Quiet Kitchens

My Gen X childhood has been reduced to a meme, known for its feral nature. They say we were latchkey kids, left alone in cars, uninvited to the grown-up parties, told to come home when the streetlights came on, otherwise largely unsupervised.

I can’t say that’s false, exactly. I do remember spending evenings in basements with other children while our parents socialized upstairs, sitting in cars while my mom ran errands, and riding my bike to locations unknown. It bears acknowledging, however, that for the most part, our parents weren’t floating around on yachts unconcerned. They were working. They couldn’t keep track of us with cell phones because telephones were tethered to the wall.

Read the entire essay at Creative Living Diaries.