GenX Women are Sick of This Shit!
GenX Women are Sick of This Shit is a nostalgic nod to the humans of GenX in the Midwest. Each episode, co-hosts Megan Bennett and Lesley Meier, have a long, rambling, ADHD driven conversation about GenX history and pop culture using their own lives and experiences growing up in Indianapolis as the backdrop. The podcast is a creative project inspired by the Facebook group 'GenX Women are Sick of This Shit', created by Megan Bennett in 2023. "Five Minutes of Fame" stories and "Dear GenX Women" letters are sent in by listeners and members of the Facebook group and are shared with consent. The original Facebook group is a mosh pit of menopausal women talking about all things GenX culture and life in the 70s, 80s and 90s as well as being a GenXer today. GenX Women are Sick of This Shit is part of Latchkey Kids Media, LLC where we make things we like because we want to. Copyright 2025, Latchkey Kids Media, LLC
GenX Women are Sick of This Shit!
S2E11 Surviving the Messy 70s and 80s - A Gen X Reality Check
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Remember when your parents smoked in the car with the windows up? When teachers could paddle students in front of the class? When asbestos was in our schools and lead was in our paint? Megan and Lesley strip away the nostalgia to examine the genuinely problematic aspects of growing up in the 70s and 80s that shaped our generation.
Following their catch-up on recent life changes, the hosts pay tribute to recently departed musical icons Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, then celebrate the 50th anniversaries of both Rocky Horror Picture Show and Jaws. But the heart of this episode confronts the darker realities behind Gen X childhoods—from environmental hazards we somehow survived to educational practices that would be considered abusive today.
The conversation weaves through vivid memories of corporal punishment in schools, public shaming as a teaching tool, and the complete absence of mental health awareness. They explore how these experiences shaped our generation's characteristic resilience and skepticism, while acknowledging the trauma that often accompanied it. From smoking being permitted virtually everywhere to the casual dismissal of abuse allegations, this episode serves as a reality check about the "good old days" that weren't always so good.
Rather than simply criticizing the past, Megan and Lesley emphasize why acknowledging these truths matters—without confronting history honestly, we risk repeating it. As they note while discussing current regulatory rollbacks: we've been here before, and it wasn't pretty. Join us for this unflinching look at the experiences that defined a generation and continue to influence Gen X perspectives today.
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I'm Megan Bennett,
Lesley:I'm Lesley Meier
Megan:and this is Gen X Women Are Sick of this. Shit.
Megan:Hi Lesley,
Lesley:Hi Megan
Megan:, I feel like I haven't seen you in a long time.
Speaker 3:Hello Megan, it has been a long time, I mean, it's been two weeks.
Megan:Yeah, but I mean like normally I text with you eleven thousand times a week and we would.
Speaker 3:We would have more interaction not interacting.
Megan:I feel I miss you oh.
Speaker 3:I miss you too. You'll think of me a lot when you're on vacation.
Megan:You know, it just makes me think of the time that you and I were in Disney together.
Speaker 3:The best time.
Megan:That was so fun.
Megan:That picture pops up every once in a while and I'm like, oh, look at us, we did we had a great time and your kiddos were little and my kiddo was little and it was just cute.
Megan:It was cute.
Lesley:But you're doing full-time work for an outside organization now I am Yep.
Megan:I took a job with a nonprofit. I just decided I was tired of working for myself and I don't want clients anymore so they the. The trade-off is a structured yes, especially and especially and until I feel like I am more up to speed and then I can work from home a little bit more, and that will be nice but right now I've got to, just change. Got to figure out what the hell is going on.
Lesley:Yep understood and nonprofit work is really valuable work it is, so kudos to you for doing it
Megan:Not making a hefty living or anything, but it makes me feel good and it's good to get up in the morning and go to work and that fucking matters right now.
Speaker 3:It does right now. That's the thing.
Megan:And thing, and that's what I needed time, that is what I needed. I had a lot of people go are you sure you want to do that and I'm like, yeah, I really am, I don't. I I feel fairly useless and I don't want to feel that way. I think that's important and I'm in a very good spot and very lucky to be in that spot where I don't have to go out and make a gajillion dollars. I have to, you know I have to work, but you don't have to make a gajillion.
Megan:Yeah, I understand. If a gajillion dollars wants to drop in my lap, I'm not going to say no, I won't reject that gajillion dollars.
Speaker 3:No, I will take it, nor would I think anyone really say no, I'm not a dummy, perhaps. Perhaps no one would reject that. Yeah, perhaps. Perhaps no one would reject that. Yeah, congratulations.
Lesley:But you know, it limits casual interaction life flexibility.
Speaker 3:It's just a trade-off. Yes, uh, but that is the season that you are in. In this moment it is, and how have you been? Uh, pretty good. I mean, you know, busy, busy, busy, just working, though I mean like work is work is work, um, and trying to like I feel some urgency just around, like doing things in my home, like I just want to take care of my space yeah so we've been like working on some outside projects and we've got other stuff kind of lined up and it just feels important and useful.
Megan:Yeah, it is the season too, the weather's nice, it's like you can be outside, you can do stuff. You can. Yeah, so I get it.
Speaker 3:So that feels good. It's daylight late, so I kind of just want to enjoy all of that.
Megan:Isn't that the best? Really nice, like when the sun doesn't go down until like 9.30 and you're like oh yes, I love that.
Speaker 3:Me too, and my body's like oh, you can just keep doing things. Yeah, so the workday doesn't end in like darkness and misery.
Megan:Right, oh, my God though, but I go to bed, and I go to bed, do you? I'm just like I.
Lesley:That's the truth um.
Speaker 3:So yeah, cool well that's awesome.
Megan:I'm glad you are getting your shit done around the house.
Speaker 3:We're slowly but surely I get. This could be my full-time job and it would probably still take me five years, but we're prioritizing things and that's exciting. Yes, I feel like we had some other things to talk about and my brain kind of went blank. We were going to talk about shit that we're sick of what are we sick of? Start with that what are we sick of? What are you sick of today? Uh well, we both talked earlier.
Megan:We're sick of war and the threat of war and the never ending threat posturing about war.
Speaker 3:Are we going to war?
Megan:Maybe We'll let you know in two weeks.
Speaker 3:As kids growing up in the 80s, we surely thought that we got that thermonuclear war threat wrapped up. I really thought we were done with it With Red Dawn and war games. Didn't we learn? What was the other one, the last pilot, last starfighter You're trained to like? Was that last Starfighter? I love that movie. You were trained in a video game and you had to go through things. It was all this like. I don't even know if that's connected, but it was like futuristic war related films.
Lesley:We're going to say that yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we thought we sorted that out, but evidently it's still just a fine thing to do to swing your dick around and talk about bombing people. Shall we play a game.
Megan:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'll show you a game.
Megan:I'm just. I don't know why, why it's 2025 and this is still a thing. But you're right, it is. It's a bunch of dicks swinging.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I'm sorry, none of us are impressed.
