Right between the traditional baby boomers and tech-savvy millennials is the often overlooked Gen X. Known as the “Forgotten Generation,” these are the people who came of age at the height of MTV and before the digital age took over the world. 

Gen Xers today are in their 40s to 60s, and many of them miss the glory days of their era. Some expressed their nostalgic sentiments in a Reddit thread, where they fondly looked back on the time when you could ride bikes for hours, disconnected from the world, or slam the phone down out of frustration.

If you were born between 1965 and 1980, many of these responses may hit home. For the younger readers, this could be your quick history lesson about the recent past.

#1

I miss skinny-dipping in a Great Lake under a star lit sky with only the light of a beach bonfire exposing our vulnerabilities and the kisses and conversations had while sharing sips of Bartles and Jaymes snuck from a parent’s fridge.

I miss having a local radio station that tallies call-in votes for a top 8 at 8 show.

I miss late night comedy and horror movies that were interrupted by commentary from Gilbert Gottfried and Rhonda Shear and Elvira.

I miss New York Seltzer Water and Clearly Canadian.

I miss tent sleeper overs in backyards and playing games like light as a feather/stiff as a board, using Ouija Boards, and telling ghost stories.

I miss bike riding on dirt trails that were created as new streets and houses were being built. Related, I miss hanging out in “the woods,” which in reality were just small patches of trees between new neighborhoods.

I miss roller or ice skating on Friday nights.

I miss being dropped off at the mall at noon on Saturday to see a movie, go to McDonalds, read Fangoria magazine on the floor of the bookstore, and hitting the arcades until being picked up before dinner.

I miss camping out in a parking lot and forming a line the night before concert tickets went on sale.

I miss HBO’s series, Dream On, and sneaking episodes of Real S*x.

I miss capturing life on a hand held camcorder and being amazed at special effects such as strobe, sepia tone, and black and white.

I miss sleeping over at my grandparents house. I miss the stacks of The National Enquirer and Weekly World News in my grandparents’ bathroom.

I miss making mix tapes.

I miss band buttons on jean jackets.

I miss Mexican Baja hoodies, Skidz, and Jams.

I miss meatball omelets at 2:30 am in a locally owned 24 hour dinor.

I miss wanting to stay out past midnight.

Image credits: iwritesinsnotcomedy

#2

Arcades. Real independent arcades with cabinet video games, pinball, foosball, and pool tables. A place where you could safely hang out with your friends (or by yourself) and keep yourself entertained (and fed with a snack) for $2-4. I miss those places.

Image credits: scorpionspalfrank

#3

Just getting on your bike and being GONE for six or seven hours.

Can’t reach me, I’m with friends doing WHATEVER.

The freedom of not being tethered.

Image credits: stankenstien

#4

I miss dedicated record stores. I loved flipping through all the albums, talking to the employees who knew their stuff – “if you like this band, try this other one”. And, as crazy as it sounds, I miss lining up for concert tickets. I had some of my best times lining up outside of Coconuts Records & Tapes (our local ticket seller) with friends and getting those tickets in my hands. Then hiding them at a friends house so my stepsister couldn’t steal them. Good times!

Image credits: Odd-Animal-1552

#5

Cost of living. My family was poor back then, I can’t imagine having to factor in internet, phone, subscription services.

Owning things, vs digital copies. Making mix tapes. Affordable movies ($2 Tuesdays, anyone?). Non franchise movies. More independent stores, fewer chains.

Image credits: SusieCYE

#6

Life without social media.

Image credits: Nomad_sole

#7

I miss not being watched 24/7 and having photo, video evidence for everything.

Image credits: whiteoakforest

#8

My good knees.

Image credits: the_spinetingler

#9

Anticipation: The instantaneous world of streaming, on-demand media means we rarely have to “wait” for the next show or song etc. My kids have no idea HOW EXCITING Saturday morning cartoons were because that was the ONLY time we could watch them.

Radio programs like King Biscuit Power Hour or the individual DJs, who played a wide variety of music.

The word of mouth for parties. Like, we somehow just knew where to be when we were supposed to be there without cell phones or social media. I feel like we were more responsible because we didn’t have the option of texting someone five minutes before an event and canceling on them.

Image credits: BrownDogEmoji

#10

I miss being disconnected. Having the world’s collected information at my fingertips is nice, but f**k- there is a camera and a recording device and a performing g*****n monkey EVERYWHERE these days. Used to be you could sometimes just go somewhere and be cool. Now everything is on the internet.

Image credits: mndsm79

#11

I miss being feral children, I miss running into other bands of feral children, and shenaniganing…all f*****g day.

I miss taking that chance and hanging out with cool a*s people, that you’d never think was f*****g cool.

I miss the kindnesses that we used to show each other.

Image credits: Embarrassed_Music910

#12

You paying for your market research? I’d bring back the buying power and stability of the middle class. I’d bring back strong labor unions. I’d bring back affordable housing. I’d bring back a full cart of groceries for $80.

Image credits: babbylonmon

#13

Malls in all their glory.

Image credits: anon

#14

Affordable housing.

