What’s the most Gen X thing you can think of?

Okay, I’ll go first…

How about a guy with long hair wearing baggy jeans, a ripped sweater, and a beanie listening to Nirvana on his Walkman on a bench on an overcast day?

I think I just transported all of us to 1994…and I think I might be right.

Now let’s see what AskReddit users had to say about this!

1. Come pick me up.

“Using a payphone to make a collect call with the intent of the call being declined.

It’s a messaging system that notifies your ride that you’re ready to be picked up from the movies where you watched Back to the Future.

Or from the arcade where you just blew a roll of quarters on super Mario Bros.”

2. Nostalgia.

“Having the broadest understanding of pop culture, because coast-to-coast mass media existed, but hadn’t become compartmentalized and specialized.

To coin a phrase, socialization by syndication.

Examples: Understanding jokes from the ’30s and ’40s because of Looney Tunes on Saturday morning (usually early or late, to fill in around the new in-demand shows).

Understanding the ’50s and ’60s from reruns of I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners on Nick at Night.

Getting a taste of the seventies from Alice and Newhart, and a dozen other shows on afternoon play on every network.

Watching most/all of the great classics, and even more entertaining schlock in the form of Saturday and Sunday afternoon movies on low-end networks.

Not having to have the premise of UHF explained to you, because you’d actually found a UHF pirate station on broadcast before (mine played old kung-fu movies on a loop for days before it was shut down).

Cinema culture reaching its height (not filmmaking, but actual cinema-going experience as a thing that unified people).”

3. The old days.

“Blockbuster Video on a Friday night.

And hanging out by the door to see if any good movies were just returned.”

4. Those days are gone.

“Telephone conversations.

Like, calling up your friend and chatting for hours.”

5. That’s right.

“Being old enough to remember and appreciate life before the Internet and cellphones and being young enough to transition into that world without a hitch.”

6. Terrifying.

“Calling your girlfriend’s house and hoping that her dad does not pick up.

Kids today will never know this fear.”

7. Latchkey kids.

“Being able to entertain ourselves for hours.

This came from being latchkey kids.

I didn’t mind the Covid lockdowns too much at all.”

8. Turn it down!

“Cranking the Beastie Boys on my dad’s Technics system and scrambling to turn it down when I saw my mom’s car in the driveway.”

9. Great show!

“DeGrassi Junior High

If you remember, you remember.”

10. A good thing.

“Keeping what we did in our high school days the most deep dark secret! especially from our kids! Only possible because there was no social media then, no photos, no phone records, nuthin’!

But let me tell you we roamed around at all hours, drank, had parties, played strip poker, walked home in the middle of the night, ran out of gas in the middle of the night (remember: no cell phones), tried all sorts of different drugs (shrooms, LSD, peyote, maryjane) snuck in and out of the house, with and without boyfriends, s**ked in the S**KING LOUNGE provided at the high school, by the high school!

And our parents knew nothing! Cuz there was no way for them to know! I was considered a model child!!”

11. LOL.

“You go to pick a girl up on a date. Do you go to the door? Do you wait in the car?

Nah you wait outside the car leaning on it as she walks out. Preferably with Whitesnake playing in the background.

Years ago my neighbor had a tenant who lived by herself upstairs. Older single woman. Like maybe 45. She went on a date once with a similarly aged guy. I witnessed this first hand. It was iconic as f**k.”

12. Two great albums.

“The Nirvana “Nevermind” album cover comes to mind.

For me personally, it’s the Beastie Boys’ “Check Your Head” album.”

13. It was glorious!

“Being the last unreachable generation.

There were hours where no one knew where we were and our parents has zero way to contact us.”