Megan:We haven't been ever. Nope, we're busy doing other shit. We really don't need that.
Speaker 3:It's not impressive and thank goodness you know we have more access to information now, so we know things faster.
Megan:Yeah, and then you wonder like is that a good thing? Like, maybe it's better to not have the 24-hour. We've talked about this before.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Lesley:The 24-hour news cycle.
Megan:So you like wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning, you pick up your phone and you're like holy fuck. Well, I'll never go back to sleep now.
Speaker 3:Excuse me, I was just spraying water up my nose. At the same time I was thirsty, thirsty. It took a big old swig and I was like fuck, let me just like suffocate myself. So yeah, we're fucking sick of that yeah, I agree that's fair. That can be it for today. That's good that's good.
Megan:Yeah, I yeah. Yeah, um self-medicating. I'm just, you know, whatever it takes, just get through it there is some kind of cool 70s, 80s.
Speaker 3:Cool and sad because bullshit and hot goss has news in it, but it also features who died this week. Yeah, we lost a few people, didn't we? Let's start with who died this week, last week, and then move into the like kind of little news niblets that we liked, that we thought were pretty okay, pretty funny.
Megan:So I we had two musicians that we were um that were pretty sad to lose.
Megan:You want to do that one I'll do mine, yeah, the one well I mean, he's not mine, but sly stone from sly and the family stone. So, uh, he passed away on june 9th. His real name really is Sylvester Stewart. He was born March 15th 1943. Sylvester, sylvester, I guess Sly, you know? Yeah, that works, I got you. But yeah, soul, rock, psychedelic music, you know super good, I loved Sly and the Family Stone. There were just so many amazing songs that came out of that band and Everyday People and you know anyway.
Speaker 3:It's a thing you don't want me to sing, do it. Family Affair.
Lesley:No, you really don't.
Megan:She's not going to sing, she won't do it.
Speaker 3:You really don't want me to sing, so Sly passed away on june 9th and then on june 11th, one of my favorites, brian wilson, died. Uh, pet sounds is one of the greatest albums ever, and I think it's ranked number two by rolling stone what's number one? As a. I knew you were gonna ask that and I don't remember, but it was part of the article.
Lesley:And I went.
Megan:Oh no, absolutely not.
Speaker 3:No, you have to look it up. But I will think about it for a second, but it's ranked number two. Um, and as a Midwesterner who, like fashioned herself, just like geographically deprived of being a surfer because of my love for the water, um, being able to see the beach boys at the indiana state fair was like I was just like see, like it was like the closest I could get to being able to be a surfer girl, you were gonna be a betty, my trips to um florida were.
Speaker 3:know, you kind of get that and you could kind of hang out because there are a bunch of Midwestern kids like being pseudo surfers then, but you know, being in the middle of the corn you don't get a lot of chance to like surf.
Megan:So nowadays you can get on a cruise ship and some of the ships have like those surf, surf rider, like wave things. That's cool on the ship you could like yes, hop on and, and and wipe out, you know, in a glorious fashion yes, so I could see you doing that.
Speaker 3:Oh, you know if you ever wanted to give it a shot, sure, I was a decent skim boarder yeah, I mean for a midwestern girl right. Right for a midwestern girl, my cousin about. Right For a Midwestern girl, my cousin. That was about it.
Megan:My cousin who is older than I am, I guess, second cousin older than I am. He grew up in Southern California, kind of in the beach boy sort of era. Oh yes, as a little kid like the beach boys were a thing.
Speaker 3:Yes, of course.
Megan:I love that, and he was a surfer, so he would absolutely skip school if the weather was proper for going. Oh you know, and surfing heck, and so he got in trouble many times, for you know just going and hanging 10 oh wow and listening to the beat if you could like.
Speaker 3:I think that was probably from a movie perspective, the coolest fucking thing ever when I was young is like they just skipped school and like went surfing Gnarly, we would skip school and go to bagel fair in Nora.
Megan:We would skip school, and I didn't skip school.
Speaker 3:It was practically the same thing, and by skipping I mean we would just leave school during our study hall period.
Megan:Right, I didn't skip. I just had a theater teacher who was super kind to me and I got to go.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, we had those opportunities as well. I fucking love that. I am still actually digging for that. Uh, okay, number two, right behind marvin gaye's. What's going on?
Megan:oh, okay, that was the number one uh greatest album of all time.
Speaker 3:There we go okay, cool, that makes me feel better on the inside I'm sorry to put you on the spot.
Megan:You know, and you just I should have just left it up.
Speaker 3:Why don't I have my ADHD tabs open? I have 500 of them on my phone.
Megan:You clearly you only have how many tabs open. Now Three, this is really only three. She's got four tabs in the deck and my Google deck.
Speaker 3:This is how we have notes on this. I've got two tabs.
Lesley:Pretty much failed.
Speaker 3:We should talk about the little film-related news tidbits that we have, though. Yeah, what you got, I think you should share yours first, because yours is awesome and I didn't know about it.
Megan:So we are recording this on what is this? The 20th?
Speaker 3:Yes, June 20th.
Lesley:Yes, so June 20th.
Megan:On June 19th 1973, rocky Horror opened in its very first show in the Royal Court Theater in London and we had the Tim help, tim, tim Curry. Oh my God, fucking brain fart.
Speaker 3:I was like wait, are you having a stroke? No, I'm just dumb.
Megan:Tim Tim help.
Lesley:Tim you know Tim.
Megan:Not that Tim, the other Tim, tim Curry Jesus.
Lesley:Anyway, he played Frankenfurter. Yes.
Megan:In that production. Super hot and was apparently so awesome that they said when the movie rolled around hey you. You are a Frankenfurter, Get your ass in your fishnets and get up here on the big screen.
Speaker 3:Yes, oh, I should have said stage and screen, because you were talking about the theater and not the movie, the altar. The altar, my Little Movie, tidbit, is one of my favorite films to watch on the 4th of July 50 years ago today Steven Spielberg's Jaws was released. I saw this little slideshow. I fucking love this movie so much.
Megan:Okay, so we're learning a lot about you. You like surfing and sharks.
Speaker 3:I am okay with all of it. Danger because is her middle name. If you're out there, I mean it's their, it's their land okay, so you're out there, you're, you know you're just paddling along waiting for the big one. It's a risk that you're gonna take and that shark comes and hope for the.
Megan:I mean, I hope it's quick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hope for the best. You hope they just aren't too interested. That's fair. So some tidbits that I read today. As many of us have heard, the shark didn't work very well and that made it quite scary because it would move sometimes and not others, it was erratic. Kept breaking the line move sometimes and not others. It was erratic. Kept kept breaking. Uh, the line you're gonna need a bigger boat was improvised, not in the script, it was almost cut. Um, of course, the iconic soundtrack.
Speaker 3:Everybody can play that on their piano and evidently spielberg didn't go to the premiere because he thought it was going to be a flop and tank his career. Little did he know. Wow, I know that was all from the internet that was steven.
