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Someone asked what's the 'most Gen X thing' ever and the responses were awesome

"Hanging by the Blockbuster door to see if any good movies were returned."

via Chris Pirillo/Flickr, Ryan Smith/Flickr, and Ebay

A swatch watch, Blockbuster video, and pack of Garbage Pail Kids cards.

Every generation has collective experiences in its youth that help define it. Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) had the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, and the Moon landing. Millennials (1981 to 1996) lived through 9/11, the Great Recession, and the social media revolution. What about Gen X (1965 to 1980)? In their youth, they experienced the fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of pop culture in the ‘80s, and Kurt Cobain’s suicide.

Gen Xers were also born in an in-between era after women entered the workforce and before the advent of helicopter parenting. They fell through the cracks and were often left on their own. That’s a big reason why they have a reputation for being resourceful and independent. They are also known to be a bit cynical and sarcastic, a trait that comes from the economic and social tumult they experienced as children.


The generation also occupies an interesting point in history where many Gen Xers had analog childhoods and digital adulthoods. This gives them an interesting perspective on the role that technology should have in our lives and a nostalgia for long summer days riding bikes without a phone in sight and staying outside until the street lights came on.

But what were some other Gen X experiences that other generations may not understand? A Reddit user asked the Gen X forum, “What’s THE most Gen X thing?” and over 5,000 people responded with memories of their childhoods that helped to define them.

15 of the ‘most Gen X’ things people have ever experienced

1. Whatever

"Whatever."

"I’m 46 and will take my jaded apathy to the grave, thank you very much. Now everybody leave alone cause everything sucks."

2. Taping songs off the radio

"I'm just on that border between Gen X and the oldest Millennials, but my sister is 8 years older than me. We would call the local rock station to request a song, then sit there with a tape at the ready to hit record as soon as they played our song. Repeat that about 10x and you've got a nice mixtape."

"I spent months making a tape that had 'I Will Always Love You' by Whitney Houston on repeat (both sides) and gave it to my stepsister as a gift. She listened to the whole thing, hoping for a different song. Cause she hated that one."

3. Arcades

"Video arcade. Before Gen-X, graphics weren’t good enough, and after Gen X, you’d play the games on your own home console. No other generation claimed them like we did."

"I remember being indignant when the first 50-cent games came out. What, you think I'm MADE OF MONEY?"


4. Being forgotten

"Never getting mentioned in the news. It always goes from Gen Z to millennials to boomers."

"My sister watched a video that was supposed to be about every generation from the greatest generation through Gen Z, and they left out Gen X. Just skipped right over that time period."

This is in reference to a news story that CBS News ran in 2019 about Millennials being the "burnout generation," where they put up a graphic of every generation from Silent to post-Millennials, now known as Gen Z, but they forgot to include Gen X. It was a perfect example of how Gen Xers have been ignored for years.


GenX being left off the definitive generation chart is the most GenX thing that ever happened to GenX.
byu/SojourningTruth inGenX


5. Music videos

"Watching MTV Headbangers Ball Saturday morning, ready to record on the VHS when my favourite bands came on."

"Yes, 120 Minutes- but also, Yo! MTV Raps."

6. Swatch watches

"With the rubber guard on the face."

"Swatch Guard, to keep you from telling time on the face with no numbers, of course. Yes, I had both at 14 in 1985."

7. CD cases

"Massive CD collections neatly stored in binders for easy access."

"Claiming shotgun in the car so you had access to the binder and could play DJ for the night."

8. Last generation to live without the internet

"Being old enough to remember (and appreciate) life before the Internet and cellphones but being young enough to transition into that world without a hitch."

"Old enough to remember life before the ubiquity of the internet (and computers to a lesser extent), yet young enough to still be able to understand newer tech like modern smartphones and computers."

9. The Young Ones

The Young Ones was a British comedy TV show that ran from 1982 to 1984, about four very different university students who each represented a different clique. There was Vyvyan the punk rocker, Neil the hippie, Mike the "cool guy," and Rick, the Mod-socialist. The show mixed gross-out comedy, surrealism, and political satire, and was a cultural phenomenon in England that became a cult classic in 1985 when it debuted on MTV.


