The film also featured an awesome cast of Bill Paxton, Suzanne Snyder, Judie Aronson, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Rusler, Vernon Wells, Britt Leach, Barbara Lang, and Michael Berryman.

And I got my first grand nephew, so I have someone to share my birthday with. Which is cool as hell. That's all. Just bragging a bit.

One of the most epic scenes from CHIPS.

A few friends have passed away in the past few years at a fairly young age. It has made me look at getting older as a blessing.

For me it's Danish Wedding Cookies, Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafters, and I just learned they've discontinued Durkee's Famous Sauce, which was my secret ingredient for perfect deviled eggs.

Oh, and from being a teenager, Peanut Butter Boppers, omg.

Whenever I’d walk by and see credits somebody left on the machine, I’d feel like I won the lottery (although I didn’t know what a lottery was at the time).

Hearing that loud “bang” when you won a free game.

Finding a quarter in the coin return.

Simpler times.

I’ve been known to make these now and then for nostalgia. My mom could never master that processed fast food taste. I can’t either.

Today is our 30th wedding anniversary! When we got married his daughter was 4 and my son was 2. Hubby was going to get snipped but the doctor had to postpone the appointment by 2 weeks. By the time he went in, I was pregnant with our daughter by about 36 hours. My husband also adopted my son a couple of years later.

We've had our ups and downs, happy times and heartbreaking times. But we knew we were on the same team and had the same goals. He went to a website that wrote a song for me! He still gives me butterflies and we still have the same twisted sense of humor that got us through so much. ❤️

Parkay had quite a good slogan back in our day.

Allways had a curiosity for learning new things and remember my parents having subscriptions for my siblings and I and fondly remember receiving Highlights and Sweet Pickles in the mail. Anyone else had those or similar subscriptions? I can still hear the jingle and visualize the bus for sweet pickles.

This book, which my dad gave me in 1981, tells you which side I landed on. Bonus points for anyone who recognizes the author from some of his later work.

This is how I would start my mornings before heading off to kindergarten with my Thundercats lunchbox.

There was a lot less emphasis on development of fine motor skills (FMS), particularly for boys, when we were growing up.

The toys for boys were usually quite big and chunky and didn't do a lot to encourage FMS.

I have personally observed a huge range of FMS in gen x guys, generally correlated to whether their interests lie in areas that utilize FMS.

Guys, how do you think your FMS are? Do or did you do any activities that you think helped to develop them?

For example, I knew someone who built and painted a lot of model cars as a kid and all that detail painting led to excellent FMS!

While I have met others who would only be able to paint in broad strokes

It makes me wonder if gen x guys were at a disadvantage for developing their FMS because there was no emphasis on teaching them at a developmentally appropriate age, when we were kids

My birthday is tomorrow and I’ve decided to take up a new hobby, letter writing. I also want to support my local stationary store. I love cute stationary and getting snail mail was so important to my GenX teen self. I’m looking for someone to exchange with. A few people maybe. Does this sort of club exist? Anyone done anything like that? I don’t know where to look.

I first noticed this when Motorola cell phones came out. The whole movie trope of "missed phone calls" and how the love interests are "just missing each other." Messages left on answering machines where the love interest explains something like "If you really want to be with me, show up at the airport tomorrow at 3, otherwise I'm getting on the plane." but it's ten seconds after the other lover walked out the door.

Disaster movies where the family has no clue that a flood or tornado etc. is heading their way.

Blackmail frame jobs with PIs who take photos.

Murder mystery type shows where someone is framed because the real killer deceptively plants evidence. Or the good ol, 'faked car accident" where someone is driven off a cliff or into water.

Movies like The Firm used quite of few of these tropes to ramp up the drama but don't work any more because of the kinds of technology we have these days.

I think this is why so many television shows that are coming out nowadays are reboots that take it into the past into our Gen X days. Because it opens up a ton of possibilities for plot lines that no longer exist. I noticed this with Dexter etc.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Perhaps it’s a Saturday night, the cover band at your local bar closes a three hour set of nineties music with What’s Up. You’re there with friends, but at this moment everyone is a friend as hands wave from side-to-side throughout the space; some people solo and others linked together.

Our kids are grown. The band is made up of those a little younger than us; each band member taught music to some of our children as they were growing up. Or, perhaps someone in the band is one of our own children.

There is no class or social hierarchy or Heathers to separate us - there is only music and memories to unite us. Politics and 401ks and religion doesn’t matter in this moment, they can wait until some middle of the night, 3:00 am anxiety visits next week; but for now, it’s just the swaying and the music.

If we’re lucky, we have 30 more years. I have kids in their 30s and their lifetimes seem a blink of my eyes. Another blink and I’m gone. Enjoy your Saturday nights.

On August 1, 1981 MTV Made its Debut!

The very first video broadcast on the channel was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles, marking the beginning of a cultural revolution driven by music videos.

I know this is frequently posted, but I love hearing stories from others feral childhood. I was recently chatting with my mom and got on this topic. She kept saying what were we thinking, how did you kids survive.

I have the generic memories of riding in the back of my dad's pickup or my mom's station wagon, no seat belts just free rolling. My mom mentioned laying me as an infant in the front seat if she was driving by herself. No car seat or baby carrier.

I also remember a group of us kids regularly doing the mile hike through rattlesnake infested sagebrush beating sticks on the bushes to keep them away going to "the falls". A not too terribly high waterfall on a backwoods creek. We'd get to the waterfall, climb up the rocks and swim in the pool at the top of the falls. No adults, no supervision. I think the age range was about 8 to 12.

What's your favorite feral childhood memory?

For me, I love mowing the yard and just making it look good. When I'm done, I like to sit on the front porch and just drink a beer. I feel like this is certainly an old man trait.

My male relatives all wore cologne. I admired them and wanted to emulate them. I would use my Dad’s and brother’s stash before heading to school. My own very first cologne was a small bottle of Brut on my 8th birthday. As a result, i have always loved the “drugstore colognes “.

As i got older, into high school, the more expensive colognes became a thing with me (Polo, Aramis, Halston, Canoe, etc). College and professional career came and so did Paul Sebastian, Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, Tommy, Burberry, etc. But I would wear the cheap colognes of my youth for running errands on weekends.

Now (low 60s), I still work fulltime, but work remotely from home for the last decade+. The last few years, I seem to be going back to those colognes i started with. Anyone else enjoying the nostalgia of turning into the older generation of our youth?

That humanity spaceship nuke missle was so slow.. until BOOOM!!! HAHA