Zahn McClarnon is the Native American icon many of us longed for as children, back when we cared deeply about the Crying Indian, only to learn later he wasn’t Native at all. If his name’s new to you, now’s the time to catch up: the third season of Dark Winds premieres on Netflix October 27.
In her vivid debut memoir Destroy This House, journalist turned publisher Amanda Uhle, 47, takes readers inside a childhood of extremes: 10 homes across five states; a father who pitched inventions, took up the pulpit, and reinvented himself again; and a mother whose hoarding became a shelter of unchecked acquisitions. With a sharp eye and a generous heart, Uhle traces her own emergence from caretaker of her parents’ chaos to a Gen X woman building her own footing, writing with the kind of wry nostalgia and clear-eyed honesty that will feel familiar to those who came of age in the late 1970s and 1980s. This is a story about the messy inheritance of love, obligation, and identity, and how the hardest part is not leaving the house behind but reclaiming your own life inside it.
With the news of Diane Keaton’s passing, many of us are revisiting her most memorable roles. My all-time favorite was Sybil Stone in The Family Stone, which also stars a terrific cast of Gen X actors including Dermot Mulroney (b. 1963); Sarah Jessica Parker (b. 1965); Luke Wilson (b. 1971); Elizabeth Reaser (b. 1975); Rachel McAdams (b. 1978) and Claire Danes (b. 1979). I watch this movie every Christmas with my kids, now 27, 20 and 18. Have you seen it?
Instead of scrolling through AI trash in your Facebook feed, head on over to the Houston Oilers Derrick Dolls Alumni page and check out some glorious pictures from the 1980s and 90s. Lots of big hair, giant pom poms, bright makeup and slouch boots.
A/V Geeks is a YouTube channel and archive run by Skip Elsheimer, dedicated to preserving and sharing old educational and industrial films from the mid-20th century, the same reels many Gen Xers watched in school on humming projectors. The collection spans everything from driver’s ed safety films to Cold War PSAs and hygiene lessons.
Recently, I came across a documentary on the channel, Spivey’s Corner, from 1978. Spivey’s Corner, North Carolina, is a rural crossroads community that gained national attention for its annual National Hollerin’ Contest, held from 1969 until 2015. The event celebrated the lost art of “hollerin’”, a traditional form of long-distance communication once used by farmers before telephones. The girl in the thumbnail appears around 7:22.
Ben Stiller (b. 1965) steps behind the camera for a deeply personal new documentary, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, premiering October 24 on Apple TV+. The film traces the life and partnership of his parents, comedy legends Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, blending rare archival footage, home movies, and interviews to capture their enduring creative chemistry and love story.
I can’t say that I remember the Heinz Ketchup Bottle Toy Scooter thing, and still, this picture takes me back. From my friend Nelson’s archive.
In Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America, journalist Beth Macy revisits the small Ohio town where she came of age in the 1970s and 1980s, a place once held together by factory jobs, local newspapers, and the promise of upward mobility. Delivering the Urbana Daily Citizen as a kid, Macy glimpsed a community that believed in fairness, faith, and work ethic. Decades later, she returns to find shuttered plants, polarized neighbors, and families undone by addiction and loss.
Paper Girl is both a love letter and a reckoning, a moving portrait of Generation X, raised on hope in the late-industrial Midwest, and a searching account of what became of the America that shaped them.
Dive into the vibrant world of 1990s style with fashion icon Anna Sui in The Nineties. This richly illustrated volume captures her era-defining designs, from grunge slip dresses and goth-rock babydolls to vintage revival blazers, while drawing on backstage photos, sketches, playlists and the cultural chaos of the decade. It’s a nostalgic and bold celebration of how one designer helped shape the fashion mood of Generation X.
Check out Emily Jane Johnston’s reel featuring vintage Ralph Lauren handed down from her mother.
And here’s another link of a Gen-Xer celebrating sweaters from youth.
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Please indulge me. Did you hang on to any sweaters from your past? I’m so sad about all the things I let go of. Leave me a comment about an item of clothing you couldn’t part with. Thank you!
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