Like Whatever
All things Gen-X. Take a stroll down memory lane, drink from a hose, and ride until the street lights come on. We discuss the past, present, and future of the forgotten generation. Come on slackers, fuck around and find out with us!
Like Whatever
Gen X 101
What if the essence of an entire generation could be captured through its cultural icons and economic hurdles? Join us as we relive the unforgettable Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, where Cher, Queen Latifah, and Busta Rhymes brought the house down. Heather and I, Nicole, share a hearty laugh over Queen Latifah's legendary Lip Sync Battle surprise for LL Cool J—a must-see for any fan! We also debate Halloween classics like Hocus Pocus and passionately argue why The Nightmare Before Christmas deserves its spot as a holiday film. It's a whimsical celebration of Gen X quirks, from our love for encyclopedias to a nostalgic nod to the Dewey Decimal System.
But it's not all fun and games; we uncover the economic trials that have shaped Gen X into the resilient bunch we are today. From the burden of student debt brought on by soaring tuition to the rise of trade schools as a beacon of hope, we share personal stories that reveal our generation's financial scars. Once deemed slackers, we paint a more nuanced picture of a generation that thrived despite recessions and shifting career landscapes. Grab your earbuds and buckle up for a rollercoaster ride through the highs and lows of the Gen X experience!
Two best friends. We're talking the past, from mistakes to arcades. We're having a blast. Teenage dreams, neon screens, it was all rad and no one knew me Like you know. It's like whatever. Together forever, we're never done as ever, laughing and sharing our stories. Clever, we'll take you back. It's like whatever.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to Like Whatever your podcast for, by and about Gen X, I'm Nicole and this is my BFFF, Heather. Hello, Before we get started into this week's subject, Heather watched the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3:This week I did watch the Rock and Roll. Nicole did not watch the Rock and Roll Hall of.
Speaker 2:Fame Because I don't have that channel. Oh, excuse me, and I was watching football.
Speaker 3:I mean, I could have given you my login. It was really good, though I missed Ozzy Because I am battling a cold and was heavily medicated, so I did miss Ozzy, I would imagine you didn't miss much there, though I don't think he's got a lot to offer anymore. Apparently, his speech was extremely short, hard to understand, basically. Thanks and fuck all of you that sounds about right.
Speaker 3:Cher was good. Cher does not look like she has a date of you. That sounds about right. Yeah, cher was good. Cher does not look like she has a date over you know 40. That's crazy. I know she looked really good. She did a duet with Dua Lipa. I love Dua Lipa, but I mean the highlight was Queen Latifah Busta Rhymes yes, for a tribe called Quest they did. I mean, queen Latifah, she's just have you ever watched the one with LL Cool J?
Speaker 2:The TV show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's one of those pop shows.
Speaker 2:Lip Sync Battle. Lip Sync Battle.
Speaker 3:Oh okay. Have you ever seen the Lip Sync Battle with Queen Latifah?
Speaker 2:I don't think so. I've only seen a few of those.
Speaker 3:Google it sometime and everybody out there. I implore you, google it sometime. Queen Latifah on lip sync battle, she does LL Cool J and she surprises him and it is. It is everything that you would want it to be awesome, except it is everything that you would want it to be Awesome, except Ella keeps a shirt on the whole time. I know it's not fair. It's not fair.
Speaker 2:I did see Zendaya wore one of Cher's old dresses and she looked stunning.
Speaker 3:She did, as she always does. She did, and then Foreigner and I don't know who else, I can't remember who else I don't know. After Queen Latifah, I was like that's all I need to remember, alright, and let's see what did I do this week.
Speaker 2:I went to my niece's Halloween party on Saturday night. It was nice. She had all sorts of Halloween-y snacks, we had a taco bar and we had deviled eggs because they're deviled. I was the only one to dress up. I went as goth. I went as a goth kid.
Speaker 3:That's some of our lifestyle, you know.
Speaker 2:I just dressed like Heather basically is what I did and we watched Hocus Pocus classic Halloween movie.
Speaker 3:You know I don't want to get political, but there is a hill that I am going to die on. That Nightmare Before Christmas is not a Halloween movie, and I'm sorry, so please explain. First of all, halloween is only in the first minute and a half of the movie.
Speaker 3:And then it's all about Christmas from then on, and the fact that they only play it at Halloween time is very upsetting, because it is a Christmas movie and literally the only Christmas movie that I will watch. Am I wrong? No, that's a valid argument. I mean, just because they live in Halloween town doesn't mean it's a Halloween movie, exactly. So that is a hill I will die on, and I don't care, because it's not right. It should be on at Christmastime, like just from Halloween to Christmas. I mean, every day I watch it. I would watch it every day, but I mean I think I saw it like 46 times in the theater when it first came out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Yep, alrighty. So all right, let's fuck around and find out about a brief history of gen x. I am excited. Yeah, it's all basically doom and gloom, but that would be expected, of course. All right, so um, the information from this week's episode was found on britannicacom, because we Gen Xers do love us a good encyclopedia.
Speaker 3:I had the best encyclopedia from 1950-something. It didn't even have the landing on the moon in it because it was my mom's, so information was not easy to find in that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did not own my own, but I have many, many memories of going to the school library. I do not own my own, but I have many, many memories of going to the school library looking up in the encyclopedia what I needed to research.
Speaker 3:Do you remember? Do you even think that you could do the Dewey Decimal System now, if you? Oh, yeah, for sure, really.
Speaker 2:Yes, I don't think I could. I love the Dewey Decimal System. Well, you're not. No, I for sure could do it.
Speaker 3:I could not, and I just saw the other day somebody was selling on facebook marketplace one of the the old cabinets for like 300 dollars. Wow, I know I wanted one. Yeah, I will do the dewey decimal system at home see you practice, and then you'll be able to do it again, but I will learn how to do it again.
