Be Good, Stay Strong, Love, Dad: A GenX Dad in a Digital World is a collection of heartfelt letters from a father to his sons as they venture into adulthood, sharing life lessons, personal anecdotes, and your reflections from the perspective of growing up as GenX. Why was this an important book for you to write?

Hi folks, it’s the author here. So, a guy in the back is asking why this was an important book for me to write. Lemme address this real quick.

Sir, the truth is, I never intended my personal letters to my boys to become a book. I’m a quiet guy. I had aspired once to be a writer, but that lacked practicality and this stuff was personal. Plus, I had a real job that actually paid real money to go to.

I guess a little background is in order here. The male role models in my formative years were old school. By that, I mean “Pipe down and rub some salt on it” old school. These guys had seen a lot and knew even more. And they never talked about it. Why? Men. That’s why. Loose lips sink ships.

Men in those days didn’t give advice. They paused, leaned back on some very old and scary species of industrial machinery, wiped their hands on a red rag cold with kerosine, considered your issue, and gave not advice but instruction. You didn’t get a politically correct filtered monolog. You just got instruction, and you only got that if you had the balls to approach their grumpy hides in the first place. Sometimes, if you were lucky, you got a backstory.

What’s that? You’d like an example, sir? Only if the group agrees. Folks?

Ok. Here’s a witnessed illustration of young GenX in the workplace. First off, everybody had a nickname, a lot of us had industrial jobs, the school of hard knocks was a thing…

So, Slop thinks he’s come up with a nifty hack to limit his exposure to free-flowing carcinogens during a machine cleaning process. He approaches the foreman Big Puddin’ to tout his idea. Big Puddin’ throws his machine into neutral, grabs his rag, cleans his ear, and hollers across the shop floor.

“Yo Jungle! Juuunnngle! Yo! You remember the time when Smokeshow cleaned the Chief’s ink system with a paintbrush? Well, Slopper here……he wants to try the same thing!”

“Yeah, Pud. I remember ol’ Smokeshow. He was a pisser! We still got his thumb hanging next to the dartboard. Quack found it a few days after the paintbrush trick.”

That’s how we learned.

Now back to business.

GenX was the last generation to have their global outlook, work ethic, and communities forged by prior generations who built and fought for what we have today with their brains and bare hands. These folks never felt like they were owed anything. They built their lives and families and their communities. They fought to protect and grow them in security.

Those lessons are being lost to time and it scares me what is forming our kids these days.

I wanted to translate some of that hard-won knowledge to my boys who, while exposed to plenty, still needed reminding of what was necessary to be a safe, productive, and viable citizen in a world softening before our very eyes and letters were my vehicle.

It turns out my letters documented 2 young people, on their own, each forging a novel path to their own concepts of happiness and success. Using old-school skills. Today, I see people struggling for a purpose let alone a path toward a goal. If this book might provide that path, that’s what makes this book important.

Thank you for the question.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

Oh geeze, I mean the book is full of ideas of all sorts; good, nice, funny, highly questionable, downright bad. Suffice it to say that more hard topics, life cheats and uncensored boy humor are highlighted than Granny can shake her stick at. Everyone will likely walk away with something different but helpful in the game.

Allow me to pull a direct quote from a letter to my son while he was away at the military academy.

“I didn’t raise you guys to be victims, sad do-nuthins, or mean-spirited dicks. I raised you to be nice, smart, happy, and helpful.”

I was lucky. They listened. They worked hard. They won. If I could relay the information that hopefully had a hand in making the lives of my boys happy and productive to new generations of parents and kids in general……why not? That’s the idea anyway. The above sounds a little pompous so let me set the bar here. The information in this book making these kids happier was not mystical, cosmic truths, but things like not getting your ass splashed in a Port-o-Jon. GenX at its best. Don’t expect nonsense.

What was the most challenging part of writing your book, and what was the most rewarding?

Holy cow, the guy in back has a lot on his mind. Sir, you asked about the most challenging and rewarding aspects of the book. Let’s start with this.

The reason men don’t talk is the fact that words have repercussions beyond our limited sight. And we’ve all been bit. We wanna be careful. That was the challenge. Honesty is a stone bastard, and I knew releasing this book would be sad to some and flammable to others. More importantly, could there be any future repercussions for my family and friends? In this algorithm, did the downside outweigh any potential benefit? It almost did.

I decided to give my boys and my spouse complete autonomy of deletion, 90 days to read it and consider things from their future perspective. At the end of the process, very little was touched. I would release the book and stand in the face of any blow-back negative or positive and weather the results. Like a man. After all, I gotta believe love and humor will always win the day.

Rewards? Hell, I’ve already won. I hope to see laughter and nods of understanding when others read the book.

Can I get a glass of water?

What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?

Let’s make this the final report. The lumbago’s acting up sitting in this church chair under these lights.

One thing, huh. Well, you’ll see in the book that GenX has many talents in many areas. Cutting to the chase is one of them. There’s a final bullet in my personal Code. It’s a couple lines from a letter I sent to Mike away on a deployment, they read.

“It’s easy to be alone and sad. In fact, it doesn’t take any work at all to be a victim. It takes work to be a productive citizen.”

This was a lesson learned and practiced by my kids to their personal benefit and the benefit of their communities. If I can have a new generation of kids learn how not to get their keisters splashed in a Porta Potti? Well, that’s my hope.

Thank you all for your attention.

Now does somebody have a winch to get me outta this chair?

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Are you lucky enough to be born between 1965 and 1980? You know who you are. The MTV Generation, The Free-Range Generation, The Forgotten Generation. The last generation to have lived without an email address, a cell phone or a script.

Welcome Generation X!

We were the last generation of undocumented fun. We remember it very well. How? The scars remind us. GenX learned about life early and usually the hard way. GenX is resilient, brilliant, broken, and beautiful. We’re also supremely efficient, scary observant, and quietly calculating. We know at least a dozen places where they will never, ever find you. We know things that our kids and their kids need to know but no one today has the balls to tell them.

Born of personal letters from a GenX father to his sons arrives Be Good, Stay Strong, Love, Dad. This compendium of letters, lyrics and stories relays the lessons learned in our GenX environment and provides valuable information necessary for a smoother ride through life. These are lessons delivered in the hilarious reflection of 2 boys growing up. Be prepared for irreverent life precepts, candid reflection, bold stances, potty humor, and a whole bunch of cusswords. This is GenX. This is Fatherhood. Don’t say you weren’t warned.