When Gen X was "Tubular" or "Rad" in the 80s

I am inspired to write about Gen X after reading a Vocal article about The Baby Boomers written by Joan Gershman. Generation X, also known as the "Me" Generation (born between 1965 to 1976) was not less "cool" than the Baby Boomers. Sure they had Elvis and The Beatles, but we had our own tough guys and the second British Invasion. The Baby Boomers were our parents. We knew they had been hippies. We knew they had either been on crazy drugs traveling in their bell bottoms or they were raising us to stay away from drugs and live life to the fullest being the best we could be. It was a tough act to follow, but we did our best.

We put into action the freedoms that they had fought for. I went to schools that were rich in diverse populations. There was no one who was not there. We didn't segregate ourselves by heritage, culture, age, or skin color. We found other ways to do that. Mostly we segregated ourselves with fashion, club memberships, and economic status. That's why they called us the "Me" generation. Is it all about you? No, it's all about ME. I was a kid watching Fonzie say "cool" on the boob tube that didn't have a remote control. But in the 80s, watching MTV with a remote control as a teen we didn't say "cool" anymore. We were "Tubular" and "Rad". I'll explain how we did it.

Bell Bottoms were out. Parachute pants were in. Levi's were out. Cavaricci's were in. It didn't matter if you had long hair or short hair, as long as it was BIG hair. The poofier the better. We liked the Beehives they wore in the 50s. The guitar bands were Big Hair Bands. Everybody increased the value of Aquanet. Don't know what that is? You don't know the joy of inhaling half a can of Aquanet hair spray? Believe me, we didn't need to find illegal drugs. Aquanet and Robutussin were sufficient.

Plastic was popular and the environment still mattered. Our parents were tree-huggers, so what were we supposed to do? Make necklaces out of tree leaves? Nope. We wore bangled bracelets made out of recycled plastic. Save that money. Those hippies can't afford to send you to college. We made leggings out of old sweaters. We wore old costume jewelry found at thrift stores. The flashier and the gaudier, the better. We wanted to make a statement. Yeah, sure our parents had style. They were blue and white, jeans and tie-died t-shirts. But we're here now, and we are all RED!!!

We didn't have the war in Vietnam to protest. We didn't have Woodstock. We had Desert Storm and the fear of the towl-heads. Most of us knew it was propaganda, so we went to theLolapallooza festival where the bravest rebels did backflips off the stage into an abyss of screaming fans. It was about $40 back then and our hippy parents were shocked at that price. Now the tickets are $350. I won't be going. I didn't burn a bra in the 80s because it had already been done, and I had size Double D's. I tried to emulate my Baby Boomer mother in the office world by wearing suit dresses with high heels and pantyhose, plus my bra. The Anti-Establishment typescalled me a "Suit" - but I knew that Conforming meant being mature, not relinquishing freedom. We had tons of temporary staffing agencies. You could work, or not work whenever you wanted to. That was freedom.

Sure they had Jimi Hendrix and tons of other amazing musicians to play their anthems, but so did we. We had Madonna, Duran Duran, A-ha, Depeche Mode, Wham!, Tears for Fears, Simple Minds, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and tons of others that were absolutely brilliant. They were learning to utilize the new technology to do things in music that hadn't been done with just a six-string and an amp.

We worked hard, and we played hard, and yes we loved money. They called us Commercialists and kept feeding us Communist propaganda. We kept working hard and playing hard. Being the children of the generation that statistically had the most divorces was not easy for us to navigate with. We didn't know what to think about romantic relationships. Should I? It was just easier to focus on money. Money was more predictable than romance.

If any one became a millionaire after Rockefeller and Carnegie, they were probably from Generation X. I didn't. I was too much like the Boomers. However, I know my Gen Xrs, and we are incredible.