The first music-playing device I ever owned was a tape recorder like this one, but a cheaper brand.

Welcome to “Growing Up X”, soon to be the name of an X-Men spinoff comic, probably.

A curator’s intro pretty much gets our latchkey ways, our version of tech-savviness, our scariest political topics, and our music.

Pop culture exploded on our watch because we needed, craved, fiended for distractions from our worst nightmares, from the threat of nuclear Armageddon…

…to the AIDS crisis and its threat of death by sex. I had nothing to fear (as long as a Crown Victoria didn’t run me over and necessitate a blood transfusion), but millions of others couldn’t say the same.

TV often soothed our pains and angst, but imagine if your family only owned a single screen, and y’all had to share it. Primitive times!

Or imagine it’s the ’80s but your family can’t afford to dress you like a rich John Hughes teen, so your wardrobe is stuck in the ’70s. I knew this pain, though not from these specific square duds.

I knew many families with this exact furniture pattern, which I think was called “Happy Chocolate Weeds”.

But what kid cared about tasteful decor or feng shui? We had STAR WARS TOYS!

Boys who preferred taller toys loved Masters of the Universe and didn’t care that their clunky muscles wouldn’t let them rest their arms at their side or stand up straight.

Then along came She-Ra! But then all the Masters of the Universe went extinct till Netflix unleashed her animated series that was way better than that idiot He-Man’s vintage clunkiness.

Kids who loved toy cars and action figures super-loved Transformers if they could afford some. I had a few, but G.I. Joes were cheaper.

Girls who liked action figures were pushed toward characters who were born in a kitchen, to teach them to love their workplace according to the patriarchy.

Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down! I had a few as a toddler, but I think this display is mixing and matching unrelated toys, like we used to do with the Goodwill toy bin.

Longtime MCC readers may recall the epic tale of our neighborhood’s Dungeons and Dragons games. I owned all of the above — that module, that manual, and graph paper for mapping.

As I got older, music became my thing. Not 8-track tapes, though. Those were for Baby Busters, probably.

Cassettes were my delivery system of choice for a good decade. I had two of these albums.

In my heyday my tape collection filled eleven racks in different sizes. I didn’t buy my first CDs till 1991. They cost more.

One of my racks was filled with dubs and mixtapes. As a subtle way of proving Gen-X weren’t all ’80s addicts, at least five songs on that tape are from the ’90s.

I collected vinyl singles (a/k/a “45s”) for a short time (’83 to ’85) and regret missing out on the exhibit’s most amazing collectible (IMHO).

Also a thing for us: posters! Such as these posters of films, as opposed to actual film posters with the credits on them.

The most unique item in the exhibit: continuity shots from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which was mostly filmed in Chicago 200 miles northeast of Springfield.

Remember when you could only watch certain movies if and when they were rerun on TV? Then VCRs came along and you could watch your favorite movie anytime, and as many times as you wanted! If your family could afford a VCR!

Then Blockbuster Video came along, and you didn’t have to go broke buying every film you wanted to see! Now you could go broke renting your favorites, renting crappy schlock when the good ones were all taken, and racking up late fees!

Then came home computers for rich kids! Who used them for playing crude knockoffs of superior arcade games that only cost a quarter per play!

Before, during, and after all of the above came video game consoles! I bought my first system when I got a job at 16, and I’ve lagged behind the rest of the world ever since.

Then came America Online! Their oft-mocked, “the first taste is free” generosity is how I boarded the internet in 1999 at age 27 — lagging behind many thousands, but a full decade ahead of millions of olds who took another decade to “discover” internet through socials.