Megan:Even when you suck, you're real good spielberg, I just.
Speaker 3:We showed that movie to our son and a bunch of his friends, I think, think on a 4th of July during COVID. I mean, it may have been even that summer 2020 or 20,. None of them had seen it and they were all teenagers at the time. They were mesmerized.
Megan:Well, I think that I think there's a whole I mean there's generations of kids who've never seen it now, and I, I, I think I have seen it a grand total of one time.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, it's so fucking good. It scared the fuck out of me Understood Fair.
Megan:So I'm not a big horror person and I'm certainly not like the jump scare kind of person. Maybe my bladder's just not up to speed and I can't handle it.
Speaker 3:Oh, I love that.
Megan:The jump scare kind of thing scares me too much. And you know like I'm thinking, I've seen the shining maybe once or maybe twice.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a good one, yeah, that one. So those two are those are. Those kinds of films are separate for me from like um, like the texas chainsaw massacre, friday the 13th, I don't really love those movies, although when I was a young teenager. I thought they were great. Let's watch them all in a row. There's something about underdeveloped frontal lobe that you're just like what? So we would watch them all. We're like, ah, but now I'm not into that. So much.
Megan:Yeah, I never did the slasher thing. Would watch them all. They're like, ah, but now I don't. I'm not into that. Yeah, I didn't. I never did the slasher thing.
Speaker 3:I think I saw a sleepaway camp one time with friends somewhere and I hated it like it was freaky it was scary it was scary, I was scared I just never connected it to like well, this isn't, wouldn't ever happen well, I guess I thought it did.
Megan:I was like oh shit, you had a really active imagination, I guess, which is fair on point, I don't know but scary.
Speaker 3:Well, I won't make you watch this, okay.
Megan:So I can't do that. I can't do the shark movie. You don't have to do that.
Speaker 3:The shark movie's scary too. But the other thing is, both of these pieces of art, let's say cinematic and stage, are 50 years old. I think is what we want to say yeah, 50 plus, and both of these pieces of art define a generation.
Megan:I mean, there are just things about each performance, production that are, it's just like in the water of references that you would make in your brain yeah, if you were, if you had seen jaws, or if you were a rocky horror kid like well, and I love like lexicon when you say things like you're gonna need a bigger boat and and we people our age, yes could easily like go like outboating somewhere and make that dumb reference you know like and and everybody younger than us would stare at us like we grew a second head. For the most part right, unless they've seen the movie right.
Speaker 3:Some phrases have become like part of just how we talk, like they don't even know why. We'll say stuff sometimes in front of younger generations. They know the phrase, they don't know why, they don't know where it came from, it's relevant or why we're laughing, it's just like, yeah, that's just the thing you say.
Megan:We need a master list of those things, don't you think it'd be fun to have like?
Speaker 3:just as we yeah.
Megan:Just as you like, start thinking of things that you say that, like younger generations may have heard Right, but they can't connect the dots as to where the heck it came from.
Speaker 3:I think that's brilliant. That'd be really fun. Maybe that's what linguists do like trace the evolution of language and vernacular and phrases over time.
Megan:I'm sure I'm not using all of those words correctly. I think you used all of them exactly the way you should, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:I did. That's what you get going to Coralage they were perfect Coral. But that's all right. That's okay. We know that. You don't have to pronounce things properly. We'll give you a parade for it A poo-raid, a parade, a parade. Oh my gosh, my theater professor would have died. I just the things that we would get coached on Parade Articulating accurately, and that was certainly one of those words.
Megan:Gen X Women Are Sick of the Shit is supported by Lilas Love you like a sis, a Gen X Women's social club. What's Lilas Megan? Lilas is our off platform, off the books of faces, off all of the other traditional social media. It is our space and place for Gen X Women to come together, have conversations, meet each other. It's a social club.
Speaker 3:It is a social club. It's a membership-based club. Memberships are $10 a month. That does help support us in growing the platform. We purchased a platform that would host a network of women so that you could come together and meet each other in real time.
Megan:In a safer space than a traditional social media platform and a much more personal space. So what do we do there, Leslie?
Speaker 3:We host movie nights where we live stream some of our favorites as they are available to us, favorites as they are available to us for group watches of films from the 70s, 80s and 90s. We host a space for a monthly book club. We host trivia nights once a month. We have a live text chat Four prizes even.
Speaker 3:Four prizes. That's true. The space is able to host like weekly text chats so that you can kind of check in in real time with people. I would say the critical difference between kind of what this space is and any other social media space that I've experienced is that it is active. You will have to engage in it or be engaged in it by other people, so it's not like a passive consumption thing.
Megan:It's like making connections, yep, and if that's what you're looking for the opportunity to meet other people, to find people who are maybe in the same similar spaces as you are like-minded same time, phase of life, navigating all of those transitions, then this might be the right place for you. So check out, lylas. You can learn more about it at GenXWomenPodcom. Nothing brings joy to my life like Reaganomics. We're back, we're talking about Reaganomics hey, leslie, how you doing with the trickle down. Is it trickling down yet?
Speaker 3:I mean my leg, along with my incontinence. That's not true so far, so good so far, so good, but I know there are procedures if that does happen, if you start trickling down your leg, that I can have done and I'm grateful that those exist, we're going to say. That's what, as long as I, as a woman, am able to access health care, which is, you know, truthfully, a toss up.
Speaker 3:You don't know, I have no idea Maybe not, we don't know, but if I there, I'm going to go there and get some vaccines. I think that's why you can still get some vaccines right now. For now, yeah, but yes, absolutely, we will go there and get back a little road trip. I did read I was reading a little update on how quickly we go off topic.
Speaker 3:I was reading a little update on our vaccine and I was watching this update with a scientist that I enjoy listening to Can't remember her name and she was talking about how, because the immune cells that COVID impacts and like repeatedly affects with repeated infections, that for us people in our generation it can overall lower the efficacy of vaccines that we had in childhood. So I know it's already been advised, like I think it's over 50, over 60. If you would like to, if you're born certain years, go ahead and get your mmr updated because vaccines are just more effective now. But that was an interesting new piece of information because the science is currently being published and I was like, oh okay, you know, don't believe me, I'm not a scientist google that shit and actually look at actual studies, not things that ai makes that scientific journals are a good thing to look at and not yes.
Speaker 3:Don't take my recommendation, but I was just like, oh, good to know.
Megan:I and I did. I went and got my, I did get mine updated and I didn't grow a second head and I'm no more or less dumb than I was before.
Speaker 3:And yeah, because I don't want the measles. No, thank you, but it is spreading rapidly on flights right now. So when you're in the air, you might consider masking up again. Indiana, we're spreading the measles like crazy right now. Measles.
Lesley:The measles.
Speaker 3:Yummy, this is not what's on the list. This stays contagious in a room where someone has been infected for four hours.
