--------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------
>
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
> Don't call me "Generation X,"
> call me a child of the eighties
>
> by Bryant Adkins
> published in The Reflector
> January 20, 1995
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I am a child of the eighties. That is what I prefer to be called. The
> nineties can do without me. Grunge isn't here to stay, fashion is
> fickle and "Generation X" is a myth created by some over-40 writer
> trying to figure out why people wear flannel in the summer. When I got
> home from school, I played with my Atari 2600. I spent hours playing
> Pitfall or Combat or Breakout or Dodge'em Cars or Frogger. I never did
> beat Asteroids. Then I watched "Scooby Doo." Daphne was a Goddess, and I
> thought Shaggy was smoking something synthetic in the back of their
> psychedelic van. I hated Scrappy.
>
> I would sleep over at friends' houses on the weekends. We played army
> with G.I. Joe figures, and I set up galactic wars between Autobots and
> Decepticons. We stayed up half the night throwing marshmallows and
> Velveeta at one another. We never beat the Rubik's Cube.
>
> I got up on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to watch bad Hanna-Barbera
> cartoons like "The Snorks," "Jabberjaw," "Captain Caveman," and "Space
> Ghost." In between I would watch "School House Rock." ("Conjunction
> junction, what's your function?")
>
> On weeknights Daisy Duke was my future wife. I was going to own the
> General Lee and shoot dynamite arrows out the back. Why did they weld
> the doors shut? At the movies the Nerds got Revenge on the Alpha Betas
> by teaming up with the Omega Mus. I watched Indiana Jones save the Ark
> of the Covenant, and wondered what Yoda meant when he said, "No, there
> is another."
>
> Ronald Reagan was cool. Gorbachev was the guy who built a McDonalds in
> Moscow. My family took summer vacations to the Gulf of Mexico and
> collected "Muppet Movie" glasses along the way. (We had the whole set.)
> My brother and I fought in the back seat. At the hotel we found creative
> uses for Connect Four pieces like throwing them in that big air
> conditioning unit.
>
> I listened to John COUGAR Mellencamp sing about Little Pink Houses for
> Jack and Diane. I was bewildered by Boy George and the colors of his
> dreams, red, gold, and green. MTV played videos. Nickelodeon played "You
> Can't Do That on Television" and "Dangermouse." Cor! HBO showed Mike
> Tyson pummel everybody except Robin Givens, the bad actress from "Head
> of the Class" who took all Mike's cashflow.
>
> I drank Dr. Pepper. "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper, wouldn't you like
> to be a Pepper, too?" Shasta was for losers. TAB was a laboratory
> accident. Capri Sun was a social statement. Orange juice wasn't just for
> breakfast anymore, and bacon had to move over for something meatier.
>
> My mom put a thousand Little Debbie Snack Cakes in my Charlie Brown
> lunch box, and filled my Snoopy Thermos with grape Kool-Aid. I would
> never eat the snack cakes, though. Did anyone? I got two thousand cheese
> and cracker snack packs, and I ate those.
>
> I went to school and had recess. I went to the same classes everyday.
> Some weird guy from the eighth grade always won the science fair with
> the working hydro-electric plant that leaked on my project about music
> and plants. They just loved Beethoven.
>
> Field day was bigger than Christmas, but it always managed to rain
> just enough to make everybody miserable before they fell over in the
> three-legged race. Where did all those panty hose come from? "Deck the
> Halls with Gasoline, fa la la la la la la la la," was just a song.
> Burping was cool. Rubber band fights were cooler. A substitute teacher
> was a baby sitter/marked woman. Nobody deserved that.
>
> I went to Cub Scouts. I got my arrow-of-light, but never managed to
> win the Pinewood Derby. I got almost every skill award but don't
> remember ever doing anything.
>
> The world stopped when the Challenger exploded.
>
> Did a teacher come in and tell your class?
>
> Half of your friends' parents got divorced.
>
> People did not just say no to drugs.
>
> AIDS started, but you knew more people who had a grandparent die from
> cancer.
>
> Somebody in your school died before they graduated.
>
> When you put all this stuff together, you have my childhood. If this
> stuff sounds familiar, then I bet you are one, too.
>
> We are children of the eighties. That is what I prefer "they" call it.
>
>
>
>
>
> =========================================================================
>
>
>
Text file Source (historic): geocities.com/garrison27
(to report bad content: archivehelp @ gmail)
|
|
|
|
|