Tag: 1980s

Don’t You Forget the Detention of March 24th!

What happened 41 years ago today? Does it matter that if it did not actually happen? How do imaginary events lead to real changes, insights, and new friends in creation? On Saturday, March 24, 1984, five students walked into their high school library for an all-day detention. In The Breakfast Club a princess, a brain,…
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March 24, 2025
Solving Mysteries With the Powerful Book Clubs

What did three teenagers in the 80’s and Agatha Christie share? Is the mystery they solved a murder or also loneliness? Can an author be part of healing? There’s something wonderfully unique about book clubs. They aren’t just about reading; they’re about shared wonder, collective discovery, and the joy of unraveling a narrative with others.…
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March 20, 2025
Cruising With Gary Neuman on Uncertain Roads!

I couldn’t sleep so I took a drive just now. Then I deleted what I was going to publish, and wrote this instead. I’m not sure what this is going to become, but the drive felt peaceful and I was awash with familiar memories which grounded me to be present. Gary Neuman was on the…
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March 17, 2025
The Bullied Date With a Lost Boy

Are we lonely? How does bullying affect us? And did a young woman ever move past the hurt? Patreons of Gen X Watch get a weekly vid/podcast. Sometimes we make a short one for the public too. The other day I recorded a video about loneliness and included the story of a date I went…
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March 15, 2025
Hearts of Glass Recalibrates the Moral Compass

In a world that often asks us to settle, to compromise, or worse—to look away—Pat Green refuses. Instead, he acts and he writes. He writes about heartache, survival, and the complex human spirit that refuses to break thinly disguised as nostalgia. His latest book, Hearts of Glass: Living in the Real World, is not just…
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March 13, 2025
Generational Trauma and Unexpected Hope

-by ‘Sapphire’ Generational trauma is a new term for me and a heavy burden to carry. My mother took her life when I was 20. Just like her mom did when she was 9. For most of my life, I saw her as weak—someone who chose substances over stability, over me. She couldn’t get her…
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March 10, 2025
Why We Need Indie Bookstores to Resist & Hope!

How have used and indie bookstores survived the winds of change? Do they matter? What can we learn from them? Over the last two weeks I have lost count how many bookstores I have been inside and had conversations with as I get closer to releasing Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World. Over…
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March 3, 2025
Twenty Eight Days of Friendship and Top Three

All the rest have thirty-one, except February, twenty-eight days clear. It is the shortest month of the year. But you, the readers, have shown some fascinating insights based on your clicks and you clicked more this short month than last month. There seems to be a yearning for deeper than surface nostalgia based on the…
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February 28, 2025
How to Celebrate National Retro Day

Happy National Retro Day! We talk about healthy and unhealthy nostalgia at Gen X Watch often. Today is the day to have fun with nostalgia, lean into it, and have a little bit of fun. Why Does National Retro Day Exist? In 2018 Hermelinda A. Aguilar and Robert and Tina Duran founded national retro day.…
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February 27, 2025
Zen and the Art of Origami Texting (Passing Notes)

Before there was texting there was the art of passing notes. Experts who are teachers and teenagers report that the artform has not completely died, but is on life support. What made the notes special and what can we learn from them? Note Genres There were various types of notes that Gen X passed in…
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February 13, 2025