When anyone asks what’s wrong with my generation, gen X, I always tell them that we all read Stephen King when we were too young to read Stephen King…
Replies
So true!
jul 17, 2025, 5:55 pm • 0 0 • view
That's really not an excuse and it's not correct I've had nothing wrong with Stephen King's works and it is not affect me one bit other than open in my eyes to some b*******. The problem with generation x is the boomers kept us down and we patiently waited for our turn to lead which is slipping away
jul 17, 2025, 6:23 pm • 0 0 • view
I am living proof of this fact.
jul 17, 2025, 5:39 pm • 2 0 • view
That's true.....
jul 17, 2025, 5:38 pm • 1 0 • view
Yep! And I snuck in the theater to see Cujo and still regret it to this day.
jul 17, 2025, 5:41 pm • 2 0 • view
Carrie did some real damage to me.
jul 17, 2025, 5:42 pm • 4 1 • view
We were also reading those VC Andrews books in my family like mentioned by others. My grandmother would get it first, and then I would read it right after her. I can’t believe she would hand those books to a child.
jul 17, 2025, 5:45 pm • 3 1 • view
It was a wild time😂
jul 17, 2025, 5:45 pm • 4 0 • view
Wow, nice 😉
jul 21, 2025, 8:29 pm • 0 0 • view
When I get asked that question as a millenial, I always say it's because a lot of my generation are useless cognitively impaired persons that absolutely misunderstood the film version of "Starship Troopers".
jul 17, 2025, 5:40 pm • 6 0 • view
I mean, we had a discussion over the videogame "Helldivers 2", if people (correctly) identifying the fascitsic humans in an almost 30 year old movie as "The Baddies" were "race traitors" for siding with a fictional insectoid society. And I wish that was a joke!
jul 17, 2025, 5:45 pm • 0 0 • view
The Right is just so unhinged, you can't even talk to them anymore.
jul 17, 2025, 5:46 pm • 1 0 • view
The first time I watched it, yeah (but it also might've been a tv adaptation). Then I watched it in college "...wait a minute it's all just federalist propaganda ... also, Rico you're an idiot."
jul 17, 2025, 5:52 pm • 1 0 • view
Gen-X never had a "national hero". Either politically or otherwise.
jul 17, 2025, 6:02 pm • 0 0 • view
Prince. David Bowie. Etc.
jul 17, 2025, 6:22 pm • 3 1 • view
the problem with Gen X is that marriages are between a Nirvana fan and a Backstreet Boys fan
jul 18, 2025, 12:30 am • 0 0 • view
I had to get special permission in 6th grade to read one of his books. lol I knew to ask my dad instead of my mom to sign that permission slip 😆
jul 17, 2025, 7:25 pm • 0 0 • view
I guess I just realized I'm a Millennial (but it still explains a lot).
jul 17, 2025, 7:27 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm still too young to read Stephen King. His stories scare the bejeebers out of me.
jul 17, 2025, 5:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah and there was still lead in the gasoline.
jul 17, 2025, 10:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Can confirm.
jul 17, 2025, 5:49 pm • 0 0 • view
🙌🏻
jul 17, 2025, 9:42 pm • 0 0 • view
And that's why my daughter is afraid of clowns to this day!
jul 17, 2025, 8:19 pm • 0 0 • view
100%. I scammed my mother’s copy of Salem’s Lot when I was around 10. Not the smartest thing in the world, but man, was I hooked!
jul 18, 2025, 4:36 am • 2 0 • view
You're not wrong. The first book of his I read was Cujo and I really shouldn't have read that. lol
jul 17, 2025, 8:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Lol!! I was reading him from 11-13 almost straight.
jul 18, 2025, 12:11 am • 0 0 • view
This post was an attempt at humor. 😂 I like Stephen King. I still read him.
jul 17, 2025, 5:47 pm • 189 3 • view
The serial intecourse (to put it politely) scene at the end of "IT" was quite tasteless, though.
