Page 8 | Let's talk about gen X because no other bugger does.

Ruebolive · 15/03/2025 00:50

Tworedgeraniums · 15/03/2025 00:25

Omg that made me laugh out loud.

my friend lived in a bungalow two doors up from our bungalow and we’d take turns climbing out our windows after bedtime in 1980’s meeting up in each others bedrooms. We nearly got caught after about six months so stopped but we’d leave a note on our pillows saying where we were.

Show quote history

My parents didn’t have a clue and thankfully mobile phone didn’t exist..but we were all ok .

MaeDaymon · 15/03/2025 00:58

EricTheGardener · 15/03/2025 00:24

Space hoppers in the garden, Findus crispy pancakes for tea, Danger Mouse on the telly. Going to school in leg warmers, watching Fame and singing along to 'Starmaker'. Simon Le Bon or John Taylor? Ditching pop for The Smiths and The Cure, then being totally torn when it all went aciiiiiiied as how can you be in two 'tribes' at once? Fortunately Primal Scream and the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses made it all ok, and indie/dance-y club nights became the melting pots that meshed us all together, along with a bag of mushrooms, some LSD and a few Es... are good, he's Ebeneezer Goode..

Uni days, full grant. Student bedrooms with tie-dye wall hangings, the floor littered with club flyers, rizlas, last week's Melody Maker and empty cans of Special Brew. Getting ready to go out... Nirvana, Suede, Dinosaur Jr, Verve, New Order, Saint Etienne on the stereo... piling into a bar and necking back endless bottles of Two Dogs, quick scan of the room to see who you might try and pull, make eye contact with the one who looked a bit like Bernard Butler, ask him for a light while looking up at him from beneath heavily mascara'd eyes. A few more rounds, then you're snogging in the club, the lights come on and you realise you may have had your beer goggles on, but in for a penny in for a pound - the night bus home to one-night-stand-central is leaving in 5 minutes so you might as well. Key in the door, make a face at your flatmates before heading to your room and lighting some incense, rolling a joint, and hoping he has a condom.

Uni is done, it's real life, get a job time now. Crappy houseshares for a good few years, but it's the middle of the 90s and life is a-mazing. Pay £6.50 to go and see Oasis at the New Cross Venue, £32.50 for the 3-day Reading Festival. Britpop is in full swing, the Thatcher/Major era is finally on its last legs, there is something in the air. Feels a bit like optimism? The middle-decade passes in a haze of hedonism.

How the hell are we now in our late 20s? The century (the millennium, even) is drawing to a close and we're not sure if the world's about to spontaneously combust at the stroke of midnight. Feeling a bit tired of rooms in shared houses now, could do with my own space. Can't really afford it living in London, but what if I moved a bit further away and commuted in? Maybe by the sea? I mean I only earn £16k per year, but there are flats for less than £50k down there and I can get a mortgage for 3.5x my salary so I'm laughing. I'm in the new pad by the end of the decade, with enough left over for a Habitat sofa and one of those CD players where you can burn your own CD. Am I finally grown up now? I don't want to be, but it's the 2000s, I'm pushing 30, and - what the hell - some of my friends are talking babies. Definitely the end of an era. Sob.

Edited

The best of times. So true.

Yellowhammer09 · 15/03/2025 02:09

Hey, I'm a millennial but can I hang out with you guys?

Original poster

Mach3 · 15/03/2025 02:53

Yellowhammer09 · 15/03/2025 02:09

Hey, I'm a millennial but can I hang out with you guys?

Go'on then.

OP posts:

Pandimoanymum · 15/03/2025 02:54

user3827 · 14/03/2025 21:36

We don’t need external validation

We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher, leave them kids alone
Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!

Alabamasunset · 15/03/2025 03:06

TurquoiseDress · 14/03/2025 21:55

Ohhh just realised that I’m (just) Gen X I was born in 1978…being a teenager in the 90s…the coolest decade…or so I tell my (primary school aged) kids!

How old are your kids?

Connebert · 15/03/2025 03:14

And weren't we pretty much the first ones on Mumsnet, back when the conversation used to be of a different quality altogether? Not by chance.

