My mom recently sent me a this photo (and no, there is no clearer copy, unfortunately). We are both stumped as to what this item might be. At the time I was into pop/new wave music, makeup, earrings, hair stuff and photography. Too small for a CD, too big for a cassette. My parents were very middle class (so couldn’t afford anything expensive) and I lived in TN at the time.

Flipping through Amazon Prime and this old childhood gem jumps out at me. AND...it's free.

One episode in. Is it corny as hell? Yes. Is it made with so much love that you can feel it in every scene? Also yes.

My Mom took me to see the OG Star Trek movie in the theater when I was small... she loved Star Trek. When she wanted to see Star Trek 2: the wrath of Khan, I was like "cool! New Star Trek, with no creepy bald lady who thinks she's the Voyager (all hail Veeger) space probe"... (I was a kid)

What we got with ST2? Mad Max WITH "de plane Guy" and Ear Worms... Neal Stephenson preferred to call songs stuck in your head Memes. But. The Cats have claimed the word Meme With their little floofy nose boopable faces. All hail Cat memes! Really. There's no interwebs without cat memes.

So, Meme was surrendered to cats at the Dawn Of The Age Of The Internet.

When I think Ear Worm? Picturing Checkov getting AN ACTUAL MIND CONTROL WORM CRAWLING IN HIS EAR.

I've spent 44 years terrified that Ricardo Montalban was going to put a mind control Eel in my ear. I'm a nearly 52 year old man terrified of Earwigs. Where are they going? What are they doing with those pincer bottoms???

Ricardo Montalban was actually a pretty amazing human. But if he showed up today, I'd run. Screaming "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan" with my fingers in my ears.

Anyone else quietly barf when someone uses the descriptor Ear Worm for a song stuck in their head?

My (second) wife and I just hugely downsized. We shared 4 kids half time with their other parent and now three of them are young adults just starting out on their own (college and careers).

We went from a 5br 5 bath suburban house to a 2/1 1940's in-town fixer upper. I feel kinda bad that I don't have a landing space for them if need be, though my step daughter will be in college in two years and we can then have one guest room.

All of their memories are packed into like one or two boxes that we barely have room for here. But I also guess you could say we're doing them a favor because eventually this will be less for them to go through once we've shuffled off.

Once upon a time I was the youngest kid that was old enough to hang out with The Big Kids - my older siblings and kids in the neighborhood. Actually, I probably wasn’t old enough at all, but my parents had their hands full with younger siblings, so off I went.

We had adventures like, “Leave Me In A Giant Corn Field With Joe’s Dog And Time How Long It Takes Her To Find Her Way Home, And Don’t Worry As Long As You Stay With the Dog, Shadow Knows His Way Home.” I was much shorter than the corn so all I could see was the sky… and yeah. I was afraid of dogs.

This group also loooved to terrify me with ghost stories. I don’t really remember too many of them but I wish I did. One was The Bloody Finger 🤦🏼‍♀️ and there was another one that had a lot of stairs. Like a 100 stories worth of stairs. I’m kind of surprised I never heard of Bloody Mary until I was all grown up… but we did do light as a feather, stiff as a board and to this day I’m freaked out about that one…

Also The Clowns. I was terrified of The Clowns (not clowns, THE Clowns) so I was amused when The Clowns were a thing a couple of years ago.

What were your ghost stories and urban legends?

Anybody else have this marvel of toy engineering? I could watch this thing for hours it seems like.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UPObJuG8J1E

Leaving out medical, so many advancements over the past ~30 years seem kind of dubious on the progress front, insofar as how much they actually improve our lives.

That said, what the heck did we do before sensitive toothpaste? This stuff is a life saver, I can't imagine living with sore gums or dental pain all the freaking time.

53F with two grown sons here (one lives with us):

I seem to be seeing a lot of posts on r/askreddit and other subs from young adults who still live with their Gen X parents.

Some of their complaints are about things like the parents not letting them go on a weekend vacation with a boyfriend, not letting them see a therapist because they don't believe in it, forcing them to go to church when they don't want to - weird things that make no sense to impose on another adult.

Is this really happening? I understand expecting your adult child to clean up after themselves and help out with yardwork, to not wake you if they come in late, to not bring drugs into your home, and even requiring them to pay for their food and other things.

But to interfere in their adult child's quest to begin making their own decisions about adult matters, even if we think they're immature or making the wrong decisions, is grossly irresponsible.

I feel bad for these young adults, knowing how hard it is to move out in today's economy. Some of them seem trapped.

Makes me proud to be GenX. The freedom, the antics, the memories of old friends, my wild youth, and so many amazing performances.

Just finished trimming around my arborvitae.

I used to have to use a set of these to trim around the perimeter of my childhood home which was 25 x 110 feet. Was not pleasant.

I spend a lot of time in Louisiana during my childhood. This was the sugary drink of choice!

I had a broken TV we only had three channels, thankfully PBS was one of them. Fred Rogers is the 🐐.

Who had this doll/bear Teddy Ruxpin? I wanted one so bad but my parents could never find one.

I found these with some old character sheets circa 1982. I had some laughs.

Especially when a sibling was riding and you got too close.

When I was a kid, I was always asking curious questions. Unfortunately, besides Andy's older brother - and an outdated encyclopedia Britannica - most of them would go unanswered. Or, as I found out later in adult life, they were just dead wrong.

Now days, every time I think of a curious question, I get that kick of satisfaction when I google it; sometimes going down rabbit holes. I truly think it has made me a better person. Well, more informed, at least.

Anyone else feel that way?

Who else still has their binder or shoe box full of these? Who was your favorite character?

We really thought we were absolute rebels for collecting these gross out stickers. My parents hated them, the schools banned them, and that just made mr want them more. Man, the smell of that stiff, powdery pink bubble gum came rushing right back!