GEN Z Kid Reacts To Why GEN X RULE (How Did Guys You SURVIVE)

[@Tom-Mac1975]

Gen X, we were 30 by the age of 10 and are still 30 at the age of 50. Rock on my fellow beautiful crazy bastards. EVERYTHING she said rang true for me. That Rexo ink on those school tests sheets would smell so good!

[@mattnsac]

Yep, we learned EVERYTHING on our own for better or worse. But it was fun huh?

[@sonoftherepublic7737]

Telling the truth! Gen X!🤟🏽

[@LatinCuz]

So true. A lot of us had to grow up fast. Being a Latchkey kid, taking care of our younger brothers and sisters, doing chores inside the house and outside. I felt like a was a child parent. We were taught to be self independent self reliant , Productive. I'm grateful for that.

[@genabalser1614]

Back atcha. ❤

[@tntcyclespdx640]

I forgot about the dog licking....thats so true. LMAO

[@paschamaryalophand9200]

She’s spot on and actually leaving some other stuff out. It was the best of times! Gen X all the way!

[@seaneendelong8065]

The most absurd part is.... GenX is convinced that every previous generation of kids were somehow watched over and protected. And every one since has been hemmed in by helicopter parents and regulations. I'm late Boomer and my much older brother and sister rode those skates and proto skateboards DOWN STEEP PAVED HILLS then crashed into cars or sidewalks or just plain asphalt to stop. The swing sets were 2 to 3x as high, metal rings, and you could easily get them high enough to have the centrifugal force fail and fall straight down from 25 to 50 feet up if your grip on the finger-busting if trapped chains slipped. More than one kid in our SMALL elementary school fell or were pushed on the top of those metal slides with metal angled support bars- with severe arm breakage or even busted open heads. No one ever considered removing them even then. Building treeforts out of dead branches in iffy trees over ravines, or almost worst having a series of 2x4 steps nailed into a 75 foot pine tree by an adult to an open platform as near.the top as possible and tied to that platform was a single long rope with a knot on the bottom to jump off. Jumping into the unknown depth or obstructions murky waters of the river flowing into the ocean from the levee when nearly none of us had been taught to swim. Riding bikes directly across uncontrolled highway traffic from neighborhoods to wherever, and being the passenger on the handlebars who slipped half the time. Actually EATING those mud pies when playing. Or bugs. Games of chicken with real lead in them pencils- more than a few of us still have a chunk of broken off lead stuck under our skin in a shin or foot or hand. And that was the SAFE version: the daring kids used switchblades between fingers. Hitchhiking to community centers, amusement parks, adventure zone forests, another town while walking directly down the shoulder of a highway with zero clearance. Science kits sold FOR KIDS with real caustic chemicals and glass containers that would explode or make toxic fumes with the wrong mixtures. The morning bus stop being at the corner bar- and routinely waiting inside on bad weather days where we could play pool or the pinball machine along with the drunks there at O Dark 30. And this isn't even talking about what we got up to as teens while she was being traumatized by Jaws.

[@charlesbryson7443]

Not previous, subsequent.

[@nickoD509]

@@seaneendelong8065 I think you just described Gen X.

[@eilshines5451]

@@seaneendelong8065we had some fun times those days We used to walk for miles and end up in different towns and make our way back home not eating all day and making our way home when the park closed. There used to be men who would come to the park and flash at us children. We would tell the older children and they would stone them or follow them home and make life hell for them till the adults came and took over. The amount of times we would have broken body parts or deep gashes because we fell from the top of the high slide or climbing frame and they were all on concrete not grass. Some children had pellet guns or rifles. If anyone got hurt it be like a any other injury if worse you went to the hospital and maybe a smack for making your parents have to take time to take you 😂 Like you said that’s not even what we did as teens😂😂

[@erickalear7609]

No, we don't- all and none isn't a thing that any generation believes 100 percent. Idk about anyone else in GenX, but my parents were and are narcissists who i haven't spoken to for years due to their abuse and neglect. ​@seaneendelong8065

[@JD-km2ye]

She is definitely telling the truth. A phrase she left out that I remember hearing growing up and it usually came after rub some dirt on it was " don't cry or I'll give you a reason to cry"

[@TimesUp8888]

Every. Dang. Day 😂

[@angelcharms7297]

".....or I will give u something to cry about"---my parents

[@kathiek4239]

@@JD-km2ye omg, YES!

[@dcat7778]

My parent's FAVORITE!

[@justdone1068]

"Keep crying and you will get a reason to cry." 😥🤐 I died a few times before I was 15.

[@ministeramandaharvey3668]

She is spot on, we did every bit of what she said an have awesome childhood memories! 100!

[@gordonspears6320]

Boomer here, and I can confirm that all this and more is 100% true. It was great training for life...for the survivors.

[@dolphard]

Nobody has families anymore. Nobody has religion anymore.

[@metalmulishaz123]

I was born in 1984. I just missed Gen x by 4 years but I identify as Gen x so it's okay

[@robinlathim8221]

Absolutely!

[@annaanon8419]

That part... "the survivors." The other day a news story came out about a little girl who disappeared in 1995 and they recently found evidence of her k*ller. She was with her fam at a little league game & went off to play w/ kids in the parking lot, stopped to tie her shoe & was never seen again. As a parent, I admit I was pretty helicopter. I tried to give them as much freedom as I felt OK with... but some rules they knew were 1) never leave anyone alone and 2) if it's crawling with kids, it's crawling with predators (ballpark) They weren't so much the "good old days" as the "naive old days."

[@sinrtb]

We never purposely threw rocks but hey if there was one in the dirt clawd then fair game (A dirt clawd was a clump of dirt and hurt about as much as a snowball filled with rocks). . She left out the best outdoor game ever :Lawn Darts" how me and my father survived my childhood i will never know.

[@amyradcliff6391]

My favorite my parents said was Bet you won’t do that again! That was when you hurt yourself.

[@TheaElaine]

Mine was “You’ll feel better when it stops hurting.”

[@amyrissa77]

My dad no matter what STUPID SHlT I did and he knew the end result my grand parents would say that baby gonna get hurt... Dads reply....I know but she will only do it ONCE... and valuable lesson learned... Most of the time dad was right.

[@iamnavarres8085]

After hurting ourselves. My Mom was like go ahead and do it again. lol

[@gawkersdeathrattle1759]

... "Now quiet down, or I'll REALLY give you something to cry about!" And meant it.

[@nancyprovence109]

That's how lessons were taught

[@BillRaby]

Ask someone under 35 years old if they can change the TV channel with pliers.

[@SPAMDAGGER22]

We had vice grips permanently attached.

[@aarongilmore1254]

And change the fan speed with a quarter or a dime

[@Djwyrm]

​@@SPAMDAGGER22vice grips for the win!

[@ljb8157]

Or how to watch stolen fuzzy porn with that adapter thing! I can't remember the name.

[@lisadominguez3457]

😂😂😂😂. Right⁉️.

[@connielandron6432]

I'm a Baby Boomer, and I remember the kids in my area running behind the misquote fog truck, playing in the cloud of bug spray. We jumped off the roofs and did all the things she said and even more. And yes, I remember going to the store for things like cigarettes for the adults as well as a few other grocery items and walking home without any adults going with us. We had the run of our neighborhood, and no one worried because it wasn't as dangerous as it is now. It was definitely the best time for being a kid. If we got hurt, most of the time, we just ignored the bangs, shapes, cuts and scratches, it was all part of playing.

[@zuWangToo]

There used to be announcement on the TV. "It's 10 pm. Do you know where your children are?" That was everyone's reminder--make sure the kids came home.

[@hunding1978]

In the early 80s I think everyone had this unspoken rules: When the lamppost turn on, time to go home

[@tigg1972]

My parents would just come out of the house at sundown and set off an Air Horn. that was the que to head home.

[@garnetj69]

Yes, we had to go home when the lights came on. The thing is, everyone knew everyone and wouldn't hesitate to tell off a child or smack a child or tell them to get their butts home. So even though our parents weren't a 100 percent sure where we were or what we were doing, we couldn't get away with outright lawlessness because someone would catch us and kick our butts all the way home where our parents would then kick them double hard. 😂😂😂

[@robbin2755]

Right 😂😂😂

[@daCubanaqt]

Lol, I never thought of that commercial in this light 😂😂😂

[@cindyv1401]

Life was OUTSIDE the house 🏠 🤓 Playing in hose water, slip n slides, pogo sticks, bike riding NO protective bubble gear 🤪, base ball in the street - drain covers were the bases, climbing trees, playing in creek water....all way to much fun KIDS ARE MISSING OUT ON LIFE TODAY 😳 🙄

[@thisblackgirloverhere9013]

Yes! You just brought back so many memories! 😂

[@oregonchick76]

The dangerous games bring back such good memories. My grandpa made two sets of stilts for me and my cousins and presented them at a family camping trip. We weren't excited about the idea of learning to walk on them on a gravel road, so he basically called us chickens and jumped up on a pair -- wearing his cowboy boots -- and took off running. It became a matter of honor to learn, even though we were all picking rock pieces out of our hands and knees for the first few hours. By the next time we were together, we invented a game of tag where we all frantically ran around and two suckers on stilts had to weave through the frenzied mob without getting knocked off or falling over. This was all done in plain view of our parents, who were apparently unconcerned about things like broken bones and permanent scarring. Nonetheless, this counted as fun in the 1980s.