Speaker 2:All right. So Generation X or Gen X is a term referring to Americans born between 1965 and 1980. And something like an aha da moment that I had looking this up, I never really considered about Gen X being just an American group.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's really not a whole lot of information elsewhere. I mean, I imagine that people our age all over everywhere went through the same thing because we all were affected by it. But yeah, yeah, everything I found was mostly american um.
Speaker 2:we grew up after the baby boomer generation, um, and during our time there were dual income families, single parent households and children of divorce. The rise in these family dynamics made a lot of Gen Xers latchkey kids. The term is well known for our generation, but for those of you who don't know, here's what this means. The definition of a latchkey is simply a lock or a mechanical fastening device. Kids typically wore a key on a string or a chain around their necks, or the key was hidden under a mat or rock near the door of the house. Did you have a key? I did have a key. I think I kept it in my book bag. I don't remember having one on my neck and I don't remember it being hidden. This is one of those foggy memories of mine.
Speaker 3:How about you? Well, no, because we never locked our doors, and when my parents moved out, like seven years ago, of my childhood home, we still had not found the keys to the house, so they never, never, locked the door, so we did not have keys. I also live, um my bus stop was because I went to school in maryland and the bus stop was in maryland and we would have to cross this road that we were not allowed to cross because it was too dangerous, you know, in 1985, in the beach, um, so we were not allowed to cross that. So I would um have to sit at the bus stop and wait for someone to come get us, and, of course, my father would forget us all the time. So I'd have to make a fantastic collect call, and the collect call always was will you accept a collect call from hey dad, did you forget us? I mean, we're sitting at the movies and it's really cold, can you come get us? Because he didn't want to, because he didn't, and he would just be like, oh shit, and then hang up.
Speaker 3:But when they were working because my parents only worked half the year, because they didn't have a real job they had a restaurant, so it was seasonal, um. So in the summer, no, I was roaming free, no one knew where I was. But in the winter time they did, they were home. So I didn't know when you weren't breaking child labor laws, when, when I was not, well, yeah, when I was not breaking child labor laws by working.
Speaker 3:I didn't do it that much.
Speaker 2:I think family it doesn't count. Back then you could have gotten away with it Still, you can.
Speaker 3:It doesn't count Really yeah.
Speaker 2:That's good to know In case I over in a restaurant. Anyway, don't do it, it's terrible. Yeah, I know I've worked in it. No, um, anyway, don't do it, it's terrible. Yeah, I know I've worked on enough. Um, uh, kids, um, latchkey kids were typically between the ages of 5 and 13, with the younger kids being cared for by the older siblings or, in both of our cases, the older sibling getting stuck taking care of the younger sibling. Uh, latchkey kids would care for themselves after school until their parents got home from work, and I know in my that included doing my homework, completing the list of chores left for me, fixing dinner, tending to my little sister.
Speaker 3:Again, I didn't have that problem. I did have to babysit my sister a lot and we fought pretty significantly. Um, yeah, she was horrible, she was a terrible, terrible, terrible child. No, she wasn't that bad, but, um, we did dare each other to do stupid things, like one time I dared her to jump in the lagoon in the middle of the winter it was like freezing as cold and her dumb ass did it. And then I had to, and then I had to shove all her clothes in the washing machine and dryer before mom got home. So she didn't tell on me, but I did have to watch after her and, um, I didn't have I didn't really have chores because my mom was pretty good and I had to feed the dog and do homework, but I never did my homework.
Speaker 2:So um, let's see. The term latchkey kids seemingly originated on a canadian radio program that was called discussion club, and the topic was how war affects Canadian children. This show aired in 1942 in reference to fathers enlisting in the war and mothers having to go to work to support the family while their husbands were away. So it is a much older term than just us. All right, so some characteristics of Gen X. So let's see if we have these All right. The first one, resourceful and independent, and this is typically a result of being a latchkey kid.
Speaker 3:Independent check. I don't know about resourceful, but I am independent. I think we're both pretty resourceful, are we?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I guess you're right there.
Speaker 3:You are correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and definitely independent, definitely independent. I mean, you just had to learn how to do things, like you had to feed yourself.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I think it's funny when you're the oldest, because you go, and, in both of our cases, because we're both five years from our siblings. Well, I'm six, well, six. You were the only one for five, six years, and I was the first grandchild and the first niece and the first everything. So all the attention in the world is on you.
Speaker 3:and then you remember when your sibling is born, and I will not go into that, but I have trauma based around my sibling being born that I will not. She has to hear it enough. So, yeah, a lot of therapy has gone into that, yeah. So yeah, we had to learn how to share and be, you know, with somebody else and share the attention and, well, give up the attention. And I think that's also how we became so independent, because I know I can do a lot of things by myself that, you know, my sister just won't do by herself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, true, very cool, all right. True, very cool, all right. So next characteristic of Gen X is we are keen on maintaining work and life balance, and it's thought to be as a result of our parents being absent from family life and also seeing the demands that work put on them. We didn't want that for our kids. I know that I worked a job so that I wouldn't have to put my kids in daycare or anything like that, and I didn't have kids.
Speaker 3:So I can't say that my work-life balance is very good, because it's not.
Speaker 2:It's all work and no life well, I mean, it was stressful, but it was always important to me that family came first, and it still is. Um, I love my job. Uh, I work very hard at my job, but I definitely turn it off when I come home, uh, so I can focus on what really matters. Anyway, all right. Next characteristic is that we are cynical.
Speaker 3:That one is a check, double check or triple check.
Speaker 2:Yes, this is a result of economic and societal uproar experienced as children and young adults. We endured recessions in the 70s, 80s and 90s that affected us into adulthood. College rates soared, leading to outrageous student debt, leading to unemployment and underemployment, and that left us viewed as slackers and whiners.
Speaker 3:Yeah, luckily I didn't have college debt from that one year at Delaware. My grandfather had passed away and left us stock, so that was paid for. So I don't actually have no idea if we have debt. I don't think so I didn't pay it. My mom and dad might have had to kick something, but I didn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have debt I will never pay off. I didn't have any student debt, you know whatever.
