-
the generation born after that of the baby boomers (roughly from the early 1960s to mid 1970s), often perceived to be disaffected and directionless.
Yeah well… money just didn’t have that same appeal for us that it does for every other generation. Love – dwindling heartache wanting to be found.. Hurt – lurking just around every corner…
Disaffected and directionless actually is a definition I like.. yes, we are “disaffected”.. by the commercialism, the bullshit, the money, the “dream”… That dream is a dream. We know it. Chase your own rabbit motherfucker…
Directionless because we have realized the only important directions one needs are those that lead to something interesting… friends house, adventure, road trip… right?
Our parents sorta got it.. the millennials get it and are jealous they can’t get it right.. this “disaffectation” and “directionless” motion forward that we have perfected.
So why are we here? What’s the point and purpose of our “lost” generation.. Us X’er’s that society seems to truly want to eliminate somewhere between 1987 and 1995…
We are here because like it or not we are the final frontier. We are the last remaining generation that wandered slowly from the old ways to a techno revolution. As I wrote on the Cafe blog, around 2050 we will be in our 70’s.. That will put us in the position of being the last remaining people on Earth who remember life before cell phones and computers.. Let that sink in for a minute.
We will be the last ones who actually spoke to someone from the 1900’s. Our great grand parents.
We will be the last ones who actually witnessed the 8 track, the record, the cassette tape, the cd, the mp3 player and more… all in one life time.
Black and White TV.. yes kids. We had one.
But the important stuff is what we remember from those old timers. Our parents, grand parents.. etc. Those little things we learned and have been blessed with not forgetting. Things like the things I want to post here on this page. Classic movies, music, people, clothes, things to do with no phone or electric.. games.. right? We are not old, we are not young.. and there are things we remember.. old stuff. Snippets of history that we were gifted with by special people.
Making bread, cookies.. stringing popcorn.. TV shows.. whatever is a memory of a life that was not so fast.. not so intrusive. A life that was more sustainable. No one may care now. We’ve discovered in our middle age that kids do their own thing.. but we need to remember that No One will remember but us some day.
The First Post 12/29/2016
Gen X Post – Subject: Security Tip from Grandpa
My Grandpa used to go around the house at night turning off all of the lights all the time.. We would all be sitting in the living room watching TV and Grandpa would be walking around, turning off lights.. grumbling..
Not about the electric bill.. but about people breaking in. Which was a little crazy since my grandparents house was in the middle of 10 acres.. 5 of which was swamp..
Yeah.. his thing was break ins.. He used to tell us this:
Don’t leave all the lights on at night for the burglars to see what they are going to crash into…
_________________________________________________________________________
01/08/2017
poetry reading
-
: an event in which people read poems that they have written aloud for a group
These used to occur in coffee houses, street corners, shopping malls, Wal Mart and on occasion people’s front porches. Now a days poetry readings are not as popular as before because of the internet and it’s entertainment value… back in the day you would walk by someplace, hear something cool coming out of it and investigate.. you know, we were bored. We walked around a lot… Some of the best artists in these places did what we called “Spoken Word”.. the modern street Rap style has been acquired from this technique. Tupac in fact, was a master of it. Henry Rollins being another.
It would be nice to see some of the old advertisements like small, discreet postcards in your favorite head shop or music store; pop up again in this new day. You young folks should start organizing your own poetry readings and spoken word sessions. A little human interaction with the right people never hurt anyone.. Go ahead, do it old skool! Step away from the box for a minute, the one in your hand, the one in your home… Thanks. 🙂
______________________________________________________________________
01/16/2017
There is this piece of my bangs which falls down and forms its own curl right in the middle of my forehead… I see this absently, it bugs me and I think I look like Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley.
Laverne & Shirley was an old sitcom from the 70’s that I got to watch reruns of in the 80’s. I liked the show, used to watch it all the time. Squiggy and his partner Lenny were the best, but I never wanted Squiggy’s hair.. Even though that “devil’s lock” reminded me of Danzig…
_________________________________________________________________________
02/12/2017
Haven’t done one of these in a while and the other night we were hanging out when the boyfriend wondered if we remembered calling Time… I remembered. I also remember doing it quite frequently. Like one just could not look at a clock.
For those who don’t know… back when there were no cell phones, in a galaxy far, far away; you either wore a watch, looked for a clock somewhere in the world like at banks or carwashes… You actually had a clock somewhere other than beside your bed, or… You called Time, from the push button phone attached to the kitchen wall.
Apparently you still can. Which I think is pretty cool. This article gives some phone numbers and a little interesting info.
Keep on Keepin’ on Kiddos…
________________________________________________________________________
03/07/2017
Just so ya know… All you little wide eyed and wondrous millennials… we miss you. We miss the sweet children that looked up to us when we were know it all teenagers. We are sorry if our views fucked you up because, at least I know that it was us who you were watching.
To all of the nieces, nephews, little brothers and sisters… we miss you asking us things… we miss you listening to the answers. Hang in there kiddos, “while you’re looking for yourselves out there”…. -just a little Train for ya too <3
_________________________________________________________________________
03/31/2017
I have to say guys, I was thinking about this this afternoon and I thought, I have to apologize to these poor kids… Our parents tortured us with Simon & Garfunkel…
We torture our kids with the Misfits…
It’s no wonder at all what happened.
So. Sorry.
_________________________________________________________________________
05/12/2017
Back in my day… 😉
My aunt used to scribble Kilroy everywhere. My mom did too. I was always seeing this little face and head with a huge nose peering over a wall everywhere.