Megan:Four hours, so you sneeze where somebody else sneezes and they leave. And three hours and 58 minutes later your ass walks through there. You got the measles A little measles shower.
Speaker 3:That's exciting. This is what we wanted to talk about today exciting.
Megan:This is what we wanted to talk about today. You know, when we think about it like the previous generations, before gen x.
Speaker 3:Was there anything before gen x? Supposedly we try not to talk about them.
Megan:I don't know. They're never going to retire, so who knows um but the, the previous generations? Yes have things like you know, measles vaccinations.
Speaker 3:Nope.
Megan:And smallpox vaccinations.
Speaker 3:Died from the measles. They just died from it. Or smallpox. Okay, hey, watch out. Dysentery, yippee-ki-yay. That's an interesting segue into not so great things about the 70s and 80s. Yes, let's take off the rose-colored glasses for a little bit.
Megan:Get some cynicalness going here. Let's get cynical, yep, let's get cynical. Oh, I can feel it.
Speaker 3:I want to get cynical. Let's get into cynical.
Megan:Thank you, let me hear your sarcasm talk, uh-huh, no, like Tim's shaking his head at me. He's like no, that's it, you're done. We need to be done. Now he's going to turn off my mic.
Speaker 3:Not so great things about the 70s and 80s. This just popped into my head because we were talking about it Lead paint.
Megan:Oh yeah yeah, you could not safely lick the windows. Even though we did anyway probably great lead paint, not so tasty, yum yum. Uh, yeah, you could. What's on your list? Uh, so I have a well in that same vein leaded gasoline oh yeah, other thing that you can still. You know, at least in the back of my nasal cavities I feel like I could still smell leaded gas.
Speaker 3:So I'm gonna ask the question that everybody's thinking, which is remind me what the fuck lead does to us well, it?
Megan:it makes you not very smart, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:it impacts your brain functioning right, okay, that's what I could not remember. Like, there are things that have just been bad for so long where you're just like nope, this is really bad, so stay away from it. We all know that, right yeah.
Megan:Lead poisoning super duper bad and you know in the US we took some EPA precautions and we don't have the what you know the what you know, that thing, we used to have the. Epa.
Speaker 3:Environmental Protection.
Megan:Agency. Before we cut that to shreds, we had protections in place that made it so that you couldn't have lead in your paint and you couldn't have lead in your gas and you couldn't have lead in, you know, pencils or whatever because, they're graphite right For sure.
Speaker 3:Do you remember when it used to be like really terrifying if you got stabbed in the hand with a pencil? Never knew, Like as a kid, it was just perpetually scary and I didn't really know when they stopped using lead in lead pencils.
Lesley:Because it's always pencil lead. Was it an old?
Speaker 3:pencil Could be, but, like literally, your classmates could slowly poison you to death.
Megan:Watch out Kindergarten. You just got a little dumber and dumber and dumber.
Speaker 3:Your test scores went down Beyond the.
Megan:Thunderdome Year after year, just because you got stabbed one time.
Speaker 3:My God.
Megan:But, we did things in the US at one time, back when science was a thing that we believed in, where we got rid of lead, and other countries, you know, still are playing catch up to that and and it's you know in third world countries like lead issues are still a huge, huge problem. Yeah, so, you know, hopefully we won't slide all the way back.
Speaker 3:I mean, I would say we're who knows, now we could be considered a developing nation because that's probably true development that we are willingly letting go of.
Megan:Well, and alongside of that, I mean speaking about the EPA, rip, epa. Asbestos is another thing, right Back in the news. Shockingly enough, shockingly, we thought we got rid of it. Shockingly enough, shockingly, we thought we got rid of it. We thought we could, you know, maybe rehab some houses carefully and pull asbestos off and get rid of it. And no, no, yeah, you have to wear suits and stuff.
Speaker 3:It's fine now, is it? Sure, my golly, whatever Insulation just got a lot cheaper, let's put it back?
Megan:So here's the question. This is something my husband and I were talking about with this whole story about asbestos. Okay, who lobbied for that? Who's the asshole who said, you know what? Nobody, we would like asbestos back, please.
Speaker 3:They're just like. That shouldn't be a rule. You should be able to make your own decisions. We're going to own the libs.
Megan:This is just going to be a bitch fest by bringing asbestos back baby.
Lesley:My golly.
Speaker 3:Elementary schools everywhere. Breathe a sigh of relief Deeply. Breathe it deeply. There's no more remediation. That has to happen. Breathe that in baby. So asbestos sucked in the 70s and 80s.
Lesley:It did, at least we thought.
Speaker 3:We thought it did. Yes, I do remember my grandmother's house. She lived there for 50 years and it had asbestos shingles on the outside and she had to have it painted so that they could be encapsulated Like they did not touch them. And I think that they're still on the outside of the house. They've just continued to like paint the house.
Megan:Because to have that all taken apart would cost an insane amount of money. There's a house around the corner from where I live that they've been working on removing and remediation of that house for I don't know three years and they've got oh my goodness, they got three of the four sides down, hey, hey. But you know there's still a whole side of asbestos. It it's nasty, it's gross, it will kill you and you know it's back baby.
Speaker 3:Exciting. What else was not so great in the 70s and 80s? Oh, I had a really specific memory about school Corporal punishment. Not so great, not so great and just lack of educational resources and shaming being used as like an educational ideology for teaching.
Speaker 3:If you just publicly shame kids, of course they're going to do better. Ruralish school, my like kindergarten, first grade year and years, and they still had paddles with the holes, wooden paddles hanging in each classroom and there was public paddling. I do think the principal came in to paddle the child in front of the class. Did he draw the short straw? Or was that a good thing so well, because to do it, I mean that's fucking gross. I remember the guy's name, our principal, mr brainan.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and he would have a really like strong right arm I I just remember my mom telling me that like I was evidently quite terrified and like, came home, of course, incredibly upset because I just watched an adult, who's supposed to be keeping us safe, hit another child with a baseball bat, basically, um, she and she didn't know what to do. She ended up taking me to a psychiatrist or psychologist, because she was, and that was 70 I mean good for your mom.
Megan:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:I'm so proud of your mom because she couldn't understand why I was so upset which we know, right now. It's like fucking vicarious trauma, and when we're children, anything that's happening to someone else is happening to us like it's in our nervous systems. It happens to us as adults, too, right if we observe an accident or something like that. So, anyway, that sucked. And the other specific thing that I remember is we would do these. Did you ever do timed tests like for math facts or?
Speaker 3:something like that, like the races, oh yeah so if you were the slowest, they would do shit like pin, like snails on you so that you were no I don't remember that. And if you were good, you were like fast good you got a bunny rabbit or something like a jackrabbit and the slow kids with the snails were like put on bleachers.
Lesley:It was public.
Speaker 3:I mean, this was like the thing, so it was born in 73 and I know I went to have to kindergarten um when I was five half day yeah olden days you only went to kindergarten half day, so whatever god that's awful.