[@Djwyrm]

​@@oregonchick76YES!❤

[@NunyaNomi]

My brothers used metal stakes to secure the slip n slide and I went off the side and over one and cut my butthole open 😳 Blood everywhere. I was not taken to the hospital but the next door neighbor lady came by so that was good enough for my mom 🤣 In her defense she was worried they would think I was assaulted and take me away and arrest my dad or something. It was def the slip n slide to blame.

[@haleyoneil9172]

Hell yeah and most of the time after the baseball/football game we were going down through the drain grate to explore under the city!!!! Man those were the good ol days!!!!!❤❤

[@yinzertoyguy3678]

Born in '74. Absolutely accurate. We drank out of the hose if we were lucky enough to have a hose. Often you just stuck your mouth right on or under the outdoor spigot on the side of the house. We made our own bike trails in the woods and made jump ramps out of whatever we could find. We wandered around the entire neighborhood from morning to night, with our only instruction being to be home by dinner. You figured out lunch by yourself if you even ate, or you bummed food from some other neighbors. We played with lawn darts and bows and arrows by throwing or shooting them straight up in the air, and hoping they didn't come down on our face. We absolutely threw rocks at each other. Parents always dropped us off at the movies. All of our playground equipment was just over concrete or asphalt. The metal slide would absolutely burn your skin. Everything super accurate. We were the "latchkey kids". We were given a key to the house in elementary school, and when we got off the bus at the end of the day, we were on our own until our parents got home from work, whenever that was. If you forgot or lost your key, you were stuck outside or you found a neighbor to let you in. When we managed to have money in our pockets, we rode our bikes several miles to the store and loaded up on candy, fireworks, toys, comic books, or whatever else we wanted. I would say that about 90 percent of the time, my parents couldn't have told you where I was or what I was doing when I "went outside". And it was awesome.

[@kjova251]

Ooh that reminds me of a time I forgot my key once and had to sit outside the door until our neighbour came home to let me in.

[@tr1bes]

Don't forget bullies. They get your lunch money and when coming home, food is priority. Music and movies rock. The music of today is yikes.

[@mzlyj3123]

So true and we thrived!

[@trapperjakk]

Born in 74 as well, I fully concur

[@hmckinnon1974]

​@@kjova251i did that every day after school.

[@DanielRichey-e7h]

I remember dad sending me up on the roof to adjust the tv antenna until the picture was clear. Then jump off the roof and run in to watch

[@allenruss2976]

I wish she hadn't watered it down so much. Now you know why we don't give a shit.

[@weare1brother421]

scars count contest ?

[@JayFlexREAL]

Wait…what do you mean this is the watered down version…. WHATS THE REAL VERSION! 😳

[@weare1brother421]

@@JayFlexREAL park the car at the exact same place it was

[@SwayDarling]

@@JayFlexREAL I'm an 84' backwoods country kid and yeah all this is true. At 10 my friends and i used to walk an hour out of town to this random field that had a small waterfall type thing and we used to just leap off, then try and hitchhike home. Honestly we'd have been stuffed if we ever injured ourselves. Also we used to climb pine trees and then jump and let the branches catch us, miracle we survived our youth really, cos i have soooo many stories. I do also recall horse riding up to the local pub to get a bottle of bourbon for my mums bf at the time and they actually sold it to me, would have been early teens.

[@LoziPop]

Have you seen the Dennis Leary stand up where he talks about his childhood? he held nothing back.

[@harperluu]

Gen X here! I broke my wrist riding my bike. My mom said it can’t be broken cuz I could wiggle my fingers. So I sat for three days, with my arm swollen like a log. On the way to the ER, my mom looked me dead in the face and said, “It better be broken.” It was.

[@hillbillymike5941]

All true. Cow patty fights. Which sometimes would have a few rocks in them. Bb gun fights were fun. After we got done we sat around laughing and popping bb's out like pimples. I started smoking at 5. I watched Carrie, it's Alive I & II with nothing but a note. I would go to bars buy cigarettes out of vending machines, sell Whoopi cushions to drunk people for $2.00 i baught for $0.50 and play pool and drink soda pop. I was about 6. Great time to be a kid.

[@CahliaShay]

😂😂😂, My mom would say, " If you break something I'm not taking you to the hospital."

[@laurainbama8678]

I feel like somehow we are related! My brother has multiple crooked toes and fingers that were never set because she didn’t think it was serious. 🤣

[@rooroo7270]

😂

[@James-StJames]

"Get on with it."

[@rickyb6015]

I was born in 1967. And everything she says is so true, no phone no pager no watch,be home before the street lights come on. What a Life.

[@Aprlmoore]

Me too. :-)

[@F-15spec]

Me also. Best of times!

[@jmodified]

No phone, but when dinner was ready our parents would just shout our names at top volume, and we'd hear it from up to a mile away.

[@katjathefranknfurter2374]

I had to be at home at 6 when the churchbell rang or before dark.

[@conorwhite2066]

For my mother, it was "they'll come home when they are hungry"

[@missymiss2357]

I'm STILL traumatized from seeing Jaws decades later!

[@1975sld]

Born in 1975, can confirm EVERYTHING she is saying is absolutely accurate. If you got injured while playing outside, you washed it off with the hose and kept going. Can't forget the sweet sting of getting scalded by the metal seatbelt clip against your leg in the summer. Some favourites from my parents: calling my mom at work bc my sister and I are fighting - "Is there blood on the walls? If not, there will be when I get home." or, if we talked back - "Do I have to get your father involved in this?" There was no negotiating with Dad LOL. Honestly, it was an awesome childhood. Our parents didn't need to track us because everyone kept an eye on everyone's kids in our neighbourhood and we knew so many people we could go to if we were really in trouble. We were also yelled at by our friends' parents when we deserved it. The village really did raise the kids.

[@WiseAngelUK]

Me too

[@carlsmith4878]

And the mecuricome wash on scrapes! Burned like hell and painted you red!

[@OP-1000]

And if you told your parents the teacher punished you for something, “ you probably deserved it”

[@shannonfbc1]

Ain't no way we'd go home and tell on ourselves like that 😂

[@gfromkalama8041]

School called home to ask for permission to beat my ass. Mom agreed and when my dad got home I got my ass beat again.

[@Qwerty-cc8re]

And the teacher had that paddleboard and they were allowed to hit you! 😂

[@missyvinson5355]

And if you get a whoopin at school, you knew you were going to get another one when you got home.

[@taiyaporter6633]

Or you got punished again when you got home 😂

[@hunding1978]

I'm a late Gen X (78), but does anyone else also had the: ''Ask your father'', then your father told you ''Ask yoour mother'', and you just.... went

[@madammimsman870]

yes... until they figured out i tricked them, by going. "Mom! Dad says i can if you say yes", which technically was correct if not those words dad used. 😃

[@jasonschumacher9954]

Yep happend at our house all the time until one of them finally gave in.

[@Crystalwolf78]

@hunding1978 ah yeah when asking the other parent I had to say, well they said to ask you

[@Snipergoat1]

Ah yes the universal signal that let you know the neither was paying much attention nor did either object enough to make a fuss over it. SO yeah, you just left. That was even semi accepted by the parent.

[@joshuamartin9355]

So true, though coming from a single parent family it got a little schizophrenic when mum would say ask your dad then turn right round laughing saying ask your mum! Rubbing it in that there was only one source of truth and authority 😂😂 Love mum but she has a wicked sense of humour.

[@waltercrain2910]

cracking up at your confusion.... "sniffing paper"... hahahha

[@tyannecarlton1878]

All 100% truth! My parents' favorite saying was, "You better be dead, dying or bleeding if you're crying!"

