User Panel
I survived all those sweet plywood bike ramps back in the day and last month, I had the best annual physical and bloodwork that I’ve seen in more than 10 years
Gen X’ers will still be ruling the Earth after the Boomers have all died from heart attacks brought on by extensive Cocaine use in their youth and the Millennials have curled-up and died from Ritalin withdrawals. |
|
bike riding and ramp jumping was fun. But so was setting a tire on a skateboard and riding it down a 2x8 plank set on the stairs to the unfinished basement. I was the last single family home on an extended cul de sac filled with townhouses. When they were building those townhouses, the construction sites were our playground.
Edit to show Crappy Capri: Attached File |
|
Quoted: Arent most of you the parents on Gen Z? Pretty sure that generations performance negates all of your positive accomplishments. View Quote The problem is, The typical Gen Xer has made the mistake of assuming that "well, I basically did whatever I wanted without supervision when I was a kid, and I turned out just fine, so it'll be the same for my kids". Then wonders why "my Internet addicted son now has purple hair and a 'xhe' pronoun?". |
|
Quoted: I'm going to disagree. I'm Gen X. Almost none of us grew up with household internet. Most of the Millennials did. That makes a huge difference. We played outside. Seeing a pussy was a huge deal because we couldn't look at thousands of them on the computer. We couldn't search on the internet how to do something, we figured it out ourselves. We learned to be resourceful. The internet and 9/11 are turning points. There is a stark contrast to life before and after. The younger of the millennials don't know life before those things. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Gen X & Millennial childhoods weren’t that much different. I'm going to disagree. I'm Gen X. Almost none of us grew up with household internet. Most of the Millennials did. That makes a huge difference. We played outside. Seeing a pussy was a huge deal because we couldn't look at thousands of them on the computer. We couldn't search on the internet how to do something, we figured it out ourselves. We learned to be resourceful. The internet and 9/11 are turning points. There is a stark contrast to life before and after. The younger of the millennials don't know life before those things. Yep. This man knows the score. No internet equals "go outside and live life." And you're right about the internet porn. The world would be so much better off without it. |
|
Quoted: bike riding and ramp jumping was fun. But so was setting a tire on a skateboard and riding it down a 2x8 plank set on the stairs to the unfinished basement. I was the last single family home on an extended cul de sac filled with townhouses. When they were building those townhouses, the construction sites were our playground. Edit to show Crappy Capri: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/58424/RenderedImage_jpeg-2958223.JPG View Quote That 2.3L I-4 with a one barrel carburetor put out a beastly 88hp. |
|
|
Quoted: 1971 checking in. Jumping fire on our bikes and sneaking liquor out of the neighbor kids liquor cabinets. View Quote '74 here.... same experience! Bicycle gangs, skateboarders, jumping insane crap on our bicycles and watching kids get smashed on the pavement.... Atari 2600 and OG Nintendo... Stashed Penthouse and Playboy mags... Sneaking booze... Smear the queer (LOL).... Hackey Sack... BB gun wars... |
|
Quoted: Serious question... How did we eat during the summers? All I remember is leaving on my BMX bike in the morning, staying out all day loaded down with Ukraine drone level explosives and coming home as it got dark. Is that why none of us were fat? Breakfast and dinner only? View Quote 70' and YES to the above |
|
Quoted: 1972. Grew up a true 80s child, graduated high school 1990. Life was great growing up. View Quote Exact same for me. Though in truth the '90s were even better for me. The summer of '94 was the best time of my life. I had just moved in with my girlfriend right before summer started. I remember talking to my new neighbors out front when the OJ chase started. Work was a little slow that summer so first they cut me back a day, then two days a week. I didn't care, I was still making enough to live on. Both my GF and I were each making probably $200 a week working 3 or 4 days a week. Rent was $325 a month. I had a sports car and a '60s muscle car at the time. We had plenty of time to do whatever. |
|