jul 17, 2025, 5:49 pm • 1 0 • view
I'm hearing of new/hybrid "GEN," who identify as "Zillionials." I'm for it.
jul 17, 2025, 5:49 pm • 1 0 • view
"Xillenials"
jul 18, 2025, 10:36 am • 0 0 • view
Are you referring to Xennials? Xennials are a micro-generation born between Generation X and Millennials, typically between the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. They are considered a bridge between the two larger generations, experiencing an analog childhood and a digital adulthood.
jul 18, 2025, 11:13 am • 1 1 • view
Yes! Xennials are a micro-generation born between Generation X and Millennials, typically between the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s.
jul 18, 2025, 2:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh, that Steven King. I thought you were referring to the demented, racist, former Iowa politician. Who in retrospect was a head of his MAGA time. He'd be just a republican now...
jul 17, 2025, 5:56 pm • 1 0 • view
Me, too!
jul 17, 2025, 8:59 pm • 0 0 • view
I remember when my 7th grader took The Stand as thier reading activity to Catholic school. School called to make sure we were cool with it. We were. And surprisingly they were too.
jul 17, 2025, 6:00 pm • 7 0 • view
The Stand is among my favorite King books.
jul 17, 2025, 9:00 pm • 8 0 • view
I’m halfway thru Never Flinch right now. Putting it down to get work and other things done has been challenging!!!
jul 17, 2025, 5:49 pm • 3 0 • view
My husband loved Stephen King. He had every book and some twice. When he died I gave them to an English teacher for a small class that she was trying to encourage to read for fun.
jul 19, 2025, 1:01 am • 0 0 • view
I never read him but I saw Children of the Corn at a slumber party too young and I was scarred for life.
jul 17, 2025, 7:37 pm • 5 0 • view
I think I only made it thru the 1st 15 minutes of the movie and am scarred for life. 😬
jul 17, 2025, 7:51 pm • 1 0 • view
I will no longer watch a Stephen King movie unless HE wrote the screenplay and is involved in production. I have seen WAY too many films of his books that….. were just plain awful.
jul 17, 2025, 8:54 pm • 1 0 • view
My mistake was watching jaws as a 12 yr old but back then it was rated PG so … still to this day have issue going in the ocean. 🙃😅
jul 17, 2025, 7:15 pm • 3 0 • view
It was Leviathan for me.
jul 17, 2025, 7:24 pm • 1 1 • view
And Dean Koontz, Flowers In The Attic series, Amityville Horror to name just a few others 🤣
jul 17, 2025, 6:28 pm • 0 0 • view
And V.C. Andrews. It’s wild that those novels got placed in our hands.
jul 17, 2025, 5:39 pm • 46 0 • view
Right? Like you let me read Flowers in the Attic?!?!
jul 17, 2025, 5:40 pm • 27 0 • view
Cabbage Patch Kids and Flowers in the Attic. WILD.
jul 17, 2025, 5:48 pm • 13 0 • view
I just walked into my mom’s room. I think from the time I was about 10, when she finished a book, she gave it to me. 😊 I needed a happy memory today. Thank you!
jul 17, 2025, 8:54 pm • 0 0 • view
Stephen King wasn’t the issue- he was in fact tame compared to the Flowers in the Attic series and Clan of the Cavebear - which I read in 4th/5th grade at the ripe ol age of 9-11. I still read/reread @stephenking.bsky.social - currently listening to “On Writing,” again.
jul 17, 2025, 5:45 pm • 17 0 • view
Same!! And Dean Koontz!!
jul 18, 2025, 12:13 am • 1 0 • view
In fact- I gave my uncle “Thinner” to read in 5th grade bc he was the only smoker I knew, fave uncle. Thinner definitely kept me from doing more than smoke a menthol in college- hoped it would scare him to stop too- the naive hope of a child scared straight by Stephen King story read “too young.”
jul 17, 2025, 6:06 pm • 3 0 • view
I had completely forgotten about Clan of the Cave Bear. I read it when I was 11 or 12. My word.
