The Sons of San Fernando
Two GenX friends of 40+ years flash back to the 70s and 80s and compare life in the analog days to modern day digital mayhem. Come back in time with us as we re-live the adventures of growing up Generation X. IG: @thesonsofsanfernando TT: @thesonsofsanfernando Email: eric@ericvo.com Patreon: patreon.com/TheSonsofSanFernando
Mon, April 07, 2025
TV Games Shows - I'll Take Paul Lynde in the Center Square
Game shows in the 70s and 80s were a cocktail of boozed up hosts and celebrities guiding contestants down the road to a brand new washer and dryer or cold, hard cash. We played the Feud, pressed our luck, made a deal and banged a gong from the comfort of our living rooms.
Mon, March 24, 2025
Board Games - Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect $200
Nothing got the competitve family jucies flowing quite like a good board game! We thrilled at bankrupting our parents in a heated game of Monopoly or sinking a sibling's aircraft carrier in Battleship. The only time the TV stayed off was on game night!
Mon, March 10, 2025
Cameras & Photography - Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture
Capturing memories on film was an art form in the Gen X days. You threw a 24 exposure roll into your Kodak Instamatic and hoped for the best. A trip to the neighborhood Fotomat usually returned 3 usable pics and 21 shots of a fat thumb. Don't forget to order double prints!
Sun, November 03, 2024
Holiday Break! Back in 2025!
Hey everyone! We're taking a short haitus but we'll be back in 2025 with more great Gen X chatter just for you! Thanks for listening!
Mon, October 21, 2024
Halloween - You Can't Spell Fun Size Candy without F.U.
Halloween as a Gen Xer was a treat for so many reasons. We couldn't wait to don our cheap plastic costumes with those masks that nearly caused suffocation and demand our fair share of Milky Way bars and Smarties. It was all pure candy bliss.
Mon, October 14, 2024
Gen X Cartoons - Did Wile E. Coyote Have a Line of Credit with ACME?
If you're like us, the first thing your 7 year old self did in the morning was pour a bowl of Lucky Charms and sit down in front of the tube to feast on an oh so satisfying array of animatied mania. We gorged on Looney Toons, Warner Bros, Sid & Marty Krofft, Hanna Barbera and topped it off with some Ren & Stimpy. The real question is, what cocktail of drugs were those writers on?! Must've been good...
Mon, October 07, 2024
Records, Tapes and CDs - Side A or Side B?: The End of an Era
In the beginning... there was vinyl!!! LPs and 45s reigned supreme for generations but the need for portability spawned the age of plastic music media. Soon four track cassettes were melting in the summer heat of our car interiors - and out of the primordial cassette ooze the digital age of the Compact Disc was born.
Mon, September 30, 2024
Variety Shows - Donny, Marie, Sonny & Cher Walk Into a Bar...
Variety is the spice of life. In the 70s and 80s, we had a ton of it. Variety shows meant singing, superstars, sketches and sex. Carol Burnett, Sonny & Cher, Hee Haw, Donnie & Marie, Laugh In and the inimitable Muppet Show brought us all of the above and more. And while not always suitable for impressionalbe young viewers - we ate that S#!t up!!!!
Mon, September 23, 2024
Drive In Movie Theaters - We'll Save a Few Bucks If We Hide the Kids in the Trunk
With enormous screens, Lo-Fi sound and exhaust fumes that could kill a young elephant, who wouldn't love a drive-in movie?! They were the best places to catch a flick in the 70s and 80s. Roll down your window, ease the seat back and enjoy the aroma of weed, popcorn and engine oil. It's movie time!
Mon, September 16, 2024
Gen X TVs & Tech - Why Does Your 19" TV Weigh 500 lbs?
Remember the days when the family used to gather on the living room couch, overjoyed to watch the evening sitcom on a tiny lo-fi screen the size of your computer monitor? Or how about listening to records on your parents "hi-fi" system that was as big as a loveseat? From early Super 8 video recorders to our first Walkmans and pull out car stereos, Gen Xers have seen and heard it all.