Quoted: The problem is, The typical Gen Xer has made the mistake of assuming that "well, I basically did whatever I wanted without supervision when I was a kid, and I turned out just fine, so it'll be the same for my kids". Then wonders why "my Internet addicted son now has purple hair and a 'xhe' pronoun?". View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Arent most of you the parents on Gen Z? Pretty sure that generations performance negates all of your positive accomplishments. The problem is, The typical Gen Xer has made the mistake of assuming that "well, I basically did whatever I wanted without supervision when I was a kid, and I turned out just fine, so it'll be the same for my kids". Then wonders why "my Internet addicted son now has purple hair and a 'xhe' pronoun?". |
|
Quoted: https://www.giantbomb.com/a/uploads/scale_medium/3/31838/1115939-968830_untitled.png The solution to all life's problems. View Quote Attached File |
|
Quoted: BB gun wars. Supposedly "no more than three pumps" on the powerful ones. Nobody listened. All day you'd hear "CRACK" then somebody yelp. I clearly remember a fat kid running home screaming hysterically with a BB stuck in his meaty forehead. And everybody stayed friends. No cops, no lawsuits. Amazing. View Quote Same rules. Same results. I ended up with a BB lodged WAY UP under my fingernail. After trying to scrape it out we called my grandmother and she took me to a doctor friend. He acted like it was something he did every other day, hahaha. |
|
Quoted: My wife is fascinated by Action Park. Also known as "Traction Park" and "Class Action Park". She's always finding YouTube videos with old footage for us to watch. That place sounds like awesome. Crewed mostly by high school kids who were often drunk and would get in fights with the customers. And who would take the governors off the go karts and drive them on the local roads (again often while drunk. In high school). Sounds like my kind of place. Sorry I didn't grow up anywhere near there. View Quote It was absolutely incredible. There were no real rules. It was the closest one could get to thunderdome, but it was you vs the attractions. |
|
|
|
Quoted: I just love these Gen X threads. Who do you think raised the millennials and Gen zed? Gen X people love to brag that we are so much better than the boomers, who, if you’ve done any reading, you will know, they were the original “me generation.” That was literally their nickname before they were called the boomers because they were a bunch of selfish prick so only cared about themselves. Gen ex people also like to complain about millennials and gen Z. Is there some secret generation hidden in there somewhere that parented the millennials and gen Z? Because I’m pretty sure that Gen X is primarily responsible for all of these gender confused, spoiled little twat’s running around, causing all of the worlds problems these days. View Quote I just looked at your avatar. That's gold. Didn't read your post. |
|
View Quote We had one of those, and a waterpick on the bathroom sink. Everyone had their own pick-head (color coded). You'd fill the reservoir on top and then proceed to high-pressure hose / splatter your tooth-food all over the bathroom and mirror. |
|
My soon-to-be-wife is 19 years my junior. There are definitely differences between a Gen-X and Millennial that go far deeper than cellular phones and the internet. From what I observed, our parents (Boomers) were self-absorbed and very selfish. We (Gen-X) were cynical and independent but had an entrepreneurial / industrious attitude coupled with a desire for adventure / risk taking. Gen-X's biggest deficiency has been our cynicism lead to a non-conformity that wasn't really productive for our culture. I was in college when grunge went mainstream. That road led to nowhere. It was a wasted outgrowth of our disaffection. We could of done something productive with our cynicism instead we dutuned our guitars and our women dressed like hairy dudes. Our children (Millennials) seem to be the "non" generation. They have contributed virtually nothing of value, and have expected everything. They seem to be the composite amalgamation of the worst of the Boomers (selfish self-absorption) and Gen-Xrs (misdirected non-conformity while ironically thinking they're be "individuals" while copying what they see on TikTok or whatever is "viral") while adding a measure of self-righteous indignation they feel they DESERVE while completely ignoring the fact respect is EARNED.
Younger "adults" (whatever generation I'm observing) lack interpersonal communications skills and present themselves as virtually brain-dead. This morning we went to Starbucks for coffee. The young lady taking our order could barely communicate with me. Her appearance spoke of "fierce independence" but she wouldn't make eye contact, mumbled distractedly, and spelled my name (which is GARY) as GRY. |
|
1970 checking back in....
