Gen-X Kids Who Grew Up In The 70s And 80s Had 11 Things In School That Made Childhood Feel Weirdly Magical
Erick Aprianto | ShutterstockIt’s fairly common to look back on the past and see only the good parts. Most people remember their youth with the nostalgia that comes with getting older, and certain things Gen-X kids had in school made childhood magical in a way we can’t recover.
The team at Layla Care Inc. notes that for Generation X, "media consumption, including what they watched and listened to, their connection to music, television, and entertainment offered a unique form of solace and connection during periods of uncertainty, endowing them with a distinct capacity to tap into nostalgia."
Gen-X kids were in school during the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, and while they're far from the days when they biked through their neighborhoods without adult supervision or helmets, they still remember the untamed days of yore.
Gen-X kids had these things in school that made childhood feel magical:
1. AV carts with a TV and VCR
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One thing Gen-X kids had in school that made childhood magical was the AV cart with a TV and a VCR. Gen-Z kids might not understand those acronyms (or even what they mean), but for Gen-X kids, seeing the AV (audio-visual) cart roll into their classroom meant it was going to be a definitively good day.
The AV cart, packed with the era's most advanced entertainment equipment, meant it was Movie Day. On this day, Gen-X kids rejoiced, if only because they didn’t have to listen to their teacher drone on about communism and the USSR. On this day, they could sit and stare at a TV screen, a true Gen-X pastime.
VCRs and boxy television sets with buttons and antennae may have given way to overhead projectors and disappeared from modern classrooms, but back then, they meant great things were coming.
2. Birthday cupcakes for the whole class
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Another thing Gen-X kids had in school that made childhood magical was getting to eat cupcakes in class whenever another kid had a birthday. There was nothing quite as special as seeing a classmate’s mom, and it was always a mom, carry a tray of cupcakes into school. Gen-X kids counted down the minutes until lunchtime, when they sang a spirited, out-of-tune version of the birthday song, and then dove into their sweet treat. It didn’t matter if the cupcakes were chocolate with vanilla frosting or vanilla with chocolate frosting: They were there, and they were delicious.
Today, teachers beg parents not to bring cupcakes to class. Aside from any teacher’s personal dessert preference, it’s harder than it used to be to bring in food to share with the class, as more kids have food allergies now than Gen-X kids ever did.
According to a 2016 survey by Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE), almost 8% of kids in the U.S. have food allergies, about one in 13 kids, or about two kids per classroom. 2.4 million kids are allergic to wheat. 6.2 million kids are allergic to peanuts and milk. FARE noted that food allergy prevalence in children has been rising for decades, up by 50% between 1997 and 2011, and then up by another 50% between 2007 and 2021.
Bringing in cupcakes could easily be seen as a liability now, but Gen-X kids had them at school, and they made childhood magical.
3. Book fairs
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The Scholastic Book Fair was a school tradition that made childhood magical for Gen-X kids. This was the celebration of the year, when school magically transformed into every book-loving kid’s dreamland.
The excitement started when teachers handed out the thin paper catalog of books for sale. Kids spent hours circling the books they wanted, highlighting and underlining, and color-coding their high-priority picks. The inevitable back-and-forth with their parents over how many books they were allowed to buy followed. Then the day arrived, and the school gym became a bustling center of commerce, with kids going wild at the prospect of buying books.
It wasn’t just book fairs that got Gen-X kids so psyched to read; Pizza Hut’s Book It! Program promised a free personal pizza for every kid who hit their monthly reading goals. The pizza-for-literacy program started in 1984 and is hailed as the “largest and longest-running corporate-supported reading program.”
Anything that gets kids to read as voraciously as they eat pizza is a solid entry point for boosting childhood literacy, which is severely lacking today. The Scholastic Book Fair still exists; only now it uses cashless shopping through a Book Fair eWallet, showing how much times have changed. As they said in S.E. Hinton's 1967 novel “The Outsiders,” nothing gold can stay.
