The New York Times Magazine: Where The Writer Comes First

"Every generation thinks it's special—my grandparents because they remember horses and buggies, my parents because of the Depression. The over-30's are special because they knew the Red Scare of Korea, Chuck Berry and beatniks. My older sister is special because she belonged to the first generation of teen-agers (before that, people in their teens were "adolescents"), when being a teen-ager was still fun.... My generation is special because of what we missed rather than what we got, because in a certain sense we are the first and the last. The first to take technology for granted."–Joyce Maynard, An 18-Year-Old Looks Back On Life, The New York Times Magazine, April 23, 1972.