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The Millennials are generally defined as those born in the 1980s and 1990s. Precise years vary, but 1980-1996 seems to have fairly broad consensus despite quibbles over the fringes. These neat generational divides used by analysts and scholars don't really fit the lived experience of people, though. Those born in 1983 saw very different childhoods than those born just a decade later in 1993, for example. We Geriatric Millennials born during the Reagan administration have a lot of overlap with younger members of Gen X, and those of us who grew up in rural areas with less access to popular culture and media don't always share in stereotypical pop culture memories.
Shit I Don't Remember
- The Real Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man, and a lot of other network TV cartoons because my parents didn't let me watch a lot of TV, although I had friends with the toys.
- Anything related to cable and satellite TV. We didn't have that at all, and neither did my friends, so no Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, or Disney Channel nostalgia for me.
- The Challenger Disaster. I was too little for it to hit me, and we probably didn't know about it immediately or see it on repeat because 24/7/365 cable TV news wasn't really a thing yet, and we didn't have cable or dish TV.
- The (first) Gulf War, for the reasons stated above and childhood innocence relating to geopolitics.
- Ronald Reagan, for the same reason
- Captain Kangaroo, because it was before my time, aside from occasional re-runs during my childhood on PBS
Shit I Remember
- Calvin & Hobbes in the Sunday comics. I probably learned to read just so I could find out what that yellow-haired kid and his tiger were doing.
- Black & White TV. I think my parents still had one when I was starting to watch Sesame Street.
- PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX were the only channels, and they required an antenna.
- The dawn of Power Rangers and Pokemon, although I didn't really watch them for the reasons noted above.
- The Nintendo Entertainment System, albeit not at my house. Too expensive, and you should go play outside anyway!
- VCRs for recording TV and watching movies. We didn't get one until about 1992 or 1993, though.
- A computer meant the DOS prompt, 5-1/4" floppy disks, and a computer mouse with a ball in the bottom if you were lucky.
- Oregon Trail on an Apple II in a school computer lab.
- Dial-up internet access, Juno free e-mail, e-Bay before PayPal, pop-up hell, Netscape Navigator, the novelty of CD-ROM and encyclopedia CDs.
- POGs.
- Beanie Baby Mania.
- The first iteration of American Gladiators
- Star Trek: The Next Generation being broadcast and waiting each week for a new episode. Some TV was acceptable, after all.
- The 1992 Bush/Clinton campaigns as my first real awareness of national politics being a thing people got riled up about.
- Life before the PATRIOT Act and its ballooning of the surveillance state with security theater at airports and global war for 22 years.
My dad first bought a word processor and then an IBM clone PC, so It feels like I grew up in tandem with the emergence of home computers becoming the default, like how the baby millennials and early Zoomers grew up with cell phones, and now Generation Alpha is growing up with tablets in the cradle. Back in my day, LEGO was the ultimate toy, and a well-stocked bookshelf was entertainment enough! Harrumph!
If you were born during the 1980s, what odd stuff do you remember seeing change over the years, and what cultural landmarks did you see begin? For those outside the US, what was life like for you? What changes did you see just during your youth if you are part of Gen X or a Baby Boomer? Let's unite around complaining about kids these days and back in my day and so on!