Megan:Yeah, so that kind of falls into the whole like the mental health thing absolutely because I was thinking about uh, you know, got ADD, adhd, yeah, and didn't know that at the time. Um, and now know that my teachers saying things to me and writing things on my report card like distracting talks all the time, blah, blah, blah, and then hearing the words over and over and over again. You can do so much better. You're smarter than this. You can do better than this.
Speaker 3:You can get than this, you can do better than this, you can get better grades. And being isolated, Like were you ever like? Sat at a desk further away?
Lesley:from the kids so you wouldn't interrupt.
Speaker 3:Like being segregated isolated set aside, made to sit by the teacher in the front of the room. All of those like publicly humiliating things Yep. Publicly humiliating things, yep. No talking about childhood anxiety or depression, or that for adults, for that matter.
Megan:We just pretended like none of that existed.
Lesley:It was all fine, we were great Everything was great.
Megan:So when we hear about that whole kind of Gen X, just putting your nose down and just get it done, and all that Sure, sure, sure, right, like, and maybe it's a good thing that we are able to bounce back, but also, are we Did, we, can we? Maybe we didn't do as great as we thought we did.
Speaker 3:Maybe we just had to cut off our empathy because we were being abused.
Megan:Ah, the 70s.
Speaker 3:The 80s. As with any situation like, of course there's some like resilience, that we have. Sure, but if we have resilience not connected to empathy, then we're just assholes. So there's a fine line that we can walk in there and when the adults in our lives who are supposed to be keeping us safe are torturing us Not great, we don't have a lot of choice.
Megan:That was a big thing in the 70s, right there, and the 80s. Absolutely so. One that I immediately went to when I thought about things that were not so great that maybe we've forgotten, thankfully, is the fact that there was smoking literally fucking everywhere.
Speaker 3:Yep Restaurants, every restaurant.
Megan:Your house. Every, yeah, every restaurant Airplanes.
Speaker 3:Oh God yeah.
Megan:You know buses. I forgot about that.
Speaker 3:Yep School bus. I was like 10. Just kidding.
Megan:But that was not a place Whipping out the Marlboro.
Speaker 3:Reds when we smacking them. But it wouldn't have been a big thing for, like you know, teachers took smoke breaks on the playground of high schools, had smoking areas at least my high school did. Yep, um oh, I saw a great slide show. Everywhere you made ashtrays as art projects for your family, which was super fucked up as a kid with a mom who died of lung cancer Thanks day camp, you know and cigarettes and things that were alcohol related to were also like, frequently shot glasses, shit like that.
Speaker 3:I saw this slideshow of photos from the 70s, because the Pacers Pacers are doing really great right now and they were showing some old photos of Marcus Square Arena arena I'm gonna say that that's probably true, and they were talking about like the coloring and the haze, because you could smoke inside the arena and how it gives a particular effect to photographs from that time, because everybody's just they're fucking smoking lighten it up.
Megan:Some of it was cigarettes some of it was not. Yeah, I always felt like I had to get as low as possible. Yeah, I, I absolutely abhor the smell of cigarette smoke. Yeah, so much. I'm not a big pot smoking. I can't like. The smell of it bothers me sometimes too. I'm sorry, sue, um, but that is a very specific call out for one very specific person. I love you. The but the like the smell of cigarette smoke, and my mom smoked my grandmother smoked my dad smoked.
Megan:I like every fucking person smoked and being in a car with the car windows rolled up, and you're like sitting there just breathing that shit in and I, to this day, if I am in a car, and a car three cars away from me is smoking, I can smell it.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Megan:Like a hundred and I could. I mean exactly. Oh you got the menthols out, do you?
Speaker 3:Yep, it's such a specific thing. You got the menthols out do you? Yep, it's such a specific thing and just like the whole big tobacco trials of the 80s and how they all stood up there and testified and said there is no connection whatsoever.
Megan:Right Come on.
Speaker 3:You don't want to trust a motherfucker? Don't trust corporations, yeah.
Megan:Gaslighting at its absolute best.
Lesley:I'm going to describe to you my childhood pizza place. Okay, it was called Udell's Pizza. It was in a house.
Megan:Oh gosh.
Lesley:Ashtrays on every table, the little tin like foil metal ones. Shag carpet everywhere.
Megan:Oh, my God.
Lesley:Just imagine.
Megan:Wait, a restaurant with shag carpet Because it was a house A. A restaurant with shag carpet Because it was a house. A pizza restaurant with shag carpet.
Lesley:Well, and the whole thing was it was a house, right yeah, so the house had carpet and they didn't. I mean, this is the 80s and 70s.
Megan:Yeah, I don't think the health department would approve that at this point, right.
Lesley:No Like.
Megan:I feel like that's, you can't do that now.
Lesley:Probably point right. No, like I feel like that's you can't do that, probably not right now. No, probably not. But I'm just saying like I can't even, I can't even pull to my mind what that must have smelled like.
Speaker 3:Oh, just imagine like the residue. Yeah, so anyway it's. I've been in uh.
Megan:Homes like that have been renovated, but you can tell like a smoker oh absolutely 50 years or something, and it's like in the plaster or the drywall, I mean it's just a whole thing there's a full-on reason why, if you buy something off of ebay like you want to look for, the words comes from a smoke-free home because, like that smell. Is it's? Hard to get into something and my hair has always been one like. I don't know if it's a thing about my particular texture of my hair, but like I it gets in there if I go to a bar or I go to a concert?
Speaker 3:yeah, and there's smoke.
Megan:I'm like I will wear that. You know I've got to go home immediately and shower soak everything um, along with other public health things, seatbelt laws oh yeah, you know, having a seatbelt a bad thing.
Speaker 3:Seatbelt laws weren't in effect in Indiana until 1985. Jesus, we survived 12 years without seatbelt laws. I do remember wearing seatbelts Like my folks did, I think, and I remember wearing seatbelts like in the back of my grandmother's car. So I think we kind of always did, but they were certainly different. Like were no straps and I as a kid definitely rode in the front seat, like as a little kid you just didn't have that shoulder strap on. No Buckle in like five it was cool.
Megan:And if you got hit you'd get cut right in half Totally fine, so good.
Speaker 3:You go out that window, you tiny little, skinny fucker flying down the road I I don't know when they finally became law, like across the country, but I know indiana yeah, well, like car seats weren't a thing, for I mean they.
Megan:So my husband and I were talking about this like there. He remembers that he had a car seat and it was like like a little metal cage that he sat in oh yes, I've seen those.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh my gosh he remembers that.
Megan:But then he also, and he he's got a younger brother and a younger sister, so he's probably also remembering, like their, the evolution of their car seats. But he did say he remembered riding on his mom's lap while she was driving.
Speaker 3:Oh, how about that Amazing?
Megan:Yes, 70s, 80s.
Speaker 3:Yeah, crazy, as you're saying that out loud, there are definitely pictures of my mom and dad coming home from the hospital after having me and my mom getting out of the car holding me my grandmother took some photos. It just like popped in my brain.