10. Being unreachable

"Being the last unreachable generation. There were hours where no one knew where we were and our parents had zero way to contact us."

"Be home before the street lights are on."

11. Garbage Pail Kids

"I bought a pack once, and my mom thought they were Cabbage Patch Kid cards. When she saw them, she made me return them to the store!"


12. Blockbuster on a Friday night

"Hanging by the door to see if any good movies were just returned."

"Checking your answering machine messages to see if the video store called to say the movie you wanted was in."

13. Trapper Keepers

"I loved my Trapper Keeper. Everything fit in there, didn't need a bookbag."

14. Hypercolor shirts

"I sell the sh*t out of hypercolor shirts in my vintage store. I’m the only one who actually knows to look for them. The younger set is completely amazed by vintage hyper color."

15. Payphone scams

"Using a payphone to make a collect call with the intent of the call being declined. It's a messaging system that notifies your ride that you're ready to be picked up from the movies, where you watched Back to the Future. Or from the arcade where you just blew a roll of quarters on Super Mario Bros."

"Calling your out-of-town friend collect from a payphone to another payphone to avoid long-distance charges. Successfully did this with an overseas boyfriend, too."

"We used to call the payphone on the corner by 7-11 just to see who would answer."

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Boomers and Gen Xers wish young people could experience these 7 things they grew up with

"The satisfaction that comes with slamming down a landline phone receiver."

Photo credit: Canva

kids playing in the woods

Those of us who grew up in the age before the internet have memories that today's young people will likely never have. Boomer and Gen X childhoods were simpler in many ways, not having access to endless entertainment or the pitfalls of the online world to contend with on a daily basis.

The internet has arguably made human life better in many ways, but it has also fundamentally changed what growing up looks like. Where the older generations had a handful of TV shows at set times on limited channels, younger folks can binge watch streaming shows and YouTube channels 24/7. Boomers used manual typewriters while millennials had laptops. Gen X carried Walkmans while Gen Z carries smartphones.

And that's just technology. The world has changed in other ways, too, including greater safety awareness that's changed the way people parent and kids having less access to untouched nature. Change isn't inherently good or bad, but there are definitely some nostalgic elements of boomer and Gen X upbringings that those older generations wish today's young people could enjoy.

Here are some top answers to the question, "What is something you grew up with that you wish younger generations to experience?" from people born before 1980 on Reddit.

Being unreachable

80s kids, 80s nostalgia, gen x, gen x kids, nostalgia, boomers, boomers vs gen x, generational differences Two young boys leaving homePhoto credit: Canva

"The freedom to be unreachable and unaware of what everyone on earth is doing at any given time, meaning ... life pre-iphone and pre-social media."

"Pre CELL phone. Pre pager. (I mean, I know early cell phones were around but virtually no one had them pre-1993 and certainly no one expected or even considered them except high paid business folk)."

"Yes, I came here to say anonymity but being unreachable was so nice."

"I remember leaving my phone home and not thinking anything of it. Now it’s not even ‘optional’. Phone is firmly a part of the ‘keys, wallet’ checklist before leaving the house."

"Yes, having people be able to reach out to you 24/7 is not a good thing."

Unrestricted, unsupervised outside exploration

80s kids, 80s nostalgia, gen x, gen x kids, nostalgia, boomers, boomers vs gen x, generational differences Kids exploring in the woodsPhoto credit: Canva

"Running wild outside in the country for entire day without even considering anything that could go wrong."

"We used to just run around the woods by my friends house, and had tree forts and rode bikes around to the neighborhood kids houses. No concept of time outside of sunset. I think that might get lost in the shuffle more today."

"This would be mine as well. Hop on your bike with a friend or two and head out. Maybe to the creek or the woods or the dime store downtown. Just an amazing aimless wandering with no fear of being accosted by anyone. A quick ten cent phone call home to let mom know where you were. Just be home for dinner. Our era had the best childhood ever."

