5 Things Gen X Never Had to Worry About While Growing Up in Maine

Being of the Gen X generation, I feel like my age group (born in the 1960s and '70s) is the best generation. Of course, every generation thinks they are the best.

It's our childhood that sticks with us and makes us who we are today. Gen X can't remember where they left their glasses or their phone, but they can remember when gas was less than $1 a gallon, phones had long cords so you could talk to your friends in private, and you spent more time outside playing than you did inside (with the exception of Saturday morning cartoons).

The world has changed for Gen X, but we remember how it used to be.

Here are five things that Gen X never had to worry about while growing up in Maine.

Ticks

Ticks were never a threat to Gen X, because ticks carrying Lyme Disease didn't make it to Maine until the mid-to-late '80s. Never once did I see a tick on me as a child, and I played outside a lot.

Wearing Seat Belts

Seat belts? We don't need seat belts, or car seats for that matter. There was no seat belt law in Maine until 1995, so you could drive and ride to your heart's content without having to buckle up. My mom told me she used to hold me in her lap as a newborn while my dad did the driving. Crazy, right?

People Breaking Into Your House

I grew up on a street in South Paris, Maine, where no one locked their doors. In fact, no one even knocked when they came into your house to visit unannounced. We would leave for a week of camping and the doors would stay unlocked. Never once where we robbed.

Logging Driving Hours When You Have Your Learner's Permit

When I got my learner's permit in 1986, I did lots of practicing with my dad and grandmother. Back then, you could get a permit at the age of 15 if you completed a driver education course. What you didn't have to do that you must do today is keep a log of all your driving, and make sure it totals at least 70 hours before you take your driver's test. There was no such rule then, so if you wanted, you could take your test without any driving experience beyond driver's education.

Drinking Sugary Soda

For Gen X, sugar-free sodas were few and far between in the early '70s. There was Tab (which no one liked except me), and Diet Pepsi, the first major brand of soda to have a diet version with no sugar. Instead, they used saccharin, which experts eventually thought was linked to cancer. We didn't worry as kids, though, because we drank the high-test sugary sodas before understanding what diabetes was.