[@RN_soon2B_DNP]

Or stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about

[@tretre3892]

We are the 100% forgotten generation! We raised ourselves and did the best with what little our boomer parents provided us with. We got shafted in my opinion. Most of us worked at 14 years old! We never got to be kids. Sorry for getting dark, great video 😂

[@rtrowan]

@@tretre3892 The Feral Generation

[@daledrakewriter4912]

My mom used to say if you can't see the bone or it's not pissing blood. I don't want to know.😅

[@ReneeCrabtree-z2f]

@@tretre3892I agree. It really was bullshit how selfish the boomers were and still are. But we survived.

[@bryanford1139]

Bro! she didn't even touch on the tree forts we built....3rd floor roof of mine hadda been 30-35 feet off the ground...shingled it myself!!! Mom caught sight of us up there one day, sent Dad out to "make sure it was safe"......he came back, "ya, it's fine ...gotta be a hundred nails in 'em trees......" probby still standin' :) Edit: oh, and "be home before the street lights come on" was a standing rule.

[@ScarlettR4364]

We must have lived in the same neighborhood. 😂

[@KristinaHoneyHavenFarm]

Even climbing trees seems to be rare these days. We had tons of fun climbing the apple tree in our backyard.

[@lgsees745]

Oh my God yes!!! The best👍

[@Drez17235]

I lived near a golf course, we build a fort system in one of the copse of woods between holes... Complete with tiger pit traps set at various places around the perimeter to keep out golf course personnel, lol.

[@jaycee330]

Sniffing paper. Absolutely true. It was mimeograph printing process called "Ditto" (i.e. Ditto paper), and the solvents were...intoxicating.

[@marthaw7664]

Ohhh yessss

[@todayisthedayofsalvation6925]

And white out

[@rachelleward5670]

White out! Lmao

[@IAMNArtGirl]

I was a TA for a couple of years and was often sent to the office to run the mimeograph machine! Talk about a contact high!!😅

[@PowAngel]

Also the chalk board cleaner ;)

[@BillsMafiaSports]

Mr Rogers Neighborhood was a learning program for kids in the 80s. “Won’t you be my neighbor?” Great program. Wholesome kids shows like this don’t exist these days

[@SKIP-yj3xp]

Playing outside with your friend's built valuable social skills. You learned to get knocked down and to get back up and keep on going.

[@howlingbreeze7078]

that was us ...they even made a song about it

[@aylbdrmadison1051]

More importantly, we learned that being an a-hole only makes life worse for ourselves and those around just stop hanging out with us. Seems at least a good 40% or so of us Gen-X'ers forgot that particular lesson. lols

[@gjh9299]

that dodge ball crap I hated pe I got bullied, it never stopped so I learned protest and refiused to have things thrown at my head by future cons.

[@teresatafoya9211]

we lived in the kids' world, the adults had little to no influence and were not involved

[@aldunlop4622]

And you learned how to just get along, very few arguments, if you thought your friend was being stupid you straight up told them.

[@CrissyLynnB]

There were a ton of paper sniffers! We had a smoking section for students to go outside and smoke between classes and lunch in hs.

[@jessicaquick6411]

us too we would sometimes go behind building a share a dobie when the teachers weren't around never got caught

[@ChrisMurdock-qq6bj]

Car rides: no seatbelts,riding on the back shelf under the rear glass, rear facing station wagon seats, wearing shorts and sitting on those plastic covered seats in summer, and riding in the back of pickup trucks

[@shereeschumacher8849]

Yes, vinyl car seats in the summer, in shorts or a bathing suit. Seared the flesh off your body. Yelling ouch and dad saying pipe down. 2 door car, fixed window, no AC, only air came if someone up front opened the window. Plus if a parent was a smoker, ashes flew at you in the back.

[@matthewkuhl79]

back of a motorcycle, no helmet

[@Snipergoat1]

Alas, children today will never know the joys of the back of the pickup rides. Or the rearward facing seat pop up seats.

[@Destyn2b]

Yes! I remember riding down the highway in the back of my dad's red and white Gord pick up truck. So much fun! Thinking back now scares me, especially how reckless people drive these days.

[@mycroft16]

You'd leave thick chunks of skin on those car seats. God those were the worst

[@DivineRenegadeDeanna]

Yep, this is Gen X. We're still here.

[@JosephPendergrass]

If someone throws a rock at you.. It is your responsibility to move out of the way or suffer the results... just like Dodge Ball 🤣

[@KristinaHoneyHavenFarm]

I know. I couldn't believe it when schools stopped doing dodgeball because you might get hurt, although I do admit we have a lot more knowledge today about the long-lasting impacts concussions or even smaller bumps can have on the brain.

[@thevanglow]

Exactly!

[@dfghjdefrgthxcv]

As a Gen Xer, everything she said was completely spot on. It’s not even an exaggeration. I’m watching this being more surprised that the guy watching it just doesn’t understand any of it. What seems so crazy and incomprehensible to him was just another Saturday afternoon in my childhood. I never even thought it was all that crazy till I saw how future generations reacted to hearing about it.

[@brawndothethirstmutilator9848]

In fairness, he’s crossing a generational divide and a cultural divide (he’s a Brit).

[@EmmeJaye]

This is 99% true. 😂😂 70s kid here. My folks cared about the grades.

[@tammycenter8757]

Our parents cared about the grades but they didn't help with homework. If we struggled with something we had to go to the library and learn it on our own.

[@adithalee8660]

Yep and if you got hurt "GET OVER IT!" And the parents were serious. These kids these days would not be able to survive that time. And the funny and crazy thing about it is we thought or felt this was the best times of our lives. 🤣🤣

[@dpmiller1000]

I don't think my parents even really looked at my report card. They certainly never told me to go do my homework. I wasn't a great student, but I most generally got through school without even trying. I even had the credits to graduate early.

[@travr6]

My parents did not care about grades. I am the first person in my entire Gault history on both sides to graduate high school. They were actually shocked. So shocked that i had like 30 people from all over the country come to see me graduate. I was also in Florida so it was a vacation for them.

[@NunyaNomi]

“Your grades don’t affect me, you are the one that is going to suffer if you don’t try in school. It’s your future.” Love, Mom

[@lorraine1959]

From Australia, everything she said resonates with me & it was the best childhood ever, we had freedom to be kids & learn through real experiences, it gave us independence.

[@toniturk5556]

She's telling the truth and let me tell ya it was the absolute best time ever!!!! Gosh I miss our childhood

[@kristyporter9650]

💯 when my sisters and I were little, we were helping my dad plant fruit trees in the back yard. My sister cut her foot on the shovel pretty badly and was bleeding EVERYWHERE! My other sister runs in the house and comes back out with some towels to stop the bleeding. My dad tells her, “Not those towels, those are the good towels.”

[@madoldbatwoman]

The Good Towels! 😂😂😂 Oh yes, I remember things like that.

[@tammydaniels-n4p]

thats the truth yeah we were second class citizens but thats okay no one can get over on us at least not me i cuss out scammers everyday on the phone i told them your not talking to my mother im a lot smarter i dont fall for all these lies and you dont get any info from me calling and having an indian accent about medicare lol no i told one i didnt pay taxes in india and india or any one from there couldnt help me

[@lauratarry3450]

I forgot how old I was, but I had to help drag a deer my dad shot out of the woods!

[@skootieskeet]

Oh how I remember “Not the good towels.” I could be bleeding in the sink for minutes before we would find mom approved towels for our wounds.

[@danieltenneson1940]

I remember bleeding and I accidently splashed some blood on the "good towel" when washing and putting hydrogen peroxide on the wound in the bathroom sink. I stopped bleeding after 30-40 minutes, so it wasn't "serious", Neosporin took care of it. (I still have a gnarly scar). Got 10 with the belt when Dad got home for "ruining a good towel".

[@jimschmidt5883]

Yes, everyone made bike ramps out of ply wood and cinder blocks. Every kid looked up to Evel Knevel. Everyone jumped their bikes of these ramps. No helmets, no pads.

[@GodwynDi]

Hit the ramp first, hit the tree second, ground third. Still wasn't worst injury I got on a bike/skateboard/sled.

[@Robert-pl1gd]

All day everyday. Still have the scars to prove it. If you didn't have a new scrape everyday, you weren't trying enough

[@paulhopkins1905]

We made the same ramp for a gokart, I was upside down mid air

[@Anil18834]

Yes! I remember being 4 years old at the school playground. We made a spaceship out of cinderblocks. Can you imagine how heavy a cinderblock is for a 4 year old? It took us a week to build it. No teacher flinched😂😅

[@DravinD81]

Yes! From the ramp, to the air, to not quite landing the front tire straight and going over the bars face first into the concrete. No one noticed, until my sister got home and saw me laying in the road (5-10 min afterwards). 13 stitches across my chin.

