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gen x

TikTok about '80s childhood is a total Gen X flashback.

As a Gen X parent, it's weird to try to describe my childhood to my kids. We're the generation that didn't grow up with the internet or cell phones, yet are raising kids who have never known a world without them. That difference alone is enough to make our 1980s childhoods feel like a completely different planet, but there are other differences too that often get overlooked.

How do you explain the transition from the brown and orange aesthetic of the '70s to the dusty rose and forest green carpeting of the '80s if you didn't experience it? When I tell my kids there were smoking sections in restaurants and airplanes and ashtrays everywhere, they look horrified (and rightfully so—what were we thinking?!). The fact that we went places with our friends with no quick way to get ahold of our parents? Unbelievable.

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via Amazon

One of the most iconic Trapper Keeper designs.

E. Bryant Crutchfield died in Marietta, Georgia, on August 21 at the age of 85. His son told The New York Times his cause of death was bone cancer. Crutchfield will forever be known for creating an invention that helped kids in the ’80s and early ’90s show off their personalities while keeping their schoolwork in order.

In 1978, according to a profile by Mental Floss, he invented Gen X’s most iconic back-to-school must-have, the Trapper Keeper.

The Trapper Keeper consisted of two parts. The Trapper, a folder with angled pockets to hold your papers and the Keeper, a notebook that holds multiple Trappers. Together, secured by a strip of Velcro and adorned with a radical graphic on the front, they made up the iconic Trapper Keeper.

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Podcast

Upworthy Weekly podcast: Gen X’s teachers, Arnold’s graduation advice, how to stop misinformation

Alison and Tod talk about things teachers did in the ‘80s and ‘90s that wouldn’t fly today, a beauty pageant contestant who refuses to wear makeup and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s advice to graduates.

Upworthy Weekly podcast for September 3, 2022

On this week’s episode of “Upworthy Weekly,” Alison and Tod talk about the things teachers did in the ‘80s and ‘90s that just wouldn’t fly today. They also discuss a beauty pageant contestant who refuses to wear makeup, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s advice to graduates and how to stop misinformation online.

Plus, a 7-year-old listener rates her week.

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A cassette tape from the '80s or early '90s.

The parts of our brains responsible for processing senses are also used for storing emotional memories. That’s why when we smell, hear or see things from the past we get that irresistible, bittersweet feeling of nostalgia.

A new video posted by @Rerunthe80s on TikTok is giving everyone who grew up in the ’80s and early ’90s the feels.

Gen X and older millennials, I’m looking at you.

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