Megan:There was no pumpkin seeds, nothing. Oh yeah, you just carried the baby home, good luck. Took some photos. It just like popped in my brain.
Speaker 3:There was no pumpkin seed, nothing. Oh yeah, you just carried the baby home. Good luck, drive slow, hope you make it home. I mean to be fair, cars were actually made out of like steel then.
Megan:So maybe we had a little buffer.
Speaker 3:Car accidents and car deaths were much higher than they are now, yeah, and you could like drink and drive more, oh God goodness, much higher than they are now. Yeah, and you could like drink and drive more, oh God, so it was. It was great, yeah, because we didn't really even police that did we Not terribly? Oh, there it is. Oh, there's the cage, the baby cage, baby cage. Be still, you fucking baby.
Megan:In the backseat the baby is like I'm getting out of this fucking baby in the back seat.
Speaker 3:That baby is like I'm getting out of this, you toddler, slide right out of this. It's like bigger than a grocery cart, like there is no problem climbing out of that, that baby is like it is not in any way, shape or form, actually hooked to the seat.
Megan:It's just hooked over it hung over.
Speaker 3:You're just like a bike basket.
Megan:Essentially is what that is you just put some plastic daisies on that, it's gonna be great that baby's like watch me, ninja, this motherfucker, I'm getting out, going out that window.
Speaker 3:Uh so the alcohol laws, drinking and driving, like I was reading and actually there were laws against operating a motor vehicle almost as soon as there were motor vehicles available, but the blood alcohol level didn't drop until like 0.08 until the 80s I remember, I remember.
Megan:Do you remember that when the announcement came that that was going?
Speaker 3:down. I kind of do like it was a big deal like people lost their minds, that it was like because you know what it was before originally. I don't point one five. You could be good and fucking drunk and not like go to jail jesus super blotto.
Megan:Yeah. So I'm sure when that announcement was made people weren't thinking, well, this is in my best interest. They were probably like god damn it you mean I? Can't go to the bars anymore and drive home with my kids. It's so funny. There was an episode like Jeff and I love to watch old episodes of Rockford Files. Oh yes, it's what we do. Okay so we get old, because I don't like new things, apparently, but we were watching like old episodes of Rockford Files and old episodes of Magnum PI.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tom Selleck was fucking hot. Lots of chest hair, anyway, big mustache, he was so pretty. Anyway, ride that handlebar.
Megan:God. So, but Rockford Files, like there was an episode that I was watching where Jim Rockford was trying to solve he was serving on a jury.
Lesley:Oh, okay to solve.
Megan:He was, he was on a, he was serving on a jury and the guy was um uh, accused of of killing a woman. He had been at a bar and apparently, like regularly, like every night, would go to this bar, get completely shit-faced and then drive home.
Megan:And he was set up because the people knew that he drove home shit-faced, drunk, every single night so they were able to like set him up oh, okay, but this depiction of this dude at the bar drinking and drinking and drinking, and then staggering out to the car dropping his car keys oh yeah, you know you know, getting in the car the dramatization the camera moving around and showing him all sorby and everything. And then he hits a woman who was already dead and they tossed her out of a car. But he would never know because he was fucking drunk.
Speaker 3:So he got him out of the accusation of killing the woman.
Megan:Yeah, but then did he get arrested for drunk driving. No, no, it was fine, he's totally fine, that was fine, but that was killing the woman who was already dead was the problem, but not the drinking. The drinking was.
Speaker 3:I remember being in a truck with my father with a can of beer, Like you know. That was just like a thing which makes me think of something that you put on the list, which was littering, Because I'm also remembering tossing beer cans out of the vehicle.
Megan:Yeah, the 70s were I don't know. People just didn't have trash cans or what, but it was a problem where it was trash, everywhere, everywhere, and if you look at like old photos of.
Megan:Well, if you look at old photos of like la from the 70s, before the epa, rip epa uh, before the epa like put all of their uh air um like policies in place right, yes, it is hazy and gross and terrible. And then, like you can actually see a a timeline as it gets, as the epa puts those uh things in place and the air gets better and cleaner. I mean, we still littered like motherfuckers but uh, but yeah, look at that, the smog the smog but that's all like because of how shitty we were with.
Megan:You know, our environmental protections, uh-huh anyway, which protect us. People threw shit out of their cars everywhere. I rage about it now to the point where we had to have an uh, a rule, a commercial. Yes, do you remember the oh, the and I'm using quotation fingers the native american with the tear?
Speaker 3:yes, yeah, yeah, quotation fingers the keep america beautiful guy. I do remember that campaign. Why do you? Why quotation figures?
Megan:because he was a native american. No, no, he was italian. What the fuck? Yeah, he was totally his name, and again, quotation figures was ironized, cody, but it wasn't really his name. Uh, and he was not a native american, he was italian italians are important too yes, but cultural appropriation, cultural appropriation for commercials is also a thing.
Speaker 3:Also not a great thing about the 70s and 80s. Oh yeah, Cultural appropriation and the 90s and the early 2000s.
Megan:I may have mentioned this on this podcast before, but I watched an episode of Bonanza. Did not age well, by the way.
Speaker 3:No, no, no.
Megan:With Ricardo Montalban playing a native american. It was real bad. No, I was like wait a minute, that's khan.
Speaker 3:Yes, he also that's mr rourke had rich corinthian leather and khan and fantasy island, that's right two of he's not an indian favorite places, not a native american absolutely not there he is they sure painted him up, look at that. And he was white as fuck. I mean, when you see him on the rathacon, he's a fair man yeah, they, they colorized him oh, cultural appropriation there was a lot of that in the 70s and 80s.
Speaker 3:We have lots of things on our. I don't think we're going to get to all of the not so great things um, but there we have lots of things that were not so great. But you also kind of put a couple questions out into the gen x. Women are sick of this shit group. I did.
Megan:I did. I'm going to let me roll through just a couple more here, real quick.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, for sure.
Megan:So television channels we had a limited number of television channels right yes. So here in. Indie, we had Channel 13, Channel 8, Channel 6,.
Speaker 3:Channel 4, which came later. I feel like Channel 4 was always around.
Megan:We're four was always around. We're making shit up. We're making shit up. This is where we sound smart. Which were the other channel, were the other dial, 20 and 40.
Speaker 3:40 felt like am radio. I think it was sort of religious. I don't really totally understand daniel tiger up in there, yeah I remember that I mean, was that where cowboy bob was too? And like I think so, and Janie, yes, I think that's right. I think that's right. The only story I remember about Janie is that she drank a lot.
Megan:This is when I turn to Tim and I say, Tim, what the dials? It was UHS and U or UF. Are we going to step down.
Lesley:It was. Uhf and VHF.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, what does that mean? What do those letters mean? I'm so curious.
Megan:They were the two different dials that we had. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know you're going to tell me something and I'm going to be like Two different bands. I'm going to say they were two bands.
