20 Examples Of Things That Belong To Gen X
If you ask a kid about a walkman or cassette tapes, they’ll look at you as if you are talking about some alien stuff. But if you ask someone from Gen X about those things, they’ll start reminiscing about the good ole days.
When someone on Reddit asked, “What is THE most Gen-X thing?”, many people from older generations shared the things they still feel nostalgic about. Scroll below to read some of their answers.
More info: Reddit
#1
Image source: lordph8, Markus Spiske
Remembering phone numbers.
#2
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Calling your girlfriend’s house and hoping that her dad does not pick up. Kids will never know this fear.
#3
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Massive CD collections neatly stored in binders for easy access.
#4
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Being the last unreachable generation. There were hours where no one knew where we were and our parents has zero way to contact us.
#5
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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.
#6
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Staying out until the street lights came on, riding your bike with a playing card in the spokes. Staring at that sweet IROC-Z down the street. First-generation CD players. Cordless phones. Skate City. FINISH HIM!
#7
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Grunge music: Working with a handful of Gen-Xers and the only music they can consistently agree on is the Pearl Jam station.
#8
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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.
#9
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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.
#10
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Beepers. It felt so important to have one, even cooler if you paid extra for the voicemail service.
#11
Be kind, Rewind.
#12
Image source: SillyPuttyGizmo, Monoklon
Always having a pencil in the car for the cassettes.
#13
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Reality Bites and Singles. Record stores.
#14
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The Sony Walkman.
#15
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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. I forgot to add getting your hair permed curly.
#16
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Never getting mentioned in the news. It always goes from gen z to millennials to boomers.
#17
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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.
The USSR was the ‘evil empire,’ and watching the succession of premiers being executed or disappeared confirmed that. So much so, that when Gorbachev actually started the process of Perestroika, I didn’t believe it. I thought it was some kind of plot by the Russians to make us let our guard down.
The threat of nuclear war was constant. The continuation of human life on the planet was not a given.
I think there are many similarities between Gen X and the current generation (don’t think it’s Gen Z, but the kids currently going through elementary school). So, another ‘whatever’ generation growing up during COVID and the whole climate change crisis.
#18
Image source: stucon77, Brian Pennington
Mixtapes. Actual cassette tapes recorded on a boom box from songs on the radio. Bonus for Ramones tunes as part of the mix.
#19
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Pong, space invaders, 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 3 stations.
Also being totally forgotten about by the other two generations. Like door mice.
#20
Blockbuster on a friday night.
Image source: SuvenPan
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