Alabamasunset · 15/03/2025 03:29

EricTheGardener · 15/03/2025 00:24

Space hoppers in the garden, Findus crispy pancakes for tea, Danger Mouse on the telly. Going to school in leg warmers, watching Fame and singing along to 'Starmaker'. Simon Le Bon or John Taylor? Ditching pop for The Smiths and The Cure, then being totally torn when it all went aciiiiiiied as how can you be in two 'tribes' at once? Fortunately Primal Scream and the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses made it all ok, and indie/dance-y club nights became the melting pots that meshed us all together, along with a bag of mushrooms, some LSD and a few Es... are good, he's Ebeneezer Goode..

Uni days, full grant. Student bedrooms with tie-dye wall hangings, the floor littered with club flyers, rizlas, last week's Melody Maker and empty cans of Special Brew. Getting ready to go out... Nirvana, Suede, Dinosaur Jr, Verve, New Order, Saint Etienne on the stereo... piling into a bar and necking back endless bottles of Two Dogs, quick scan of the room to see who you might try and pull, make eye contact with the one who looked a bit like Bernard Butler, ask him for a light while looking up at him from beneath heavily mascara'd eyes. A few more rounds, then you're snogging in the club, the lights come on and you realise you may have had your beer goggles on, but in for a penny in for a pound - the night bus home to one-night-stand-central is leaving in 5 minutes so you might as well. Key in the door, make a face at your flatmates before heading to your room and lighting some incense, rolling a joint, and hoping he has a condom.

Uni is done, it's real life, get a job time now. Crappy houseshares for a good few years, but it's the middle of the 90s and life is a-mazing. Pay £6.50 to go and see Oasis at the New Cross Venue, £32.50 for the 3-day Reading Festival. Britpop is in full swing, the Thatcher/Major era is finally on its last legs, there is something in the air. Feels a bit like optimism? The middle-decade passes in a haze of hedonism.

How the hell are we now in our late 20s? The century (the millennium, even) is drawing to a close and we're not sure if the world's about to spontaneously combust at the stroke of midnight. Feeling a bit tired of rooms in shared houses now, could do with my own space. Can't really afford it living in London, but what if I moved a bit further away and commuted in? Maybe by the sea? I mean I only earn £16k per year, but there are flats for less than £50k down there and I can get a mortgage for 3.5x my salary so I'm laughing. I'm in the new pad by the end of the decade, with enough left over for a Habitat sofa and one of those CD players where you can burn your own CD. Am I finally grown up now? I don't want to be, but it's the 2000s, I'm pushing 30, and - what the hell - some of my friends are talking babies. Definitely the end of an era. Sob.

Edited

You will have profited massively from your flat purchase, lucky you. You just about got in there in time.
I'm the same age as you and my biggest, bitterest regret in life is not buying a flat when they were this price and I could have afforded to buy one, because at the time I thought they were always going to be this affordable so I went off travelling round the world for 2 years feeling young and carefree with the plan to get home, back to work and buy my own flat. But when I returned home, property prices had risen exponentially and I was suddenly priced out of the market. I had to rent instead. I've never recovered from that and I'm 51 now. That decision to travel the world and delay buying a place has ultimately shaped the rest of my financial life for the worse. I kick myself every single day for it, knowing that I could be living in a nice house now if only I'd bought a flat in Brighton when I could afford to in the mid to late 90s before the almighty explosion in property prices happened.

WhyCantIGetItTogether · 15/03/2025 03:32

user3827 · 14/03/2025 21:36

We don’t need external validation

Except on this thread.

NattyTurtle59 · 15/03/2025 03:33

Supersimkin7 · 14/03/2025 23:03

The NHS call us the Copers.

Services are overrun because

Boomers - falling to bits and require insane amounts of care and money to be non-productive
Zers - ditto

We’re sandwiched by heartsinks and drains.

But we don’t let it get to us. Happy Mondays up to 11 and friends irl fixes most things.

Not all boomers are "falling to bits" you know! Other than slightly high BP I have nothing wrong with me, and younger people I worked with spent far more time at the GP than I ever did. Most of my friends, who are actually older, are the same.

Seriously, as a later boomer I can relate to much of what is being written here, which just goes to show you can't shoehorn everyone into the same box because of which generation they were born into. I mean people born a year apart can be from two different generations, they are hardly going to conform to a stereotype are they?