4. Passing notes in class
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Gen-X kids passed paper notes in class, making childhood feel magical. After scrawling their messages on torn-out pieces of notebook paper, Gen-X kids folded their notes about a hundred times, and then they waited.
The operation had a rhythm, and it involved the entire class. After the teacher turned around to write on the chalkboard, the note-writer leaned over to the kid sitting in the desk beside them and whispered those haunting words: “Pass it.”
Was anything as exciting as watching a note pass from sweaty palm to sweaty palm, knowing you could get caught at any minute? There wasn’t, and that’s what made this part of Gen-X kids’ childhoods so magical.
The swoosh of a text arriving doesn’t have the same impact. Texts don’t let you check a box and say yes, no, or maybe in response to the question, “I like you, do you like me?” You can’t save texts in a shoebox tucked into the corner of a closet. For all the ease and access smartphones provide, they have made passing paper notes in class an obsolete art form.
5. Fun playground equipment
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Another thing Gen-X kids had in school that made childhood magical was truly fun playground equipment. Merry-go-rounds spun so fast that at least one kid would fly off during recess. Metal slides gave you a fast ride, along with endless electric shocks. Random metal, web-like structures let kids climb to the top and look out at everything the schoolyard had to offer. Gen-X playgrounds were the pinnacle of danger, and that’s what made them so magical.
Playgrounds in the U.S. date back to 1821, when the first major outdoor play space was built at the Latin School in Salem, Massachusetts. From the 1930s through the 1950s, people often raided playgrounds for metal parts to support the war effort, and “adventure” or “junk” playgrounds rose in popularity, exactly as you might imagine.
By the time Boomers grew up and had Gen-X children, playground standardization was becoming slightly more common in the name of safety. Galvanized steel structures that always seemed to have one rough edge sticking out were replaced with wood, plastic, and painted metal.
In 1981, The Handbook for Public Playground Safety was published to reduce playgrounds’ number-one accident: falling from equipment. Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha frequent playgrounds that are innovative, accessible, and as safe as possible, which begs the question: Have you ever even lived if you haven’t fallen off a janky, castle-shaped playground structure? Gen-X would say no.
6. Trapper Keepers
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Another thing Gen-X kids had in school that made childhood magical was Trapper Keepers. These sturdy, Velcro-bound school supplies were essential to being a Gen-X kid. Mead Corporation introduced Trapper Keepers in 1978, and soon after, it sold over $100 million worth of Trapper Keepers.
Trapper Keepers were more than just a binder. They were a mega storage system designed to hold three-hole-punched loose-leaf paper on binder rings, along with folders, where Gen-X kids could gently place any handouts they received. The dream of the Trapper Keeper might have been a well-organized container for homework assignments, but the reality was messier: crumpled, torn pages got stuffed into Trapper Keepers with no decorum. It turned out the Trapper Keeper was more a style symbol than an effective way to store paper.
Trapper Keepers took hold of Gen-X kids, and the craze inspired other companies to make similar products, like the Lisa Frank “Tri Fold” binder. As the very real Lisa Frank told Today, “Trapper Keepers and similar products were a simple pleasure that kids could enjoy; they were functional and well-designed. The artwork allowed kids to express themselves, be stylish, and they actually looked forward to Back to School shopping."
Not everyone liked Trapper Keepers and their facsimiles as much as Gen-X kids did. “Due to the noise created by the Velcro when students would open and close their Trapper Keeper, teachers were banning Trapper Keepers from classrooms and school supply lists,” Mead’s Senior Director of Marketing, Jessica Hodges, explained.
Mead relaunched the Trapper Keeper for Gen-Alpha, complete with “rad designs,” declaring, “Being organized never looked so righteous. The updated Trapper Keepers have a super sturdy (and quiet!) snap closure,” Hodges revealed, ushering in a whole new generation to the lost art of shoving papers into a plastic folder.
