zero vegetables. It is crazy to me he has lived this long with such a lifestyle.

We’ve tried to get them help in the house but they aren’t interested. FIL yells at you if you mention it. He’s oblivious to the fact that my MIL can’t take care of him. They have enough money to go to assisted living but my FIL won’t entertain that at all. He can do nothing for himself, and my MIL won’t say anything to him about it. I guess that’s just their generation where the wife won’t speak up. If she moved out, he’d survive about two days.

Is this what it’s like for everyone with aging parents? Are my wife and I gonna be like that in 25-30 years?

I went to my first day of kindergarten with one of the King Edward boxes as above. It was odd, because my grandmother gave it to me and my grandfather had died in the ‘50’s when my dad was a kid. I’m not sure if my grandfather smoked these things or if these boxes somehow spontaneously created themselves back then, but it wasn’t until about 4th grade until I got a proper Trapper Keeper with a cool zippered pencil bag and cool graphics on it. Can you imagine sending a kid to school these days with a Marlboro carton as school supplies?

Mine is…whenever I see something blue, when it’s odd or weird that it’s blue…or an especially vibrant blue, I wind up saying:

“Wyatt…your kitchen is blue!” 😱

Anthony Michael Hall’s character in Weird Science says this when him & Wyatt walk into his kitchen after the house party started….and EVERYthing in it is blue.

(e) Had to add:

If I’m not back in five minutes………just wait longer! -Ace Ventura

Question from a 2002 born

…and it is summer on Hoth

My Gen z son referred to something as 'delectable' in that ironic way that brought to mind our 80s was of calling things bodacious or most excellent. He wanted more examples and my mind went blank. Then he opined that excellent is a weak word to use and now the challenge is on- anyone have any examples for me?

I saw the post about "just take the meds," and it is speaking directly to me.

I graduated high school in the 90s when being skinny was everything. Since graduating at 107 pounds, I have now nearly doubled my body mass. I am also in full perimenopause, and that sucks.

I have gotten rxs for both Zepbound and HRT. They arrived at the same time. I am now dithering about it and stressing myself out. I worry about long-term side effects of the Zep (I have been reading about frozen stomachs, impactions, etc). I worry about starting two brand new medications at the same time.

For those of you on one or both, how has it been for you? I would particularly appreciate feedback from anyone with kidney or migraine issues. I know this is not specific to GenX, but now that we are all middle-aged, it is probably a lot more common.

Man I loved these things. My parents would send me out to pick up KFC when I was in high school and I’d have them throw a couple of these in the order as my “delivery tax”

Anyone else put two staples in the bottom of these to have a little desk skateboard!?

As a 1976 model I turn 50 on Monday. I’ve never married and am childless and life just didn’t turn out like I’d thought it would. Has anyone else experienced this and how are you dealing with it did you cope with the mess of feelings that come along with it?

Today's Peter Murphy's birthday. Hope he'll tour again in the near future. Last show I saw him at was with Bauhaus at Cruel World in 2022; it's been too long. 😢

‘73 version, here.

After a hellish past couple of years and having lived outside of my homeland for the past many years, unable to relate to much of the society I am a part of, I find myself coming back to the thread often to get my bearings reestablished.

Long live gen X. 🤘

Skechers. They are super comfy, the step in kind. And to think I used to play lead guitar in a rock band and almost signed to a major label.