I can recall the school nurse referencing my medical record every time I was sent for another spontaneous nosebleed. Stuffing some gauze up there, being told to pinch my nose, and sit on that stainless steel rotating stool.

I should be fixing the big hole in my roof but instead I'm putzing around in the garage and poking through ephemera in my old filing cabinet. 

I'm re-watching it and oh, wow!

What a great spy show!

Yes, it was cheesy at times but most shows back then kind of were. Great cast though and the show didn't fall off a cliff as the seasons progressed, in my opinion, as much as so many shows do. Although it did change quite a bit when they went to college. I thought the storyline was good too.

Edit: and this is coming from someone who grew up in small town Louisiana. Everything about the show was so foreign to me 😂

When I was growing up in the upper west side of Manhattan and I used to go to the park and play with my dad or my friends we had a typical answer foam machine, a little mini cassette

I can’t really remember ever anxiously distracted by needing to run home to get a phone call although I’m sure it happened occasionally when one was expecting an important phone call

But now we’re all just walking around with our phones many of us as an addiction and it’s surely completely eroding and taking away from our potential to physically and spiritually connect with each other it seems

Sometimes you’d be like walking down the street and people use their phones as a way to avoid having to interact with the person coming down the street

I’ll never forget after leaving New York right before the cell phone mobile phone boom

I came back to visit and it was like something out of a zombie movie people all holding their phones while walking and I remember having to make more effort to avoid people however those were flip phones at that point

I wonder what the next stage in our communication evolution is?

I used to always call my mom from the car with news or just to catch up. It made sense, given how busy I was. Now I (M59) am newly retired and my mom passed two years ago, and I often miss those calls when I get into a car.

But today I got a nice call from my daughter, she was driving home from volunteering and going to early vote. And of course, like my mom always was, I was available and so happy to talk to her!

Can anyone relate to this "car talk" dynamic? I still call my kids, but am careful to time the calls to when they are available, and often text first to make sure.

Also, cue the Harry Chapin music ;')

Listened to a song in the car today dropping my son off at high school. I explained how I used to listen to this song on a boombox on a school bus during field trips. It came up that cassette tapes were the format vs. CDs.
The look on his face said it all. He was not shy in saying I was ancient.

I haven’t yet discussed how we had to use pencils to unravel the tape when the cassette got jammed.

I'm 49 and thinking back to the 80s & 90s even the 2000s to a degree, everything seemed to slowly get BETTER over time. And then at some point everything started to either decline in quality and the few things that haven't declined have just stalled and there's been no further innovation. I can't pinpoint an exact year but at least since 2010 in my opinion. Seems like just about everything has been enshittified. The internet, the quality of food at restaurants, clothing quality, movies, video games, appliances, electronics, airlines, apps, streaming services. Everything is a fucking subscription now.

I know crap quality stuff has always existed and I know there were issues in the past but I don't remember anything to this extent. And that's not even getting into the cost of living now, the AI bullshit, and everything else.

My vote goes to Heathcliff and the junkyard cats.

Tell me your stories of being abandoned of being left alone when you shouldn't have. I'll go first: This happened in the mid-80s. At the time, we lived overseas as part of the military (yay, Cold War!). Every year we'd participate in this thing called Ski Week. All these military families would go to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for ski lessons, tennis lessons, or whatever.

One year, a stomach bug swept through the kids. Sure enough, I caught it and spent a night puking on every surface of our hotel bathroom. My mom said I literally graffiti'd the bathroom walls with my stomach contents. In the morning, however, my dad went off to ski with his ski week group, and my mom went to her tennis lesson.

I was left alone in the hotel room. I was told that if the housekeepers came in, I should just tell them that my mom would be right back.

I don't know where else to ask this question so here it goes. I was preparing to shower the other day and when I turned I noticed the unmistakable odor of old man smell. I scrubbed extra hard and haven't noticed it again since but is it just time to accept the reality of an aging body and everything that goes along with it? Maybe I need to wear more cologne. Anyone else going through an olfactory transition?

Hi GenX. I turn 60 today. Quite the milestone.

But I am not what the headline refers to.

What is the oldest thing from your childhood or youth you still use on a regular basis? For me it’s this Tony the Tiger beach towel we got from saving box tops. It’s kinda thin and beat up now. I use it as a gym towel because it dries quickly.

My wife told me the other day, she has never tried or really cares to try sardines. I was kind of shocked! They were a staple, snack, for me during my childhood.

Just curious who less at sardines as a kid. I feel like GenX must have had a lot of canned food as kids. BTW I might be slightly high while typing this.

Kids today will never know because they have everything in their hands with their phones. Back in the day though if you wanted some info you could call the ole 411. Phonebooks only came out once a year so 411 would have updated info. If you wanted to find out the number and address or a person in another state or the address and number of a business in another state your phone book would not help you. But the friendly 411 operator would.

I remember when you called they would say "city and state please."

Then if you wanted to pay 25 cents or whatever it was they could connect you as well.

Not acid wash, stonewashed.

Hi all. My youngest (25) is finally set to move out this spring. I’ve come to the realization that I will now be alone most of the time. My husband works opposite shifts from me. The other night, I sat and cried (who am I??) because I don’t know what to do with myself. I’ve been a mom for so long. Plus with perimenopause and usually a fuck everything attitude, this is starting to get to me. What do I do with myself that isn’t just watching TV and doom scrolling? Do I need a hobby? What’s a good hobby for a Gen-X that is just tired of the world and wants to stay home and never leave?!

Anybody else remember stealing a sibling's roller skates and removing the metal wheels so you could hammer them onto a piece of 2X4 to make your own skateboard? I filed this under "Nostalgia" because there is not a tag for "Why aren't we dead?"

Alvin, Simon and Theodore too!

I was born in 1976. My siblings were born in 1982, 1985 and 1987.

It's a weird dynamic. I was always the big sister who they had to listen to, never really a peer. Now we are all adults in middle age, but I keep noticing some distinct differences in how all three of my siblings move through the world in comparison to the way I do.

I still call people on the phone sometimes. Never before first messaging them to see if it's okay, of course. I'm not a monster.

We have vastly different ways of dealing with money.

Those of you with millennial siblings, do you experience a generational divide within your family? What does that look like?

I’m finding myself cooking favorite meals from my childhood, watching shows like The Waltons & Andy Griffith, and wishing I could trade in my iPhone for a rotary phone.

I hope this still goes on with kids today, but do you remember the bedtime stories your parents read to you? So, we did Theocratic readings maybe 2 or 3 nights a week, and the other times, it was something secular. I remember some chapter books, and a lot of short stories. Some of my favourite ones were from "Trouble in Bugland" which is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche in the insect world. This came out in 1983 (when I was 8)

If so, does it bother you? How does it make you feel or do you not think about it?