jul 17, 2025, 6:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Right?! And here’s the kicker- we chose books based on page count ant ALL of those were paperback bricks 🤣. My parents didn’t censor me but also- I could only do book reports on books my dad chose so- 1984, Animal Farm, The Naked Ape, and The Inner Game of Tennis so at least I was only kinda weird 🤣
jul 17, 2025, 6:17 pm • 2 0 • view
One of my first movie memories is Old Yeller. What moron decided that was a good kid movie? (Oh yeah. It was Walt Disney). 😡
jul 18, 2025, 3:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Gen Jones, here. I used to work for his publisher. I still got the galleys. I apologize. 😈
jul 18, 2025, 4:24 pm • 0 0 • view
We didn't associate Helter Skelter with the Beatles
jul 17, 2025, 5:46 pm • 3 0 • view
It doesn’t help that I spent a good chunk of my teen years reading books about the Manson Family.
jul 17, 2025, 6:08 pm • 1 0 • view
Some unsupervised night I watched a documentary abt the Manson murders. I was 5 or 6. Meh
jul 17, 2025, 6:10 pm • 1 0 • view
I watched lots of movies, including Helter Skelter, when I was WAY too young! The benefit of having older siblings!
jul 17, 2025, 8:59 pm • 2 0 • view
I had to read books about the murders because we moved out to the country and didn’t have access to cable tv for a few years. I checked out everything I could find in the library about Manson.
jul 17, 2025, 6:16 pm • 1 0 • view
He was a fascinating guy. Total madman. I've watched interviews of him and howled w laughter.
jul 17, 2025, 6:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Great answer!
jul 18, 2025, 11:43 am • 0 0 • view
Me TOO 😱 Only learned recently that I was actually reading this new author back in the 70’s 😳
jul 17, 2025, 5:42 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes. And Anne Rice
jul 17, 2025, 5:45 pm • 14 0 • view
Loved Anne Rice! Distinctly remember reading Queen of the Damned while on camping vacay w my mom. A hunt for serial killer Richard Grissom was on and I’d seen the movie Deliverance recently enough it was burned into my brain. Bw the book, the killer, & the movie, I did not sleep well on that trip!🤣
jul 17, 2025, 9:45 pm • 3 0 • view
The hunt for Grissom! Such a scary time.
jul 18, 2025, 3:44 am • 1 0 • view
Really, really was.
jul 18, 2025, 4:00 am • 0 0 • view
That's the only time to really read King, tho
jul 17, 2025, 5:48 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes! I read The Stand as a 12 year old!
jul 17, 2025, 10:32 pm • 0 0 • view
I blame drinking water out of the hose.
jul 17, 2025, 5:48 pm • 2 0 • view
I read Stephen King and i think i turned out fine.....
jul 17, 2025, 8:10 pm • 1 0 • view
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
jul 18, 2025, 2:31 am • 0 0 • view
My zoomer son learned at a diversity oriented work conference that Gen X, my generation as well, all lost 10-20 IQ points to lead poisoning- and I was skeptical and then my mom sent me a photo of my 3-old self playing next to peeling paint. So. Yeah.
jul 17, 2025, 7:47 pm • 1 0 • view
I think Family Ties was a huge problem. Too many kids in my Gen X group thought Alex P Keaton/Reagan were the best!
jul 18, 2025, 2:06 am • 1 0 • view
Yes. And Dean Koontz. And watched the original It way too young. Also Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The Thing....
jul 17, 2025, 6:34 pm • 0 0 • view
And Charles L Grant, Koontzie, Thomas Disch, Fangoria…
jul 17, 2025, 8:45 pm • 1 0 • view
The Shining at 12.
jul 18, 2025, 12:48 am • 0 0 • view
I'm reading Stephen King right now the Duma Key
jul 17, 2025, 10:00 pm • 0 0 • view
jul 17, 2025, 6:02 pm • 6 1 • view
First King book was "Pet Semetary." This girl in front of me had it on her desk in typing class. That book scared me (little Gage coming back from the grave) and got me hooked on his books. But the real horror was having to use the beast known as the Bunn typewriter in typing class!
