In this episode of The Gen-X Roundtable, the guys go full nostalgia on three core parts of Gen-X life: the sketchy jobs we worked, the way we were raised, and what we did before screens existed to save us from boredom.

John, Jason, and Scott swap stories about Taco Bell beans, Burger King “10-minute careers,” Days Inn restaurants, and coleslaw mixed bare-handed in 95-degree heat. From fast food to catering to hotel gigs, they break down how teens once ran entire businesses on minimum wage and bad training.

Then the crew pivots to parenting: seatbelts that no one used, riding in the back of pickup trucks, metal slides, red rubber dodgeballs to the face, spankings with paddles and belts, and why participation trophies still make them insane. They compare that world to today’s safety culture, feelings talks, and pajama-pants-at-Olive-Garden energy.

Finally, they dig into the lost art of being bored: road trips without iPads, throwing tennis balls against garage walls, Wiffle ball in the yard, pools, parks, arcades, Chuck E. Cheese tokens, and homemade Fenway-style fields. Plus: a couple “Stranger Danger” stories, a Chuck E. Cheese knife incident, and a teaser for a future episode on run-ins with the law.

Jobs, parenting, boredom, and a whole lot of “How did we survive that?”

No participation trophies allowed.