The Generation that Won't Grow Up

By Denis Moskowitz

"Is he strong? Listen, bud..."

As I sit in my apartment, listening to the Ramones sing the Spider-Man theme song and reading my comic books, it occurs to me that, in some sense, my generation is the generation that won't grow up. (For reference, my birthday is December 7, 1972. But this applies to whoever it applies to.) We still play with our toys, we watch our cartoons, we read our comic books or whatever. I went into the local comics store the other day and they were selling Colorforms t-shirts, of all things. We're buying action figures and Lego and lunchboxes.

"I could take a souvenir, just to prove the world was here"

I think it may be because we've always been the generation that won't grow up, because we knew that, come one day, we'd all be nuked and die. Sure, our parents were raised under the bomb too, but I think they were more scared of it, and we took it more for granted, especially since our parents were also bomb babies. Yeah, we had our scare moments, but we got over it, because we had to. So perhaps we just got accustomed to our lives consisting of our childhood. So we're stuck.

"Mom says to get a job, but she don't like the one she's got."

Not to mention, we didn't have a whole lot of motivation to grow up, huh? I mean, odds are, our parents were divorced, or they were collapsing in their over-stressed jobs, or whatever. (Well, my parents weren't. But maybe yours were.) We've seen grown-ups. No thanks! If being an adult means ulcers and swearing at the guy in the next car, bring on the fruit punch and the Playmobil!

"This is the dawning..."

Is this a bad thing? Not from my perspective. We need more happy people, more playful leaders. If a 2008 presidential candidate is discovered to play with Lego instead of playing golf, well, that's a reason to vote for her right there. If we don't grow up, then good. Let's keep playing.

Partially inspired by:

Written March 10, 1996 by dmm@suberic.net.

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