We were sent to the store to get eggs, bread, milk and cigarettes as minors (and they sold them to us because they knew who they were for). Mom had Tupperware parties. We ate Big Mac's outta styrofoam containers and drank Coke out of glass bottles and returned the bottles to the store. I remember the taste of hot rubber water hose water. We attended small town parades during Christmas and everyone took their hat off, with hand over heart and saluted the Color Guard. The Avon lady was a ding dong. We rode around in the car standing up in the seat and the dashboard was made of metal and all the nobs were metal. Bottle rocket wars were Epic. People drove around with rifles in the back of their pickup truck windows. We looked forward to playing board games. If you were lucky you had a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica. Hitting an entire roll of 'caps' with a hammer was better than putting them in the gun. Every hotel and fancy restaurant had matches with their logo. You had to wait to use the phone and developed patience. Car jacks were actually useful and hooked on to the bumper. 'Picture' day at school was a big deal and you combed your hair and wore 'good' clothes on that day. Not everybody made the team or got a trophy and you learned humility. Good grades were just that and bad report card had consequences. TV shows were 'morality' shows. Your feelings weren't hurt with words and words weren't twisted out of context. Sears had guns on the shelves, on an aisle, in the middle of the store with no locks on them. You respected the Police and the Military was honorable. We stared the day with the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem was played at the end of the night before TV went "off". |
|
Quoted: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/480138/bike-jumping-5_jpg-2956123.JPG Not my photo but have the scars none the less. We werent living unless we were hurdling ourselves from every janky piece of plywood ramp in the neighborhood from sunup to sundown, or out in the woods playing war games. View Quote Kids these days will never know the joy of going over a sweet jump (either wood or a driveway curb) in a heavy-ass steel Huffy with a banana seat. I can remember the KLANG of you chain flopping against the chain guard...or sometimes the kick-stand flopping down. Had to be careful about removing the chain guard or else your bellbottoms will get caught between the chain and crank. |
|
Quoted: I’m a millennial. I was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s and early 00s. Gen X & Millennial childhoods weren’t that much different. Every time there’s one of these threads with Gen X reliving their childhood and how it was so much different and better than everybody else it’s pretty much identical to my experience growing up. -teachers paddled kids in class -played on huge metal jungle gyms -rode down the highway in the bed of trucks -rode dirt bikes and go carts without helmets -rode bicycles into town without adults -parents locked us outside to play during the day -collected baseball cards -played with gi joes and cap guns -played Super Nintendo -used VCRs -carried a pocket knife to school -daily fist fights on the playground -pizza hut stained glass lights, red cups and book club -smoking sections in all restaurants -sneaking away with dad’s PlayBoy magazine -watching scrambled porn on box set TVs late at night Y’all act like there’s a 50 year gap between Gen X and Millenials. Lol View Quote Pretty sure that's Gen Z |
|
Stuff was WAY more affordable in the late 70’s. For example
my Parents bought a brand new Bayfront home in NJ on Long Beach Island in 1978 for $79,000. The average family income was about $26k at that time so the house was 3x the income. My private high school education was $1500 a year. Private school 15-25k now. |
|
|
Quoted: Ah, yes. I didn't mention that. Mom used to drop us off at the mall and told us where to meet her and at what time. We actually had to wear watches. I didn't have internet in my house or a cell phone until a couple years after I graduated college. View Quote Every phone in our house had the extra long cord all tangled to hell. Streched half way across the house so you could talk to the girls in private because we couldnt or didnt have phones in our rooms. Attached File I remember finally getting a cordless phone and it was GREAT till the battery died. Attached File |
|
|
|
|
Quoted: I am amazed we survived given all the things they have banned now “for the children”. View Quote Attached File |
|
|
Quoted: Serious question... How did we eat during the summers? All I remember is leaving on my BMX bike in the morning, staying out all day loaded down with Ukraine drone level explosives and coming home as it got dark. Is that why none of us were fat? Breakfast and dinner only? View Quote Drinking from any available water hose I think. |
|
|
|
Quoted: I remember programming the VCR to record on a schedule. My parents thought I was conjuring a devil spirit or something. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Gen "X'- the ONLY generation that figured out how to set the clock on a VCR... I remember programming the VCR to record on a schedule. My parents thought I was conjuring a devil spirit or something. My brother was either dumb, or smart The 3 times my parents asked him to set the VCR to record something, he screwed it up. From then on, it became my responsibility. |
|
Quoted: Proud millennial here. Never had an issue with VCR features. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Gen "X"- had to help our parents with the computer printer AND help our children with the computer printer. Gen "X'- the ONLY generation that figured out how to set the clock on a VCR... Proud millennial here. Never had an issue with VCR features. Wait... you're a millennial? Congrats, you look old enough for honorary Gen X status |
|
Ban This - Powell Peralta Skateboards 1989 Peak GenX. A dozen neighborhood kids all piled in the living room of the one or two kids houses who had VCRs and parents cool enough to buy them the latest skate videos beating the Florida mid day summer heat. Then we would all go hit the nearest ramp totally amped with the giant VHS recorder and try to make our own videos. Attached File |
|
Quoted: I'm old gen X age 56 Most 18 - 23 year olds would have an aneurysm if they had to live like I did from about 85-90 ... No cell phone No social media Telephone attached to the wall Use a physical map to travel I'm glad I lived it. View Quote 55 here. Remember when the first cordless handsets came out. You had to extend the antenna before answering? |
|
Quoted: Serious question... How did we eat during the summers? All I remember is leaving on my BMX bike in the morning, staying out all day loaded down with Ukraine drone level explosives and coming home as it got dark. Is that why none of us were fat? Breakfast and dinner only? View Quote I mentioned it before in 'fat' threads; I had 2 fat friends in grade school (though neither one would stand out by today's standards). I noticed that with the other friends, we were always engaged in a lot of physical activity, whether it was biking all over the damned place, playing basketball, Frisbee, running around the woods like loons... Whenever I went over to one of the fat friend's houses to hang out. It was all sedentary stuff. Board games, watching TV, videogames etc. The other fat friend decided to join the rest of us one summer. Initially, we had to keep slowing down and waiting for him on our bicycles, but by the end of just ONE summer of running around with the rest of us skinny lunatics, he'd dropped a ton of weight, was much fitter, and had no problems keeping up with the rest of us. Then the family moved. No idea how he's been, as we didn't keep in touch, but maybe that one summer showed him another path. |
|
Born in 66....my kids are like yeah, well, we got drive thru weed stores now on the way to the beach...