jul 17, 2025, 11:48 pm • 1 0 • view
Have to follow you ! I am one of the oldest Gen X and how true lol
jul 17, 2025, 11:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes! And also V.C Andrews!
jul 18, 2025, 3:25 am • 0 0 • view
I feel seen. Read 'IT' in 4th grade. But, am glad my reading choices were never censored.
jul 18, 2025, 2:40 pm • 1 0 • view
But mostly it's the fact that we are the first generation of Americans that were not better off than our parents. I can't afford to live in the house my dad built.
jul 17, 2025, 6:49 pm • 0 0 • view
House my mom grew up in? About $19k when my grandparents bought it. VERY small- IIRC, 900sf or less. Sold a few years ago for over $1m.
jul 17, 2025, 9:05 pm • 0 0 • view
And sadly, I couldn’t afford to stay in the house my mom built, either.
jul 17, 2025, 9:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Spot ON! Gen X here, I was reading Stephen King at 9 years old. Also, the original Carrie movie gave me nightmares for years.
jul 17, 2025, 5:53 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm beginning to think this is true
jul 18, 2025, 3:03 am • 0 0 • view
Yep. I read 'Carrie' when I was 9; 'Salem's Lot' when I was 10. I kept reading everything he wrote after that.
jul 17, 2025, 11:54 pm • 0 0 • view
Would that be the same Stephen King who is saying on Twitter that there is an Epstein list just like there's also a Santa Claus and Easter Bunny? If so, then yeah: his really bad influence on the nation has come home to roost like so many diseased chickens.
jul 17, 2025, 6:09 pm • 0 0 • view
You can add Judy Blume to that list😬
jul 18, 2025, 2:36 am • 0 0 • view
Hitting a little too close to home. Thinner at 10, yes please! Dean Koontz when I was young too. Maybe it’s a miracle I’m as normal as I am!
jul 17, 2025, 5:43 pm • 8 1 • view
I don’t remember what age I read Gerald‘s Game, but that one was really screwed up. I didn’t read Koontz. I probably should have.
jul 17, 2025, 5:44 pm • 2 0 • view
Gerald’s game was so screwy! I think I was still in my teens. Not sure if I ever read another Stephen King book after that. It really messed with me.
jul 17, 2025, 5:46 pm • 0 0 • view
I only read Koontz bc he was my mom’s favorite. Never really cared for him.
jul 17, 2025, 8:58 pm • 0 0 • view
I’ve been reading Koontz for 30 years and have read over 70 of his books. I have never been able to claim that I’m “normal.”
jul 17, 2025, 6:07 pm • 1 0 • view
That’s probably a bit of a stretch for me too! 😆
jul 17, 2025, 7:43 pm • 1 0 • view
Can confirm.
jul 18, 2025, 2:19 am • 0 0 • view
Love that man!
jul 17, 2025, 11:28 pm • 0 0 • view
We didn't have sanitized Disney "horror" like R.L. Stein. Only the real deal ..
jul 17, 2025, 5:44 pm • 2 0 • view
Like Bambi. Bambi’s mom dies in the fire.😳 I was horrified.
jul 17, 2025, 9:54 pm • 2 0 • view
My parents let me read OG Grimm's in like first grade.
jul 18, 2025, 12:34 am • 3 0 • view
I was read those for bedtime. Fairytales & compilations of nursery rhymes that have Middle Age, Renaissance origins abt death & plagues & such.
jul 18, 2025, 2:48 pm • 2 0 • view
And don't get me started on how my early fascination with Greek mythology set me up to be a really shitty believer in Christianity.
jul 18, 2025, 8:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Would you say it opened a ...
jul 18, 2025, 11:19 pm • 1 0 • view
Yikes! I would have been an anxious mess. 🤣🤣🤣
jul 18, 2025, 1:37 am • 1 0 • view
I had nightmares about Cinderella's sisters self-mutilation.