Speaker 3:But you know the thing of it is. And now they do it, they push trade schools, which they should have done. Then it would have been a much better situation.
Speaker 2:Yes, because now we are low on tradesmen.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I mean, you make way more money being a tradesman than you would really anything else. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, we are more ethically diverse, as one-third of Gen Xers identify as non-white. That is a pretty high percentage. Yeah, I did read that we are less likely to be involved in organized religion, which you mentioned last week Atheist, proud card-carrying. Yes, we tend to be more liberal on social issues such as same-sex marriage, although our open-mindedness does not translate to our country's liberal political party, as Democrats only make up 27% of Gen X, 30% identify as Republicans and 44% are independent.
Speaker 3:Huh, Mm-hmm, I guess that's 44% just doesn't want to pick a side, yeah. I guess, Well, they probably just vote on the issue.
Speaker 2:The issue. Yeah, whatever, I know that I'm registered for one party specifically, but I don't vote straight down the ticket. I do my research and I I do too who I think's the best I am registered um one so that I could do the primaries. That's why I chose this side yep, um, especially here in delaware, we have a very small state and you might know some politicians or families of politicians, and you know they're good people, even if they do play for the other side.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, so yeah, but also just based on what they, what's important to them, and if it's important to me, all right. So now we are going to go into, um, um, some of the traumas we went through right as gen xers back in our day there was a couple, yeah, just a few it was.
Speaker 3:It was pretty wild ride actually if you go back and research it we'll go into more of these, like in a more in-depth. This is like a brief overview and, um, yep, you know, with halloween coming up, we wanted to do something for halloween, so we're gonna, we're really working on that. So this is like just a basic overview of you know, yes, some of the stuff, but we'll definitely go in more on a lot of these subjects yeah, just try to uh, jog your memories a little bit, get you thinking.
Speaker 2:Um, if anything that you hear on here is something you'd like to hear more about, let us know. We are on all the socials.
Speaker 3:Like whatever pod on all the socials and like whatever pod at Gmail, exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly, we are not on X if you're looking for us there, but we are everywhere else.
Speaker 3:We're also not on YouTube because that I don't. I don't even want to get into the YouTube thing, but it kicked me, it had it on, it was stupid. So I am working on getting us on YouTube and on the website also. I can't even get that website.
Speaker 2:Let's not get into the website right now. That's stressful.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:So my first societal trauma that I would like to discuss is the war on drugs, otherwise known as the Just Say no campaign. This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs, which, for those of you that are not Gen X or don't remember, was egg being.
Speaker 2:That's because you did too many drugs that you don't remember you did not say no, uh, that's because you did too many drugs. You don't remember. You did not say no, um, so, uh, it was um, cracking open an egg and dropping it into a frying pan, and the egg was your brain and then you dropped it in the hot frying pan. It was your brain on drugs and really a very weird metaphor that was an ambulance, somebody was doing drugs uh, just a strange metaphor.
Speaker 2:I thought so. In the 80s, crack cocaine ran rampant due to it being cheaper and more accessible than its powdery cousin cocaine. This also led to a rise in violent crime and incarcerations. President Ronald Reagan, who was our 40th president and served from 1981 to 1989. He was also the star of 1940s films such as King's Row and Santa Fe Trail, but I digress. In response to the rising crack cocaine problem, president Reagan declared the War on Drugs, which was originally initiated by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s. I did not know that. I did not either. President Reagan's wife, nancy Reagan, created the Just Say no campaign, which was designed to encourage kids to reject experimenting with it'll make you feel good or using drugs by some. Not using drugs by simply saying no.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Because you know, when you tell kids not to do something, they don't do it. They don't do it At all, like ever, never. They have no urge, none at all, and the it'll make you feel good. You remember those commercials.
Speaker 3:I do.
Speaker 2:It was like an older teenage hoodlum Come up to these younger kids, it'll make you feel good. And they'd say no because Nancy told them, to Nancy told us to say no she also made us jump rope. First Lady, mrs Reagan, endorsed the campaign, vigorously touring the United States to appear on TV news programs, talk shows and do public service announcements. She also visited drug rehab centers, which I'm sure she was just welcomed with open arms by recovering drug addicts.
Speaker 1:I have no doubt.
Speaker 2:Little old rich white lady coming in telling them.
Speaker 3:Do you think she took her own spiritual advisor and fortune tellers with her Poor?
Speaker 2:things. Is that who?
Speaker 3:told her to say no to drugs.
Speaker 2:They probably gave everybody in there drugs after she left. Oh, I have no doubt you have to here. Y'all need this. We'll worry about the repercussions tomorrow. Just say yes. The campaign actually ended up backfiring because it fueled Americans' public concerns of the country's drug problem In 1985, only 2-6 concerns of the country's drug problem in 1985. Only two to six percent of the nation's public saw drug abuse as the country's number one problem. In 1989, four years later, that number soared to 64 percent. And you know why probably because everybody's kids were on drugs, because they were drawing so much attention to not doing drugs and it was also hella racist.
Speaker 2:So oh, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:We'll get into that. There was a lot of people that got put into jail for really ridiculously stupid. Well, there's a lot of people who are still in jail for things that white people can just go down to the corner store now and get anywhere in almost any state.
Speaker 2:Not to mention the crack cocaine problem is very racist as well.
Speaker 3:Oh well, sure, Intentionally by the government, I mean well.
Speaker 2:The next lovely thing that we got to experience as Gen Xers was the AIDS epidemic.
Speaker 3:Yes, Rest in peace, Freddie.
Speaker 2:Mercury. Yeah, so Gen Xers came of age during the AIDS epidemic. Hiv or AIDS was brought to the United States in the 1970s and 80s. However, it was not identified until the early 80s, when doctors in Los Angeles, new York City and San Francisco discovered an increase in pneumocystis pneumocystis pneumocystis Pneumocystic pneumonia. I practiced that word so many times before we recorded this?
Speaker 1:No, I didn't.