Megan:I love this.
Speaker 3:Tell me all about it. I'm going to say they were two band. Like I love this. Tell me all about it, just like AM and.
Megan:FM radio? Yes, is that?
Speaker 3:what it was, but on the TV Ultra high frequency 62.4%.
Megan:Sure I'm, right.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'll take that math. And then it was UVF. And then wasn't there a Weird Al?
Megan:show.
Speaker 3:Weird Al did a project that is based on one of these things. Yeah, UHF, I think.
Megan:There we go. Okay, sweet, that's real, it exists. Yeah, you didn't make that up, that was 1989. I did not.
Speaker 3:Proud. That was just like we're going to go left and then right and then left and then a quick sort of like whip. All things come back to Weird Al. It's okay, Do you think? I think so. This is like a six degrees of separation.
Megan:Everything comes back to.
Lesley:Weird Al, okay, okay.
Megan:So TV channels pre-cable we just had a few TV channels.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Megan:And while maybe less is more and that would be not a bad thing.
Speaker 3:The the picture quality was terrible truth, antennas, trying to like dial it in although it did make you feel like you could do something, you were like, actually like you could turn it.
Megan:I can make this better. This happen.
Speaker 3:I can put some aluminum foil on here and it'll make it better you could like run a long cable and put it out on your porch if you need, and I'm gonna make this better.
Megan:I'm gonna be able to watch this show in black and white on a 12 inch television ma'am yes, so the quality was poor.
Speaker 3:If you missed it, you missed it. It was just over. Yep, you couldn't re-watch it. There was no binge watching, you know, there was just which. There's also some good sides to that, all of that. Sure, just less tv for us to consume, um, but I do remember that. And you couldn't get all stations everywhere. No, in the city.
Megan:We were kind of out yeah out in the country.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you were probably very lucky to get. Oh, I think we had three or four. The most important one was the one that had star trek on it I don't really care about anything else and the bloodhhound Gang 321.
Megan:Contact, I probably just watched Channel 20, honestly. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 3:I don't think Star Trek was on Channel 20.
Megan:That's how we learned about Sesame Street and all that.
Speaker 3:Mr Rogers the Electric.
Megan:Company. All the good stuff Scared me and then we had. Later we had our Fox station came on sometime in the 80s Do you remember when that came on?
Speaker 3:Do you remember the tagline?
Megan:I don't.
Lesley:I will never forget it.
Speaker 3:Okay, it was Indianapolis P-D-S. Uh-huh, because it was I-N-D-P-L-S is like how we write Indianapolis.
Lesley:It's how we shorten it.
Speaker 3:So it was like Indianapolis, like they were trying to make it funny, trying to be cute uh-huh, uh-huh, and I remember that that worked out for you fox, clearly I'm 52 and I remember I mean I guess it worked, but it was in fox 59, but it was just 59 I don't know what it was, channel 11 originally okay, that's right indiana, there we go uh, another thing that I personally viscerally and this is how I realized that I'm probably a little neuro spicy.
Megan:Do you remember the pajamas that we used to have? That was the fire retardant material that was really rough and felt. Yes that was really rough and felt, yes, I hated those so much like fun, fun pajamas, and they would get caught on like cuticles.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah, oh my gosh, I remember that that was a real problem for me. So that was a real problem.
Megan:That was the 70s and early 80s for me in those fucking pajamas. The next thing my brain went to was the fact that and early 80s for me in those fucking pajamas. The next thing my brain went to was the fact that I'm I didn't sleep naked. I should have just stripped off my clothes right.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's why so many of us were like clothing resistant. As children, we're like this feels bad. This feels bad. How did they figure out that we would catch on fire?
Megan:is was it really that big of a problem? That's what I want to know.
Speaker 3:Like who was patient zero in this that led to children immolating fire, retardant pajamas. Sadly, I'm sure something really happened like I don't, I don't want to like, probably say cruel, unkind things because someone probably had children harmed, but was it?
Megan:a. Was it a solution in search of a problem like truly?
Lesley:like who knows how many children?
Megan:really fair question. We didn't have car seats, if you recall. I feel like that was a bigger problem than children bursting into flames probably so.
Speaker 3:I mean valid, valid point. But to all those children who did yes, I'm sorry the necessity of that RIP, rip.
Megan:Dial up internet, but that was much later. That was in the 90s, we can talk about that later.
Speaker 3:Oh, there was one other thing in the media world. You brought up just the yellow pages and phone books in general and I remembered specifically like okay, we just had a house phone with a long extension cord. So, there was no fucking privacy and if you wanted to call for somebody from school, like your friend Annie, you had to know Annie's dad's name.
Speaker 3:For the most part, If you had a traditional, whatever traditional, be able to find traditional, whatever traditional. If there was a man in your house, that man was the only one who had their name on all the fucking utilities in the mortgage and the bank account, honestly, yeah, uh, well into the 70s. And so you would have to know and do you know how many fucking like joe wilson's there are? So then you'd have to know, like their middle initial right their address where they sort of lived.
Megan:Yeah.
Speaker 3:To be able to track people down. Now, sometimes it was super progressive and both the male and female spouse would be listed. Yeah, if maybe, but then you had to know a parent's name, right, if you could pay for it I do remember this you could have your children's names listed, really, but you had to pay for the extra lines in the phone book. Oh, I didn't know that I had a friend in high school and the children's names were listed in their private phone line.
Megan:They were rich. Oh, they had a private phone line In my brain. They were rich.
Speaker 3:I'm sure like comparatively it was probably like $5.
Megan:However, nobody else yeah, but that's $5. That yeah. However, nobody else yeah, but that's $5 that most people didn't have, but you could pay for extra lines to get different people listed. Well, and I guess if you were a parent who was like Jesus, these kids are on the phone all the time. Just make sure you're on fucking line, yeah for sure.
Speaker 3:I mean, if I'd had that absolutely, I did not experience that. No same, Neither. There we go.
Megan:So things, other things, that in looking at the Facebook group, some things that people had mentioned Not being believed when reporting abuse Yep, absolutely that 100% Like, did not?
Speaker 3:Nope, you probably deserved it. Yep, what were you wearing? If you weren't behaving, it's your fault, you should probably just keep your legs closed.
Megan:Stranger danger yes, that whole like fear of God being put into you because somebody was going to pull up in the white van and offer candy and snatch you.
Speaker 3:Right, and it was always a stranger. Always we weren't educated about the fact that most abuse happens in family. Of course not.
Megan:No, no, no we don't want to talk about that. No, not at all. It's strangers. Uh, so that was, that was one. Um. Somebody says, uh, one name says so much wrong was wrong about the 80s, ronald reagan. Yep, so we did kind of already talk about economics.
Speaker 3:Down like the mimics. Just 80s is the me generation.
Megan:Yep uh careless attitude of being bullied oh gosh, yes, boys bullying girls it was only because they liked you.
Speaker 3:Just ignore it.