jul 18, 2025, 2:43 pm • 0 0 • view
I didn’t, but I get it.✌🏾
jul 18, 2025, 4:50 pm • 1 0 • view
A Stephen King scenario just might be preferable to current events.
jul 17, 2025, 5:45 pm • 12 3 • view
You ain’t kidding…
jul 17, 2025, 5:47 pm • 5 0 • view
I read pet semetary at 12 then The stand. I've suffered from insomnia since then 🤣 I still read evey single one of his books
jul 18, 2025, 3:27 pm • 0 0 • view
It wasn't King that ruined them it was Rand. King is a talented, thought-provoking author. Rand was a vapid narcissist who struggled to form a sentence.
jul 17, 2025, 6:51 pm • 0 0 • view
🤣😂🤣
jul 17, 2025, 8:20 pm • 0 0 • view
Literally on the floor of my closet with a flashlight and snax at 10 years old, reading Christine Nancy Drew Mysteries just wasn't giving the same energy
jul 17, 2025, 5:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Read those when I was about 6. And Hardy Boys.
jul 17, 2025, 9:07 pm • 1 0 • view
I was just telling my kid that the best gift my mom ever gave me was the ability to read whatever I wanted. By 13 I was devouring Stephen King, Anne Rice, Robert McCammon, and probably the cringiest, VC Andrews. I think it totally part of who we are and why we won’t take bullshit.
jul 17, 2025, 7:42 pm • 1 0 • view
Yep! One of the MANY things I lobe about her!
jul 17, 2025, 9:03 pm • 0 0 • view
True. And we knew politics was garbage.
jul 17, 2025, 8:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Well…it was when so much of this shit started. Remember hearing abt the savings & loan scandals, junk bonds, and buyouts? It’s all so clear now and looking backwards. sigh.
jul 17, 2025, 9:52 pm • 2 0 • view
But the music was great !
jul 17, 2025, 8:50 pm • 2 0 • view
That’s a good thing!
jul 18, 2025, 4:42 am • 0 0 • view
There is nothing more depraved in any King story than there is in the fairy tales every western-raised kid has read since the 1800s.
jul 17, 2025, 5:43 pm • 3 0 • view
Oh, no shade to him. I adore him. I’m rereading the gunslinger right now.
jul 17, 2025, 5:46 pm • 7 0 • view
I didn’t mean that! I’m just saying, if stories of bizarre violence and horror involving kids and everyday people causes psycho-social problems, that’s nothing new to our generation.
jul 17, 2025, 5:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes, a lot of people don't realize that the Disney versions have been watered down. Some crazy stuff went down in those original fairytales.
jul 17, 2025, 6:01 pm • 1 0 • view
The originals were meant for adults, not children.
jul 17, 2025, 9:02 pm • 0 0 • view
yeah, that answers a lot of questions.
jul 17, 2025, 5:44 pm • 1 0 • view
🤣🤣🤣🤣 My grandma LOVED Stephen King and tried so so hard to get me into him, but the only book I’d read was Eyes of the Dragon. She was so annoyed. 😅 I love him now, of course. I’m almost 50 now, and as a human being - what resilience. But also the Shining = life.
jul 18, 2025, 1:01 pm • 0 0 • view
Also caught the tail end of airborne lead exposure
jul 17, 2025, 7:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Downsizing. Seriously culling book collection, but several Stephen King volumes remain, including my 1978 edition of The Stand.
jul 17, 2025, 6:32 pm • 3 0 • view
I read Carrie when I was 10 The shining when I was 12. The Stand when I was 13 I read It when i was 22 If that doesn’t F up a boy’s brain, I don’t know what will I’m still reading King today @stehenking
jul 17, 2025, 8:06 pm • 2 0 • view
Definitely tracks-I think I read Amityville Horror & Exorcist in 4th grade!
jul 17, 2025, 7:45 pm • 0 0 • view
The Stand. Terrified.