Speaker 2:You did, so let's try it again. Pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men that word pneumonia again is a yeast-like infection that grows in the lungs and is found in people with weakened immune systems, such as HIV or AIDS. So that's how it was first discovered. They couldn't figure out why all these gay men were coming in with this hard-to-say pneumonia. It was called the gay cancer for a while yeah um.
Speaker 2:So the emergence of aids led to the notion of safe sex practices. Um richard burkowski, per burkow wits and michael collin, two gay new yers, first outlined the theory and application of safer sex in their 1983 idea how to have Sex in an Epidemic. Measures, as the use of latex condoms or the practice of monogamy, are taken to avoid disease such as AIDS transmitted by sexual contact. Hmm, um, I remember back when it first came out like um. I just can't even fathom what it would have been like to have the disease back then.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was just awful. I mean, we all thought if you touch somebody with AIDS you would get it Sitting on toilet seats sharing a drink. And it was so homophobic.
Speaker 3:So I mean, it wasn't until Ryan White and Magic Johnson came out with it that it stopped being such a homophobic situation. But you were. You were scared to death of it, like yeah, anything like public restrooms, like I don't know anywhere. I mean you just you couldn't, yeah. Yeah, it was scary it was scary um.
Speaker 2:many posters and education campaigns harnessed sexual imagery to convey the importance of sex safe sex in an attempt to make safety sexy Like the safe sex is hot sex campaign.
Speaker 3:You just wanted to say sex, like that many times I did. I really wanted to say hot sex. I see that.
Speaker 2:But it wasn't a campaign tactic supported by governmental bodies.
Speaker 1:Shocker governmental bodies.
Speaker 2:Shocker, in fact, in 1987, congress explicitly banned the use of federal funds for AIDS prevention and education campaigns that promoted or encouraged, directly or indirectly, homosexual activities. This was only what 30 years ago. We haven't come that far. We really haven't the legislation years ago. We haven't come that far, we really haven't.
Speaker 3:No um the legislation was spearheaded by conservative senator jesse helms fucking jesse helms. I remember jesse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah uh, and it was signed into law by mr president ronald reagan. Yeah, yeah, ronnie, good old ronnie President.
Speaker 3:Ronald Reagan yeah.
Speaker 2:Good old Ronnie. Good old Ronnie, all right, so the next trauma I would like to discuss that we went through as Gen Xers was in the last years of the 80s. We saw a change in the world order with the end of the Cold War, which the end of the Cold War is a good thing. That is not a trauma. Everything that led up to that, though.
Speaker 2:I don't know David Hasselhoff singing on the Berlin Wall might be a trauma for some of us. Oh, david Hasselhoff, this may not sound like something that would have so much effect on school-aged children, but we spent the entirety of our school years being taught that the soviet union was the devil, which it was, uh, and we were all definitely going to die from a nuclear bomb attack well, we weren't going to die if we were under our desks, because apparently they were made of some kind of alien level technology that's, with an invisible barrier around the legs nuclear fallout from happening if you were underneath of it.
Speaker 2:How terrifying were those, though I think these days because I am in high schools for my job sometimes and the kids have to do the active shooter drills, and it's sad, it's so sad. I've been in a room before where the lights went out. It was just like an electrical failure. But all the kids were like all right, I'm gonna go hide behind the door and you do this and you like. It's so sad that they have to think that way.
Speaker 3:But then I'm like well, well and and you know, for us like it. I, I know, I know in our school well, and I don't in my memory of our school, which it could just be me making it up, but yes, because we should do a disclaimer. Most of this is probably made memory yeah this was probably some kind of fever dream, um, because we were so close to dc and and Baltimore and Philadelphia and major ports and the Dover Air Force Base and the Dover.
Speaker 3:Air Force Base and they have all these towers out here that they just drill into your head that they were here for World War II, but they didn't really tell you why they were here for World War II. So you're just expecting to see, you know, nuclear bombs dropping out of the sky Like any day.
Speaker 2:Yeah on DC, but you don't really know what that is.
Speaker 3:You didn't.
Speaker 2:Like if they had shown us a video of what a nuclear bomb looked like, we would have been like yeah, why are we practicing this desk drill?
Speaker 3:Or even told you what was going to happen, because, I mean, the desk was not going to save anything.
Speaker 2:No, and then I actually remember in elementary school and I don't know, maybe this preceded the desks, but I think it came after that uh, they would line us up out in the hallway, put our backs against the walls, make us sit down and put, literally put our head between our knees and kiss our asses. Goodbye.
Speaker 3:I don't remember doing that. I do remember getting under the desk. I don't remember having to put your no, I don't remember.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I and I remember being terrified about it all the way up through high school, like being in history class and it was in the history books like.
Speaker 3:Well, and chernobyl happened at some point in there too which was you know and then right across the water in jersey we have a, there's a nuclear power plant there, so we were just I don't remember when Three Mile Long Island had its meltdown, but Nuclear power was just super scary yeah and it still is I mean well, yeah, because like Fukushima and all of that, I mean I think it's one of the cleaner energies.
Speaker 2:But I actually saw this week that one of the Nobel Peace Prize winners went to a group of Japanese survivors of Hiroshima who are fighting for a world without nuclear weapons.
Speaker 3:Oh well, that makes sense. They kind of got screwed by nuclear weapons yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, although they started it, but I mean.
Speaker 3:We didn't have to end it like that. There's probably a different way we could have gone about that than annihilating two cities? Yeah, probably.
Speaker 2:The Earth. Yeah, you're right, let's see so.
Speaker 3:Oh, I know what I wanted to say about that. Oh, so, yeah, we were scared to death of the Russians, and you know. And then it was. You know, we had what. Baryshnikov was the only. He was a defector. And there was a gymnast that was a defector too. I can't remember her name, but you were scared to death of Russians. So when the war, or when the Cold War was over and Gorbachev teared down that wall, he tore down the wall.
