Gen X Musings
By Patricia Racine
June 2026
My generation, Gen X 1965-1980, is the last generation to know what life was like before the digital age. We remember stretching the phone cord down the hall for privacy when talking on the phone, memorizing those phone numbers, riding our bikes all over town by ourselves, and searching through card catalogues in the library to find a book. We are also the generation that created the internet, early social media and tech giants like Google and Amazon. Basically, we have bridged the analog and digital worlds and can hop back and forth with ease between the two. As an adult, I look back on my childhood in the '80s fondly and am genuinely grateful to have built the foundation of my life in that era, and even though all the modern technologies make life so much easier, I personally strive to keep a balance of old and new school in my life.
It’s no secret that there are divisions and tensions in our small town surrounding change and modernity. It is also no secret that something needs to be done to fix up and bring back the center of town from the brink of “deliveranceville” that it has been headed towards. Each side has good points and valid reasons for how they feel about the changes facing our town. Maybe what we need to do is find a balance between both sides and learn how to talk to each other in respectful ways. The evolution of small town community engagement since the '80s has moved from physical gathering spaces to digital forums; and while our core desire for connection remains focused, our methods and quality of interaction has changed significantly.
Back in the '80s our community interaction was dictated by third places: we caught up with each other at the four stores functioning in town, at the post office boxes in Hall’s, on the Izaak Walton ballfield during weekly softball games, and over a quittin- time beer at one of the many local bars. We were the victims of high accountability because face-to-face interaction makes you think before you speak so as not to hurt your neighbors’ feelings. We spent time together at town functions and knew what was going on because we talked to each other, and generations of the same family lived locally.
Flip to the Otis of today where our community engagement is dominated by social media, attendance at town meetings lean heavily on Zoom and there are so many new property owners that it feels like we are a community of strangers living next door to each other. We can, however, quickly and effectively organize town-wide aid if needed within hours, get our hands on town documents easily through the town website and attract new residents to live here full time due to the high speed internet. But, there is the problem of keyboard warriors typing whatever pops into their head on town forums, which frequently escalates tensions quickly: the information that people pass around tends to be inaccurate, and more often than not people tend to feel as if they are participating because they dropped a “like” or comment on a thread instead of being an actual physical volunteer.
The evolution of Otis from the '80s to today is from a quiet, working class lakeside community to a premier Berkshire resort town; and the town is struggling to keep her rugged ruralness with the push for more polished high-value amenities. The comfortable homey places that the “old man coffee club” used to have breakfast in have changed to lovely farm-to-table establishments that the seasonal visitors believe are the essence of the Berkshires and the charming cottage-core of small summer camps surrounding the lake have been upgraded to impressive, high-end, year-round houses that have raised the values of all of our houses. Great for the sellers but difficult for attracting young people to town.
Personally, I believe that we need to hold onto the smallness of Otis; it is what makes us special. Let Lenox and Great Barrington run themselves ragged trying to cater to the tourists. We once had a vibrant, cohesive community and we should be striving to get that back instead of fighting each other. We need to find the balance between the Otis of yesterday and tomorrow; there is room for both. But, it is going to take a lot of ideas, volunteering, and time to get the town back to its glory days with a modern twist. Ask yourself: is Otis worth a bit of your time and do you have any ideas to help fix her problems?
