Understanding Other Generations

Baby boomers thought that my generation, "Gen X," would destroy the Earth and make it uninhabitable. I hear people in Generation X constantly blaming everything on the millennial generation. And the millennials are starting to complain about the next generation, "Gen Z." Let me explain why I think that is.

My dad is now 89. I’m 54. I remember when I was a teenager and how much it bothered him and my mom that I was on the phone all the time. They let me have my own phone line but were fastidious in their refusal to spend $2 a month (or whatever it was) to get me call-waiting.

I took offense to that because all of my calls were so important that I hated to miss one! I could never comprehend why they wouldn’t spring for call-waiting.

What I didn’t understand was that my mom and dad grew up without phones. And, when they got phones, there were "party lines" through which other people could listen in on their conversations. (You young ’uns reading this, go look up what a party line was.)

And there was my spoiled self with my own phone line in the 1980s, and I was complaining about needing call-waiting. At the time, it seemed that they just didn’t understand me, but I also didn’t understand them.