Speaker 3:Well, the russians started coming over because, uh, here at the beach we use j1s. If you don't know what a j1 is, it's the students that come from other countries to work here, and they work in the summer. I don't really know the technicality of it. All I know is that they come and work at the beach in the summer. So prior to the cold war it was all irish, they were all irish, and after the cold war it was an influx of the eastern block.
Speaker 3:Um, also, you know they would say, oh, I'm from whatever country. You know that that wasn't a country when we were in school. So, you know, you have, you have to be like I don't know where that is, and now I feel like a jackass American because I don't know what that is, but it was really weird being in the restaurant business and working with them, because their stories are how horrible we were and we were going to start the war any minute. So it was really weird to be in the position now where you know they were here and they weren't so scary yeah, they were also not, you know Putin. But yeah, the J-1s they started coming in, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, every culture has good and bad. Well, yeah, so.
Speaker 3:It was just weird working. You know yeah, for sure. And you'd ask them and they're like was just weird working, you know yeah, for sure. And you'd ask them where they're from and they're like, oh, from you know this part of Russia. And you'd be like, wow, really. And be like do you have a nuclear bomb? Do you know where?
Speaker 2:they all are. Do you know when they're going to shoot?
Speaker 3:us. Am I safe under my desk? No, you're not.
Speaker 2:Dun. So the end of the cold war was marked by three major events uh, the fall of the berlin wall, which led to the reunification of germany, because berlin, for those of you that don't know was dividing east and west germany, and, as we all know, walls don't work, um, but anyway. Um, yeah the re. Uh. So the fall of the Berlin wall, the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. So you would have thought that would have ended the nuclear scare, but but then other countries stepped in to take over.
Speaker 3:Yes, Like I don't know.
Speaker 2:And now Putin's just right back up there where he wants to be, you know that's.
Speaker 3:We're in a very scary situation right now. So we are. I just read that on the news yesterday. So nuclear war is maybe not that far. Get under your goddamn desks again. We're going to need to go back to elementary school and find the little desks with the little drawer underneath. Uh-huh, maybe mine was so filled with paper that that's probably why so dirty and snacks and stuff.
Speaker 2:You could be safe in my under my desk for months the amount of garbage that was in my desk and and why did they always like have your parents come in, like I swear they had the parents come in just to make you clean out your desk, because I always would get in trouble for my messy desk.
Speaker 3:I mean, I always got in trouble for my messy desk too, but I don't remember my parents having to come in.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just saying like parents would be there and they'd see your messy desk.
Speaker 3:I went to private schools and it was frowned upon for parents to be there Because they didn't want. You know they didn't want to know all the beatings? No, we were allowed to get beat.
Speaker 2:We were allowed to get beat, I remember every year they had to. They sent home a permission slip giving the principal permission to beat your ass if you acted up in class. And it was for real, like a wooden paddle with holes in it so that there was no wind resistance. And my mom would never sign the sheet because she told me that if I ever did anything in school that warranted me needing a beating, she would beat me twice as hard as the school would See, my dad was like fuck, yeah, you can beat her and then let me know and I'll beat her when she gets there.
Speaker 3:But that didn't happen. I didn't get beat in school. We did have one teacher that would throw chalk at your head, though if you weren't paying attention or anything. He would throw either the eraser chalk at your head and then one time he did pick up a student in the desk and all and you know the good desks where it was like hooked to the chair and you could crack your back really, really good on those. He picked the whole thing up and tossed them out of the room.
Speaker 3:Yeah those were the good old days. Those were the good old days.
Speaker 2:I had a teacher in second grade and she was so mean, so mean and she would um.
Speaker 2:So, for instance, there was this big bully in class and she I don't know she did something to upset me on that, on the uh, I think she talked to my boyfriend or stole my boyfriend, or something in second grade. Um, so I hit her, which wasn't characteristic of me, but she brought it out of me and, uh, jealousy will do that, yeah, and the teacher brought us both to the front of the room, in front of the whole class, and let her hit me as hard as she could in my arm. Whoa, and this girl was like a 30 year old man, like seriously, she was huge, at least how I remember it, but she also. There was this little. I remember this classmate and he was a black boy and he had real, real short hair and she would pull our hair when we were bad and he'd be like you can't pull my hair and she would get a hold of it in a pinch and pull it and that kid would scream Can you even fathom that happening today?
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no, no, yeah, we did, we didn't. Well, I went to private school, so it was a little different for me, um, and there was only 300 people and 300 kids in the entire kindergarten through 12th grade in our school. So you really, yeah, I graduated with almost 300. I know you could. I graduated with 20, um, you really, and it was the same teachers over and over and over. So so anybody that knew you knew your parents, so you could not so I want to go back.
Speaker 2:that reminded me. I want to go back to where, when we were talking about how Gen Xers are more open-minded, yeah, and less judgmental, and things like that. So what kind of experiences do you think carved that out for you? Because you were in a different situation.
Speaker 3:You didn't have that public school integrated with everybody kind of thing so no, I didn't, um, I, my school, was all white kids, um, it was all business owner kids, pretty much. Um, with a lot of money we did.
Speaker 3:We did not have a lot of money, um, and the thing of it is is, like you know, they always say, oh, if we put uniforms, uniforms in schools, it'll equalize everybody and that is such bullshit Let me tell you, because then it moves from, instead of the clothes, then it moves to jewelry and shoes, and you know, and your coat and your hair, and you know you can't, we were never able to keep up Even what brand of uniform you're like.
Speaker 2:are you getting them? Brand of uniform? Are you getting them at the Walmart?
Speaker 3:Are you getting them at Ours had to come from a special company. Back then there was no Walmart. Well, I know the public schools nowadays.
Speaker 2:If they do have uniforms, which I think they're getting away from, I don't feel like I see it as much as I used to, but I mean khaki pants and polo. So there's still going to be poor khaki pants and polos and rich khaki pants and polos.
Speaker 3:And that was part of the problem. You know being a poor kid in my class Because my parents spent everything they had on sending us to that school.
Speaker 2:Which I have such mixed feelings about that school.
