On White Picket Fences, Fences Painted Purple, and Fences Never Painted at All

"In the 1950s kids lost their innocence. 
They were liberated from their parents by well-paying jobs, cars, and lyrics in music that gave rise to a new term -- the generation gap. 
















In the 1960s, kids lost their authority. 
It was a decade of protest---church, state, and parents were all called into question and found wanting.  Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.

In the 1970s, kids lost their love.  
It was the decade of me-ism dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self.  Self-image, Self-esteem, Self-assertion...It made for a lonely world.  Kids learned everything there was to know about sex and forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.









In the 1980s, kids lost their hope.
Stripped of innocence, authority and love and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future...."

- Ravi Zacharias



The quote above is powerful - it explains how the stage was set for the Generation X childhood.  It also says a lot about why our childhoods were such a struggle.  Many Gen Xers remember the painful years of being raised (or not being raised) by adults who bought into the 1970s zeitgeist of all-encompassing narcissism.  Sadly, much of that selfishness went far beyond the 1970s, and a lot of us were left to fend for ourselves.  That 'lonely world' in this quote would be the perfect way to describe many of our childhoods.  No wonder we clung to our cartoons, our toys, and our friends.

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For the full Ravi Zacharias quote, click here: kids of the decades quote
All photos by Chloe (c) 2014 - southeast Portland, OR