[@chriserickson8821]

Everything she said was pure fact, we would jump our bikes off of garage roofs, build ramps to jump over garages, over walls or over each other. We had a store by us that was a candy and tobacco shop, half the store cartons of cigarettes and tins and packs of chewing tobacco and half the store every kind of candy available at the time. The trick to drinking out of the hose was to let the water run for a while to push all the hot water out of the hose. And the slides, if you didn't get temperature burns you would definitely end up with a few frictions burns, especially when wearing shorts. And BB gun fights, we lived close to a wooded area, we would literally climb trees to hide and gain a tactical advantage. You would do your chores as fast as possible to get outside and the rule was be home by the time the street lights came on. Oh and if you thought you could get away with doing something you weren't supposed to forget it, by the time you got home your parents would already know the details of what you did.

[@TheNappturallyYours]

I'm a millennial who was raised as a Gen Xer and everything she's saying is true. There was even a PSA that would come on and say "It's 10pm, do you know where your children are?". Our parents were much more laissez-faire about parenting. We rode on the back of pickups as kids, roamed our neighborhoods as a pack with no adult supervision, drank from hoses, mangled one another for fun, and were told broken bones weren't broken because we could move the limbs.......it was a wild time to grow up. I had a broken toe for a week and was only taken to a doc because my sneakers would no longer fit. I've brought my dad cigs with a note and have def hitch hiked to the next town and back with the first random person who pulled over. It's crazy we even made it, dude.

[@raven4090]

Me and my friends would joke at 10 sometimes: "It's 10 O'clock. Do you know where your brain is?" I can identify with the broken toe story. My parents were the same way. I cut myself with a knife when I was 6 and a friend of my dad's noticed a line going up my arm and suggested they took me to a DR. Dad said I was OK and they didn't. I think I was blessed with a miracle, because that's a sign of blood poisoning.

[@undauntedthud6872]

I'm an old millennial, 1984 vintage army brat. Supply Sargent Dad would give me an MRE and tell me and my younger brother to come back when the street lights turned on. Ran around rural Arkansas, and somehow managed not to be bit by a copperhead or cottonmouth. Did I seen them? Hell ya! Just walk the other way. Everyone in the family gave me shit when we moved up to South Dakota and a grass snake came up to me at a rest stop. I ran like my life depended on it because I thought it did. Parent's never saw the times I avoided the real deadly snakes.

[@I_Am_L_3]

I could still buy my dad cigs in the mid 90s as a teen at the corner store

[@pyxeeful]

Born in 82. Bought my Mom her Vantage 100s with a note in about 92-94. With food stamps no less..

[@danhard8440]

i raised my Millennial kids as Gen X'ers they are tough so i knew if they were coming to me crying it was bad like almost cutting off a pinky bad🤣

[@cecilybilbrey8024]

Gen X rep here. All I can say is yes its all true.

[@janisnewton5587]

Sometimes it hurt but my childhood was the best.

[@jillcostello6669]

Boomer born in 62. In the seventies we drank from the hose. We biked everywhere. We didn't come home unless we were hungry or it was dark.

[@NunyaNomi]

Gen X were just the last of that type of childhood

[@joycewright3136]

@@NunyaNomiSo true. My kids grew up in the 90’s and early 2000’s and they were outside all day with the neighborhood kids!

[@scotthuffman8752]

1969

[@cyndirankin]

1963 here

[@howartshag1]

1964

[@terrimartinez6922]

GenX ... it's all true! I had burns from my EZ Bake oven, thermos bottles in my lunch box full of exploded glass (from coca cola), the Spirograph sets included real stick pins to hold the pieces down, no seatbelts in the cars... we stood up in the backseat while driving down the highway. And yes, everyone smoked indoors... in stores, hospitals, schools, restaurants, and in their cars full of kids, too. We didn't have helmets when riding bicycles. And yes, we drank from the hoses in the front yards when we were locked out of the house. Curfew was when the street lights turned on.

[@Ramonafloyd]

And Sling Shots and fire crackers and bottle rockets , cap guns😂😂

[@heatheranderson4475]

M 80s were a blast.

[@kennethcelorio4937]

And don't forget lawn darts.

[@smokebreak6904]

she's 100% on it, she didn't mention settling disputes via fistfights, swimming in closed quarry's that were 200ft deep, climbing to the bottom of unfilled quarries and camping on their cliffs, making forts in any patch of woods and making fires in them, playing with all kinds of fireworks, not just bottlerockets and roman candles, making homemade fireworks, three wheelers that were a 50% chance your going to break your collarbone if you wreck - the list goes on and on, basically you take anything that has a saftey warning on it now and we were the ones that caused it to be there :)

[@shawneeday629]

My best friend had a gravel pit near to her house and all the kids played there. We weren’t supposed to but did it anyway. She lived on a the other side of the highway from us and her mom babysat us while my parents were at work. I had to go across the highway all the time to the store to get stuff for my parents. Oh the stories I could tell from that little tiny village in northern BC! I do remember that my mom had a very hard time getting me to come in for dinner all the time though. We lived outside all the time. Even in winter.

[@theamericanspirit8590]

​​@@shawneeday629LOL gravel pit 😂😂😂 that's were we went swimming. Don't let there be an abandoned house because that's were we not only took rocks and smashed out the windows but told ghost stories there. The woods was were we smoked and cussed and on that rare occasion we shared a can of beer if 1 of us could get it. We were ruf n tuff. If u fell off of UR bike, get up n brush it off and keep going. My friends mother was burning stuff in a barrel once and I saw some plastic in it, so I picked up a stick and started pulling some out and swinging it around the stick, some dropped onto my leg and I instantly tried to wipe it off with my hand. My leg and hand had 3rd degree burns, my grandmother just told me that " I'll bet U don't do that anymore". Lol she never took me to the hospital. I still have a LG scar on my leg to this day. I guess things like this is why if our kids fell, we would laugh at them. Tuff love makes u strong. God bless them.

[@anochron1]

It was new construction sites and junkyards for me. We didn't have any quarries where I lived.

[@RobertBreedon-c3b]

Riding down the biggest hill in town in an old steel shopping cart

[@theamericanspirit8590]

@RobertBreedon-c3b Yesss OMG, I had forgotten all about that 1...Thx. 😂😂😂😂

[@oldmangimp2468]

Remember, kids... ... Gen X is also the last Analog Generation.

[@SacredWaves]

OMG... we were. I never thought of that. Good times.

[@sharkdentures3247]

Said the same thing many times. (Basically, I worded it as the last "Pre-Internet Generation". Even if early Millennials were too.)

[@oldmangimp2468]

@@sharkdentures3247 We're broadCAST, not broadBAND.

[@DaemonWulf7]

right down to the clocks on the dashboard, if your parents had the fancy car

[@daendiznigh]

We damn near the last everything generation 😂

[@rebeccasmith2048]

I was a 7th grader in middle school in Florida when the Challenger exploded; we were all out side watching it go up and saw it explode. 😢

[@SanguineSunshine]

She told the "tame" stuff.😂 But everything she said was spot on & so true. This is why you should never test a GenXer. We have been through, & survived, way more than you know. We will definitely hurt your feelings, & just don't give a F about much. We fought, with fists, in real life, there was no keyboard or screen to "hide" behind. If you had a problem with someone, you met at the playground to battle it out. This is why we always warn people, "F around, & find out". GenX definitely rules, & you now know only a portion of why.👍🏽😉

[@dizzywordninja]

Yep. We Gen Xers' motto is "say sh*t, get hit." waaaaaay before fafo came out.

[@RuggedArt]

​@@dizzywordninja I think it's funny to hear "snitches get stitches" coming out of the grade school. It's coming back around lol

[@chickenbird69]

100% spot on! 😂❤😂

[@jayrtee]

I remember back in 6th grade, around 1981, for some reason the biggest girl in class had an issue with me, the smallest boy in class. All day long the whole class was gearing up for a fight, and I was game. We met on the field, and every time she picked me up and threw me down, I got back up. The last thing I remember is everybody there decided to throw her in the creek for being such a horrible person. That was Gen X.

[@tinglelingaling6]

Yep... left out all of the spankings. In the corner for hours. If you didn't eat your dinner you had it for breakfast... on and on...