Speaker 3:I hated it while I was there, uh, but I did get a really good education there, um, and it's crazy expensive now so, um, but there was no diversity, um, and occasionally we would have, like a kid from his parents were from India because they were, you know, a surgeon or whatever, doctors, kids and stuff, but mostly it was a business owner, restaurant owners and town council and all that and. But because we had the restaurant I was, I was better integrated with, with different people because I spent all summer in restaurants and we spent the summers in our restaurant. And then my friend, her parents, had the restaurant down the street, so we'd spend half a day in our restaurant, half a day in their restaurant. So we really had a pretty diverse group of people.
Speaker 3:But I was bullied pretty heavily. Bad and, and the funny part is I was like five times bigger than literally everybody in my class, just because I've always been a bigger person, taller and and everything. And my dad used to get so mad at me because he would be like why are you letting them do this to you? You're twice as big as them, and but you know, it's just.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of us got bullied, and I think that's a lot of what made us don't get me wrong the bullying campaigns and the anti-bullying that happens now, okay, but I do think some bullying is going to happen and instead you really have to learn how to cope, because you're always going to have bullies in your life, at work and in your life. It's just you have to learn how to deal with them. And I think that's part of the problem now is that you're not learning how to deal with the bully, that you're just oh well, you know, go to somebody and tell them and then we'll just stop the bullying. Well, but you have to learn how to deal with the bully because you're going to.
Speaker 3:You know you're going to eventually run into one at school, at work, yeah, and in life.
Speaker 2:I got along pretty well with everybody in school, but I can remember being bullied sometimes Not too much, luckily. But I'm just really thankful for, like, the school I went to it was public school the people I got to grow up with. The school I went to it was public school Um, the people I got to grow up with, um, I actually um, a couple of weeks ago, a classmate posted on Facebook about the diversity in our, in our class and how thankful that he is for that. And, uh, everybody was like, yeah, we're family and it does feel like, feel like that, like we all we don't get together and do our reunions. They have met up a couple times and done things here and there and I've never attended.
Speaker 3:But if they plan another one, I think I will go oh well, I know that our parents their schools were, were not into. I know my mom and dad were in like late elementary school, mid maybe even no, I think it was elementary school. I I mean they're towards the end of the baby boomers, but their schools they remember busing, you know busing and stuff. So they remember a time before everything was integrated and so we're really the first generation that was fully integrated. You know, day one.
Speaker 2:Right and didn't give it a thought. Yeah, and that's it with us. That's what we started talking about on this, and I actually piped in and and commented that I grew up with a very racist person in my immediate life and it didn't affect me.
Speaker 2:Um, I always knew what they were saying was wrong and it didn't affect who I was friends with what I thought of people, the way I spoke of people and I you know I hadn't thought of it until this classmate posted it, but I think I owe a lot of that to my class, because we all just were so like it just wasn't a thing.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of mine is my parent, and my parents were hippies, so yeah you know they had friends of all kinds and you know, um, my dad does not give a shit about anything or anybody and you know who he associates with or whatever. He used to do golf tournaments with the lesbians that live down the street and it would just be an all lesbian golf tournament and my dad and my dad never cared about, like, how he looked to other people. I mean, he never. He toxic, toxic masculinity is not in my father's vocabulary at all.
Speaker 3:So you know, growing up with hippie parents, you know, I mean, my grandparents, on the other hand, were not well, one side was not that way. So you were exposed to racism. They were horrible way. So you were exposed to severe racism. They were horrible, but because, you know, I never, it never made any sense to me.
Speaker 2:I was so naive I still remember this because I don't know why I remember this. I don't remember a lot of things, but as a small child I remember the term was colored person. Yeah, please excuse me, but that's what it was. And I say it out loud because in my head I picturing someone with like stripes of color wrapped around like their skin, like literal stripes, and I was like I can't wait to see a colored person I bet they look so cool.
Speaker 2:they're green and orange and purple, so many colors, so pretty, so yeah, that's really. And then you know, on a lot of the rest of my family, besides that one person who is no longer in my life, by the way Well, I can't say I didn't have any racism in my family, but I think my parents, who are like the core people I never had any sense of racism from either of them, so I think that's what really helped me as well.
Speaker 3:But yeah, it just it didn't matter to me, like I, I didn't even think about it, like ever the thing about it for me not so much racism, although I suppose I was um introduced also a lot more to different, uh, people of different backgrounds and nationalities and everything when I got involved in the goth in the goth scene because especially here there's a big gay crowd.
Speaker 3:I don't really know how else. Especially in the 90s, our area was very gay friendly and I think one of the things is because I didn't fit in anywhere else and that culture was so welcoming and so loving that you know it was easy to fit right in with them and they were all there because you know they didn't have families anymore as they were kicked out of know whatever for coming out and um, so it was.
Speaker 2:I was exposed to a lot of different people at that point too um there was, it was yeah I think us working at a young age also, um, helped to uh, expose us to a bunch of people. Like I know, you started very young in the restaurant. I had my first job when I was 15, there was a department store called roses in Milford for the locals around here and they had a snack bar which was like the best job ever for a 15 year old for a 15 year old girl.
Speaker 2:We had self-preserve ice cream um roasted nuts, the warm cheese and chips you know, my rose is just closed. Our rose is just closed like oh, I didn't know that one closed over the summer it was very sad the last Kmart just closed this week too, really, yep, no more blue light specials. No more blue light specials. It was very sad the last Kmart just closed this week too Really Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Yep, no more blue light specials.
Speaker 2:No more blue light specials, so yeah, so anyway, I worked at Rose's and that's where I met my first gay man. I will never forget. It holds a special place in my heart. He was a little bit older than me, I was 15. Like I said, he was probably in his early twenties and he worked there as well and he was so fabulous. Oh my gosh. He would just come and lay on my counter and I just thought he was the greatest thing ever and he'd come eat out the soft serve machine, like without his mouth under there, from it. Yeah, I loved him. No health department walls, yeah, but yeah. So I worked there. And then I worked in a restaurant and then I worked in some movie, vhs, movie rental places.
