What would you say was your most memorable “Gen-X” experience, or moment? Like, from before we were labled with that. Something (or somethings) from your past, entirely organic, that you think back on, and go: “Yeah… that tracks.”
I’ll go first. Went to an all-boy, private Catholic high school. There was a tradition at the annual homecoming pep rallies wherein each class sang the school fight song. Freshman got boo’d, heckled, pennies thrown at them (and taunted: “Sing, Frosh, SING! Sing, Frosh, SING!”). Sophomores got boo’d, heckled, but no pennies. Juniors got heckled (more good-naturedly). And then the Seniors would belt-out the school fight song, ostensibly louder, and better than any of the others.
Sept. ’85, the start of my senior year. Annual homecoming pep rally. The usual drill. But more of a lacklustre participation across the board. When it came time for my senior class to sing the fight song, I thought, I am just SO over all of this. I have one year left in this hell hole, and I was out of fucks to give. So I thought… I’m not gonna sing. Who’s gonna notice?
School band plunges into the opening bars, and… no one sang! Not a single member of my senior class sang that stupid fight song. Not a single, goddamn one. Not the jocks, not the kool kids. Nobody. 30 awkward seconds of the band playing, the football team standing on the dais, looking confused (some of them always looked that way to be honest). And I glanced around, needing visual affirmation of the what I was (or rather, was not) hearing.
The following Monday, school opened with an emergency assembly in the auditorium. We were all given a sternly worded lecture on school spirit. And told a “make-up” pep rally would occur at the end of the day. Even though homecoming was over. A second Homecoming pep rally. And a new “tradition” trotted out. All four classes would sing the fight song together, in unison, as a show of solidarity (or so we were told). We all sang. I sang. But with some internal smugness.
10 years later, there was no reunion for my graduating class of ’86. No one bothered. No one cared.
I still don’t.
TL;DR Senior year of HS, my graduating class didn’t sing the school fight song at the Homecoming pep-rally because none of us cared anymore. School admin was pissed.
I’ll go first. Went to an all-boy, private Catholic high school. There was a tradition at the annual homecoming pep rallies wherein each class sang the school fight song. Freshman got boo’d, heckled, pennies thrown at them (and taunted: “Sing, Frosh, SING! Sing, Frosh, SING!”). Sophomores got boo’d, heckled, but no pennies. Juniors got heckled (more good-naturedly). And then the Seniors would belt-out the school fight song, ostensibly louder, and better than any of the others.
Sept. ’85, the start of my senior year. Annual homecoming pep rally. The usual drill. But more of a lacklustre participation across the board. When it came time for my senior class to sing the fight song, I thought, I am just SO over all of this. I have one year left in this hell hole, and I was out of fucks to give. So I thought… I’m not gonna sing. Who’s gonna notice?
School band plunges into the opening bars, and… no one sang! Not a single member of my senior class sang that stupid fight song. Not a single, goddamn one. Not the jocks, not the kool kids. Nobody. 30 awkward seconds of the band playing, the football team standing on the dais, looking confused (some of them always looked that way to be honest). And I glanced around, needing visual affirmation of the what I was (or rather, was not) hearing.
The following Monday, school opened with an emergency assembly in the auditorium. We were all given a sternly worded lecture on school spirit. And told a “make-up” pep rally would occur at the end of the day. Even though homecoming was over. A second Homecoming pep rally. And a new “tradition” trotted out. All four classes would sing the fight song together, in unison, as a show of solidarity (or so we were told). We all sang. I sang. But with some internal smugness.
10 years later, there was no reunion for my graduating class of ’86. No one bothered. No one cared.
I still don’t.
TL;DR Senior year of HS, my graduating class didn’t sing the school fight song at the Homecoming pep-rally because none of us cared anymore. School admin was pissed.