The Gen X Chronicles: Part One - The World We Grew Up In

I recently had a chance to visit the Reagan Museum in Simi Valley, CA. Another name this museum could go by is "The Gen X Chronicles."  There was so much to photograph and write about here, I decided to turn it into a series. For the better part of a decade during the formative years of Gen X, Reagan was the U.S. president, and this museum documents the things that happened during those years. These are the events that had a huge impact on the collective psyche of Gen X.   

There is an area of the museum that has a collage of photos of the era when Reagan came into office as President, along with words that described the issues of the time: shortages, gas lines, job issues, unfair taxes, frustration....

For us, there were little to no golden years.

The Olympics are so important to kids - all our hopes and dreams became manifest in the amazing abilities of athletes we looked up to. Except for when it got cancelled. This might have been when the Cold War became more painfully real to kids who could not yet understand it. 

Stagflation: when the inflation rate is high, economics are slow and jobs are few. An image of an empty factory with the windows busted out. The purpose of the "Morning in America" campaign was to address all these troubling issues, but honestly, I don't really remember it ever feeling like a new day. 

This has been a tough existence.

These are just a few images of what was happening in the news in the formative years of Gen X. As we grew up and became more aware of the world in which we live in, all of this was weighing on our minds along with many other things. 

Unemployment, layoffs, plant closures, double digit inflation. This is all part of what caused Gen X to become a nomadic generation from childhood. I remember one year of elementary school when I watched most of my friends move away one by one because their parents had lost their jobs. Then it was time for me to move away, too, and be the new kid yet again at another school. 

Watching these and other news images as the world distentegrated caused much of the anti-establishment and hypervigilance that became part of us. The hardest thing about looking at these images is that many of these issues are still a reality. The recessions we witnessed in our childhoods is now the Great Recession we must deal with as adults. I saw the Gen X kids on the news picketing and holding up poster board signs demanding their parents' jobs back. Now I watch them on the news standing in unemployment lines, worrying about how to feed their own kids. 

Got a Gen Xer in your life who tries not to be negative, but often assumes the worst will happen?

Cut them some slack. 

People become who they are for a reason.

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(c) 2012 Photos and writing by Chloe/original images from the Reagan Museum.

Battle Born

The Killers often get compared to U2 or to Springsteen. Both of these influences surface in their music, along with other 80s sounds that even sometimes sound a bit like an old Atari game. Bono said he thinks The Killers will be the next biggest/best band in the world. He also said he would give a copy of the Hot Fuss album to the Pope to demonstrate that rock music is not evil.  A lot of the band's lyrics are wrought with true struggle, biblical imagery, a candidness about the broken down state of ourselves and the world, and a very intelligent sense of humor - all lyrics that I feel only a Gen Xer could write. 

Brandon Flowers, the lead singer, is LDS and was born at the tail end of the Gen X window. All the other members are Gen X as well.  At one point when Brandon saw Oasis play at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas where he lives, he realized his calling was to be in a band. 



We saw the Killers live in Portland on Dec 5th for the Battle Born Tour for an incredible show. 

A shower of metallic confetti rains down on Portlanders at the Rose Garden Arena.

Up agains the wall
There's something dying on the street
When they knock you down
You're gonna get back on your feet
No you can't stop now

...

Come on show your face
Come on give us one more spark
So we'll start a fire
Unless we fall into the dark
And you can't stop now - no you can't stop now

- From "Battle Born"



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(c) 2012 photography and writing by Chloe Koffas- all rights reserved

This Hurt Will Hurt No More

It is said that Joey Ramone was listening to U2's "In a Little While" when he died in 2001. Although the lyrics are clearly about being in love, I got to thinking about how parts of this song would resonate with me if I was in a place where I was about to cross over to the other side. My eyes were drawn to these lyrics as I dusted off my All That You Can't Leave Behind album: 

...In a little while
This hurt will hurt no more
I'll be home...

When the night takes a deep breath and the daylight has no air
If I crawl, if I come crawling home
Will you be there? 

After hearing about the death of Joey Ramone, Bono said that the song was initially about a lovestruck hangover, but that Joey turned it into a gospel song. It's kind of amazing the way things come full circle - back in the days of  U2 as a garage band, their initial influences included a lot of punk, including the Ramones. 