Megan:Yeah, he pulls your pigtails, because he thinks you're cute, uh-huh if you weren't bothered by it, it wouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 3:They would stop doing it. So they're not gonna intervene on your behalf yep yeah I mean when it's part of, like school practice, bullying and shaming. Why would kids do it any differently?
Megan:yep yep, so we talked about, uh, cultural appropriation, but uh other things that were casually tossed around, like different slurs about gay people and, oh yeah, all the homophobia, all the timeogyny racism. Part of that was due to the AIDS crisis, right which? Again thanks, Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 3:Yes, Things that sucked about the 80s the AIDS crisis was a massive one, massive.
Megan:Yeah, Some, you know some folks said some things like tangled cassette tapes, oh yeah. Or waiting patiently for your radio station to actually play the song that you wanted to tape.
Speaker 3:Yes, these were minor inconveniences that still sucked.
Megan:Yeah, but if you look back on it you're like God, that wasn't that great.
Speaker 3:You spent a lot of time.
Megan:I can open Spotify and listen to any song I want to right now, whenever you would like, even Eddie Grant, because now he's actually on Spotify and he wasn't. So if you want to rock down to Electric Avenue, you can do that and take it higher. Yes, gosh, I mean, there's so much.
Speaker 3:So so much, oh, we talked about this. Oh yeah, we were talking about wounds.
Megan:So if you fell down and you scraped your knees, what?
Speaker 3:color goo. Did you get put on your knees and did it sting like a motherfucker? That shit was red.
Megan:Yes, and it hurt, it made me scream. What?
Lesley:was it called Mercurochrome.
Speaker 3:Mercurochrome we were like crossing that with iodide.
Megan:Which I feel like it was iodine, but it was definitely mercurochrome.
Speaker 3:Okay, and it was evil. I remember my grandma, my dad's side of the family. I associate the pain of that with her. Now she was not a kind woman, so there could be just some other associations. And I feel like it was brief because Bactine came out later, I mean. But in that era, yeah, and I said oh, that shit hurt. And you were like no, it didn't, bactine was not painful In my brain If my daughter is listening to this.
Megan:She would say it is painful. It is painful and that I'm full of shit yes, because I would put it on her and she'd be that doesn't hurt you and I'd say things like at least it's not the orange shit that I had to wear. Uh-huh, and she's like what?
Speaker 3:do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about?
Megan:um, oh hey, we talked about in when we were, before we started recording.
Speaker 3:We talked about cults oh, fuck yeah 70s and 80s were big on cults yes, I mean, I don't know that it's a lot different. It's just a lot more expensive to belong to them nowadays.
Megan:Right, right, well however, they had a lot more secrecy, then and and like people like jim jones and stuff doing like really crazy, weird shit. Yep, absolutely and the guy that tried to kill Gerald Ford.
Speaker 3:Wasn't a cult. Yeah, was a cult in and of himself Was a cult.
Megan:Squeaky fromy Fromy, squeaky fromy your brain is magnificent Dude, not really.
Speaker 3:I'm wearing it. It's like it's the things that get pulled up.
Megan:I'm like, yeah, believe, every once in a while, but most of the time it's it's because I ate too much blood, paint that's amazing.
Speaker 3:I love that. Uh, oh, I know you mentioned in the group people. Somebody mentioned crappy sex ed just like oh no, sex education.
Megan:Yeah, we didn't really have that. I'm not sure it's any better, is it better?
Speaker 3:uh, I don't know. I mean, obviously I'm 52, it's been a minute, since I've been in elementary school. I think at one point it was improving. I don't know what the state of it is right now, like in this moment. Plus, there's also just like more access to resources yeah, for, it's true, adolescents. So there are some pretty good websites that you can use, and I think the access for parental education is better. I bought my daughter a book.
Megan:What was it called A squeaky fromy? I think it was. See, that's all I have. I think it was like what's happening to my body or something like that.
Lesley:There was a girl's version, did they write one?
Megan:of those for menopause? I know they should, what's happening to my body? But I there's a girl version and a boy version because she was asking me some questions and I was like, look, I'm happy to talk to you about it. But also, you are a big time reader, yes, and you absorb things better by reading. So she, yeah, she really liked it, do you?
Speaker 3:remember this book.
Megan:Where did I come from?
Speaker 3:It's adorable. I do remember this book. I don't have a copy of it. If I did I would be so happy and somehow I remember we should just do a whole episode on just like sex out of the 80s, because there's some other books that are popping up, which is just like okay, how did you come to like our bodies ourselves? Yes, yes, that was a big one. Uh, yeah, that this would actually be kind of a great conversation to have separately.
Speaker 3:It would be kind of interesting to get someone who was like who's the sex educator? Who we kind of talk about, like absolutely the evolution, but I, I do remember, oh god, and I remember this book. Too free to be you and me. Okay, yeah, this is yeah. We'll just pick this up later because this could go on for another hour, but I do remember that that's so so shitty sex education minimal to none.
Megan:Basically, yeah, we didn't really have a whole lot of that shit going on. Uh yeah, I mean, this list is extensive. We could go on and on and on about all of the just all the things that we oh yeah, we make the past seem so shiny and uh happy, and I think it's smart and healthy for us to look back maybe a little.
Speaker 3:Take those rose-colored glasses off and have a look and go. You know, it doesn't help to idealize. We've got to acknowledge the hard stuff, yeah, and pay attention to it, Otherwise we'll end up back there. My my, what do you mean? I think you know what I mean. You have been listening to Gen X. Women Are Sick of this Shit. Hey Megan, hey Leslie. What do people do if they want to find us?
Megan:Well, we have a website that people can find us on, and that is genxwomenpodcom. We also have a Facebook page. We have an Instagram account as well. We have a YouTube account where we put YouTube shorts and other little tidbits up there. We have a TikTok account. I don't talk the dick or TikTok. You don't TikTok. I barely talk the dick, but I did put a TikTok up. We're explaining the internet to people.
Speaker 3:That's okay, though it's great. We need to know how the internet works can people buy merch.
Megan:They absolutely can. We have a merch store on the website itself, and we also have an etsy store too, so they're just pretty easy to find you.
Speaker 3:It's just gen x women on etsy and if you are listening to this podcast, presumably you found it somewhere. And while you're there, give us a review, let us know what you think.
Megan:Throw some stars at us, That'd be great. We'll take one, two, three, four or five, Ooh five. And also make sure that you are hitting subscribe so that you're notified whenever a new episode drops.
Lesley:Most important.
Megan:We also have a five minutes of fame that I think we should tell people about too.
Speaker 3:Hell, yes, we want to know your stories, your five minutes of fame stories. You can send those stories in on the website or you can call 1-888-GEN-X-POD and leave your story for us and we will play it live in our next episode. Yep.
Megan:We'll listen to it on a little red phone, just like Batman. That'd be cool.
Speaker 3:Let's get a bat phone, a bat phone. I think that's it. I think you're right.