TryForSpring · 15/03/2025 03:39

I'm Gen X.

There is nothing remotely cool about your OP. Fussing about being Gen X is deeply uncool.

Sunnyperiods · 15/03/2025 03:48

I only just missed being Gen X (a tiny bit too old) and have decided to identify with you lot!

SatsumaDog · 15/03/2025 04:37

Gen X here. I count myself lucky. We were able to make mistakes without having them filmed and posted on social media. Caught the tail end of reasonable property prices (just). Had freedom to grown up in peace. It was a good time. I’d love to go back.

piscofrisco · 15/03/2025 04:42

Itsnotallaboutyoulikeyouthink · 14/03/2025 22:43

i only spent two weeks in generation x - am I still an x?

Me too. I was born 20 days before the end of 1979 so identify with x and millennial. The older I get the more x I feel though I think.

Biglifedecisions · 15/03/2025 05:58

umm

To be balanced. Fashion, hair and music was just atrocious in the 80s, Sexism and sexual assault was endemic. It was tough. Really tough.
70s was like spending a decade on LSD. 90s was very optimistic.

Most from this generation I know having grown up with boomers are getting therapy and looking at their coping strategies! They don’t have time for indulgence and attention seeking.

NattyTurtle59 · 15/03/2025 06:03

Biglifedecisions · 15/03/2025 05:58

umm

To be balanced. Fashion, hair and music was just atrocious in the 80s, Sexism and sexual assault was endemic. It was tough. Really tough.
70s was like spending a decade on LSD. 90s was very optimistic.

Most from this generation I know having grown up with boomers are getting therapy and looking at their coping strategies! They don’t have time for indulgence and attention seeking.

Edited

There's always one! None of my friend's Gen X children are in therapy, nor is my exDH.

The 80s (and the 70s) were a wonderful time to grow up. Obviously not for all, but most of us were pretty happy about it.

2021x · 15/03/2025 06:16

NattyTurtle59 · 15/03/2025 06:03

There's always one! None of my friend's Gen X children are in therapy, nor is my exDH.

The 80s (and the 70s) were a wonderful time to grow up. Obviously not for all, but most of us were pretty happy about it.

Show quote history

Maybe you should go to therapy then you wouldn’t have to be so judgmental and hostile to strangers on the internet to feel good about yourself.

EasyTouch · 15/03/2025 06:22

Mach3 · 14/03/2025 21:12

Hail fellow X'ers.

We are never mentioned. It's always Boomers, Millennials or gen Z.

Why the fuck not?

We definitely exist, we were very cool people.

I have such good memories of my 70's childhood and teenage years in the 80's.

And all the goodness of the late 80s and early 90s.

It did happen didn't it?

I love the fact that we are a relatively small generation and that we are the last "street" and analogue generation.
The fact that nobody gives a toss about us also means that we are not stereotyped.

PeggyMitchellsCameo · 15/03/2025 06:36

Being a kid in the 70’s was amazing.
Being a teenager in the 80’s was brilliant.
The music alone was enough to mark it out as special. I would listen to everything and anything. Five Star to Bauhaus.
Started going to gigs at 12 £4.50 to see Depeche Mode and then Duran Duran with my first, proper real friend. Sneaking off to go to clubs at 14. Friend lived in the top floor of a massive house so we would go to bed, get ready, and go down the fire escape.
I did well at school and always had at least two jobs on the go even in the recession. Plus a Saturday job in a nice boutique and friend trained to be a hairdresser. Spent all my money in Warehouse.
Went to Uni in Liverpool fell in love with it.

SantasLargerHelper · 15/03/2025 06:41

EricTheGardener · 15/03/2025 00:24

Space hoppers in the garden, Findus crispy pancakes for tea, Danger Mouse on the telly. Going to school in leg warmers, watching Fame and singing along to 'Starmaker'. Simon Le Bon or John Taylor? Ditching pop for The Smiths and The Cure, then being totally torn when it all went aciiiiiiied as how can you be in two 'tribes' at once? Fortunately Primal Scream and the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses made it all ok, and indie/dance-y club nights became the melting pots that meshed us all together, along with a bag of mushrooms, some LSD and a few Es... are good, he's Ebeneezer Goode..

