(Lots of forwards deleted etc etc)

>Subject: Read this...it's good (fwd)
>
>
>>>>>
>>>>>                          Don't call me "Generation X,"
>>>>>                         call me a child of the eighties
>>>>>
>>>>>                                by Bryant Adkins
>>>>>                           published in The Reflector
>>>>>                                January 20, 1995
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>-----
>>>>>
>>>>> I am a child of the eighties. That is what I prefer to be called. The
>>>>> nineties can do without me. Grunge isn't here to stay, fashion is
>>>>> fickle and "Generation X" is a myth created by some over-40 writer
>>>>> trying to figure out why people wear flannel in the summer. When I got
>>>>> home from school, I played with my Atari 2600. I spent hours playing
>>>>> Pitfall or Combat or Breakout or Dodge'em Cars or Frogger. I never did
>>>>> beat Asteroids. Then I watched "Scooby Doo." Daphne was a Goddess, and I
>>>>> thought Shaggy was smoking something synthetic in the back of their
>>>>> psychedelic van. I hated Scrappy.
>>>>>
>>>>> I would sleep over at friends' houses on the weekends. We played army
>>>>> with G.I. Joe figures, and I set up galactic wars between Autobots and
>>>>> Decepticons. We stayed up half the night throwing marshmallows and
>>>>> Velveeta at one another. We never beat the Rubik's Cube.
>>>>>
>>>>> I got up on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to watch bad Hanna-Barbera
>>>>> cartoons like "The Snorks," "Jabberjaw," "Captain Caveman," and "Space
>>>>> Ghost." In between I would watch "School House Rock." ("Conjunction
>>>>> junction, what's your function?")
>>>>>
>>>>> On weeknights Daisy Duke was my future wife. I was going to own the
>>>>> General Lee and shoot dynamite arrows out the back. Why did they weld
>>>>> the doors shut? At the movies the Nerds got Revenge on the Alpha Betas
>>>>> by teaming up with the Omega Mus. I watched Indiana Jones save the Ark
>>>>> of the Covenant, and wondered what Yoda meant when he said, "No, there
>>>>> is another."
>>>>>
>>>>> Ronald Reagan was cool. Gorbachev was the guy who built a McDonalds in
>>>>> Moscow. My family took summer vacations to the Gulf of Mexico and
>>>>> collected "Muppet Movie" glasses along the way. (We had the whole set.)
>>>>> My brother and I fought in the back seat. At the hotel we found creative
>>>>> uses for Connect Four pieces like throwing them in that big air
>>>>> conditioning unit.
>>>>>
>>>>> I listened to John COUGAR Mellencamp sing about Little Pink Houses for
>>>>> Jack and Diane. I was bewildered by Boy George and the colors of his
>>>>> dreams, red, gold, and green. MTV played videos. Nickelodeon played "You
>>>>> Can't Do That on Television" and "Dangermouse." Cor! HBO showed Mike
>>>>> Tyson pummel everybody except Robin Givens, the bad actress from "Head
>>>>> of the Class" who took all Mike's cashflow.
>>>>>
>>>>> I drank Dr. Pepper. "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper, wouldn't you like
>>>>> to be a Pepper, too?" Shasta was for losers. TAB was a laboratory
>>>>> accident. Capri Sun was a social statement. Orange juice wasn't just for
>>>>> breakfast anymore, and bacon had to move over for something meatier.
>>>>>
>>>>> My mom put a thousand Little Debbie Snack Cakes in my Charlie Brown
>>>>> lunch box, and filled my Snoopy Thermos with grape Kool-Aid. I would
>>>>> never eat the snack cakes, though. Did anyone? I got two thousand cheese
>>>>> and cracker snack packs, and I ate those.
>>>>>
>>>>> I went to school and had recess. I went to the same classes everyday.
>>>>> Some weird guy from the eighth grade always won the science fair with
>>>>> the working hydro-electric plant that leaked on my project about music
>>>>> and plants. They just loved Beethoven.
>>>>>
>>>>> Field day was bigger than Christmas, but it always managed to rain
>>>>> just enough to make everybody miserable before they fell over in the
>>>>> three-legged race. Where did all those panty hose come from? "Deck the
>>>>> Halls with Gasoline, fa la la la la la la la la," was just a song.
>>>>> Burping was cool. Rubber band fights were cooler. A substitute teacher
>>>>> was a baby sitter/marked woman. Nobody deserved that.
>>>>>
>>>>> I went to Cub Scouts. I got my arrow-of-light, but never managed to
>>>>> win the Pinewood Derby. I got almost every skill award but don't
>>>>> remember ever doing anything.
>>>>>
>>>>> The world stopped when the Challenger exploded.
>>>>>
>>>>> Did a teacher come in and tell your class?
>>>>>
>>>>> Half of your friends' parents got divorced.
>>>>>
>>>>> People did not just say no to drugs.
>>>>>
>>>>> AIDS started, but you knew more people who had a grandparent die from
>>>>> cancer.
>>>>>
>>>>> Somebody in your school died before they graduated.
>>>>>
>>>>> When you put all this stuff together, you have my childhood. If this
>>>>> stuff sounds familiar, then I bet you are one, too.
>>>>>
>>>>> We are children of the eighties. That is what I prefer "they" call it.
>>>>>
>>>>>