[@USNMelDaria]

Gen X here and she's correct. We also used our anxiety as a motivator not handicap!!! 🤣🤣 My mother took us to the video (VHS) rental place and I got Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jason, and Freddy Kruger. My mom: " If you watch this don't think you're sleeping with me in my bed because I have work tomorrow!" Me: "Okay mommy!" 🤣🤣

[@BusaFisch]

Or on Friday night leaving you with you're siblings while she goes out with e "friend" Go NAVY 93-02

[@USNMelDaria]

@@BusaFisch 🫡

[@rodprops]

Blockbuster video? 🤔😂😂

[@ERC641]

From a generation X perspective, I was born in 1972 the eighties and early 90s. Were my formative years. Best movies, Best Music and Best friends, the things we did as kids hanging out at arcades, Shooting pellet guns on my friends farm. Swimming and fishing in the river. Sneaking beers and cigarettes from our parents. House parties most of what she says is spot on. I see kids now and there's a big disconnect in common sense and other issues. Right now is the best we've ever had for comfort and convenience. Yet.... Depression in youths are pretty high.I personally think Gen X are more thick skinned . Parents did care but they used common sense and let kids be kids 👍 I had a buddy in Grade 4 that ate his math book, took him the year but he did it. 🇨🇦🇬🇧

[@KatyFaulkner-f6c]

Right!!! There was always a glue eater in class too! I was born in 71!

[@IggyStardust1967]

@@KatyFaulkner-f6c Yeah, a kid in my kindergarten class would make "paste" sandwiches with paper towels and eat them. During class, mind you! Teachers knew, just didn't care. Paper + flower and water..... no big deal.

[@amybrown9539]

Fellow 72 er, all true!!

[@robbystewart8088]

Gen X learned some skills to survive

[@trcompton1972]

Everything she is saying is 100% accurate! I survived the 70’s-80’s!

[@barbaraemmons8314]

When I was 18, in 1983, my mom & I were moving. I'd had a pain in my right side/stomach for about 3 days. I was walking across the lawn with the VCR (which my mom had paid like $1,500 for) & I screamed & fell to my knees. My mom yelled, "Don't drop the VCR." My appendix had ruptured. After emergency surgery, when I woke up, the first thing she said was, "You're so lucky you didn't drop the VCR." I spent 5 days in the hospital & my mom kept telling me I had a bunch of boxes to unpack & they weren't going to get unpacked with me laying around in bed. GEN X RULES!!! We had no choice!

[@AZbluedot196]

Same, and I have the scars to prove it 🤣🤣🤣

[@t.j.payeur5331]

There was Always some kid with a plaster cast on an arm in school. Broken bones weren't uncommon...

[@epbrown01]

Fifth grade gym we had 3 broken arms one year and not a peep from the parents. Blows my mind.

[@aylbdrmadison1051]

I was one of the few of my friends who never broke a bone, and I sure should have. I was pretty crazy back then. Believe me though, that's not a good thing, because the joints break instead and they typically don't heal as well. I've been in constant pain since I was 19.

[@AdamSmith102938]

I have noticed that very few kids have broken bones these days. I never broke anything, which is a miracle considering the opportunities I had. There were always some kids at any one time on crutches.

[@Snipergoat1]

Don't most kids still break a bone at some point during childhood? Hurts like hell but it teaches you your limitations.

[@RyAnneFultz]

First grade, somehow all the kids in my class had a cast but me at one point. I actually felt jealous, but apparently I fell better than they did or owned learned my lesson when I broke my leg at not quite 3 jumping out of a treehouse. I honestly thought sprinkling glitter on my head would make me fly. Oops

[@johnwiese3926]

Bro, we didn't just throw rocks,we used tennis 🎾 to launch them to get better range. 😂 We played with LAWN DARTS! We didn't just climb onto the roof, we JUMPED OFF the roof. That hose water was very refreshing on a 90° day, we'd get a drink then soak our head. The 80's were GREAT! 😂

[@R2Carney]

We did that with tennis rackets but we also had trash can lids to use as shields. With lawn darts the game was to throw it straight up into the sky then stand still with your eyes closed and whoever flinched and ran off first, lost. Those were some fun but kind of stupid times.

[@MoominDoogie]

Ha ha, so true. You just unlocked a lost memory of me escaping the house by climbing on the garage roof, then sliding down the door. Aged 5! 😧 Also me and my mates jumping off the garage roof in our mid teens😂.

[@Brandi1337]

Ahhh lawn darts was soooo fun!!!

[@sparkyzoner]

Tennis ball cannons. Lighter fluid, a few cans and duck tape.

[@snowthugs]

Back flips off the roof! Yes been there! Man, so glad I still can walk

[@KevinL.03303]

100% true all of it. She left out “knife chicken” the closest one to the foot without moving wins, mini dart wars and more. Best time of my life, they even had advertisements on television right before the 10 o’clock news “Do you know where your kids are”.

[@dj_alboe1360]

OMG, chicken!! I completely forgot about that. LOL I still have a scar on my foot from playing that.

[@KevinL.03303]

@ I’m missing part of my little toe, but I won!😂👍🏻

[@mikejanssen6344]

100% Jay, that’s what we went thru as kids. Tbh, I think we are better off for it.

[@absinthealice]

We were the last generation to grow up "building character". 😂😂😂 Hey, at least we learned mad social skills. Whether we wanted to or not. 😉

[@JamieE76]

I was born in '76. Everything she said is accurate. I sometimes think the world would be a better place if we could have stopped time in the 90s.

[@daddygitz77]

'77 here and I agree 100%!

[@jojokeane]

We had a balanced budget then.

[@GreenPaganWitch]

"Stop crying before I give you something to cry about." 😂 I have a niece that's only 2 years younger than me, and one of my brothers is 2 years older than me. We used to take our red wagon and ride it down the canyon behind our house. The number of times we'd hit a hole or a rock, and we'd all go flying. 😂😂

[@chelfyn]

Born in 69, can confirm pretty much all of this. We climbed really high trees with no protection, up cliff faces over crashing sea, hid in flooded smugglers tunnels, went headfirst down hills on shitty 70's skateboards with no pads or helmets, it's a wonder we survived. We had the best childhood I reckon. It's been all downhill since us.

[@lisafayepranger8561]

True. All of it. We were forgotten about until it was time for us to wake up for school and get ready, get home for dinner, etc. Being home for dinner was mandatory. Had clean clothes, a place to sleep, a few meals a day, no attention of any kind paid, they never knew where we were.....we policed ourselves.....did what we wanted, if we wanted something we had to make it happen. Don't like being told what to do, because we always had to do it ourselves. We all work hard, play hard. Love our freedom and our tunes, and we were raised with seriously kick ass good music. Crank it. My parents were depression era kids who both had nothing. And I mean NOTHING. Security meant food to eat, a roof over our head and clothes on a our back. Everything else was secondary. I knew my parents loved me.

[@DianaBozarth-ut6lj]

I think that's why it's easier for this generation to do what they're told because they were raised with more rules than we were. There used to be and told what to do.

[@missyvinson5355]

My parents were poor depression era kids too. went to the 4 th and the 6th grade. I was the youngest of 7 and all of my brothers and sisters quit school, so my parents wouldn't let me get a summer job, because they didn't want me to quit school too. I was the only one who graduated from high school when I was supposed too, although the others got their GED's.

[@irishangel5689]

Gen X here, born in '68. Everything she said was true. But she did leave out A LOT. LOL. We are all still impressed that we are alive. When she talked about the Evel Knievel ramps we built and jumped over, it brought back a memory from '74. I was 6 at the time, my 2 older sisters were 10 and my older brother was 11. He idolized Evel Knievel and wanted to do stunt jumps just like him. We, along with our friends, roamed the neighborhood for weeks and found old bikes, to replace parts on our bikes that were just barley holding on. My brother, 11 years old, got out my dads blowtorch and started replacing parts, with other old parts, and created his own bike. We then gathered wood planks we found from places all over the neighborhood, mostly wood rotted and moldy, then used them, along with those large concrete blocks and we made a ramp that at the highest point was about seven feet off the ground. My brother got on his Frankenstein bike about a hundred yards away and took off toward the ramp. He hit that sucker going as fast as he could. Rolled up that ramp and flew up off the top into the air. As a six year old I would say he went for the sky but it was probably more like 10-12 feet into the air, and the handlebars ripped off the bike, still in his hands and he hit the ground, HARD, in a tangled mess as the rest of that bike broke apart around him. The best part was he landed in a large puddle of mud, the worst was at 6, I thought he was covered in blood. When dad got home that night, all 4 of us got spanked, then we missed our supper because we all went to the emergency room. My brother broke a wrist, an arm, one rib, and got a concussion. When he was all healed after a few months, dad then grounded him for 6 months for using his blowtorch.

[@reignofbastet]

This is, quite possibly, the best Gen X kid story ever. I bet that story gets retold a lot. I hope he healed up okay. We had the best childhoods.