jul 17, 2025, 5:39 pm • 2 0 • view
My favorite is still Needful Things.
jul 17, 2025, 8:59 pm • 2 0 • view
We need to have a Dean Koontz ‘Lightning’ strike.
jul 17, 2025, 5:58 pm • 1 0 • view
I read The Handmaid’s Tale, The Thorn Birds, Clan of the Cave Bear, etc. when I was 14-16 years old. And lots of Danielle Steele.
jul 17, 2025, 5:55 pm • 2 0 • view
Accurate. I read several of his novels, handed to me by my mom, before my voice even dropped.
jul 18, 2025, 3:45 pm • 0 0 • view
I memorized and could sing all the words to Poison "Look what the cat dragged in" in like 5th grade. Probably didn't help.
jul 18, 2025, 7:01 am • 1 0 • view
Was reading Hunter Thompson in 5th grade...glad mom didn't know what was in those pages.
jul 18, 2025, 8:08 am • 0 0 • view
I thought it was because Poltergeist was a PG Spielberg movie... and a lot of lead was still in the air and paint.
jul 17, 2025, 7:20 pm • 0 0 • view
I’m not gen x technically. But I was probably 13? Carrie & salem’s lothad just come out.
jul 17, 2025, 11:34 pm • 0 0 • view
I know I did.
jul 17, 2025, 11:31 pm • 0 0 • view
And V.C. Andrews
jul 17, 2025, 11:17 pm • 1 0 • view
I ate those up.
jul 17, 2025, 11:41 pm • 0 0 • view
I thought, that's the good thing about us.
jul 17, 2025, 5:43 pm • 11 0 • view
I’d say it’s an endearing feature…
jul 17, 2025, 5:46 pm • 7 0 • view
Yes yes yes 😊
jul 17, 2025, 5:55 pm • 0 0 • view
Totally
jul 17, 2025, 10:43 pm • 0 0 • view
I did a book report on Cujo in 3rd grade. 😆
jul 17, 2025, 5:39 pm • 25 0 • view
Me, with The Stand at 12 😂
jul 17, 2025, 5:39 pm • 22 0 • view
loved The Stand!
jul 17, 2025, 9:38 pm • 2 0 • view
That's still my favorite book
jul 17, 2025, 5:43 pm • 5 0 • view
I haven’t reread it decades later, and I can still remember most of the scenes
jul 17, 2025, 5:45 pm • 6 0 • view
Omg i only read half the Stand in high school and had to put it down bec it was flu season 😱😱😱
jul 17, 2025, 5:50 pm • 2 0 • view
I read it when I was about 13, gave me nightmares, burying my family in the back garden, still carried on reading it though, yes I can still remember most of it, it was dark but it wasn’t cruel for cruelty sake
jul 17, 2025, 5:50 pm • 3 0 • view
I did the Bell Jar In 8th grade. Teacher said she’d never seen anyone pass the quiz on that one before. If I’d known it was Sylvia Plath, I’d never have read it. And I realized when I got older that there was much about it I did not understand. WTH was that on an 8th grade reading list?????
jul 17, 2025, 8:56 pm • 1 0 • view
Not King, but me reading my dad’s copy of Helter Skelter in jr. high.
jul 18, 2025, 3:45 am • 1 0 • view
Me too. It was the topic of a book report.
jul 18, 2025, 4:11 am • 1 0 • view
My first media sex scene was in the Dead Zone barn loft when I was in sixth grade lol
jul 17, 2025, 5:51 pm • 0 0 • view
I mean, it didn't help that most of us were part of Reagan's youth, er. Sorry, I meant the scouts.
jul 18, 2025, 3:00 am • 0 0 • view
Learned about sex AND murder from the King. Zero regrets.
jul 18, 2025, 12:20 am • 0 0 • view
🤣🤣🤣 I read Carrie in 6th grade!!