Have you ever seen him?
“Kilroy wuz Here” would usually be scrawled somewhere in the picture.
I had to ask… What’s up with the little guy? Though my memory is not really clear, I believe my mom told me he had something to do with the Vietnam War and that he was an old cartoon named Kilroy. That’s all I knew about him.
Looking back I realize that I too had Kilroy doodled on all my notebooks, Chucks, and book bags… I too had picked up the Kilroy cause whatever it may be.
I had long forgotten about Kilroy until about two or three days ago.
Out of the blue, I thought of Kilroy. I asked my significant other whether he remembered him or not, he said he vaguely recollected something like that… he wasn’t sure.
I decided to look up the history of The Kilroy and see what it actually means anyway and what I found was incredibly interesting to me. Especially since I randomly thought of him during these current and bizarre moments of human history we are all experiencing.
Turns out Kilroy does have something to do with war. As an ambiguous message of memorium, Kilroy has popped up in different cultural forms amongst soldiers across the globe.
According to Wikipedia, Kilroy has been found everywhere American GI’s were during WWII and beyond. The curious little tombstone appeared on captured American military equipment, leading Hitler to think he had some external spy to deal with named Kilroy… Stalin worried about Kilroy…
I like to think that in those times of immense loneliness, while facing death and unknown enemies on foreign shores, that Kilroy was a way of memorial.
Remember me. Remember us. Remember that though it all is shit, we still have this little guy for all the world to remember us by.
Kilroy was here.
We were here.
Kilroy will stand as a neutral beacon for us all.
Read more on Kilroy and possible creator here
_________________________________________________________________________
07/22/2017
I was at the pool the other day and there were some cute little millennials there frolicking about. The two of them were play boxing or having boxing lessons? I don’t know, some mating ritual of young humans now… anyway. Possibly the guy was older than the girl because he called her a Southpaw, explaining to her the advantage of this in boxing.
She looked at him slightly confused like she was wondering if she should be offended at something.
She said “What’s a Southpaw?” in a cautious tone. This was definitely a deal breaker if the answer was what she thought it might be.
He smiles and explains it is because she is left-handed. Her face relaxes, she smiles… suddenly she thinks of kittens and paws and all kinds of soft, special, cuddly left-handed things…
He is correct. Being a Left-Handed person myself, I know all the nicknames: Southpaw, Lefty… shit I can’t think of right now…
But don’t take offense. There were times when lefty’s could get burned at the stake for being the devil’s kids… We were right up there with the red-heads. Now there’s a real witch burner… Red-Headed, Lefty with a Mole on the Face… She’s a goner for sure. Things are much better now.
Now a days we are special. An anomaly everybody loves. They even make notebooks for us, you can find them online here at Lefty’s The Left-Handed Store.
_________________________________________________________________________
07/28/2017
Gen X Post – Subject: Duct Tape
Yes. Duct Tape kids. Duct Tape for EVERYTHING. Just letting you know. You can do so many things with the Duct Tape.
Tape your steel toed boots back together.
Tape your sneakers back together.
Hang things on the wall like pets or people.
Tape your car back together like reattaching the bumpers, lights or doors.
It makes a great seal when using it to tape the plastic over your busted windows.
It Covers All Mouths.
If only Duct Tape could restore the gentleness to humanity. You don’t even need to use much force to tear it, just a little; to rip apart some of the strongest stuff on the planet.
Irony.
There is also a program called MythBusters that did a show on Duct Tape. Truly amazing. I mean, obviously I knew the value of the stuff, but not to this extent. They even build a freakin’ boat with it. Loved that show, you guys should check it out.
Yeah, we did use Duct Tape for just about everything. Most of us probably still do. It was on the Trapper Keepers, the Lockers, the Backpacks… Never forget the Duct Tape and if you don’t know exactly what it looks like, here you go!
P.S. Yes it is also called “Duck” Tape. Quack, Quack.
_________________________________________________________________________
11/09/2017
Gen X Post – Subject: Don’t Change MillennialsI would rather call you Generation Y.
Millennials is good too but it lacks the main character trait you guys excel at the best.
Asking Why.
The other just might be the quiet way you tell people trying to get one over on you to go straight to hell.
I give you two pieces of music from the same band. The Clash is, was and will be forever timeless. Just trust me on this. They were music for a different generation. One who did not ask why so much as to why they should give a fuck to begin with.
Again, sorry about that guys. I’m afraid the X behind our generation speaks just as loudly as the silenced Y behind yours.
From the dodging of bullets to the obliterated and disintegrated atmosphere around you… To the burning future set out before you.
But here now, we should rejoice and smile. You kids are the ones who say fuck you too. In such a nice way I might add…
When “the man” says you should all work yourselves to death for money… You respond by sleeping in a van, not working at all and doing everything that they wish they could do.
When society tells you that you have to do this, this and this or you will be nobodies and die… You respond by doing just the opposite and coming out fine.
I love you guys. I hope you do not change. I hope you continue to stare down the systems that you oppose with that same dead stare forever.
Make them explain to you why things should be this way, make them explain it for days, and forever. At least until the answers satisfy you. At least until the answers make sense.
On a different note…
It can be an indifferent world that we live in. The world itself can make us indifferent. Uncaring. Gives us eyes that turn away too easily from human suffering.
Don’t be this way. Make sure that though you may have to shut out those hurtful words and images that blight a young mind; you leave some cracks open for the light to get in.
Human light.
Go get you a Clash compact disc. 😉