[@babette5918]

We would walk or ride out bikes all day long and just show up at a relatives house 20 miles from home because we wanted to play with our cousins. Nobody knew where we were... just be home before dark. We would build tree houses... 20 feet up a tree, made from scrap wood we found laying around. Sometimes thin, or rotten, or water soaked. I fell out of one and landed flat on back, knocked the wind out of me for at least a couple minutes. I was able to get up, walk 400 feet to my house, find my mother, and still didn't get a breath of air for another minute while my mom watched not knowing what was happening. When I was finally able to breathe again my mom scolded me for scaring her half to death. No hospital, no doctor, go back outside and play, but be more careful. lols!

[@EricaGamet]

Born in '68 Gen X here. Yep this was all pretty spot on! When I turned 16 and got my driver's license, my mom made me do the grocery shopping, including buying cartons of cigarettes for her and Dad. When I was 11, a friend and I were playing in the woods and I fell on some glass and started bleeding from my knee. Did we go home? Nope! She took some of the glass, sliced her knee, then we rubbed our bloody wounds together to make a blood sisters bond for life! The only part that's hard to hear is when someone says, "We didn't wear bike helmets and we're all still here." When I was 12 a friend was riding her bike and was struck and killed by a car. But being the GenXer I was, it took me until I got a nasty concussion on my bike at 17 to start wearing a helmet. This comedian talks about driving in the back of the station wagon... my siblings and I drove from New Hampshire to Orlando in '76 in the back of a station wagon. We put up a sign that said, "These aren't our parents, we've been kidnapped." 🤣

[@scrabtr67]

Water from the hose tasted better than water from the house. My mom let me go out and take a shower in the rain. She let me go shopping with her wearing a wig and sunglasses. Parents used to drop us off for "children's theatre" and leave us. We would walk all around town then act like we had been at the play. We were like 11.

[@HelenDavid]

My parents didn't have to lock the door to make me stay outside. They had a saying: see a kid, give it a chore. I made sure they didn't see me all day, until the streetlights came on.

[@kjova251]

True. We didn't even have a curfew when we were older. My parents just said come home when you want but you're going to school and your grades better not suffer.

[@MichelleJames-715]

Only child GENX here, I was taught by both my parents, “children are meant to be seen and not heard”. If they saw any kids acting up, that was a teaching moment for me as to “if you ever act like that and embarrass me in public…” well you knew what would happen.

[@soozarty]

💯

[@adelaalvarado2215]

You would get the cigarettes for your mom and you wouldn’t do anything, cause you know you’d get a beating that would remind you 48 hours later when you forgot to move slow or not to bump into anything, when we got punished we actually learned from it .

[@Jammy_McButzinuisance]

Mom I'm bored. Whoops

[@CourtneyWells-p5n]

All true. They used to have a public announcement every night st 10 p.m. that said,...It's 10 o'clock! Do you know where your kids are!?!. Our parents would literally forget they had children.

[@gelfling3077]

They didn't forget. They just didn't care.

[@CourtneyWells-p5n]

@@gelfling3077 True

[@DaemonWulf7]

yeah, i think i know where they are.. don't really give a damn... or on the flip side... yeah, my mom knows where i am.. not sure where she is. her and her friend will be back at some point, pukin in the toilet. lol

[@debstroud8294]

With Grace Jones and Andy Warhol!

[@fjdoucet1465]

@@gelfling3077 i think they were a lot less stressed than parents are now. i can't forget i have kids for one second. i don't mean that i don't care about them, only that the expectations of modern parenting are extreme. you either helicopter or you're neglecting them, and then "concerned" neighbours get involved.

[@Humanity4ALL]

After going to Jaws with my parents. I had nightmares forever , I was six. We used to jump off moving trains, bottled rocket fights, etc., it’s all facts. King of the mountain on a pile of snow and ice 15-20 ft high. You only won if you didn’t get shoved down ice hill with blocks of ice in the way of your head.

[@imgood1291]

i was in the northeast and when it snowed we hold onto the back bumper of the city buses to go places, the ppl who were driving in their cars would laugh at us kids. good times for sure. im a 71 Gen Xers.

[@derekmartin2817]

I glad someone mentioned bottle rocket fights.

[@gnorley]

Jaws scared the shit out of me. I was 8 I think? I lived and still live in Florida and love the water. Still.... always in the back of your mind... you look for that shadow with that unmistakable shape, or that dorsal fin swerving through the surface.

[@julienelson6506]

After going to see Jaws my mom (who sent us with a neighbor…movies were an hour away) told me about the girl in her class who had her leg bit off during a school field trip to the beach. I never went into the ocean past my ankles until I went to Hawaii as an adult. I grew up in California

[@cerealbucketcoaster]

bottle rocket fights takes me back...

[@MarleneMeier]

We had to memorize addresses, phone numbers, directions and use maps. This Gen can't go anywhere without gps.

[@giselab68]

Absolutely, I can still remember my childhood phone number, but now I can't even remember one because everything is stored on my phone.

[@ScarlettR4364]

I'm right in the middle. Drank from the hoes, latch key kid but..... My direction sucks. I have to use a GPS going anywhere new... Husband bought me a gps for me because he was tired of me calling him crying because I was lost.

[@patrickflannery198]

My high school had a smoking porch yep a place for students to smoke. I didn't smoke but it was packed w people. Our teachers had an indoor smoking lounge. Crazy!

[@DaemonWulf7]

i was pissed back then.. my first HS had a smoking area, but i didn't smoke yet, second HS i went to i smoked, but no smoking area. got a bum deal on that one

[@luluvalentina8310]

My High School also had a smoking area for students.

[@anitaname1]

@luluvalentina8310 mine had 2 places, either 4th floor or the basement cafeteria 😁😉

[@dfghjdefrgthxcv]

Ditto

[@LoriCrabtree31]

Smoking vs non smoking areas in restaurants separated by a pony wall or Ash trays on tables vs none on tables.

[@EURIPODES]

Don't forget to let the water run for a bit before you drink from the hose. If a mouse or something crawled up there and died you'll want to let that rinse out for a bit before you take a drink. 😂

[@therealjetlag]

I grew up in California. We let it run so that it wasn’t 1000 degrees 😂

[@Fiona2254]

We let it run so it wouldn’t burn 😂😂😂

[@nyteshayde1197]

Damn, we were feral. 😆

[@England-Bob]

You only do that once lol. Can still taste mickey now.

[@nateschultz8973]

​@@therealjetlag The heat also qualifies as something to rinse out, yes.

[@GA-fz2wt]

Born in the 70's,an 80's teenager& a 90's raver 😂 Great times! The best 👍

[@robynhurley5119]

Me too I'm 57!

[@TaldrenMGMoonGuard]

As someone who is Gen X ALL of this is true. I LOVE watching Gen Z react to this because it really puts it in perspective for us because we never really thought much about it. When I grew up my mother went back to work because she didn't want to be a mom anymore, and I'm the eldest daughter. So she had to keep the house unlocked so I could do her job, and our house was the only one in the neighborhood that was unlocked during the day. My parents would get so mad at me because ALL the kids came to our house, I fed the neighborhood kids. It became a sort of "Camp Taldren." It was one of the few orders I disobeyed from my parents to stop feeding the neighborhood, but I kept doing it because our friends treated us way better than our parents did.

[@randompixels6237]

This is exactly right.

[@amyrenaud7589]

We could sneak people a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but our neighbors had the popsicles and all we had to do was sit on the porch until they came outside with them. Sometimes I was there for an hour.

[@SweetHoney8ee]

Someone else confirm this, PLEASE YES, young kids were sent to buy their parents cigs. NO, we didn't sneak any, we'd literally get the crap beat out of us for pulling any shit like that. OR, if your parent WASN'T the type to beat, THEN you might be forced to chain smoke until you puked from nicotine poisoning just so you'd "never do that again".

[@zuWangToo]

Confirmed. We'd get a note with all the groceries on it, including beer and cigarettes. We'd buy it all and lug it home. The chips were ours--they never even went inside the house-- but the cigarettes and alcohol were NOT touched. My sister tried it once, and ended up smoking till she was sick when my mom found out. She never smoked again, and I never tried it. Watching sister puke taught me all I needed to know.

[@TimesUp8888]

My parents didn't smoke, but many of my friends parents did. So I can 💯 confirm. Also, when I decided to start smoking cigs at 15 yrs old (bc half my friends already did), I never once got carded at the gas station. Bought them myself in early 90s for less than $2/pack. Edit: Imagine my surprise when I was over 30 yrs old the 1st time they asked for my ID to buy cigarettes 😂😂😂. (due to new laws) Fortunately I was old enough to just say THANK YOU OMG I'm so flattered u think I look 17 😅 In my late 40s now and they STILL card me for everything. i find it Hilarious

[@mariacurtis9247]

My brother was caught smoking so my uncle decided to teach him a lesson by giving him a cigar.