jul 17, 2025, 5:48 pm • 0 0 • view
👍
jul 17, 2025, 11:33 pm • 0 0 • view
I got caught reading the Mist at school when I was in the 5th or 6th grade. My teacher called my mom and asked if she knew I was reading adult books. My mom said, "Who do you think gave it to him?". I miss my mom.
jul 17, 2025, 6:48 pm • 4 0 • view
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
jul 17, 2025, 9:00 pm • 0 0 • view
I was 12 when I read Salem's Lot. I slept with the lights on in my room for 2 months. But then I read Carrie, then Cujo, etc. I am still a MASSIVE fan! It's his CHARACTERS...his writing makes them real for me in a way that other authors' works do not. And, he's #antifa #fucktrump.
jul 17, 2025, 6:37 pm • 2 0 • view
My math teacher would reward my finishing homework in class by letting me read her Stephen King books. In 1 year I read The Stand, Firestarter, and It. Christopher Pike and R.L. Spine came after. Lol
jul 18, 2025, 1:22 pm • 0 0 • view
Honestly, yeah! I started to read Stephen King when I was 9 or 10. He just let me know that there are some really bad people out in the world.
jul 17, 2025, 6:07 pm • 0 0 • view
I blame watching the Warriors and wanting to be in a gang way to young 😂
jul 17, 2025, 10:02 pm • 1 0 • view
It wasn't all bad! "The Reach" prepared me for end of life wirhout a medical safety net. Cap. Tripps prepped me for COVID. "The Mist" made me see the joy in sharing powdered donuts with strangers as a coping mechanism. "Christine" taught me abuse & bullying could always be worse.
jul 18, 2025, 11:55 am • 2 0 • view
"It" taught me the tragedy of untreated mental illness within the homeless clown community & the dangers of unsupervised children in groups. "The Shining" taught me about the professional stresses of authors.
jul 18, 2025, 12:04 pm • 2 0 • view
Yep and still at it!
jul 17, 2025, 10:50 pm • 0 0 • view
It's funny because it's true.
jul 17, 2025, 5:56 pm • 1 0 • view
😂🤣
jul 18, 2025, 1:29 pm • 0 0 • view
Word.
jul 17, 2025, 8:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Why did he like the C word so much????
jul 17, 2025, 11:14 pm • 1 0 • view
I saw the movie version of The Stand too young and was bawling my eyes out less than 20 minutes in. I also remember the TV version of IT being waaaay scarier than I found it to be upon rewatch as an adult. So, uh... I'm a Millennial, but definitely got caught in this wave!
jul 18, 2025, 8:54 am • 0 0 • view
Not to mention VC Andrews. And my 6th grade teachers were worried about Judy Blume! 🙄
jul 17, 2025, 8:52 pm • 1 0 • view
True of Elder millennials as well…
jul 17, 2025, 7:03 pm • 1 0 • view
Ha, but also true
jul 17, 2025, 6:43 pm • 0 0 • view
True story..that and maybe that the divorce rate went through the roof. Heeeeere comes Johnny…lol The Shining, when I was 9
jul 18, 2025, 12:40 am • 0 0 • view
I feel like learning my moral code from John Hughes movies (and other similar artists) also didn't stand me in good stead. I feel like I shouldn't have had to unlearn that stalking is how you get a partner
jul 18, 2025, 3:09 pm • 4 0 • view
I read Stephen King for several years before I tried reading “It” at age 13 and finally realized I had a limit and that I was terrified of clowns. I never finished the book and didn’t watch the movie, and I never will.
jul 17, 2025, 6:12 pm • 0 0 • view
Also, our teachers read Where the Red Fern Grows to us in 4th grade, and we watched The Day After and had nightmares about both for years.
jul 17, 2025, 6:05 pm • 1 0 • view
maybe the differences between GenX and GenY/GenZ/GenAlpha is whether you've read Stephen King (bad) or not (good)
jul 17, 2025, 6:38 pm • 0 0 • view
👍
jul 18, 2025, 12:24 am • 0 0 • view
Guilty
jul 17, 2025, 10:34 pm • 0 0 • view
Not me. I read Richard Bachman.
