The generational boundaries are somewhat arbitrary. They were put there by a man who just happened to be the guy who got that particular assignment. In a factory downtown that produces nothing but information for immediate consumption, I’m sure the generational gaps can seem more severe.

If I had my little way, I’d want people to understand it was much more of a spectrum (it still is); we lived in roughly the same world as the kids five grades above us had lived in at our age. I’d eat peaches every day in the lunchroom and didn’t have to defend them because I was sitting with kids two grades above me. And when I met alums from the school who had graduated they seemed like full-on adults, but they were the same culture as me. Didn’t seem like a different generation.

I lived in the country in the 90s, going to a little school. I ran track, and I remember sitting around with the girls waiting for various events, just sun soaking, or sitting on root bulges in the shade, lazing around. No cell phones, forced to socialize though I was terrified of it.

Growing up was roughly the same for us as the kids 5 years ahead of us. Except we were The Class of 2000, and had been raised to subtly believe we were the pioneers of a new civilization based on avoiding endlessly-growing-landfill apocalypse and acid rain.

I dreamed about you, woman