Image credits: Jasonstackhouse111

#15

Paper maps.

Loves Baby Soft

Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific

Encyclopedias

Phone books

MTV with only music

School House Rock, even though you can still get it I’m sure it could use a lot more episodes

After School Specials

Edit; Adding malls. Big malls with multiple levels, Hot Dog on a Stick in the food court.

Image credits: Electrical_Beyond998

#16

Slamming the phone down in anger.

Image credits: anon

#17

Hyperpartisanism makes me crazy. Nobody is accepting of different opinions anymore and are actively attacking others who don’t think like them. It’s so stressful. Where did the middle go?

Image credits: ScienceMomCO

#18

Civility, common sense, friendly neighbors.

Image credits: anon

#19

My dad giving me $5 at the pool hall to buy two beers for him and my godfather, a pack of smokes from the machine and still having change left to play space invaders

Hell, just being allowed to buy two beers at the bar and the tender trusting that I would bring them to my dad and not sue them is a bygone era.

Image credits: anon

#20

That smell of a freshly opened cassette tape that was clear.

Image credits: AmiInderSchweiz

#21

Zines, mix tapes, talking on the phone, cheaper gas, high school friends, better music.

Image credits: anon

#22

Pension plans.

Image credits: TheBugHouse

#23

Human interaction.

Image credits: Appropriatelylazy

#24

I miss renting movies from a store. I miss the excitement of grabbing a new release off the shelf before all copies got checked out. I miss making friends with the people who worked there and having them hold the first returned copy so you can come get it without waiting. I miss standing there, reading the back of the display copy to see if it was a movie you wanted to watch.

I miss really catchy ad jingles like the ones for Big Red and Double Mint Gum and Coke’s “I’d like to teach the world to sing…”

I miss catching lightning bugs to try and make a lantern.

I miss talking on the phone because cell phones and texting didn’t exist.

Image credits: ellie_k75

#25

UNorganized sports.

Used to be we played wiffle ball, threw nerf footballs, fumble rumble, throwing frisbees, riding a bike or walking to the school grounds after hours or on weekends and finding a bunch of kids playing team ditch, playing “butts up” against a wall or making a dirt bike trail with a jump.

Head to the local YMCA to play shuffleboard, carroms, pool, ping pong…

Everywhere you went kids just playing UNorganized sports.

Now by 8th grade if you’re not competitive in a league you simply don’t play sports or games anymore. Even worse kids now practice and play a single sport all year. See so many kids with serious soft tissue injuries by the time they’re 15 from over training a single event. We used to twist ankles, now they tear rotator cuffs.

I remember we used to have the more talented kids have to play dodge ball on their knees so everyone could have fun. What a crazy idea for the better kids to make it fun for the less capable kids because… sports are supposed to be fun!

Having to be the best at sports has really been a huge change.

Image credits: ChangingThymes

#26

I miss 24 hour diners that didn’t serve the same corporate b/s food available everywhere else.

Image credits: 7thAndGreenhill

#27

I wish my kid could have the Original, Patented, Small City, Sixth Grade Mall Experience™️

— Pick up friend, mom drops you both off. Mom mumbles something unnecessary about strangers but whatever.
— Proceed directly to the food court.
— Eat absolute c**p.
— Go to the first book store. Think about sneaking look at the Naughty Magazines. Chicken out.
— Look at a bunch of clothes you won’t buy.
— Second bookstore. Discover they don’t have The Naughty Magazines, which is fine because they *do* have The Joy of S*x and a bored clerk who doesn’t care what you’re giggling about.
— Use allowance to buy one amazing thing you’ve been saving for. In my case it was a big, fluffy bow for my hair. I was very sophisticated about it.
— Go to the store named something like Chinese Pagoda Trading Inc and look at all the cool things you’ll definitely buy for your first apartment because you will have Money and Taste.
— Go to the Cookie Company and eat a cookie.
— Notice the cute boy/girl/dog and listen to friend talk for at least five minutes about how cute they are.
— Sneak a Coke from the vending machine nobody knows is broken yet.
— Wait for mom to pick you up again and when she’s ten minutes late you call…nobody. You aren’t wasting a coin on a pay phone when she’s not even going to answer because she’s already on her way. People don’t need to worry about it.
— Be silently embarrassed mom listens to 70s easy listening the whole way home.

Image credits: NotLucasDavenport

#28

Stick shift transmission. Learned on a 4-speed, had 5-speeds for years. My beloved New Beetle was a 6-speed. I’d love an Audi with a stick but that’s not gonna happen.

Image credits: WhatK-DramaToWatch

#29

Friends and family now gone.

Image credits: fridayimatwork

#30

I miss the library and how you would need to work for knowledge. You would wonder something and it would take time and work to find the answer. I love google but before google I was google. And people respected me for it.

Image credits: justimari

#31

I want my MTV.

#32

I genuinely miss the original MTV. I discovered countless bands from various shows/segments that I never once heard on local radio stations. 120 Minutes and Headbanger’s Ball were like crack to me.