Speaker 3:I worked in a movie rental place as well.
Speaker 2:And the funny thing about that is I'm like 15, 16 years old and back in those days there was a porn room, yes, a very explicit porn room, yes, and I had to go in there and put things away, I had to check things out. I once had to try to explain to a man in spanish because I was in high school and I still could speak spanish back then, um, and he didn't speak any english that I couldn't rent the movie that he wanted because he had a porn that was out and, uh, he needed to return that before I could redline him another movie. So that was good times. We had another guy that would come in and he because the movies were numbered, that's how you knew, right, yeah, and he had a notebook full of every number. We had like a thousand porns. He had one, two, three, four written and he would just come in and check them off.
Speaker 3:You do not want to repeat the porn and you want to make sure you see them all.
Speaker 2:I mean, anyway, what if you miss something really good? I mean so, yeah, that's what working was like back in my day.
Speaker 3:It's important to not mix up your porn and watch the same one over again.
Speaker 2:Oh my, gosh Red one over again. Oh, my gosh redundancy like seriously, so yeah, so I I think through those experiences as well. I got to see a lot of sides of people and get experience I don't know. I just feel like I've always gotten along with everyone. I feel like I still did this day get along with everyone, like it doesn't really matter, as long as you're not an asshole or doing anything to hurt anybody else, do you?
Speaker 3:Well, now let me ask you about, because you and I grew up in very different religious backgrounds. As we know, I am atheist, my mother is not, and she is the only one of us. And my sister kind of isn't, but who?
Speaker 1:knows what she's doing and my dad.
Speaker 3:I don't think really could give two shits about anything, but it was not important in our house. Like my mom went to church sometimes and my sister would go with her or she would go to the neighbor or whatever, but it wasn't an important thing. I mean her parents. Her father was Italian Catholic and he married a Protestant woman. So he was excommunicated. So church life in their family was not, although he did ask for last rites when he died. So we did not grow up in a religious situation.
Speaker 2:I grew up mathist. Um, we went to church every single sunday. I remember laying in bed every sunday morning like please, don't wake up, please, it's the alarm, please, please, please. But no, and, and it wasn't even just going to church, it was that we live like a fucking hour from the church. So, like, are you serious right now? Um, so yeah, we did all that. Um, I hit my teens, I started asking questions. Um, actually, a, a really big uh fuel thrown on my fire was Christine Cause. She started opening my eyes to like other other things you know, and. And so I, when I had to meet with my pastor to talk about these doubts, I was like how come Buddhists are wrong and we're right, when Buddhism's been around a lot longer than Christianity? So just things like that.
Speaker 3:Um, I mean, really all those religions are basically the exact same thing.
Speaker 2:They're just fighting over the guy in charge yeah, I mean really yeah, and and the decorations are different. Yeah, well, exactly.
Speaker 2:Some of them are fancier than others um, yeah so, and then some things happened, you know just life, things that really made me just kind of like I mean I don't even want to say doubt my faith, it sounds so ridiculous. But, um, yeah, so I'm atheist. Now, basically, is what I'm getting at? Um, yeah, it just I don't know. But I mean I have a lot of good memories from church too. We went to a very small little country church in a small little country town and everybody knew everybody and I had friends that were there and we all went through communion together and we all did um uh vacation bible school oh, I don't know anything about.
Speaker 3:I don't. I should just mind my own business on that stuff.
Speaker 2:I don't know any of it but yeah, um, I've dabbled in other things as an adult just to explore, but really I just yeah, but yeah, at church that definitely did not help with my um open-mindedness and diversity.
Speaker 3:Maybe it did and it had the um opposite effect well, and I wonder if it's because you know, as gen x, because you, as you said, we were so diverse, as there was a lot of people that we went to school with that were different, you know, and probably prior to us it was, everybody was a christian and everybody you know went to the same church and blah, blah, that is true.
Speaker 2:One of my very best friends in high school was, uh, catholic and I was not allowed to spend the night at her house because my mom was afraid they would take me to Catholic church. Oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 3:you know, what's really funny is we were allowed to learn about all the different, you know they were allowed to do whatever. So we had a world religion class um almost every year, which was really nice because we did learn about other religions. But then at um christmas time, we would have that christmas pageant and the jewish kids were allowed to sit that out, which I didn't think was fair because we had to sing stupid songs and I fucking hate christmas and that's probably one of the reasons why I love christmas. And so it was elementary school up to sixth grade, and once you you hit sixth grade, they were the sixth graders, were like the choir, so they would take certain people out of the class to do the nativity scene.
Speaker 3:And I was Mary. What I was Mary? Oh, snap, I had to go and walk up and sit on a bale of hay and turn the flashlight on. It's a very important duty to turn Jesus on. That sounds stressful. It was. It was very stressful, but I did not have to sing the stupid songs that we had been singing for the last six years of my life over again. So that was nice, that I got to be Mary.
Speaker 3:And then my sister got to be Mary. Oh, look at that that was it's a family tradition it was a family tradition to be mary and the christmas play, but that was one of the. The good things about our school also was that we did get to um, we did learn about other, yeah, religions and we had to read. You know, we read parts of the bible, the, the Koran, all of it. We read parts of everything.
Speaker 2:I don't remember a lot of Christianity in school, I mean a lot of religion in school. You probably weren't allowed, yeah.
Speaker 3:Because you went to public school. Right, there's a separation there. It's supposed to be. It's supposed to be.
Speaker 2:They want to bring it back. Don't get me started on separation of church and state.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm gonna get you started. No Baphomet in schools for everyone. Yeah, that was good. That was good, you did a good job. That's telling us all about the well, thank you all about the Generation X thanks, yeah, I figured, since we're just getting started.
Speaker 2:Maybe just You're telling us all about the Generation X. Thanks, yeah, I figured, since we're just getting started. Maybe just I mean us Gen Xers are going to know this stuff. Maybe it was a little refresher for them but anyone else who happens to care about us slackers?