7. Book covers made from paper bags
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Gen-X kids were the ultimate DIY generation, and that attitude and skill set translated into making textbook covers from paper bags. The start of every school year meant getting loaded up with textbooks, and each student was responsible for keeping those precious school supplies safe. After reading the list of students who had the textbook before them, Gen-X kids scribbled their own name in the book, then set to work.
They gathered brown paper bags from the grocery store, cut them apart, and intricately folded them around the textbook. Gen-X kids were then free to decorate their book protector however they wanted: with their name written out in bubble letters or that very specific “S” shape everyone drew back then. The world was theirs, and they’d stop at nothing to enjoy it.
8. Scented markers
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Scented markers were a childhood staple that made school feel magical. The iconic brand for scented markers was Mr. Sketch, with an angled tip perfect for sticking right up your nose. As Mr. Sketch himself declared, “Each color of Mr. Sketch is linked to a playful scent, so your child can explore a creative world where smells and colors unite.”
The flavors ranged from delicious, like watermelon and cherry, to strange and vaguely horrifying, like mint, cinnamon, and black licorice. Using scented markers gave kids a certain amount of social capital: the kids with the yummy flavors held a little more power in art class that day than the kids with the yucky flavors.
Huffing Mr. Sketch markers was a major part of Gen-X kids’ childhood experience, and this totally weird kid behavior could put worried parents at ease. As Mr. Sketch said, “Inhalant abuse of markers is associated with volatile aromatic solvents due to their intoxicating effects. Mr. Sketch markers are made with water-based inks rather than aromatic solvents.”
Scented markers, much like Scratch-and-sniff stickers and those Strawberry Shortcake dolls that smelled like very artificial strawberries, turned Gen-X childhoods into a magical olfactory wonderland.
9. Brand-name Play-Doh
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Brand-name Play-Doh was another thing Gen-X kids had in school that made childhood magical. Today, Gen-Xers might be middle-aged adults who don’t have enough saved for retirement, but once, they were just kids in a classroom, making snakes, spaghetti, and pancakes out of Play-Doh. The tactile molding material was extra special because it tasted like salt, like so much salt, which made sneaking little bits of Play-Doh as a snack.
Kids today still use Play-Doh, but they’re more likely to get a homemade, organic version, which isn’t so bad. The Ontario Science Center shared its Play-Doh recipe, which includes flour, vegetable oil, cream of tartar, boiling water, and, yes, salt.
“The salt helps the proteins stay stuck together,” the Science Center explains. “You may notice that playdough you buy in the store also has a salty smell. When you mix all of these ingredients together, you create a chemical reaction. The playdough you create is an entirely new substance that is different from the ingredients you started with.”
Science and discovery are magic, in themselves, and playing with Play-Doh until it got hard and crusty was something that made childhood magical for Gen-X kids.
10. Paper fortune tellers
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Another thing Gen-X kids had in school that made childhood magical was origami fortune tellers they made themselves, or as they were known on the playground, Cootie Catchers. Gen-X kids folded blank paper into a 3-D diamond shape and wrote little fortunes under each flap.
A mathematical formula determined how many times the Cootie Catcher opened and closed before you could read your fortune. These fortunes revealed everything, from your crush's name to your future achievements. Cootie Catchers were everywhere during recess or anytime when the teacher wasn’t looking. They represented a simple joy that made childhood magical.
11. Pencil cases
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Gen-X kids had elaborate plastic pencil cases in school that made childhood magical. These were no ordinary pencil cases. They were boxes with layer upon layer of storage. They had buttons to press, parts that slid in and out, and at least one hidden compartment. These pencil cases were the pinnacle of school organization. They made grabbing a freshly sharpened number 2 feel extra special.
As Gen-X kids got older, most forgot the sweet snap of a pencil case opening. They forgot about their extensive rainbow-colored pen collection and the puffy stickers they used to decorate their cases. But some things never fade, like growing up in that era, with truly magical childhoods.
Alexandra Blogier, MFA, is a staff writer covering psychology, social issues, relationships, self-help, and human-interest stories.