Uni days, full grant. Student bedrooms with tie-dye wall hangings, the floor littered with club flyers, rizlas, last week's Melody Maker and empty cans of Special Brew. Getting ready to go out... Nirvana, Suede, Dinosaur Jr, Verve, New Order, Saint Etienne on the stereo... piling into a bar and necking back endless bottles of Two Dogs, quick scan of the room to see who you might try and pull, make eye contact with the one who looked a bit like Bernard Butler, ask him for a light while looking up at him from beneath heavily mascara'd eyes. A few more rounds, then you're snogging in the club, the lights come on and you realise you may have had your beer goggles on, but in for a penny in for a pound - the night bus home to one-night-stand-central is leaving in 5 minutes so you might as well. Key in the door, make a face at your flatmates before heading to your room and lighting some incense, rolling a joint, and hoping he has a condom.

Uni is done, it's real life, get a job time now. Crappy houseshares for a good few years, but it's the middle of the 90s and life is a-mazing. Pay £6.50 to go and see Oasis at the New Cross Venue, £32.50 for the 3-day Reading Festival. Britpop is in full swing, the Thatcher/Major era is finally on its last legs, there is something in the air. Feels a bit like optimism? The middle-decade passes in a haze of hedonism.

How the hell are we now in our late 20s? The century (the millennium, even) is drawing to a close and we're not sure if the world's about to spontaneously combust at the stroke of midnight. Feeling a bit tired of rooms in shared houses now, could do with my own space. Can't really afford it living in London, but what if I moved a bit further away and commuted in? Maybe by the sea? I mean I only earn £16k per year, but there are flats for less than £50k down there and I can get a mortgage for 3.5x my salary so I'm laughing. I'm in the new pad by the end of the decade, with enough left over for a Habitat sofa and one of those CD players where you can burn your own CD. Am I finally grown up now? I don't want to be, but it's the 2000s, I'm pushing 30, and - what the hell - some of my friends are talking babies. Definitely the end of an era. Sob.

Edited

Yup. My timeline exactly but played out up north.

The best of times.

Lilactimes · 15/03/2025 06:45

Kittenswhiskers · 14/03/2025 21:53

Also I’ve noticed gen x don’t really get bored

Omg - you’re so right. Never.

Toothicktounderstand · 15/03/2025 06:47

The things I used to do. Put baby oil on me to sun bathe, spray ‘sun-in’ in my hair (what even was that stuff?), remember the peddle pushers, the ra ra skirts and ‘crap catcher’ jeans? Playing out all day and not being allowed home until tea time (biking miles away and jumping ditches). Then the early 90s at uni and partying getting in the way of studies. Playing with Sindy dolls before Barbie took over. Going down metal slides that burnt your legs. Tupperware parties at your house by your mum. Parties with cheese and pineapple on sticks and pickled onions on a potato wrapped in foil? Perms and haircuts to look like Lady Diana? Such good memories. We are so cool!

bumblebeessarecool · 15/03/2025 06:50

I'm going to realize my teenage dream. I am off to see Duran Duran. I missed out in the 80's but making up for that now. Can't wait.

Toothicktounderstand · 15/03/2025 06:54

bumblebeessarecool · 15/03/2025 06:50

I'm going to realize my teenage dream. I am off to see Duran Duran. I missed out in the 80's but making up for that now. Can't wait.

Enjoy!

libertineagain · 15/03/2025 07:01

I was born in late 1980 and have always thought I was Gen x (though my sociology studies and reading of Douglas Coupland). In fact when I first was studying sociology in the late 90s at A Level, I'm sure that Gen x went to 1983. Now it sometimes ends in 1979.

I am the child of very liberal hippies and had a very 'free' childhood. I went to a lot of festivals and saw a lot of live music (by myself from 14) so I really immersed myself in 90s culture. We didn't have a tv though.

I mentioned on another generation thread that I (as in me, not generally) didn't know anyone who had a phone until 1997. I was shot down for this as 'everyone' had a phone in 1995. I did some research and actually the Nokia 5110 came out in 1998. I see this as the start of mass mobile phones and I was 18 by this time.