Here’s a round-up of some of the best Generation X blog and micro-blog posts I’ve come across in recent days. I’ve interspersed them with some great vintage summer camp pictures I found here and there. Enjoy!
1970s Summer
10 Ways To Give Your Kid A 1970s Kind of Summer from super famous blogger Scary Mommy. This is a very fun look back on what it meant to be a Gen-Xer during the 1970s. I don’t know how you spent your summers, but I spent mine watching TV all day long. At some point, I jumped on my bike and headed to the city pool. At some point I came home, probably around the time Love Boat was coming on TV. Today, my own children are mired in “planned activities” and play dates. They hear me say things like, “Get off the iPad or your brain will turn to mush!”
Cold War Nostalgia
Cold War Kids is a post on a blog called 99% Invisible. It’s actually “a tiny radio show about design, architecture the 99 percent of invisible activity that shapes our world.” The post highlights a New Mexico public school that was constructed below ground during the Cold War. It is utterly fascinating so hop over and have a peek. The facility included decontamination showers. (Hat tip to “Laura S. for the link.)
UNASSIGNED READING: JenX posts tagged Cold War.
A Journalist’s Toy Printer Press
This is so very cool. My friend Steve Lackmeyer who is a prolific news journalist, blogger and author, tweeted a picture of his toy printer press and first news story! I’m half way between in love with these tweets and jealous this novelty belongs to him and not me.
This was my toy printing press – I was 10 years old when I got it: pic.twitter.com/zN7vFVvuM8
— Steve’s OKC Central (@stevelackmeyer) July 3, 2014
My very first news story – December, 1976 from a treasured toy printing press. pic.twitter.com/DYmauIgtmK — Steve’s OKC Central (@stevelackmeyer) July 3, 2014
Midlife Mixtape
Today, on Midlife Mixtape, Nancy Davis Kho writes about being a kid during our nation’s Bicentennial. I lived through the exact same experience Nancy had — the bonnets, the long dresses, the singing “You’re A Grand Old Flag” in the school choir. She ends this post with Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball. I’m thinking a lot about this song right now because nobody could save this treasure.
Jenny From the Blog
I’ve been following Jenny From the Blog for quite awhile now. Check out her fun summertime post, Gen-Xers – You Probably Went To Summer Camp If …
Misadventures With Andi
I always like to give a shout-out to the most fantabulous blogger I’ll ever know Misadventures With Andi. If you want a travel blog from a Gen-Xer who has been all over the world look no further. Andi is a very successful blogger for reason. Her site is full of great posts about France, San Francisco, Japan and most recently Hawaii. There are great photos and interviews, too. Please visit her site and add her to your Feedly.
Friar’s Fires
I’ve been reading this Oklahoma pastor’s blog forever. He always has a bunch of great, short posts to read. This one about dinosaurs was particularly entertaining. Rawr.
Mari and Marisa
Mari and Marisa, two of my Oklahoma blogging friends, have started a linky called the Mix Tape Shuffle. They invite you to link up your summertime party favorites. You can create your own virtual mixtape for at any one of these sites.. I’m throwing a big party this weekend for my daughter Bridgy who just turned 7! I made sure this summertime mixtape is kid-proof. Enjoy!
Bonus: Oklahoma 1939
This picture was taken in June 1939 by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration | Camp of migrant workers near Prague in Lincoln County, Oklahoma.
Thank you so much for sharing my piece, Jen – I appreciate it! And am relieved I was not the only one who spent all of ’76 dressed like Martha Washington. I had an actual *wardrobe* of “old-fashioned” clothes, so numerous were my patriotic dress up opportunities. You?
Hope you have a happy 4th!
Thank you very much, but now I’m going to have to junk my four-part series “Why I Won’t Miss the Stage Center and Why the Gold Dome Should Be Next.”