Ugly Shocks

[omorka]

Holy crap.

Someone posted a secret on fandomsecrets that used, as the background picture, the smoke trail from the Challenger disaster.

1) I haven't seen that set of plumes in, gods, over a decade, probably, and I still recognized it instantly. I've maintained for a while that that's how you know if you're a GenXer or not - if you remember Challenger but not JFK's assassination, you're GenX. But I hadn't realized how deep it was hardwired, at least for me.

2) About the same time the cortex was going "oh, my gods, that's . . . ," my heart rate doubled and my face went completely red. I don't get triggered hard by images in general, but that one's still got power. And that was before I started to get angry at them for picking that image.

In conclusion, some people are dicks. (And it wasn't even an interesting secret.)

Comments

[scarfman]

I'm fifty years old and don't remember Kennedy. Am I still a GenXer?

[omorka.livejournal.com]

8-/ How did you manage that?

[scarfman]

Well, I was three. (Going on four.) My wife is eighteen months older than I am and only remembers her cartoons weren't on.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- Kennedy is the second major political event of which I have any memory. (The first is going from a 49-star flag to a 50-star one when Hawai'i became a state, and I only noticed that on the Fourth of July.) I was seven, and I think that's close to the lower limit for memories of that sort.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

I know several people who were born in '59 or '60 for whom that's not only their first political memory, that's their first clear memory, period. :-/

I suppose whether one's parents let one watch the news or not might have had an effect, too.

[kamiki-seto.livejournal.com]

I was six months old when Kennedy was shot. I don't remember it (of course), but I would never, ever call myself a GenXer; I consider myself a late Boomer. There's a lot of disagreement and no meaningful consensus on just where 'Boomer' ends and 'GenX' begins so far as birth years anyhow.

My high school class was the last of the super-large classes for a long time in the district I grew up in; classes behind me saw about five grade schools and one junior high school in our district closed and sold because of drastically shrinking enrollment. (I attended the same grade school and Jr. High. One of my brothers went to two different grade schools because of the redistribution in the district. The other went to three! There was a very clear drop off in class size right after my year, and all other factors in the district remained equal.)

This mirrors what I've heard from other folks with my birth year, so I'll stick with the Boomer label, despite not remembering JFK.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Strauss & Howe put the break between the Boom and what they call Gen13 (which I actually prefer to the GenX moniker, but no one except other fans of Strauss & Howe know what I mean when I use it) across the '60-'61 years. That mostly matches my observations of people in that age group.

My observation of the Gen13/Millennial break at '80-'81 is that there are a few 13ers on the '81 side and a few Millennials on the '80 side. On the other hand, I have a pair of friends who nicely straddle that divide (Jan. '80 and July '81) who have traits of both groups, but are definitely a 13er with Millennial traits and a Millennial with 13er traits.

On the gripping hand, my parents both have Boomer birthyears, and while my father clearly is one, my mother acts more like a G.I. Gen'er. In turn, her parents act(ed) more like members of the Idealist generation before them, and I in my own turn have Idealist tendencies of my own; I'm this awful half-and-half thing, even though I identify quite strongly as a 13er. So one's parents being out of their own generational constellation might well affect what side of a divide one picks.

[kamiki-seto.livejournal.com]

There are multiple different groups/experts who define 'baby boomer' differently, either from a sociological or from a population-based standpoint. The US Census Bureau, for the latter, defines 'the boom' as ending in 1964, as did Landon Jones. Strauss and Howe put the break point a few years earlier. It's pretty clear that there's a shift going on between 61-64. One researcher's 'late boomer' is another's 'early Xer'. I guess it all depends upon one's point of view...(I sound so Obi-Wan Kenobish....)

As an analytical/INTJ type I tend to drift with the definition that involves numbers - it's my nature. But there is more to it than that, certainly. And now you've got me going I'm going to go even more INTJ and start reading everything I can find on the subject, because that's what I do. (You should see my collections of books on both Tudor history and the U.S. Atomic Program. It's scary.)

It's fascinating stuff, definitely!

[awbryan.livejournal.com]

I have a pair of friends who nicely straddle that divide (Jan. '80 and July '81) who have traits of both groups, but are definitely a 13er with Millennial traits and a Millennial with 13er traits.

I've never been able to figure out which of those I am. I'm Feb '81, and Challenger is my first sharp and clear memory (I have vague remembrances of the '84 NOLA World's Fair, and some small details of '85, but 28 January 1986 is the first memory I can put a date to). But I wasn't even *five*, and I wouldn't have known what it was except I was already an astro-geek even then. (I blame the World's Fair, again, where I saw the Shuttle Enterprise.)

Then I spent half my childhood with Millies and half with 13ers. See why I might be a bit confused?

(My parents, despite being close to the edge, are trailing-edge Silents. They have consistently thought the Boomers just under them are crazy.)

[dbzmerciter2005.livejournal.com]

I'm Def a Gen Yer (I think I'm a Y). If I was alive for Challenger (I was born in June of '87) then I certainly don't remember it. I was a freshman in high school for 9/11, and... that's about it. Oh I was in grade school for OJ, third grade actually.

And yeah, that secret wasn't all that interesting. Even I recognized that was the challenger. If they're gonna pick that picture, make it more compelling.

[moontyger.livejournal.com]

I went to see the secret in question and, maybe it's just my monitor, but I couldn't even read the text on it. I'm definitely not impressed with their choice - seriously, what are they trying to say by choosing that image?

ugh.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

I read the comment thread about that one, and... the people giving other folks crap for being disturbed by the image need to get the fuck over themselves. At least the OP had the grace to apologize.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, where do I fit in your little set of generational boxes? By birth I'm unmistakably a Boomer -- but I mostly hang out with people 15-20 years younger than I am, and *I* can sure tell that this has changed me enough to be out of step with most of my putative cohort.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid you strike me as a Boomer through and through. It would never have occurred to me to think of you as generationally out-of-step at all. The only major trait that seems more 13er than Boomer about you, to me, is your overall positive attitude towards technology, and there are enough pro-tech Boomers out there that it's not that unusual.

[ghostdogmeta.livejournal.com]

M was presented with a slightly different take on the Gen X division.

The Boomer is a Company Man.
The Gen X stays as long as there's bonuses coming in.
The Millenial (sp? foo) is satisfied with a gold star and those certificates of participation.

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, I was warned, but I finally let my curiosity get the better of me. I'm glad that I was warned, because I don't know how I would have reacted otherwise. I can see where this image would be a trigger for many people.

Two additions:

1 - It's an amazing picture. The image is seared into my brain, as I'm sure it is with many others, but (ignoring the emo text) the clarity of the shot has a horrific beauty about it.

2 - There was a comment to the effect of "It's the first time I remember seeing my Dad cry." Yeah, that made me cry. Like I said, at least I was warned.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

I'm right on the Boomer/Xer cusp. I was around for the JFK assassination, but I don't remember it. (Toddlers have very little political interest or sense of history.)

Challenger, OTOH, was a Big Deal. THAT happened while I was at work. (I wasn't involved in the space program at the time, but still...dozens of aerospace engineers all in one place.)