Throughout the course of the Fireflies at Dusk Project, I've asked several Gen Xers about memories that stay with them from their Gen X childhoods. These are some of my favorites from their memories:
• Slip and Slide, Ski Ball
• Watching great sports moments with family (Mary Lou Retton, etc.)
• Wearing Hypercolor shirts, "jellies" shoes, crimping my hair
• Going to a "Super Mario 2" game play party the day the game came out
• Having a waterbed/having a canopy bed/having a smurf bedspread
• Watching School House Rock and sipping Tang
• Opening the latches on my metal Holly Hobby lunch box, Raggedy Ann and Andy
• Drinking Jolt and eating pop rocks at the same time
• Stuff that fit in your school backpack: Pogs, Garbage Pail Kids
• Family home movies recorded on a huge beta camera
• The Christmas Fruity Pebbles commercial
Of all the memories, the ones that came up the most were the TV shows they watched. This included Ramblin' Rod and Voltron before school to after-school specials and Little House on the Prairie when the school day was over. It also included weekend and weeknight favorites like Pee Wee's Playhouse, The Cosby Show, Fraggle Rock, Punky Brewster, The Facts of Life, and Family Ties. The grand prize for best TV memories goes to the Gen X friend of mine would play sick to stay home and watch The Price is Right.
One year later update: A friend of mine said she remembers going to Pick and Save to buy "Where's The Beef?" stickers. I told her I must add this to the Best Gen X memories list. These weren't just any sticker - these were puffy 3D hamburger stickers. Awesome.
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(c) 2011 photography and writing by Chloe - all rights reserved
