50 Gen X Who Are Tired Of Modern Life Share What They Miss: "Skinny-Dipping"

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

Life without social media.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Affordable housing.

My good knees.

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.

Malls in all their glory.

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?!

Saturday morning cartoon-fest.

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.

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.

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.

Slamming the phone down in anger.

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

Friends and family now gone.

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!

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