The year is 1980. Your mom’s car smells vaguely of Marlboro’s, Blue Oyster Cult is on the radio, and, according to the papers this morning, it’s going to be a scorcher of a summer day! As you and your siblings file into the backseat of the Volvo, you’re seared by the scorching hot seat belt and decide it’s not worth wearing such a dangerously hot metal belt. Life-saving device or not, those little buckles got hotter than the surface of the sun back then. So with your seatbelts undone and the summer breeze blowing in your hair, you didn’t realize that life doesn’t get much better than this! 

Gen X had so much freedom back in the day. They were semi-feral children terrorizing the suburbs and turning the world into their own playground. Ignoring the rules and flaunting their independence, Gen Xers didn’t care about cutting corners, brandishing successes, or acting like anything less than who they were. 

So if you’re a member of the Gen X generation, never forget your roots—hot seat belts and a kind of wild independence that just doesn’t exist anymore.