|
|
|
“Hitting an entire roll of 'caps' with a hammer was better than putting them in the gun”.
So much goodness. A whole box was even better with a sledge hammer. |
|
Quoted: Same rules. Same results. I ended up with a BB lodged WAY UP under my fingernail. After trying to scrape it out we called my grandmother and she took me to a doctor friend. He acted like it was something he did every other day, hahaha. View Quote I was the kid with the spring loaded bb gun, I usually won and got to do minor surgery. |
|
I liked dumping a handful of bbs down the barrel of my crossman 760 and using it like a shotgun to blast my friends who had lame lever action Daisy BB guns.
|
|
|
Quoted: Dumb argument. GT by a mile (I rocked a light purple Dyno Comp with white rimes and tires). Not mine, but similar to this, except white rims instead of mags. https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbmxmuseum.com%2Fimage%2Fimg_052859a5bf23c2_blowup.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=754d5e562f92ce33ed98219512b112e9bcfb893fc5e2eeee5c5cc0bcbb895f33&ipo=images Edit, found the exact color/frame. https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.FUk-Jk6w50l7YDhRJ4BhcwHaDg%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=6c7ebe95522a9d7c0c72617c5355cb492f86c29fa24901c661489684009ff35e&ipo=images View Quote Nice! I had a white framed Dyno, similar Odyssey gyro... Skyway wheels and freestyle pegs. Stuff is probably worth quite a bit nowadays, sold it for maybe $50 at a garage sale a little less than 20 years ago. Also, not mine, but similar colors to what I had: Attached File |
|
Quoted: That 2.3L I-4 with a one barrel carburetor put out a beastly 88hp. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: bike riding and ramp jumping was fun. But so was setting a tire on a skateboard and riding it down a 2x8 plank set on the stairs to the unfinished basement. I was the last single family home on an extended cul de sac filled with townhouses. When they were building those townhouses, the construction sites were our playground. Edit to show Crappy Capri: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/58424/RenderedImage_jpeg-2958223.JPG That 2.3L I-4 with a one barrel carburetor put out a beastly 88hp. Never got a speeding ticket in it! |
|
|
|
|
Quoted: My dad gave me my first cigarette at about that age. We were fishing and the smoke kept the mosquitoes in check. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Smoked my first cigarette around 8-9 My dad gave me my first cigarette at about that age. We were fishing and the smoke kept the mosquitoes in check. good times BB gun wars fireworks homemade fireworks riding in the back of trucks dawn to dusk running wild with your friends |
|
Sign up for the ARFCOM weekly newsletter and be entered to win a free ARFCOM membership. One new winner* is announced every week!
You will receive an email every Friday morning featuring the latest chatter from the hottest topics, breaking news surrounding legislation, as well as exclusive deals only available to ARFCOM email subscribers.
AR15.COM is the world's largest firearm community and is a gathering place for firearm enthusiasts of all types.
From hunters and military members, to competition shooters and general firearm enthusiasts, we welcome anyone who values and respects the way of the firearm.
Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter to receive firearm news, product discounts from your favorite Industry Partners, and more.
Copyright © 1996-2024 AR15.COM LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.
AR15.Com reserves the right to overwrite or replace any affiliate, commercial, or monetizable links, posted by users, with our own.