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Date Posted: 20:00:18 07/02/25 Wed
Author:

JeffsFort
Subject: My "long" response ;)
In reply to: JeffsFort 's message, "IMAGINE Magazine Question for 7/15" on 16:51:00 06/23/25 Mon

I personally find so much humor attached to all of this to be honest. I mean, recently I've been watching a ton of hilarious videos that call out "My" generation. "Raised on hose water and neglect!" to me feels like an odd claim to some kind of fame but, it was truthful on a lot of levels. Granted, because of my family's issues and internal disfunction, we didn't always get to be kids outside of the home. When we were allowed to actually be kids around other kids, usually when my parents were separated and we were living with our aunt and cousins, then our free time was absolutely spent as appeared to be typical for Gen X'ers. Get up, get dressed, get fed, brush teeth, "Get out of my house!" Then we were on our own until my aunt would ring the bell near our back door. When you heard it, you ran home, had lunch or dinner, helped bring in groceries or whatever, then "Get out of my house!" again until the street lights came on. Did we ever consider it abuse or neglect back then? No, it was freedom!

We were free to hang out with friends. Free to ride bikes, skate, swim, blow stuff up, cause trouble and be up to no good until we were expected to be in the yard when the street lights came on. Hose water was an option, even if you did need to let it run to get all the sun heated hot water out of it, unless of course you wanted to wash your hands or startle a younger sibling or something. We lived on pocket change and penny candy throughout the day. We did stupid or dangerous things on a regular basis and told our "guardians" nothing about it. Even in the rare occasions when we did try to tell them about it, they didn't want to hear it anyway. But, if a neighbor called to complain about something we did, you were walking into a full out ambush when the street lights came on. "Get your ass in here..." was the statement that made you know it was time to have your final affairs in order. As bad as that sounds, they were some of my favorite times to be a kid. Painful at times, but awesome memories none the less.

At home, that was a different story. We didn't run the neighborhood like the wild boys in Lord of the Flies, but the other half of what makes Gen X what it is was very true. We had to parent ourselves. My father worked an odd schedule but when he was home, we needed to stay quiet and out of his sight, or pay for it. When he had a stroke just after I turned 10, my mother had to learn to be the real head of the household, meaning I needed to spend almost all of time being parent to my younger siblings, as well as cater to the needs of a man who previously was abusive toward me and the rest of my family when alcohol was introduced, which I honestly hated him for until the day he passed and beyond. The term latchkey kid applied in a very extreme form, even if he was home. Yeah, we went toe to toe way too much as I became a teen and when I began to get the upper hand, I made sure he knew it, which led to quite a few wars between him and I as well as my younger siblings and I as they didn't get the brunt of his previous drunken tantrums and therefore thought I was being unreasonable... They get it now.

But, watching how protected kids are nowadays, it's actually sad to me. We went out and earned each and every scar we got. A cast was a flag that you were no chicken and having to carry your bike home on your shoulder meant you were living life on the edge. It was okay because we also had to fix the bike ourselves. Even that could be a social event with friends as we hunted out replacement parts and borrowed tools so we could continue to ride as a pack! Kids are now connected and informed, even if it is primarily through the internet and social media. As for Millennials and Gen Z, they seem to want to call us out for being the "Fuck around and find out!" generation but what they don't understand I think is that this criticized attitude started out amongst ourselves when we were kids. We just chose to make that our suit of armor because that was how you survived "Neglect and Hose water", and all the other crap that surrounded it! LOL!

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This discussion has made me wonder which era I'd rather grow up in... -- Mike, 16:11:19 07/03/25 Thu

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