"This is true. I would wander for miles. But the thing is, looking back I can now see more than a handful of incidents that I was very lucky to escape by the skin of my teeth. I’m talking about hitchhiking or telling my parents I was sleeping over someone’s house, them telling their parents they were sleeping at mine and then staying out all night. Stuff like that. It was fun- good times but when I think of MY kid or grandkids doing the same thing I want to throw up."

The joy of wonder without answers

80s kids, 80s nostalgia, gen x, gen x kids, nostalgia, boomers, boomers vs gen x, generational differences A child wonderingPhoto credit: Canva

"Wonder. Sometimes we would just wonder about something. Watching a movie with friends. Someone says 'I wonder if William Holden is still alive?' Everybody would shrug and say 'I don’t know' and you go on with your lives."

"Something humbling and wonderful about not knowing. Now with so much knowledge literally in our hands, we have this anxious 'need to know' everything. And everyone has become a Tik Tok expert."

"Or allowing mysterious, wondrous stuff exist without explanations that are instantly available to remove the sense of awe about how odd, crazy, wonderful, talented, insane, or whatever our world can be."

"The world was more of a mystery back then. That has both its upsides and downsides, but I can't help but feel that some of the wonder has dissipated."

The gift of boredom

80s kids, 80s nostalgia, gen x, gen x kids, nostalgia, boomers, boomers vs gen x, generational differences A bored little boyPhoto credit: Canva

"Boredom. Boredom breeds creativity. Boredom has been removed from their lives."

"The skills you gain from the experience of being bored, every now and then. Principally, how you can develop that inner voice, which has been my friend on many occasions and saved my bacon many more. If you always rely on external sources for information or support you’ll surely get stuck when things go wrong or you have to make a decision quickly."

"Boredom leads to reading plus learning to play instruments."

"While I’m happy my kids made friends online the desperation of boredom and creating your own things was really important for me."

"Boredom. The number of times I whined to my parents I was bored and their answer was just 'then go find something to do' led to all kinds of fun."

The freedom to make mistakes

80s kids, 80s nostalgia, gen x, gen x kids, nostalgia, boomers, boomers vs gen x, generational differences A young girl embarrassedPhoto credit: Canva

"Being able to make a mistake without it going viral online."

"Experiencing awkward coming of age scenarios without being documented in a server farm somewhere with world wide access."

"I'm sorry kids don't have the chance to make mistakes and correct them without it being memorialized online to follow them forever."

"Being able to break things and make mistakes... the cost is way too high now."

Tactile pleasures

80s kids, 80s nostalgia, gen x, gen x kids, nostalgia, boomers, boomers vs gen x, generational differences A little girl readingPhoto credit: Canva

"The satisfaction that comes with slamming down a landline phone receiver."

"Encyclopedias."

"Paper maps. I’d love to see someone in this day and age successfully use (and fold back to its original form) a paper map."

"Reading a book instead of playing video games (most useless invention possible). I'm actually old enough to remember no TV in the house and no radio either (my parents read newspapers and magazines instead for their news but it's a much slower feed and more local)."

"The thrill of buying a vinyl album. I know you can still do that, but it just doesn't seem the same. Back in the '60s and '70s they were absolute TREASURES."

"Sleeping on sheets that had been dried out on a clothesline in spring. The scent on those sheets was intoxicating."

Travel feeling more adventurous

80s kids, 80s nostalgia, gen x, gen x kids, nostalgia, boomers, boomers vs gen x, generational differences Friends going on a road tripPhoto credit: Canva

"Going on a road trip with your friends to somewhere you've never been, navigating your way there with a road atlas, and then exploring it without consulting any online reviews or suggestions from Google Maps."

"Experience world travel the way it used to be. There was a time when traveling to another country was a big deal and it was adventurous.

Now, we can buy a last minute ticket on a flash sale, read about the destination on the way to the airport, watch Hollywood movies on the plane, rent a car from a familiar brand, stay at a known hotel chain, eat familiar food and use your GPS to guide you around while you chat in real time with your friends.

Travel is still fun but the magic and romance are mostly gone. That feeling of being far away and completely submerged in a strange culture almost doesn't exist anymore. It's too easy and homogenized now."

