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By Gen X Guido

Before smartphones.
Before social media.
Before “content creation.”

There was a sound.

Every morning.

Still dark outside.

Dead quiet block.

Then —

Rrrrrr… RRRR… VROOOM.

My grandfather’s mid-70s Dodge Aspen turning over.

That old Mopar gear-reduction starter.

If you grew up around those cars, you know the sound.

You didn’t need to look.

You just knew:

👉 Grandpa’s up.
👉 Coffee’s on.
👉 Day started.

It was like a neighborhood alarm clock.

And if you’re Gen X?

You probably had some version of that sound too.

Because here’s something nobody really talks about:

Gen X wasn’t just raised by parents.
We were raised by grandparents.

And that changed everything.

The Childhood Nobody Writes About

People love calling us “latchkey kids.”

Yeah, sure. Parents worked. Divorce happened. We figured stuff out ourselves.

But that’s only half the story.

The other half?

Grandparents stepped in.

Not “visit on Sunday” grandparents.

I’m talking:

Next door.
Downstairs.
Same house.
Every day.

They weren’t guests.

They were just… there.

Making coffee.

Listening to AM radio.

Doing their quiet morning routines.

Living life like it was 1955 even though it was 1985.

These Weren’t Soft People

These were:

• Depression kids
• WWII kids
• the Silent Generation

People who:

• fixed things instead of replacing them
• saved everything
• woke up early
• paid cash
• didn’t complain
• didn’t overshare
• didn’t need therapy apps

If something broke?

You fixed it.

If life got hard?

You handled it.

Matter-of-fact.

No drama.

When you grow up around that every day?

It seeps into you.

The World We Actually Grew Up In

Before big box stores and Amazon vans…

We had:

• a butcher
• a bakery
• a bagel place
• a deli
• maybe a hardware store

You didn’t buy “meat.”

You went to the butcher.

And sometimes?

He delivered it.

On a bicycle.

Kid with a metal basket like a paper route.

Wrapped in white paper and string.

Got tipped at every house.

That kid probably made more than I did delivering newspapers at 4AM.

😂

Food wasn’t shipped from a warehouse.

It was handed to you by someone you knew.

They knew your family.

Sometimes they’d set stuff aside just for you.

Try getting that at Walmart.

The Morning Tribe

Here’s something younger generations will never understand:

There used to be a whole secret society of people awake before sunrise.

Bakeries open at 5.

Bagel shops already baking.

Diners half full.

Old guys making “the rounds.”

Coffee. Newspaper. Errands.

Not because they had to.

Because that was life.

And a lot of us Gen X kids?

We were right there with them.

Paper routes. Deliveries. Walking blocks before school.

Ten years old and already up before the sun.

We weren’t scrolling.

We were moving.

Why We’re Built Different

Fast forward to now.

Most hobbies are screens.

People don’t do things.

They watch other people do things.

But Gen X?

We still:

• tinker
• fix stuff
• comparison shop
• build things
• run errands like missions
• cook outside
• blast music
• talk to neighbors

Because we weren’t raised to sit still.

We were raised by people who got up and handled life every day.

The Funny Part?

My dream life now?

It’s not luxury.

It’s not flexing online.

It’s simple:

Coffee.
Music playing.
Cook outside.
Run a few errands.
Watch the sunrise.
Watch the sunset.

Peace.

Which is basically…

Exactly how my grandparents lived.

Just warmer weather.

That’s the Secret

Gen X isn’t “tough” because we’re macho.

We’re tough because:

We were raised by people who already survived the hard stuff.

Wars. Depression. Real problems.

So modern nonsense doesn’t rattle us much.

We learned:

Fix it.
Handle it.
Move on.

And maybe make some coffee.

So yeah…

If you ever hear an old Dodge crank over at 5AM…

And it hits you right in the chest?

You’re probably Gen X.

And yeah

We still kick ass.