Welcome to the Unauthorized Autobiography of Generation X.
I’ve been writing about Generation X since 2007. Where’ve you been this whole time? It’s 2026. If you were born between 1961 and 1981, you’re a Gen-Xer and you’re in the right place. 🌞
Card Catalog Art by Winged World
Generation X Stories, News, and Perspectives
Rainbows, Secrets, and Kaleidoscope: The Readers That Shaped Generation X
In the early 1970s a new set of classroom books arrived in American elementary schools. The covers were bold and modern and the titles moved with excitement: Rainbows, Secrets, Kaleidoscope, Images, Galaxies. They replaced the repetitive “See Spot run” readers that...
Beaten Generation Revisited: Matt Johnson, the Voice of a Disillusioned Age
The Beat(en) Generation by The The (1989) When the English rock band The The released The Beat(en) Generation in the summer of 1989, it was a call-to-arms disguised as a pop single. Matt Johnson (b. 1961), the band’s restless frontman, wasn’t singing about the 1950s...
Wayback Wednesday: Bright-Eyed Amy at Griffith Park, 1969
There’s something so timeless about the way children meet the world, wide-eyed, curious, and unafraid. These photos from 1969 capture “Bright-Eyed Amy” at the Griffith Park Zoo in Los Angeles, chatting with a goose and later riding a pony with the confidence of a tiny...
The Babysitters Club Musical Brings Gen X Nostalgia to the Stage
Source: Have A Polly Day on EtsyMedia Monday Media Monday is about revisiting stories that shaped us, and The Babysitters Club Musical delivers that rare gift: something that’s both new and comfortingly familiar. Media Monday: Babysitters Club Musical When The...
Throwback Thursday: Lisa’s 4th Birthday (1974)
Lisa’s 4th birthday in 1974 was captured in two simple photographs that still feel extraordinary nearly 50 years later. Lisa is at the table, behind a small cake glowing with candles. She holds her doll, a Baby That-A-Way, close as if to share the moment. The light of...
In Remembrance: The 35th Anniversary of Desert Shield
Michelle Carey of Midwest City goes through the final paperwork as her Army National Guard unit prepares to participate in Operation Desert Shield.Argo, Jim. [Photograph 2012.201.B0124.0308], photograph, September 20, 1990;...
Catholics vs. Convicts: How Gen X Shaped College Football’s Fiercest Rivalry
Catholics vs Convicts Classic Saturday Kickoff Special After I watched America’s Team: The Dallas Cowboys on Netflix and loved it, my husband Robert, the unofficial Gen X sports historian, suggested I watch Catholics vs. Convicts. The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary takes...
Why Alex Prager’s Art Feels Like Our Memories
Why Alex Prager’s Art Feels Like Our MemoriesThe first time I saw photographer Alex Prager’s work, it felt a bit like stumbling across an old picture of an ancestor in a shoebox. Kind of familiar, but unsettling. Beautiful but also a little wrong. Her images have the...
A little bit about me.
Bold Suggestion: Skip this boring part and click on one of the above posts.
In addition to being Jennifer bo-, I’m Robert’s wife and Juliette, Sullivan and Bridgette’s Mother. Also, Willow’s Nanny-Boo, and a Peaceful Convert to Catholicism. Professionally, I’m a public relations practitioner and nonprofit director. I’ve been blogging about Generation X for 18 years. I can’t believe I haven’t run out of things to say.
I was born in East Los Angeles in the late 1960s and lived in the San Gabriel Valley until 1974. By the age of 17, I’d lived in six different states, attended 11 different schools and lived in 16 different houses. I was a total latchkey kid. In the fall of 1985, one month before my 18th birthday, I settled in Oklahoma City for college and I’ve been here ever since.
I started looking for signs of my generation in 1990, the year I spent my last 10 bucks on a 20th Anniversary Earth Day T-shirt. In 1992, I read Coupland’s book, Generation X. I didn’t love it, but the terms McJobs and McMansions resonated with me.
In 2007, troubled by the workplace, I started reading everything I could find about Gen X. I’d already been blogging since 1999, but that year I shifted my focus to writing about Generation X. And here I am, all these years later, ultimately documenting our life and times.
Things I Love
I love so many things, like houses, farms, and open fields. Long road trips with my dogs and praying the Rosary. Writing is my favorite pastime along with reading and collecting old photographs. I love taking pictures, especially of everyday life here in Oklahoma, America’s Heartland.
I also love hot coffee — the kind you make at home and pour into an old thermos — and the joy of stumbling upon a poem worth sharing. Sometimes, I go to the flea market. One time, I found a 1919 scrapbook from the Lost Generation, nomads, just like Gen X. I couldn’t believe it. Maybe the scrapbook found me? Finally, I love caring for my family. It’s my very favorite thing in the world.
Finally, thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll stay awhile.
Remember when Gen X was drafted into the Revolutionary War? In July 2026, we’ll celebrate the Semiquincentennial, America250. It’s a great time for Gen X, the Bicentennial Generation, to revisit that that unforgettable summer! Read: How 1976 Shaped A Generation of School Kids.
Hey, Ben.











