Generation X Drank So Much Booze Growing Up They Need Affordable Healthcare When Their Livers Pack In
Why do Gen Xers drink so much?
Until a few years ago, I had no idea what Gen X, Gen Z or Gen Y was. I knew the baby boomers — they were my parents. But I thought Millennials were superheroes or a chocolate bar.
It’s only recently that I started reading articles on it, and there seemed to be a war between the generations.
People were calling Gen Zers lazy or old-looking. Millennials were described as untrendy and a bit weird. While baby boomers were just rich and lucky.
Then someone popped up and said: “Hey! Why doesn’t anyone give the Gen Xers a hard time?”
I then had to look up Gen X and discovered it was me. One piece I read accused Gen X of being arrogant, lazy, greedy, and intolerant. While another said, “Why do they love getting so fucked up!”
I was born in 1974.
I’m a fully qualified member of this generation. (Gen X were born between 1965 to 1980). A generation nicknamed the latchkey generation because we grew up in a period where mothers were going out to work, and/or getting divorced.
The idea being that kids would let themselves in and out when they pleased, and so grew more independent than their more closeted parents.
We also grew up in the 80s and 90s, a period of economic boom as well as a lessening of social restraints.
People say the 60s was a period of liberation, but I disagree. Both my parents worked in factories, never took drugs and didn’t have sex until they married. According to my father, where he lived, the 1960s were pretty drab.
It took a good twenty or thirty years for this liberating trend to work its way through the system. From the age of 16, we were expected to drink. It was encouraged. Not just by my peers but by parents and teachers. We even had a bar in our school for sixth-formers.
Every Saturday night, the master on duty encouraged drinking. It was promoted with the idea that you may as well get used to it, as you’re going to get drunk anyway. Better firm up your liver, so when you go to university, you won’t make a fool of yourself.
I did make a fool of myself.
For four years at university, I drank to excess every weekend, and sometimes every evening. Add in copious amounts of drugs and weed, and it’s a miracle I even got through it.
After university, I played in various bands for four years, and we partied even harder. University life looked like a picnic in comparison. By the time I hit thirty, I was living on booze, although perfectly capable of holding down various teaching jobs in Europe.
Europe is great for drinking.
It’s cheap and the bars stay open later than in the UK. I lived in Granada, Spain, and sometimes didn’t get back until 8 in the morning. Sometimes later.
Have a few hours kip, a cold shower, and wander into the school where I taught English to do my afternoon and evening shift. Then went back out again.
I’m 51 now, and still drink, but in moderation. People have called me an alcoholic, but I disagree. I’m just Gen X! For some reason we just like getting fucked up!
I find the cultural causes quite interesting. Because it’s not just me. All the people I know, or have met over the years from my cohort are the same. We’ve all got a vast array of drunk/drug stories from the '90s and beyond.
There are very few people I’ve met who haven’t. Some may have drank or drugged less (some I know make me look like an amateur), but most have had the same upbringing and experiences, certainly if they were British or Irish.
But why is this?
My father drank a lot, and so did his grandfather, but in a more controlled way — although my dad had some pretty wicked drunk stories too. I grew up on alcohol. I started drinking wine (a small glass of red with water) at the table when I was about 12.
Then in the ‘80s and '90s, alcohol and getting drunk became cheaper and more acceptable. It was encouraged not by parents and teachers, but by politicians.
It was Margaret Thatcher in 1988 who allowed pubs to stay open all day when, before, they had to close in the afternoon, and even on Sundays in some places.
What this allowed was ALL DAY drinking. Before, this wasn’t possible unless you had a stash at home. Now you could settle into a pub at lunchtime and continue through to the night.
And we did. If you say to a Gen Xer, “Do you remember those ALL DAY drinking benders?”, a smile will appear across their faces as heady nostalgia kicks in.
Luckily, in the UK, healthcare is still free, so when your liver packs in, it won’t cost you anything. But just imagine all those Gen-X expats living abroad (like me!), desperately checking our healthcare policies to see if they cover liver treatment.
I’m jesting, of course. Alcoholism is a serious problem, and isn’t something to be laughed at. But the cultural reasons for it and the decadent attitude of the Gen Xers is eternally interesting. Even if the lifespan of our livers aren’t.
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Millennials are superheroes, you were right the first time.
I feel like one every time I drink.