The year is 1980. Your TV is the size of a washing machine, your jeans are aggressively acid-washed, and the only way to find your friends is by biking to every house in the neighborhood. Your mom just kicked you outside with a “Don’t come back until dinner,” and you won’t—because there are forts to build, sprinkler runs to make, and absolutely no adults supervising anything. Life is good.
Gen X grew up in the last golden era of untracked childhoods, where latchkey kids ruled the land, phone calls were a commitment, and blowing into a Nintendo cartridge was a highly respected technical skill. We survived metal playground slides in the dead of summer, the existential terror of fast-forwarding a VHS too far, and parents who thought a seatbelt was “just a suggestion.” If any of this sounds familiar, these memes will hit you right in the nostalgia.