#33

I miss the not putting your trauma/b******t all over TikTok/Instagram/social media. Kinda sick of all the overshares for the sake of “like” endorphins.

I’m also heavily sick of influencers.

#34

Roller skating rinks.

#35

Saturday morning cartoon-fest.

#36

Politics being mundane as s**t, and not teeth-grindingly insane and divisive.

I know things were just as f****d back then, but it wasn’t shoved up our a******s sideways with hot sauce in a 24 hour news cycle.

#37

I miss sitting at a bar where people who don’t know each other actually make eye contact and have a conversation.

#38

Sears catalog at Christmas time.

#39

1. Truth in advertising and news
2. Malls
3. Being able to actually survive on a single minimum wage job
4. Anonymity.

#40

Buying something and owning it forever instead of paying an endless monthly or annual subscription.

#41

Playing outside instead of kids always busy with their phones. Less information about what happened every second of the world made it (looking back) less stressful. Better quality of education, less quality regarding healthcare.

#42

My tolerance for boredom.

#43

I miss reading the newspaper.

#44

Metal band-aid containers.

#45

1. The Ghoul
2. Young women with big hair
3. DCM Time Window speakers
4. Ford Galaxie 500
5. FMPs
6. K**l ‘Em All era Metallica
7. Cheech and Chong
8. Independent video rental shops
9. My brother.

#46

Perms. I hate my straight hair. Getting perms weren’t fun, but I enjoyed having some body to my hair (not talking about teeny tiny frizzy curls).

My body. Oh, to be as “fat” as I was back then as what I thought I was.

#47

Discovering music from someone cool that worked at a record store, or through your friend that made you an excellent mix tape and NOT an algorithm

Taking photos and then waiting to get the photos developed. It was fun not knowing how they would turn out!

#48

The internet before everyone was connected.

There was a barrier to entry aside from simple access, and that was that one had to actively explore. Nothing was given to you without an effort on your part, and this had the effect of limiting the types of users you’d encounter. We had older, educated folks amidst just as many younger, eager to learn types.

What we didn’t have is the fearful, resistant to change types that we have now that everyone is connected….you know…the morons.

#49

I miss a world without plastic surgery and a world that doesn’t treat aging like disease. I’m not saying I was easy on my grandma or aging family members, but jeebus, the younger generations act like wrinkles are the plague. So much so that they are injecting themselves with TOXINS so they don’t look 30?!

#50

Bottle deposits and reusable glass bottles.

#51

Television specials that everyone watched at the same time. You’d get all keyed up because some movie or made-for-TV thing would be aired on a certain day at a certain time. Then there was a special intro graphic, maybe even a song, to let you know it was time to gather ’round. Not just stuff like Rudolph or Charlie Brown but also “the network television premiere of ___” or the yearly airing of The Wizard of Oz.

#52

I miss a time when the internet and smart phones didn’t exist. Life was, just, simpler and less stressful.

#53

Taking your report card all over the place to get things from stores for having good grades.

The Wendy’s SuperBar.

#54

Getting together with friends and having to find ways to entertain ourselves. It was movies sometimes (mostly in the theater), but also music, board games, charades, or stupid s**t we made up.

Maybe it was ignorance on my part, but it feels like every day didn’t include accounts of assaults, murders, DUIs, missing kids, and gang wars. I know those were happening, but am I just remembering from a kid’s perspective that they weren’t all constant? If so, I want to be an ignorant kid again.

#55

Freedom to be somewhere with no one knowing where I am and with no way to contact me.

#56

Hope.

#57

I miss no one talking about or giving a f**k about politics.

#58

80s arcades, life/people moving slower and not in such a d**n rush, people being held accountable for their actions, personal responsibility, men being men, news actually being news instead of the entertainment circus it became during/following Ted Bundy’s trial.

#59

Sitting in traffic and listening to the same songs on the same radio station as people around you. Everyone had KLOL playing in Houston traffic in 87.

#60

I miss that golden era when all of our collective crazy insane relatives were stuck in our relative’s basements/attics/garages, and only possession was a typewriter.

Now, they are our elected officials and / or social media cult leaders.

#61

Aimlessly browsing a Blockbuster Video on a Friday night, not particularly sure what you’re looking for but finding that perfect movie (or movies) to bring back home with.

#62

Neighbor kids knocking on the front door to see if I could play. I almost always could, as long as I was home when the street lights came on.

My kids have never had this experience. These days, the norm is for pre-arranged play dates set up by the parents. Spontaneity and independence are so absent from childhood these days. It makes me sad.

#63

Most of all I miss that we all had great hope in the future. Hope that we could make things better for everyone. Before being hit with the reality of just how outnumbered we are and how nobody wanted anything to change.

#64

I miss not knowing every d**n thing from every “celebrity” I never cared about to begin with.

Also, and I might get c**p for this, but I worked in Toys R Us and Sam Goody. I took those places for granted but still had fun but thinking back, those were awesome places.

#65

I would bring back playing outside everyday and the freedom felt before we all got tied to cellphones.

Edit: $15 dollar concert tickets.

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