Gen X - where are you ? Thread 2 !

[JRHartleysmum]

Here it is, as you were old farts x

Interestingly and sadly the Russia's war with Ukraine is going to create another generation of Spinsters in Russia . Just like the first world war .

I also remember when I was at high school an old man who used to stand by a crossing every day talking to himself. Turns out he was badly shell shocked and thought he was talking to his army mates. So sad

As I remember it people didn't want to talk about war and it certainly wasn't bunting-fied the way it is now. That can be both a good thing (calling a war one's "greatest hour" probably not too healthy) and a bad (visibly distressed veterans on the street with no support).

Anyway by the time I was born it was all about the threat of nukes etc. We watched Threads in school! Fucking Threads fgs!

Our gcse coursework was on the pros and cons of nuclear weapons !

Number 73, rainbow brite, jem, going live, pole position, garbage pail kids cards, cabbage patch kids...

Fuck me. I hope the pros list was blank!

"Well now kids, today we're going to learn about all the good things that happen when you have an atomic bomb..."

Did anyone else used to watch Spiderman? They used the same bits of cartoon again and again when he was climbing up and down buildings. It confused me - why would he go somewhere he's already been. Then I thought that possibly this is an indication of my lack of understanding of what it is to be a man who is a spider.

And at the end of the Hanna Barbera cartoons the always had Hanna Barbera written loads of times in tiny writing. Me and my sister took this as a challenge to read them all before it went off, and we'd sit there every Saturday yelling "HANNAHBARBARAHANNABARBARAHANNABARBARA" at the telly until my dad lost his shit with us. Simpler times ...

It was all to do with it being a deterrent, and how you couldn’t uninvent them so it was better if we all had them !!

And yes, Threads, that bit with the baby at the end

Love the user name @JRHartleysmum! Loved that advert.

I saw someone with crimped hair walking through Tesco's today. I did wonder if they had been to an 80s themed party or something. Made me wonder if hair crimping is back in fashion. Teenage me had several burned fingers from that damn thing. Of course it wasn't worth the singed fingers as my hair ended up looking like corrugated iron.

(When we were teenagers) More magazine demonstrating via step by step pictures how to give a blow job to a banana and how to use san pro to make shoulder pads. I tried both. The shoulder pads were less successful as the sticky wore off quickly then they fell out for all to see.

LOL! That edition of More was quite notorious wasn't it?

Christ alive, it all seems so tame compared with the internet full of violent porn that today's teens have access to.

Position of the fortnight !

Yes! It was informative!

1969 here.

Thanks to "Threads" and "When the Wind Blows" I never thought I'd make it past my teenage years. Terrifying.

Misty the horror comic for girls. Probably why I love horror and my DP is a horror journalist / author.

Hello can I join you? Older Gen X-er, but still in the club. Born 1967! DEFO 100% Gen X.

I never had - and never wanted a Mr Frosty!

I remember the Game Stay Alive

As you say OP, I knew a number of people born in the 1800s. My great gran - she was born in 1895, and died in 1990, aged 95. And HER mum (my great great gran) was still alive when I was born. She was born in 1874 and died in 1971 aged 97. (When I was 4.) So weird that I was alive when my great great gran was, and she was born in 1874!

This could actually be the message that sums Gen X up. We were pretty free range as I recall, in a world full of nukes, paedos and unrepentant chemicals.

I saw a girl, probably early 20s, with an 80s-style boyish curly mullet type haircut. To be fair, she actually looked good!

And what fun we had trying to injure ourselves every single day in the holidays .
I wonder how our parents coped with the thought of us roaming free , with all the PIF showing them all dangerous stuff we got up to 😁.
They never did wrap us up in cotton wool though , let us have our childhoods.

"The Haunted House book & (original) Ghost Castle Board Game - there is a modern version which is good but not quite the same."

I still have my original versions of these plus we have the modern version of Ghost Castle. Sometimes we join both games together for double the fun.

My mil still has their version of Staying Alive. My kids love it.

I bought dc1 some fuzzy felt a few years ago as it was one of my absolute favourites as a child. What a let down.

I wonder how our parents coped with the thought of us roaming free

Honestly?

Looking back, my parents were oblivious. They had their own stuff going on. Each lost a parent in horrific circumstances early doors (dangerous job/ serious health condition not picked up by fledgling free healthcare - both scenarios v common for kids born in the late 40s ) and by the 70s they were processing those traumas by going to cheese and wine evenings at school, pretending to be middle class and shitting themselves about getting the house repossessed amid interest rate hikes.

So I don't think potential childhood dangers was something they would feel the need to have to think . They had enough on their plates and after all we were alive. Think that was probably their benchmark.

The PIF were maybe aimed at them? hahaha. Or at least in response to this bunch of parents who just let their kids do shit all day long.

Oh my god yes! My favourite favourite book and have looked for copies of it since. Why did it go out of print? An absolute classic!!

Me and my friends did it the old school way. Lots of tiny plants in damp hair. Leave for six hours. Remove the bands. My friends with smoother straighter hair could rock the look and make it worth the hours but my hair was frizzy and tangly, so I didn't do it often .

Oops, plaits not plants