Part 1: How hostile GenX's environment was

I don't think some people realize how hostile GenX's environment was. To be clear, I am not saying that any of it was aspirational but it really was a jungle for us GenXers. I am not exaggerating or making it up. Falling and getting hurt all the time was thing. I actually consider myself lucky compared to others. The fall I describe in the video referred was one of MANY falls.
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[@supraguardian]

So I had a friend who did exactly this....cracked her ribs going carting with me in 1998. She was skipping school, so hid the cracked rib from her parents. Fear of parents was a big motivator in those days. Of course these things happened!

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@supraguardian I think we all have a story like this. 😂

[@crowgrl13]

I had a friend in junior high (1988) who broke his wrist running from the cops. He couldn't tell his dad that, so he just dealt with it for 24 hours. He then told his dad he was going out to skateboard and came back in an hour holding his wrist and telling his dad that he fell. They went to the hospital, had it x-rayed, and it was broken. Spent 6 weeks in a cast. So yep, I believe that you probably cracked a rib.

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@crowgrl13 Everyone got hurt pretty bad. i don’t think ppl realized how wild the 💩 we were doing was. The bike ramps alone with us lying at the end like a game of chicken was pretty nuts.

[@crowgrl13]

@@artandalchemyparfum Right? I remember watching this bike land on the last kid laying on the ground that they were trying to jump over. We all said, "You're ok! Walk it off!"

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@crowgrl13 I was that kid once. Got the wheel right in the stomach and lost my air. My friends laughed and my mum smacked me for ruining the smurfs tshirt I hated. 😂

[@YodaMan-420]

i broke my ribs as a teen once. kinda did the same thing. didnt tell anyone. didnt have insurance at the time either so they probably wouldnt have taken me to the hospital unless i was... in worse shape.. gotta say it that way because youtube will delete it if i say it the right way. breaking your ribs is like getting a sunburn on the top of your head (bald guy problems) its an entirely different kind of pain than youre used to.

[@garryuyahoo]

1974, so I'm towards the end of GenX. I was on a swing set in elementary school. It was made out of welded pipes and chain bought from the hardware store. The pipes were probably 20' long welded at an angle so easily 15' from the ground to the top. We moved to the new building in 6th grade, so I was 10. Trying to impress a girl I liked, I was swinging as hard as I could until I was almost even with the bar. On my way up, that moment of 'maximum dynamic pressure', one of the chains broke, and everything went into slow motion. I remember thinking, "I'm in the same position skydivers use. I can see the top of the fort (a 2 story wooden fort that was in front of me)". It seemed to last forever. Then time skipped. I don't remember falling at all... Just BAM! I was flat on my stomach lying in the mix of pea gravel, old mulch, and pine straw that falls from the trees in the playground. I hit so hard that it took me a few seconds to even breathe. I couldn't move. My head was to one side and I could only see the feet of a couple of people. All the playground noises continued for a few seconds then went silent in a wave expanding away from me. I was finally able to draw a breath, then 2, and yelled, "Help! Help!". The feet in front of me stood there for what seemed like an eternity before walking over and helping me get up. As I'm standing up, the teachers finally realize what happened and come running over and take me inside. Because I hit so perfectly flat, my only injury was a busted pinky nail. They made me finish out the day at school and didn't even call my parents! Before anyone says it, No body sued anyone back then. You couldn't afford a lawyer, the small Christian school didn't have any money to take, and judges would have laughed and told me to be more careful. Oh, and the school took the board off the chain that was left dangling, and left the rest of the swings in service.

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@garryuyahoo Yep sounds about right! 👍🏽😹

[@skinnyway]

gen x goes to 1985.

[@LisaRamseyArt]

See-saws - a game that taught and encouraged cooperation. Miss you, Tammy.

[@mikesmith-hd9gx]

parent hostility: "whaddya cryin for? you want a reason to cry"? teacher hostility: "stay awake in my class next time" after hitting you with eraser peer hostility: where to fuckin start?!? you and everything about you was "gay" and that was not okay, punching games ("quit whining, fat dont hurt"), bullies in school were tolerated because they "toughened you up" environment hostility: cement and hardpack dirt playgrounds & bikes, skates, skateboards with no pads game hostility: red rover and duck duck goose

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@mikesmith-hd9gx My teacher’s hostility sounded like: “Are you stupid? I think you ARE stupid. Said in front if the entire class. OR “Oh… that kid? Isn’t he a f@ggot? said in the hallway with other teacher with 0 consequences. Boy we NEVER got a break. 😂

[@sheenadees2701]

You mean like the sad commercial?It's 10 o'clock.Do you know where your kids are or the other one?Have you giving your kids a hug today😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@sheenadees2701 Lol That too. Oy! Commercials had to remind parents they had children. 😂

[@acorreira1915]

Playing "smear the queer" during recess in Catholic elementary school. Basically one versus all rugby.

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@acorreira1915 Yeah pretty much. 🤷🏽‍♂️ Luckily I was a feisty one so they left me alone after a few tries. Not the case for other queers.

[@MrNoNameSoldier]

Let's see, my first concussion was in kindergarten when a girl pushed me off the playground and I landed on the concrete at the bottom of the fireman's pole. I once ran my bike into the side of a car when I was doing maybe 25mph(second concussion). I had to then get up and ride my bike home with the car following me so they could get my parents insurance information to fix the damage to the car. My brother once went a week with a BB lodged under the skin next to his temple because he didn't want to tell our parents we were playing army with really BB guns. Yeah Gen X was just built different.

