Let me sing you the song of my people:

Boop beap boop boop krssssh GANG GANG GAN ssssSSS sssSSS sssSSS ieeee chchchCHCHCHCHCH SHSHSH

Badger badger badger badger badger badger Badger badger badger badger badger badger Mushroom mushroom

I remember watching the Berlin Wall coming down on the news. I don’t remember the Challenger explosion (edit: though I was alive for it, to be clear). I was out on my own during 9/11, worried as hell about being drafted. Whether or not I am gen-x depends upon which of the dates for its end you choose.

When we were kids the telephone man gave us the secret code you could use to make the phone booth phones call themselves to test the ringer. Loads of fun. I used to wake up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons. I know how to use the yellow pages, and I used to be the kid who would help you plug in and program all the old people’s tv and vcr and cable boxes. Most of the neighborhood kids had to be on by the time that one streetlight came on at dusk, but I was allowed to stay out later but usually went home too because it was boring after everyone else went home. We used to play tag football in the middle of the street and I was the wide receiver because I was the third or fourth oldest and the oldest two were always the quarterbacks. We used to all hang out at little jimmys house who was 8 or 10 years old because he had Mike Tyson’s punch out on NES. If one of our parents needed cigarettes we could walk up to buy them as long as we had a note from our mom.

I was alive at the time of the first moon landing, but too young to care about it.

Pokemon Red was an amazing part of my childhood

I remember playing games on channel 3

I was born in 1983

My birth year is the same as the title of a dystopian future novel by George Orwell.

I saw the original Star Wars in theaters.

I don’t know if I’m a millennial or generation x

I wondered if the Turbo button on the computer really did anything.

I have the touch. I have the power.

LOAD “*” ,8,1

My first coding class was Cobol and we used punch-cards.

(Side story, nothing strikes a feeling of dread more than the sound of cards being shuffled behind you.)