I'm Gen X, the generation with the same name as the coolest Billy Idol band.
Oh my gods, people, all our dads had Playboy. If you wanted to learn about sex you just perused your parents' bookshelves for erotica and hippie-ish "love your body" type stuff, or looked under your parents' bed for Playboys, or in your dad's home office, or something.
I do kind of feel like
@tovlo 's Casablanca quote. I moved to the last house on a dead end in the middle of nowhere, too.
Gen X were told to wait our turn and work our way up the ladder to success. There was always a mentality that the Boomers had earned it and we would, too "someday". It was clear the Boomers were never going to give us room and viewed the world as "theirs".
We had the brief tech bubble where a lot of us got rich in our early 20s (not I), and the end of that made a lot of people bitter. Then after 9/11 the economy tanked, so I have a "get used to it" attitude toward Millies who complain about being poor.
A key factor for Gen X is that we grew up with the threat of nuclear war and that shaped who we are. Dystopian movies were popular, "War Games" was hugely popular, and "The Day After" and "Threads" were on TV. Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" was in our English lessons book and we read it yearly, plus the cold war was hyped. It was pretty twisted, honestly, and I think that contributes to Gen X's reputation of being slackers. Why prepare for a life you won't have, especially when Boomers aren't going to allow you a seat at the table, anyway? When I was in my early thirties a lot of friends said they were "surprised" to live past thirty because total nuclear destruction was such a big theme in our childhoods. Gen X didn't expect to live past 30. A lot of people didn't plan for careers, or even bother with college until they were older. So, Gen X was even more focused on youth culture and rebellion than the hippies because we didn't have anything to lose. Back then, being punk, or Goth, or a skater, a raver, etc was actually "rebellious", though.
One of the funniest generational moments I've experienced was when we were at a DIY show and there was a nuclear fallout shelter sign on the building, stating that it could be used as an emergency shelter. Our Millie friend had never seen such a sign and had no idea what it meant. When we told him he was astonished. When Gex X was growing up, these signs were everywhere on building likes schools, government buildings, and even big apartment buildings. My SO had to clean some out when he worked for a university, and we brought home the (empty) metal water containers.
There is also a huge gap between Millies and Gen X with expected gender roles, opportunities for careers, and life expectations.
PS: Can I just say that it drives me nuts when my Gen X peers ick on Millies? They sound so old and grumpy. It's especially funny when punks pick on Millie hair and clothes or bands Millies like.
PPS: For me, it wasn't like the theme of nuclear war dominated my whole life, or that I was even fixated on it, because my childhood was pretty happy, but it was a reality I knew could really happen. I've talked with a lot of Gen X people over the years who say they are surprised there wasn't a nuclear war, though.