Mon, September 09, 2024
Wheels for Youth - Rippin' Skids on Your Big Wheel
As Gen X kids, as soon as we could walk we wanted to ride. Looking for adventure - rollin' around on Tonka trucks, Big Wheels, skateboards and rollerblades. All of it culminating with the ultimate freedom of crusing the neighborhood seated high atop our first banana seat without training wheels. We ruled the streets. Let's roll!
Mon, September 02, 2024
Gen X Cars - You're a Quart Low
From the family station wagon that hauled us around town to getting behind the wheel of the first vehicles of our own, cars were a different kind of beast in the 70s and 80s. Seatbelts? Optional. Would they start on a cold morning? Probably not. We were lucky if we had air conditioning and a tape deck. And let's not forget the infamous cigarette lighter. As kids, cars took us places we wanted to go and places we didn't want to go. As teenagers, cars gave us the freedom to get the hell outta Dodge!
Mon, August 26, 2024
Fast Food - Do You Want Fries With That?
In the 70s and 80s we made it our mission to shove as much fast food into our gaping pieholes as humanly possible. Burgers, fries, tacos, burritos and a stready stream of soda to wash it all down. If Sheriff Brody and Hooper sliced us open they wouldn't have found a Virginia license plate, but instead a steady stream of sugar, sodium and a bunch of chemicals you can't pronounce. But it all tasted so glorious going down.
Mon, August 19, 2024
Playgrounds - A Million Ways To Die In the Sandbox
Slides, swings, monkey bars, merry-go-rounds and ball pits. In the Gen X days these playgrounds were mine fields just waiting to skin our knees and crack our wrists. Simultaneaously teetering on almost certain disaster. There was no fear in the hearts of the young. Only in the faces of the parents looking on. Or were they even paying attention??
Mon, August 12, 2024
Video Games - A Fistful of Quarters
Arcades were all the rage in the 80s. We were kids hell bent on keeping the planet safe from Space Invaders, traumatized by the inevitable destruction of the world in Missile Command and completely addicted to scarfing down dots with Ms. Pac Man. Whether we played at the arcade or at home on our Atari consoles, video games were our drug of choice.
Mon, August 05, 2024
The Mall - It's Not Loitering If You Buy An Orange Julius
Like, gag-me-with-a-spoon, the Galleria! For Gen Xers in the 80s there was no better after school hang than the local mall. Grab a Slurpie, scarf down a Hot Dog on a Stick and get your 5 dollar movie ticket to see Fast Times at Ridgemont High. From hanging in the food court with your friends to finding the best deal on parachute pants, the mall was the place to be seen.
Mon, July 29, 2024
Pets & Gen X - Why Is Your Schnauzer Wearing A Cardigan?
In the Gen X days we had pets just like everyone else. But back then we didn't dress them up in funny little outfits and push them around in strollers. From dogs, cats and snakes to pet crows and hamsters with heat stroke, we've got your pet stories right here.
Trailer · Mon, July 22, 2024
Welcome to The Sons of San Fernando (Trailer)
A quick teaser to give you just a taste of what you'll hear on our Gen X podcast.
Mon, July 22, 2024
Recess & Lunch - Drink My Capri Sun Or Squirt It On My Friends?
In the 70s and 80s, recess and lunch were more important than church. Any opportunity to wolf down as much sugar as possible before beating the crap out of each other during a spirited game of jungle ball was a welcome relief from the duldrums of sister mary whatshername. Any Gen Xers will tell you that recess and lunch were battles of the fittest.
Mon, July 22, 2024
Theme Parks In The Gen X Age - Spin Me Until I Barf
Southern California was a haven for theme parks in the Gen X days. You could puke your guts our on spinout at ride Six Flags Magic Mountain and use your E ticket to ride the Matterhorn at Disneyland while munching on a corn dog then be face to face with Jaws at Universal Studios before the weekend was over.
Mon, July 22, 2024
Gen X Birthday Parties - 50 Gallons Of Ice Cream In A Pig Trough
What were GenX birthday parties like, you ask? Picture this: homemade Betty Crocker cakes, mountains of ice cream over which you could not see, gallons of soda, scoring handfuls of quarters to play old school arcade games at the local pizza parlour and the pressure of trying to keep up with the "cool factor" of rich kid b-day parties.
loading...