Tuesday, November 3, 2009

X

Generation X.

My bloglist has long included GenX blogs - blog numbers which seem to be growing every week. GenX is raising its voice. Fellow X'er Jeff Gordinier, in a recent TIME magazine interview, said,

"I think Gen-Xers were feeling colossally invisible. All the mass-media oxygen seemed to be sucked up by baby boomers and millennials. The baby boomers were turning 60, and that's all you heard about. How the boomers were turning 60 and they were still sexy and they're hot and they're launching their second acts . . . . Where, he wondered, amid all this news about "the mating habits of AARP members" and their offspring's "bloggy, bling-bling birdsong of me-me-me-me-me sounds" were the cover stories about Generation X turning 40?"

Other totally tubular voices like jenX67's "are you there, God? it's me, generation x", FLconfetti, and Gen-Xtinct make for not only enjoyable reading and trips down memory lane, but also sharp commentaries on the issues and quandaries now facing those born between 1965-1978 (although those dates are often debated. HOTLY.) Even though my blog isn't a GenX blog, per se, I am interested in adding my two or three cents.

I thought that I'd start out with a list. It's common to see lists which read, "You might be a _____ if you....." So in that spirit, here is my very own list.

You Might Be a GenXer if You:

Remember the bicentennial and have the pics to prove it
Turned pages with Tinkerbell
Had Little People made of wood
Remember Mr. Hooper
Played with clackers
Had a Mattel baby doll filled with beans, or with a pull-string
Watched Fonzie jump the shark
Had roller skates with metal wheels and a key
Rode your banana-seat bike without a helmet - for hours at a time, unsupervised, all over town
Had a Sunshine Family doll set
Dressed up like a lead singer from Kiss
Played with an Evil Kenevil or Derrie Daring doll
Didn't "get" all the hoopla about the Village People - you just knew that you liked their music
Watched a filmstrip
Read Dynamite
Had a metal lunchbox
Played with Spirograph
Jonesed for Converse, Nike, or KangaRoo shoes
Had no more tears
Loved your Lip Smackers in bubble gum, grape, watermelon, or Dr. Pepper
Played with Fashion Plates
Ate Snack-pack pudding from a metal can
Played kickball during recess
Remember when tabs on soda cans pulled, rather than popped
Played Mousetrap
Played Superfection
Chewed Hubba Bubba, care*free, or Fruit Stripe gum
Wore an Avon perfume pin/brooch
Saw Star Wars/E.T./Raiders of the Lost Ark in the theater - and had the t-shirt
Went trick-or-treating house to house without an adult - past 8pm
Played LED football (or Blip, Merlin, or Simon)
Owned anything by K-Tel records

2 comments:

PBAndJ said...

I am so Generation X! I found myself saying "oh yaaaa" quite a few times! Thanks for the reminders!

I was just talking to Andrew about all the remixes of songs from the 80's. Groups now days take bits of songs back then and add their own flav like to Spandau Ballet, Bruce Hornsby & The Range, and Hall & Oats. I said to him, well at least I LIVED in the 80's and it was original back then. He didn't get what I was saying! LOL

Jennifer Chronicles (jenx67.com) said...

I love this post, of course, and I love finally catching up and learning a little more about you. You're so interesting. Thanks for reaching out. Sorry it's taken me so long to connect! I'm following your blog now, and am almost finished with the Halloween post. Good thing since it's almost Thanksgiving. haha!