[@SweetHoney8ee]

@@zuWangToo Ha! Thanks for taking the time to confirm the craziness. It really was common practice.

[@SweetHoney8ee]

@@mariacurtis9247 thx for the confirmation!

[@tweetbleat487]

My mom didn't use Betadine for cuts and scrapes, she just poured peroxide or rubbing alcohol on it. "The burning means it's killing the burns"

[@mariannastahl4174]

My mom used to use Bactine. Don't know what was in it and it claimed it didn't sting but thinking back, definitely stung as bad as alcohol on an open wound.

[@fmfdocbotl4358]

aloe plant also

[@dagnysez3570]

Campho-finique over here😂

[@DTG_LOCKETT]

And if it didn't foam it meant the cut wasn't bad so you were wasting peroxide.

[@BayBaeAngel]

😂🤣

[@darrylcastellano]

What blows my mind the most about this is that it sounds like a crazy lie to these kids. She did a whole comedy set without a single joke. Kids think she's just joking.

[@OniOnii-san]

As a Gen-X'er, I can confirm - no lies or even embellishments were said by this comic. Absolutely everything she said was real about our childhood.

[@oliver-yg6qr]

All true...A few notables. Lawn darts, chemistry set, Easy bake oven for children, candy cigarettes and cigars, houses and cars filled with cigarette smoke. As kids we always made ramps to jump off with our bikes, don't kids do that now?

[@embertheelder]

IDK. I took my kid out to have white tshirt fireworks fights in the woods at night and he told me it wasn't safe.....

[@seaneendelong8065]

Certain kid sub groups still do and never stopped- skater or BMX kids mostly.

[@cainkim42]

My brother had one of those wood burners. The one with the foot long cord, so you had to sit at the kitchen table by the curtain to use. He, also, had that creepy crawler machine. It looked just like an easy bake oven except you made bugs, You couldn't eat the bugs or anything. They were kind of like rubbery and squishy. The machine was very hot just like and easy bake. It was a horrible machine.

[@oliver-yg6qr]

@@dequilafeara5326 I didn't know that!

[@mikechappell4156]

@@dequilafeara5326 I haven't seen them in decades. I thought they just fell out of favor because moms wanted to discourage smoking and the market dried up.

[@chriscline8767]

There are 65 million GenXer's. 65 million different stories of the same time. Everything is so true and all you need to know how it is all true, listen to the audience's reaction. Romper room was a child's program. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was mentioned as well. Thanks for this reaction video.

[@SPOCK_TALK]

All true. I had a jar of Mercury I used to play with. Just wash your hands after. 😎👍 if you didn't bleed after playing outside, you just weren't playing hard enough.

[@GushOnline]

My dad had a bottle of mercury we played with too. Interesting to see I’m not the only one.

[@mmm-mmm]

lol, bottle of mercury and mercury switches... still have 'em.

[@majakian]

Not to mention Mercurochrome/Merthiolate, that red stuff everyone's mom had in the medicine cabinet that they put on all our cuts that burned like hell...was named that for a reason ya know.

[@redtrinitygirl]

@@GushOnline seems the mercury thing was common back then! even on the playgrunds.

[@LeonardoPostacchini]

@@majakianoh boy! I was more scared of the methiolate treatment than from getting hurt. Whenever possible I would avoid letting my mom know I had a bruise in case she would rub the damn thing. Nowadays I have a saying that methiolate builds character.

[@pjgumby]

I miss those days, everything was better back then. I miss riding around in the back of pickup trucks too with all my friends. Everyone minded their own business, we were free to take all the risks.

[@lilkoutsi]

I'm in Australia, and what she said was sooooo true! gosh I miss them good old days! Society today is full of sooks who get triggered if you just picked your nose! There was no google to research for things, we had encyclopedias and the library. Wanted to talk to a friend? Sure, get ur shoes on and walk to their house. Don't want to talk to anyone on the landline? easy, lift the receiver and place it next to the phone. there were no tv programs on any channel after 10:30-11pm, u want to change channels? sure, get ur ass up and physically turn the knob to change the channel, there were no remote controls!. Romper Room?!! I used to watch that too! lol so much more! Gen X the best era!!

[@TheAussieturtle]

I lived up north when I was a kid. We only had 1 tv channel so we didn't need to worry about changing channels haha

[@AusExplorer]

Just facts. I remember when I was finishing primary school at the end of the 80's and "they" had begun dismantling the playground equipment because too many kids were getting hurt. The giant metal slide [slippery dip] which was more like a sharply angled BBQ hot plate in summer was just practice for seatbelt buckles, or would have been because I was in 5th grade before I'd even worn one. As for landlines, who were you going to call? first you'd have to get the phone index thingo [did you have the roller kind or the flat one with the a-z slider?] and then you'd realize that none of your friends are just hanging out by the phone anyway and go get your BMX and ride to their place, which for me was 15km away because we were rural.

[@TheAppaloosa14]

Born in 72, 18 in 1990 Start of the house music Best times

[@whit2184]

She hit it, and bottle rocket fights also! We had a blast!

[@Jammy_McButzinuisance]

Roman candle dodge ball

[@daphne0123]

And our teachers could spank the crap out of us

[@alansimonson8558]

I got in trouble at school, and got paddled by the principal, right at the end of the hallway so everyone would see it. Then when I went home, I got the belt and no dinner.

[@robinhartzell2380]

OMG yes! Teachers would keep wooden paddles in plain view to send a message! Our school district banned spanking and paddles when I got to 7th grade, but my grade school years were ruled by teachers with paddles. They were rarely used, though. You had to have done something really bad to get a paddling.

[@etherealceleste]

My principal paddled me with the "aerodynamic" paddle that my father made (dad taught carpentry and drafting in high school for 36 years).

[@travr6]

I was paddled numerous times in school

[@Djwyrm]

Yes! Those paddles were signed too😊

[@jenniferfoster1692]

We GenXers love to hear about ourselves, since we were actually the most ignored generation (although the coolest 😂). I'm elder Gen X, born mid-60s, grew up in the 70s and 80s. Best times ever, I'll always be thankful for growing up then. I'm American, just to be specific. There are certainly similarities & differences between countries during those times due to many reasons.

[@sooz5703]

still kinda ignored (or forgotten).. Let's see there's Boomers, there's Millenials, and now we have Gen Z!

[@jenniferfoster1692]

@@sooz5703 Yes, it's crazy when there's graphics about the generations on the news and Gen X isn't even on it 🤣

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

My kid is late gen X, 1980. I think you're quality people. Ironically, being ignored helped you find your way.

[@shawneeday629]

Yes but hey things our parents said was strangely the same. We had different tv shows though (Canada) But the funny thing is that we played the same way too.

[@suemitricka9031]

Dude, we LIVED! it WAS the best of times!

[@lock514]

When I was a kid in the 80s in my neighborhood we didn’t even lock our front doors, and many times you could go in the parking lot and find someone left their car keys in the ignition and the doors were open and nobody would touch it. Everything she is saying is so true.

[@AdamSmith102938]

I remember that, and I also remember people getting their cars stolen because the keys were in the ignition. There actually was a lot of crime in the '80s if you look at the stats.

[@madoldbatwoman]

We moved house in the early 80's. We had to dismantle the Yale lock to get the key out. It had gone in the lock on the day my parents moved in and it was never removed after.

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

​@@AdamSmith102938I was shocked in my small town when my empty duffle bag was stolen from the laundromat in the 80s. Left my car windows down in the summer at the shopping plaza, too. Coming from the city, I should have known better, but I grew up in the 50s. The world had changed!

[@jmodified]

@@AdamSmith102938 Crime was much worse then but people didn't fear it nearly as much.

[@winggand]

Weren't you listening? NONE of us came out unscathed and not all of us survived. There was even a commercial that aired every night for our parents: "It's 10 PM, do you know where you children are?"

[@Veruska75]

GenX born ‘75 here. We used to fill plasticbags with water, go to the roofs of apartment building houses and drop them when someone came around. We had snow fights with stones inside the snowballs, we went out, had no money or phones and came back home in the evening. Nobody worried about accidents or kidnappings. We used to go to the forest and blow stuff up. It definitely was a different time.

[@nikkioshea4139]

I remember the water fights, always a few who had filled up their empty washing up liq bottles without fully rising them first , damn hurt getting it in the eye. 😂

[@WendySanchez-lc4co]

This was exciting. I feel sorry for anyone who didn't get to experience that. 😆

[@laraismyname821]

Those red rubber dodge balls could knock you off your feet. They were very scary.