Speaker 3:Nobody cares about us.
Speaker 2:We really don't. I hope we can find enough Gen Xers that care enough to listen.
Speaker 3:I mean, we have 25 right now and I know one of them is not a gen xer so yeah, okay, um, so our next episode is going to drop the day after halloween unless. I can, you know, work it out? But I'm probably not gonna be able to work it out. So, um, what I thought we would do is we're going to do some urban legends involving the Halloween, like you know, the candy situation yeah, don't eat the candy, it has razor blades. Yes, and some other, you know, random.
Speaker 2:Which how they ever got razor blades into hard candy is beyond me. I don't know and why they would waste their drugs putting them into candy to give kids. That one I also never got.
Speaker 3:That's the fucking stupidest thing ever, oh my.
Speaker 2:God Having to come home and have your candy. Your family go through it first.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty sure that the only reason that was even invented was so that parents could take your Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Oh, I'm pretty sure that was.
Speaker 2:Well, you're definitely going to have to research that parents could take your Reese's peanut butter cups. Oh, I'm pretty sure that was well, you're definitely going to have to research that. Find out if that's the origin of a big candies.
Speaker 3:Yeah, ultimate plan was to get your parents to steal your reset. I don't know about you, but my dad would always take the Reese's peanut butter cups. But my dad has a serious sweet tooth and I'm pretty sure that I'm trick or treating is just to get candy. Which serious sweet tooth, and I'm pretty sure that, um, trick-or-treating is just to get candy, which you know is the stupidest thing, because we were told to not take candy from strangers, except for the one night or to go to strangers houses and then it was just a parade of and well, we'll talk about it on the next one yeah, probably in the 80s, because that's a whole.
Speaker 3:That's a whole nother thing, whole nother. Because we come from a rural area and not a city so trick-or-treating for us was weird um I don't know about for you, but it was for me, um, I guess yeah, because you grew up out in the middle of nowhere, yeah, um, so yeah, we were gonna. That's gonna be the after halloween, so you can buy your discounted candy I'll remind you to not forget to buy your discounted hand candy with zero razor blades in it yes, we only eat razor blade free candy.
Speaker 3:Yes, um, and then you know, like further down, um, we have a lot of different things we want to reminisce about drinking, drinking hose water. Oh, you know, I saw a TikTok the other day that said something about like why do we look so much younger than any other generation? The fountain of youth was the hose water.
Speaker 3:There was something in the hose water that made us look like. Sometimes I wonder if it's maybe just not us being delusional that we don't look as old as that we are, yeah, but I mean I don't know. I don't think we look that old.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you always see those comparisons of like famous people at 50. They look like 80.
Speaker 3:The Golden Girls is a prime example, because they were all in their 50s for the Golden Girls and you know I don't look like that. No, but someday we're going to live the Golden Girls lifestyle. We're going to get a house and we're going to travel. That's how we decided. We're retiring, we're going to retire to a cruise ship and we're just going to dump our husbands and go traveling around the world. Here we go. That's a great idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, why not?
Speaker 3:But other stuff. You know, I wanted to talk about baby Jessica because she fell in a well.
Speaker 2:I just saw something this week About her, just like what she looks like now.
Speaker 3:I bet I mean it was weird. I wouldn't know her without a backboard on. I didn't read it would I mean it was weird, I wouldn't know her without a backboard on.
Speaker 2:And I didn't read it. Yeah, I didn't read it, I just read the headline. That's crazy.
Speaker 3:But yeah, well, it's probably coming up on some kind of anniversary of that Probably. And then I know one where you know you were talking about the generational traumas that we have. I think, personally, the biggest one is the Challenger we have. I think personally the biggest one is the challenger and, um, you know, we watched a teacher blow up on tv and then they just wheeled the tv out and we went on about our day.
Speaker 3:No grief counseling no and did you know that? Um, big bird was supposed to be on that? Yeah, really. Yeah, they wanted to put big bird on and they decided not to. That's why the teacher, so Big Bird. Can you imagine? Could you even imagine?
Speaker 2:No, because Sesame Street is one of the subjects we're going to cover, because it is so important to us.
Speaker 3:Can you imagine Big Bird getting on that thing and then it blowing up?
Speaker 2:And then he wouldn't be able to be on Sesame Street anymore.
Speaker 3:Well, no, because he would have blown up.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:That would have been crazy. That would have been so crazy, yeah. So I do want to do that, but that one's going to take. You know, because I was part of the Young Astronauts Club, I still have my certificate. Thank you very much, yeah, so these are all things that that we want to cover, but next week we are going to do um, halloween, urban legends, scary, spooky stuff, even though it's the day after halloween, but for us recording it will not be after halloween. So exactly, we will be spookified.
Speaker 2:You can listen to us on your Halloween hangovers.
Speaker 3:With all your discounted candy With no. Razor blades yes, or needles no, or drugs, although they might have drugs, because I'm pretty sure you can just buy those now. Oh yeah, true, say no to drugs. It's very important, nancy told us.
Speaker 2:Yes ma'am.
Speaker 3:All right, that's enough rambling from us. Um, we appreciate those of you that have listened to our first episode and who are now listening to our second episode. Yes, thank you um, you can like and share, or like and review or rate or whatever you Apple people do, I don't know, anything.
Speaker 3:I'm a Samsung girl and I so on. All the. We're available on almost all the podcasting sites except for YouTube, because I haven't figured that one out yet and we're on all the socials at like whatever pod Except for X, except for X. And the email is like whatever pod except for, except for x. Um, and the email is like whatever pod at gmail, if you have anything you wish to tell us. That's nice and not mean yeah, we prefer positive feedback yeah constructive criticism is welcome as well.
Speaker 3:Yes, just don't hurt our feelings we don't have feelings let's be honest, we're gen x, yeah we don't give a shit about your opinion. Go get your own podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So thank you for listening, yes, and we really appreciate it and I think that's it. That's it so you can share, review or like whatever.