"So true. Even back in the early 2000s I remember being on a bus in South America with an American 19 year old who was really captivated by the idea that I travelled in the 1970s "before email." You had to wait two weeks to receive any kind of letter at the General Delivery post office of whatever country you were in. There was so much freedom in that, and a real submersion into the local culture, an ability to let go of your cultural touchstones and become someone new."

"The old way of traveling meant there was a lot of serendipity happening. You’d head to some town you knew nothing about and get chatting with someone on the bus who would then invite you to stay at their house. They would feed you and show you around, help you navigate whatever you needed to head on your way. A lovely way to meet people and learn about nearby treasures to see that you knew nothing about. Now , everything can be researched and plotted out beforehand. I still travel in an unplanned way, with no agenda, no lodgings figured out, but when I mention it, other people shudder and say their anxiety wouldn’t allow it. Did we not have anxiety in the old days? Yes, we did, but it was all part of taking risks in life."

There's a lot that's better, easier, faster and more convenient about life in the 21st century, but there really was something special about growing up in the pre-internet days, wasn't there?

This article originally appeared last year.

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Gen X woman describes what Halloween was like in the 80s with perfect accuracy

"Every single member of Gen X can smell this photo."

Photo credit: ~ tOkKa/Flickr, Canva

Halloween costumes in the 80s were terrifyingly terrible.

Halloween has come a long way since the 70s and 80s, when Gen X kids donned the worst mass-produced costumes known to man to go out and ask strangers for candy that we were sure was laced with poison or razor blades. Those sure were good times, though, weren't they? Social media creator Kelly Manno shared a video describing what Halloween was like for kids who grew up in "the forgotten generation," and holy moly is it accurate.

First, Manno showed a photo of someone dressed in an "80s costume" for Halloween, with neon colors and legwarmers and big hair, and said, "Absolutely nobody looked like that in the 80s, especially on Halloween. We looked like this."

Then she showed a grainy photo of kids in the plastic masks and poorly printed costumes that were the hallmark of the age.

"Every single member of Gen X can smell this photo," she said. "It's like a vinyl, like plasticky paint smell."

Manno explained that our parents only took a few photos of us per year, and Halloween was always one of them.

"You knew, before you went out trick-or-treating, that you had to line up with your cousins in front of the fireplace, in your highly flammable costumes, with your mom chain-smoking Virginia Slims.'"

Oh, those masks were the worst inventions ever. The eyeholes never lined up properly, so you were constantly trying to adjust them to be able to see even a little bit.

media4.giphy.com

"We would push our tongue through the slit in the mask. It would cut our tongue, but then we'd keep doing it again because we were eaten up with OCD and ADD and nobody cared."

Then Manno described the "garbage bag costumes" we had, which were basically trash bags printed with whatever character it was supposed to be. So janky. So sweaty. So crinkly when we walked. But somehow still socially preferable to your mom making your costume from scratch.

"Look at us, we were terrifying," Manno concludes. "No wonder people tried to poison us."

media1.giphy.com

Her descriptions of what it felt like to trick-or-treat in those costumes and haul our own bodyweight in candy are spot on, and people who lived it are feeling the nostalgia.

"So much truth in one video! 😂 I just saw, heard, and smelled my childhood."

"You are literally making me laugh so damn hard, cause you described it exactly as it was, but my mom smoked Winston's!"

"It was always freezing on Halloween that the vinyl/plastic suit would crack and tear halfway through the night."

"Or the rubber band breaking at the second house and you had to hold it up on your face at the door the rest of the night. 😂 Good times."

"The tongue thing is on point. I can still feel it. 😂"

"I can totally smell that picture lol. I remember the steam from inside the mask would have your lashes and eyebrows covered in dew then after a couple streets of running house to house the crotch would tear out. We would stay out until everybody turned their lights off and the pillow case was full."

"Yes!!!! And we used a pillow case for our candy. And no adult supervision."