[@Defhrone]

that's why it's called dodge ball ;)

[@leekestner1554]

I learned to do that by 6th grade. When we went to 7th and the girls were separated from the boy for PYysEd, I used that technique once and got reprimanded by the coach. My opinion was the girls (most of them) were wimps. Except for Trisha. She caught that fast ball and held on even as it knocked her down. Took me out of the game.

[@AdamSmith102938]

I only learned today that kids don't use real dodge balls. What kind of game is dodge ball if you can't make others experience pain?! It's a safe way to exorcise those sadistic aggressions.

[@sussudioharvey9458]

And Tether Balls, Swing sets when you swing too hard and the legs of the swing set would tilt upwards leaving the ground, those carousels sets and slides where you flew off the sides., etc.

[@Cavscout5096]

The great equalizer... Unless your a great athlete... Then your screwed... And its a one sided massacre

[@KatyFaulkner-f6c]

I’m freaking laughing here! Born in 1971! Saw jaws when I was 8, I saw Poltergeist when I was 11 in the theater with my parents! They never knew where we were during the day, we used to find an old tractor tire and one would get in it and the rest would push and push as the one in the tire would go around and around! Every thing she said in this is 100% true!!! Whenever we cut ourselves or hurt ourselves we’d start crying and our parents would say oh stop, you’re fine!!! Not to judge your generation but we were raised to be tough and self sufficient! And yours has been coddled. 😂😂😂

[@andromedaspark2241]

Man, I forgot about rolling in tires. 🤣 the playgrounds made of steel, blazing hot in the sun & directly over dirt, taught dexterity or pain...there was no in between. I miss dangling by my knees from the high bar. We liked to get scared. Still do.

[@KatyFaulkner-f6c]

@@andromedaspark2241 absolutely!!! 😂

[@KatyFaulkner-f6c]

Gen x, dude we were no pussies! 😂😂😂😂

[@angelagraves865]

I was 8 and my brother was 6 when my parents took us with them to see The Deep. 8 year old me was terrified and almost threw up, so my mom took me to the lobby and found a couple old women (who were probably the age I am now 😐) and asked them if they'd watch me while she went back in a watched the movie with my dad and brother, who was fine with it. I've tried to watch it a couple times over the years since, and it's just really boring, and I lose interest and turn it off. And it's our generation and their kids who've done the coddling. I mean, clearly not all of us, but enough. We remember what went down when there was no adult supervision. And while some of us might consider the younger generations weak, they're giften in ways we're not. But that's a different conversation.

[@etherealceleste]

8! no wonder I still imagine freaking sharks when I swim in my indoor pool at night. I can't stop it. Just over and over, no matter how much I know its not, the imagination spam is annoying.

[@bigjay875]

The copyer ink they used in the 80's contain a solvent that would get you buzzed up if the stack was thick and freshly printed

[@brawndothethirstmutilator9848]

The scented markers for kids would do the same. Giving them fruit smells…it’s almost like they wanted us huffing them 😂

[@chasetonga]

From the mimeograph copy machine. The ink was blue.

[@bigjay875]

@chasetonga I was to young to answer any specifics but I do remember catching a buzz in like 1 or 2nd grade and liking it 👍

[@jaycee330]

@@chasetonga Ditto paper.

[@christaschaefers9991]

Yep...Gen X here and these are facts!!!!!

[@michaelpapp5518]

15:52 she’s not wrong. The Challenger exploded. A school teacher had won the privilege of earning a spot on the shuttle crew. She was gonna be the student liaison for NASA during a highly publicized sojourn in space. She was lauded nationally as a hero. We all had been following her progress and training for months. The teachers all brought in TVs for us to watch the launch. Turned it off after the explosion. Swallowed sadness and shock. Then told us to turn to page whatever. Said we’d follow up “later” on what happened. That we should “talk to our parents.” Who were baby boomers. The only counseling we collectively received was a very special episode of Punky Brewster.

[@Jtr_ceral_killer]

Within hours of that tragedy the dark humor was spread.

[@etherealceleste]

I was so mad! How could they miss that the O rings would expand and contract in changing temperatures and at a different rate than the other materials around them!!! (at 14, I was thoroughly invested in Aerospace Engineering)

[@w1975b]

My class also watched it on tv. I remember my science teacher crying after it blew up. I was 10.

[@Kim-mv3gn]

When dad got home that night he said "Shit happens and people die, if you're upset about it go to the wood pile and split some wood, it'll help"

[@MarleneMeier]

😂😂😂

[@kurtschweiger6069]

She’s right about everything. Saw my first horror film in the 3rd grade, so about 9 years old, the original Night mare on Elm st will leave you scarred at that age

[@sandravanconant180]

In the late 70s, (I think I was 9 or 10,) I was having trouble falling asleep one night, so I went to the living room to sit on my dad's lap. Ended up watching Helter Skelter with my parents that night. They were fine with it.

[@tabanderson5148]

Yes! My first horror too!

[@daCubanaqt]

Seriously. We watched so many inappropriate movies growing up in the 80s and 90s 😂 No one cared.

[@Aprlmoore]

I was 12 when I saw it on a school trip. But yeah.

[@jenniferscott8350]

I still have flashbacks of that damn doll that came to life when the chain fell off in the Trilogy of Terror! And that was on regular TV.

[@rosealee9367]

Everything she said is true and then some. I have the callous on my finger from the pencils, I have a 3/4 inch wide x 3 inch long scar on my knee where my mom threw a bandaide on a gash I got from my leg going into a floor vent in the house my parents were painting and they removed the vents and covered with newspapers. My brother used me as target practise with his BB gun, we rode our bikes to the pier to fish as early as 5 - dad had taught us how to put worms on and get fish off the hooks or there was no sense fishing. We didn’t get locked out of the house, but we left after morning cartoons and didn’t come home until supper…in bare feet, riding bikes all day or just running around. Went behind the restaurants into the dumpsters to find the bottle caps hoping to find the ones with free pop liners inside - and yes we found many! Too many stories to tell, but my grand daughter drinks from our garden hose in summer after she saw me doing it! (Don’t tell her parents!) lol!

[@garykitto6360]

People forget that Europe's Gen X's parents, mine included, grew up in the rubble and ruins of WWII! We Gen X's were mere apprentices!

[@NanaBARS]

She is absolutely telling the truth‼️😂😂😂 And we used to get a sip of champagne on New Year’s Eve!😩🤣 And we also built a fort up in the tree in the woods and used to be there for hours alone in the woods!😱🤣😊

[@elishevahgodfrey3888]

Yes! Tree forts!

[@MelissaMackey-v8s]

Pine cone wars? !!!! Awesome!!!

[@shortblockflexinit5219]

Born in '61. What I remember was being miles away from home and my parents had no idea where we were. And at some point, we ran the house. All my parents did was pay the bills. We cleaned the house, did laundry, cooked dinner, cleaned the kitchen, cut the grass. My mom cooked Sunday dinner and they both trimmed the hedges, but that's it. They left us alone, we left them alone. Awesone childhood.

[@etherealceleste]

Miles and miles. Granted the nearest kid my age was 2 miles away or 1 mile through the woods/swamp.

[@shellybmya]

Yep, all true. 😂 We spent every minute we could outside. If no one was dead, everything was fine. Blood had to be gushing for us to head home while there was still light left in the day. We had to wait quite a while in the Texas heat for the water to run through enough to cool down before drinking out of the hoses left in the yards. Cigarettes were also sold in vending machines, so anyone could buy them without having to go into the store.

[@J.L.Nelson]

I had so much fun watching this and your reactions to how we grew up. Thank you!

[@desmien679]

GenX here and I've watched this video, not only is she spot on regarding our generation as kids, but she's telling the abridged little bedtime story of how things were when we were growing up. In fact the parents of older millennials would've be keeping their eyes on us interacting with their kids. Now granted some of our ways rubbed off on them when their parents weren't looking but they were still not quite like us. We were daredevils, rebels, and didn't give a F type of kids once we were out of the house. In fact we were literally doing stuff based on some of our idols like Evil Knievel. Starting at the age of about 5 years old I'd climb the wall of a local bank while my mother was inside paying bills. This was a wall 1 1/2 stories high and I'd climb close to the top. My mother would come out when finished and say nothing, usually even the bank didn't care. I never got hurt and for me it was just fun.

[@Joes7179]

My brother and i took a plane from Pittsburgh to LAX. On the plane i told the stewardess that i needed a bottle of wild turkey for my aunt Valerie. She gave it to me without blinking. My aunt Valerie didn't even know what wild turkey was...😂😂😂i was 9 my brother was 10.