An apostrophe and an S can completely change a question, transforming it from insult to inspiration.

I've been making my way through Tammy Erickson's book, What's Next Gen X?, which came out in December. I'm really enjoying it, but, I'm not very good at writing book reviews. It's an exercise that reminds me of writing book reports when I was a kid. My summaries were either too long or too short. I either provided too much reaction or not enough.

Once, in college, I wrote a book report for Darkness at Noon. I hadn't even read the book. My friend, Debbie, who was in my class, read it and told me about it. I made an A on my report and she made a B. (She reminds me of this nearly every time I see her.) (Hi Deb.)

A couple years later, I wrote a report on a piece of holocaust literature. I labored over the summary, tightly crafting all the highlights. I loved that book, For Those I Loved. But, when the professor, a Jewish Rabbi, gave it back to me, he'd awarded me a big, fat B MINUS. At the top he wrote, "What about the author's will to survive?"

Oh, yeah. That.

Basically, I stink at book reviews. So, instead of writing one big summary or reaction to Erickson's book, I thought I would just spend the next few days (weeks? months?) responding to things in the book that strike me most. Suffice to say, it is a great book. I'm not sure she intends to invoke deep emotion in her readers, but still, you might cry or get mad or laugh or feel astounding pride over the things she writes about Generation X.

The first chapter deals with things that shaped us. All the usual suspects are featured - everything from the Cold War to latchkey kids. One of the things she briefly discusses is the rash of movies featuring "unwanted, unlikable, or simply horrifying children," which were popular during the Gen X childhood. She reveals that the percentage of G-rated films went from 41 to 13 percent of all movies during the 70s and 80s, and that for the first time cartoonists at Disney were laid off.

Below is a clip from the Disney movie, Song of the South, which was released in 1946. This is my earliest movie memory, one that has stuck with me through nearly four decades. The production is considered racially insensitive to African Americans, and as such, has never been released by Disney in its entirety. That may be true, but I could not have come away from that movie with more affection for Uncle Remus. I think I've been looking for him my whole life. And, I loved the blue birds and the song, Zip A Dee Doo Dah. Each time I've returned to this memory over the years, I've paid a visit to an innocent little girl I never knew very well or very long.

As Erickson says, Gen Xers grew up very fast. While she makes a concerted effort to not stereotype or over generalize the Generation X experience, she points out that Gen Xers were exposed to adult issues while we were still chronologically children. She later says this has helped shape our commitment to be excellent parents.

Over the past year, I've been diagramming the paradox of my childhood. I grew up in a household where my parents never cussed, smoked or drank. They didn't let me watch Speed Racer or TV shows for which parental discretion was advised. They took me to church every Sunday. I got the message. It stuck.

But, despite their efforts to keep me innocent, I was still exposed to way too much. They had no awareness of the leaking underground storage tanks in my childhood, and I am fierce about not blaming them for things that sometimes polluted my childhood experience. They sheltered me, and still, at critical junctures, like so many Xers, I lacked sufficient shelter.

Most Saturdays, I post a clip of a Saturday morning cartoon from the 60s or 70s. These walks down memory lane are entertaining. Sometimes they even help me reconstruct the past, much of which I've forgotten in the ensuing years of term papers, pregnancies and promotions. As Erickson writes, Gen Xers share a chronological location in history along with the experiences that accompany it. "These common experiences, in turn, prompt the formation of shared beliefs and behaviors."