Generation X needs help. Please check us as we are not all right.
Some millennials will understand, but not all. Most definitely all Gen X’s will get it. Those with little clue are Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
We have recently lost three icons — Hulk Hogan, Ozzy and Theo Huxtable — in the same week.
Losing Richard Simmons before Ozzy makes me rethink the advantages of diet and exercise.
I can remember Hulk leaping from the top rope of the ring in the WWF. My world stopped a couple times a week as a kid to park in front of the TV where I could easily change the channel as remotes were still a few years away. It was a time when I could control the TV. Mom didn’t like WWF but would watch Theo with me to see what trouble he got into and out of. Don’t worry, I turned the TV over to mom, especially on Friday for Dallas. Where did they bury J.R.?
But as I look around today, I question our future.
I remember getting second-degree burns on my legs from the frying pans that were slides on the playground. I remember the knee scrapes being thrown from the merry-go-round into the gravel pit or falling from the monkey bars onto concrete, dirt if I was lucky. The playgrounds of the 80s were courses that could lead to death and were signed off by the government.
Seesaws sent kids into low orbit then crashing to the ground.
There were a few legends who everyone looked up to because they seem to have it all figured out. They survived everything.
Those scrapes were badges of honor. It was like a military uniform with more stripes or stars. The more scrapes, the more respect from your elementary classmates.
I remember being sent out of the house in the morning and told not to come back until the street lights come on. It might have been the height of summer, but we didn’t mind the heat. Maybe it was the creek we found that allowed us to survive.
We lived on hotdogs, mac and cheese from the box and tomato sandwiches. Give me some Sunbeam bread with mayo, salt and a little pepper. I might be in heaven even if the juice runs off my elbows.
Today kids have rubber moats in the playground. There’s Life 360 to keep track of every inch they move.
There is social media. What kind of trouble would Gen X be in for sharing some of the stuff we did?
Gen Xers have seen a lot. We saw the birth of CNN, Star Wars and the internet. Who remembers Lorena Bobbit? How about the white Bronco driven slowly by OJ with what seemed like the entire LAPD behind him with blue lights on? It might be the first time Gen X saw how much live news provided instant gratification.
Prior to OJ, I saw live news play out on the radio. I can recall being in my dad’s truck somewhere between Tallapoosa County and Montgomery when getting the news the Challenger had exploded just moments earlier.
But there is hope for the future.
Today I hear Ozzy at just about every football game I go to with Crazy Train.
Gen Xers are learning new vocabulary from Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Drip means the young’ins are complementing your style. Bet has nothing to do with gambling. They are just agreeing with you. Pressed is not a compliment for ironing clothes. It means you over reacted.
All this proves is Gen X will survive. We will because we have been dodging the balls of life since first-grade school recess.
Cliff Williams is the news editor of Tallapoosa Publishers Inc.’s Elmore County newspapers. He can be reached at cliff.williams@thewetumpkaherald.com.