"My mom made me really nice homemade costumes, but I remember begging for the plastic Strawberry Shortcake garbage bag one. So, she bought it for me one year. That was a terrible, sweaty experience. 😂"

"Let’s not forget having to inspect every piece of candy for razor blades. I swear I lost half my haul to my father in that clean up. 🍬 🍫 😢"

Kids these days have no idea, with their official city trick-or-treat hours and their parents walking around with them and their costumes that actually look like the thing they're trying to be. The 70s and 80s were a wild time, and as funny as it is to reminisce about those Halloweens of old, most of us would agree that the experience has been much improved for our own kids.

media.giphy.com

Pillowcases still make the best trick-or-treat bags, though. Some things do not change.

This article originally appeared last year.

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16 of the Gen X time capsules that make zero sense to any other generation

Who remembers Columbia House collect notices?

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The car DJ is a sacred job.

Let’s hear it for the lost generation—the slackers and middle children who brought us apathy personified and grunge music. Sure, Gen Xers might not be as loud as the boomers, millennials, or even the Gen Zers of this world, but that’s only because, if we’re honest, they’re too busy taking care of things themselves to have time to complain.

And you know, for being the forgotten generation, the world can’t seem to stop talking about it. From Gen X pop culture classics re-emerging into the mainstream, to making headline-worthy spikes in wealth over the past couple of years, this group is (finally) in the spotlight.

Recently u/Ruffffian asked the Reddit community to share what they consider to be “THE most Gen X” thing. As a certified millennial, I have absolutely no idea what half of them are (seriously, what is a “Garbage Pail Kid” and why are they terrifying?). But I guess that’s why only you latchkey kids can proudly claim them.

Much of what people shared harkens back to an experience, rather than an actual object, but one thing’s for sure—only Gen Xers can fully understand, let alone appreciate, this list. Dare I say, no other generation has this flavor combination of edgy and wholesome.

1. “Columbia House collect notices.”

– @additional-Olive-405

Not gonna lie, I had to look up what this meant. Fellow millennials, think old Netflix, but for music. There, translated.

2. "Never getting mentioned in the news. It always goes from gen z to millennials to boomers.”

– @My_eternals

3. “Video arcade. Before Gen-X, graphics weren’t good enough, and after Gen-X, you’d play the games on your own home console. No other generation claimed them like we did.”

via GIPHY

– @Masonsknob

4. “Parachute pants..the noise was deafening in the halls between classes!!”

– @GboyFlex

5. “Claiming shotgun in the car so you had access to the binder and could play DJ for the night.”

via GIPHY

– @TikTokTinMan

So like…no Spotify playlist? Such dark times.

6. "Sun-In for hair. Feathered bangs. Blue eyeliner. Love's Baby Soft. Jellies."

– @star-67

7. “Hair crimper, riding bikes with no helmets, buying smokes for my dad at the shop. Putting baby oil on and sunbaking (cause we were literally baking ourselves haha) doing whatever I wanted for one to two hours after school by myself cause parents were still working. Being allowed to roam the streets until almost dark.”

via GIPHY

– @Master-Cricket9906

8. “I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie To the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock it to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat…”

– @labretirementhome

9. “Being the last unreachable generation. There were hours where no one knew where we were and our parents had zero way to contact us.”

– @Nakedreader_ga

10. “Calling your out-of-town friend collect from a payphone to another payphone to avoid long distance charges.“

via GIPHY

– @Advancedbullshit (who "successfully did this with a boyfriend too")

11. "Always having a pencil in the car for cassettes."

– @sillyputtygizmo

12. "Being the last generation to have to walk across the room to change the TV channel. Being able to fix the TV by pounding on it the right way. Getting the brown box for the TV and there only being three stations."

– @ok_micologist_5569

13. "Watching MTV's Headbangers Ball on Saturday morning, ready to record on the VHS when my favorite bands came on."

via GIPHY

– @hyenaatemyface

14. "What defined Gen X growing up was living under the constant threat of nuclear war. If you wonder why Gen X is defined as 'whatever,' it's because we believed that at some point in our future, we'd end up living, or dying, in a nuclear winter."

– @ruatrollorruserious

15. "Beepers. It felt so important to have one, even cooler if you paid extra for the voicemail service."

– @nousername56789

And finally...

16. "Being old enough to remember (and appreciate) life before the internet and cellphones but being young enough to transition into that world without a hitch."

– @TikTokTinMan


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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