And now here we are approaching a time of year that is hard for many Xers: the holidays. While we try to keep up our spirits with new traditions that we have made with our own families, and while we are intentional about bringing back good things we remember - like the TV specials we held dear or good food we ate, there is the undertow of the memories of growing up among a lot of fracture in society - fractures that usually became even wider when the holidays came. 

As the holidays approach, I'm thinking a lot this year about the brevity of life - it helps me to keep things in perspective when it all starts to get overwhelming. I'm thinking a lot these days about how, in a little while, this hurt will hurt no more. 

The Days Go Rushing By

Life is so incredibly short, and when you are a kid, or a teenager, or even a twenty-something, you hear older people say that and you don't believe it. You're not sure what they're talking about. When you are young, time goes by so slow, the minutes and the hours drag on relentlessly. The days and the weeks are endless. It feel like ages just to get from fall to winter. As an adult, time just keeps going by faster. 

In the autumn days of my younger years, time was slow and my mind was always drifting. I would get in trouble for not paying attention in class. My punishment was to stay in at recess....

While winds were blowing out on the playground, I was toasty warm inside. The room was peaceful and I would catch up on my work while listening to the comforting sound of staples being pushed into corkboard as my teacher attached orange and yellow construction paper leaves to the bulletin board. One day of time then is like one month of time now.

When long months stretched out in front of me, I feared that I would be small forever. When seasons seemed to last for years, I hoped that the leaves would stay gold forever.  It felt like those days might go on forever. 

Vintage Travel Pennants and Memories of Magic-Glo'

I remember these old-school travel pennants on the walls of Gen Xers while I was growing up. I don't remember kids my own age having these (second wave Xers) but I have vague memories of seeing these on the bedroom walls of their older brothers or sisters (first wave Gen Xers).    

Hanging these up on the wall could really impress your friends - you would have visual proof of how well-traveled you were and these could also lead to conversations where you could brag about all the cool places you went the previous summer...like maybe Skagway?

I saw these at a quirky Portland store that sells all kinds of very random things (notice the bowl of candy in the background and also the bowl of scissors).

This time of year my mind is illuminated with cartoon characters and vintage fonts and the Magic-Glo of the costumes of the late Octobers of my early childhood. These images can be hard to explain to someone who doesn't know what I'm talking about. It is sort of Hanna Barbara-ish. It is sort of Ben Cooper-ish.... 

Halloween is considered the most important holiday to Generation X. It would be hard to have a Gen X blog and not write about Halloween....while other holidays can be full of family conflict, Halloween is simple - there aren't expectations of you and by putting on a costume you can escape reality even if for just one night. 

Happy Halloween, Xers. 


 

The Party Kitchen!

Remember the Party Kitchen?  

If you are a first wave Gen Xer (those now most likely in their 40s) you might remember your younger sibling having one of these, and if you are a second wave Xer like myself (those most likely in their 30s) you may remember playing with one. Nothing was better than going to play at a friend's house and discovering they owned one of these...this toy made for a very fun afternoon.

 

A friend of mine has this in her kids' play room and she let me take some photos....

Watch out!! These burners look like they're ready to cook anything! The stove top dials can be turned to three different settings in popular early 1980s colors. 

The smoky glass (or maybe just plastic) oven front and cutting edge digital timer - so very 80s.  

A phone that you can talk on while you cook helps with multitasking - 

you can fry eggs while you rotary dial a friend!  

 

The folding side table is waiting for you  to come have a seat - there s a delicious chicken leg ready 

to be eaten with a spork. Appetizing? No?  

Maybe you'd like some waffles instead? They've been on this plate waiting for you since 1983.

Bon Appetit!

 

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(For KB - my wonderful Gen X friend who appreciates rotary phones and plastic waffles a much as I do!!) 




Pumpkin Patch...Photo Set by Chloe

At Lakeview Farm Pumkin Patch in North Plains, Oregon...

 

Morning dew evaporates from a pumpkin in the sunshine and I am reminded of one of my best memories of the earliest part of my Gen X childhood - the first time I carved a pumpkin with my family in the late 1970s. The top came off, the jack-o-lantern's face was carved, 

the smell of fresh pumpkin wafted into the air, and the seeds were roasted in the oven.

That moment held within it everything that was good about autumn.