34 Gen X Memes for 80's Kids Raised on Hose Water (May 23, 2024)

Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor

May 23, 2024 2:00 PM EDT

Kids these days will never understand the frustration of the rotary phone. Not only did it take you 4 full minutes to dial a phone number (especially if there were a lot of 8s and 9s in the number), but you were landlocked to that specific spot in your home for the entire duration of the call! No wandering around the house, no private calls in your room, and certainly no secret text messages. All of your gossiping was public and you could never take a call outside the home.

So the next time your kids complain about your unlimited cellular plan or if they're ever whining about their social media pages, just remind them that they could have lived in our time, the time of Gen X, where the landline was both an anchor to the house but a refreshing sense of freedom as soon as you left home–for we were the unreachable generation and the last generation that was truly free.