[@JanetMarcum-o7r]

Dang, man. I got a couple of broken ribs a year and a half ago. Took 4 months to heal. Worked my schedule. Healed. No ER. No Urgent Care. Just me and my bra. One of the ribs was broken in a couple of places. The bra was easier than wrapping. We're still tough.

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@JanetMarcum-o7r Yeah there really isn’t all that much they can do. Ribs hold in place because there is quite a bit of tissue surrounding them… they intervene only if its really fully broken and tissus has been torn.

[@JanetMarcum-o7r]

@@artandalchemyparfum I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis about 10 years ago. I have quite a bit of soft tissue damage.

[@fishlessfisherman]

1969 Gen X…the best days of my life!!!!!

[@taniaswain-williams1379]

Gen x here. It was normal.

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@taniaswain-williams1379 🙌🏽 Some ppl just don’t believe that it could be as intense as we describe it.

[@OpinionatedBrunette]

🎉True I think we all have internal bruising .

[@captionhere]

I broke my foot- hairline fracture. Parents acted like it was nothing. I was in agony for 3 days before i could no longer walk. Went to hospital amd xray showed crack. I was 20. Parents were still toxic in the 90s to gen x me. I was in uni. Uk and healthcare was free. Had to use the bus to go to the hospital. But apparently it was nothing serious so why go to the hospital?!

[@macazootie]

with your love of safetyism & lack of nostalgia for the things of our youth I question whether you're even genX & not at least an xennial, kids today are robbed of free-range experiences

[@artandalchemyparfum]

@@macazootie Don’t get me wrong, I am VERY nostalgic of that time. We spent our days outside and not in front of screens. It was a time where being smart was also valued. But I mean some parts were far from aspirational. If you didn’t quite fit the mold l, boy was is ever more brutal. Heck parents and teachers had to green light to be bullies. Like it was totally acceptable to have a teacher call me stupid. I fckn believed him until I was 33. Talk about trauma. 😂😵‍💫

[@skinnyway]

i broke my foot playing bball in the 5th grade & I hated my mom so much I wouldnt let them call her. I walked on it all day and then walked home on it too where she proceeded to have a fit because I'm so clumsy and an attention seeker. See - we were not allowed to be attention seekers. Not even if we were dying. the merry go round wasnt for sissies and if we still had them maybe there wouldnt be so many sissy boys today. we played tackle football in the street, practiced our best Bruce Lee moves on each other and werent accused of being sociopaths. My sister knocked my tooth out on the driveway and it took us forever to find it. I got clobered on the ballfield in practice and was knocked out for a few minutes woke up with a hole thru my lip from how hard it smashed against my teeth! everyone was standing around me in a circle when I opened my eyes! we played a game called stretch that involved throwing knives in the ground close to our feet to see if we could stretch like twister! sometimes we missed the ground but couldnt say a word because we werent supposed to be playing with knives!! 70's - 80's Gen X was the best!

[@ironwoodworkman4917]

I knew two guys that got killed fighting in the Hwy. It was Montana. But still it was the highway. Run over by a truck that could not stop on the ice in time. Both dead. It is like people do not know the 1980's were one of the most violent times in American history. (Look it up, The numbers do not lie.) I have scares all over my body from back then, Some from fighting but most from doing crazy ass dumb shit that was a LOT! of fun. Do not even get me started on the BB-gun fights. I still have one in my leg that the Doc said was to hard to get out. Or the kegs party's and running from the cops. The cops LOVED! casing after us and trying to run us down. Got a big scare on my leg from that, with some bone missing as well. (Note: If you jump out of a two story house. Try not to land on the concrete stairs that go down to the basement.) We were all Latchkey kids. We raised our selves. It WAS! Lord of the Flies. IRL Just the way we talked, back then, would make people now days lose their minds. Anyone that grew up in the 1970's and 1980's knows what I am talking about. IDK, I still think it was better back then. It is very hard to articulate to young people how and why. I lived in Seattle in the 1990's so that was OK as well, I enjoy the music and watching my friends live out the dream. But the truth is we were all just f%cking around and making fun of the main stream. Just like people make fun of the lame stream news today. We knew it was all BS, So we gave them Bull Shit. It was all just a inside joke and warning to Gen M. The Boomers were to big and GenX is so small. Half of DC is STILL Boomers, They are in their 80's for f%cks sake. They are going to take it all to their graves and never give it up. Anyhow I was at a show in a place called the Moore Theatre in 1995 ( I think) maybe 1994. It is getting a little fuzzy now days. Feels like a life time away now. Anyway a guy named Layne Staley and guys from Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam, and other bands sang a song called Long Gone Day. This is when I knew it would all soon change and come to a end. All we had to do is watch what Bill Gates and his type were doing. I do not think anyone now would even know what I am talking about or even like this kind of music. I think only GenX knows about this stuff. IDK, Maybe if we had something better than VHS to record on. None of the big music guys gave a fuck about this music. So they did not bother recording it as well. (Until they seen $$ in it) So much of it is lost and now only live in old people minds like myself. Anyhow it is all long gone days. I really do not care it they think it is the truth or not. I know the truth.

[@MsGenXodus]

Gen X here. We got corporal punishment in public schools. The boys were paddle with a pickle ball paddle. The girls were wrapped across the knuckles with a wooden dowel. On the other side, my 7th grade teacher was harassed by her students to the point that she ran from the classroom, sobbing. She never came back.

[@YaoiScene]

So the merri-go-round - fun story - i think it was 2nd grade? At school recess. That thing was PACKED. Kids were on it spinning it around, and you know how they sat, one leg out kicking on the ground. I fell off and somehow my head lodged right in the ditch where everyone's feet hung 🥴. So my head got brutally kicked by about thirty kids going full speed on the merri-go-round. 🫠