jul 18, 2025, 2:39 am • 1 0 • view
Read him, too. I read a lot. My escape.
jul 18, 2025, 2:52 pm • 0 0 • view
LOL, Flowers in the Attic was extremely popular in my 7th grade homeroom.
jul 17, 2025, 6:06 pm • 1 0 • view
And watched the movies too.
jul 18, 2025, 11:11 am • 1 0 • view
Truth. I still have nightmares from reading IT.
jul 18, 2025, 1:59 am • 0 0 • view
And HBO
jul 18, 2025, 3:36 am • 1 0 • view
Then my kids read them, “passed the torch” lol
jul 17, 2025, 10:08 pm • 0 0 • view
l am on the cusp of Boomer & Gen X, the generational transition, not just within the larger population but in my family. I am the black sheep liberal. And yes, I read Stephen King, Toni Morrison, my Mom’s dirty Danielle Steel - lol! Mix that with Old Yeller and Black Stallion- and voila!
jul 18, 2025, 4:08 am • 1 0 • view
Same. Same. So much the same.
jul 18, 2025, 2:50 pm • 0 0 • view
I saw Blazing Saddles when I was 8. Lawless days, man.
jul 18, 2025, 5:59 am • 1 0 • view
Can confirm.
jul 18, 2025, 2:11 am • 0 0 • view
For me it was reading Ray Bradbury at eight years old - who lets their kid do that??????
jul 17, 2025, 6:05 pm • 0 0 • view
That’s real
jul 18, 2025, 2:46 am • 0 0 • view
My sex education was via horror masters James Herbert and Graham Masterton. 😬
jul 18, 2025, 3:33 pm • 0 0 • view
And VC Andrews. Those Dollanger kids…
jul 18, 2025, 2:58 am • 0 0 • view
We also survived on hose water and running loose! We are unscarable! Our parents: “But are you dying?”
jul 17, 2025, 10:52 pm • 4 0 • view
OMG, funny
jul 17, 2025, 10:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Pet Sematary at 9. Bachman Books (including The Long Walk) at 10, etc., etc.
jul 18, 2025, 8:27 am • 1 0 • view
My mother never once asked what I was reading. 🤔 Good news - bad news ...
jul 17, 2025, 10:24 pm • 1 0 • view
…And watched way too many of the wrong movies at way too young an age. We were left alone A LOT.
jul 18, 2025, 12:24 pm • 2 0 • view
I watched A Clock Work Orange way too young, way way too young, scared me for life.
jul 18, 2025, 12:37 pm • 3 0 • view
I was about 20 when I saw that one. Still quite disturbing.
jul 18, 2025, 1:06 pm • 0 0 • view
I was 8 😬
jul 18, 2025, 1:48 pm • 0 0 • view
Oh my! 😬
jul 18, 2025, 4:11 pm • 1 0 • view
And V.C. Andrews. 9-year olds had no business reading Flowers in the Attic...
jul 17, 2025, 5:40 pm • 19 0 • view
Saaaaaame
jul 17, 2025, 5:40 pm • 1 0 • view
I read the first 3 of that series in middle school and high school.
jul 17, 2025, 9:00 pm • 0 0 • view
or read Erica Jong when we were to young to read Erica Jong, ahem
jul 17, 2025, 7:08 pm • 2 0 • view
Sid and Marty Kroft kids programs.
jul 17, 2025, 9:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Can confirm
jul 18, 2025, 2:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Nah. We bought the boomers' message that it were all our fault. And we acted like it was.
jul 18, 2025, 8:00 pm • 0 0 • view
And Flowers in the Attic. Don't forget that.
jul 17, 2025, 8:21 pm • 0 0 • view
10000% I was way too young to read The Tommyknockers and watch Pet Cemetery.
jul 17, 2025, 7:52 pm • 0 0 • view
😊 x
jul 17, 2025, 5:40 pm • 1 0 • view