Do you remember the first time somebody actually paid you to work?

Not an allowance. Not five bucks from your parents for cleaning the garage. An actual job.

For some of us, it started with a stack of newspapers and a bike. For others, it was babysitting, mowing lawns, washing cars, or eventually putting on an embarrassing uniform and reporting to a manager who seemed ancient at the time but was probably 27.

The job usually wasn't glamorous, and the pay definitely wasn't.

But that first paycheck?

That was different.

Long before anyone used the term “side hustle,” Gen X kids had plenty of them.

Nobody talked about entrepreneurship or building multiple income streams.

You wanted money. That was pretty much the business plan.

Eventually, many of us graduated to fast-food restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, movie theaters, record stores and one of our hangouts…the mall.

Now there was a schedule, a manager or managers, and a name tag. And quite possibly a uniform you hoped nobody from school would ever see you wearing.

If you worked fast food, you discovered that the smell of condiments and fries could permanently bond with human skin.

And any customer-service job quickly taught you something else:

Adults didn't necessarily have things figured out either.

Nothing teaches a 16-year-old about humanity quite like watching a grown adult become furious over something that costs $1.49 or forgetting their coupons.

Then payday arrived.

Maybe you were making minimum wage. Maybe slightly more.

The amount wasn't impressive thanks to those things called taxes.

But suddenly that cassette or CD, movie ticket, video game, concert ticket or new pair of shoes wasn't something you had to convince your parents to buy.

You could buy it yourself.

Once we started driving, there was gas to buy, and insurance, which made earning money considerably less exciting.

Today there are gig apps, creators, resellers and countless ways to make extra money.

But there's something funny about hearing the term “side hustle” when you grew up in a generation where a kid might deliver newspapers before school, mow a lawn that afternoon and babysit Saturday night.

We had side hustles, we just didn't label them as they’re all labeled now.

Mostly, we called it trying to get enough money to do something on Friday night.

And there's something about that first paycheck you never quite forget.

A federal settlement involving Amazon Prime has been expanded, and millions of additional U.S. customers may now qualify for automatic refunds. The maximum total payment has also jumped from $51 to as much as $200.

The refunds involve certain customers who were enrolled in Prime or tried to cancel it between June 2019 and June 2025. There are additional eligibility requirements, so not every Prime member will receive money.

Here's the important part:

You don't need to file a claim.

Eligible customers will receive their refunds automatically through PayPal, Venmo or a mailed check. The expanded payments begin October 1 and are expected to continue into 2027.

And because it's 2026 and apparently every piece of good news requires a scam warning: the FTC will not contact you asking for information or money to get your refund. Neither will Amazon. So if somebody offers to “help” you claim your Amazon refund for a fee...

You can probably guess where this is going.

Check the FTC's official Amazon refund information

For most of our lives, the relationship with the television was pretty straightforward.

We watched it, and it didn't watch us back.

That arrangement has apparently been renegotiated.

Many smart TVs include technology called Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR. When enabled, it can identify what you're watching and collect information about your viewing habits. Depending on the TV and settings, that can include programs, commercials, how long you watched. Even content coming through an antenna or a device connected to the TV can be added to the mix.

Why?

Some of it enables features such as content recommendations. But viewing information can also be used for advertising, audience measurement and marketing.

Here's the catch: You may have agreed to some of this while setting up your TV and rapidly clicking through those screens everyone carefully reads from beginning to end.

Right?

The good news is that ACR can generally be turned off, although the exact setting varies by manufacturer and model. Look in your TV's Privacy, Smart TV Experience, Viewing Information, or similar settings for anything mentioning ACR or viewing data.

Turning it off won't necessarily stop all data collection associated with a smart TV or its streaming apps, but it can reduce the collection of viewing information through ACR.

So yes, the television has come a long way since we had to get off the couch to change the channel.

Maybe a little too far.

Before we went anywhere, we apparently survived without reading 333 reviews, studying 53 photos, checking the menu, watching three Instagram videos and virtually walking the neighborhood on Google Street View.

Sometimes we just...went.

So here's this week's assignment:

Pick somewhere nearby you've never been and don't research it to death first.

A small town. A record store. An old neighborhood. A flea market. A weird roadside attraction. A diner you've driven past 100 times.

Give yourself a couple of hours and go see what's there.

You can use GPS. We're nostalgic, not looking to get totally lost.

But skip the reviews. Don't search for “10 Things You MUST Do.” Don't spend 45 minutes figuring out where you're going to eat before you've even left the house.

Just wander around a little, as we did when we were kids.

Maybe you'll find absolutely nothing, but perhaps you'll find somewhere you'll want to go back to.

Either way, for a few hours you won't know exactly what's coming next.

We used to call that going somewhere.

Before you go, think back to the first time somebody actually handed you money for working.

What was your first job?

And more importantly...

How old were you, and how much did you make?

Paper route? Babysitting? Grocery store? Fast food? Mowing lawns? Some strange job that probably wouldn't be legal to give a 14-year-old today?

Hit reply and let me know.

Bonus points if you can remember what you bought with that first paycheck.

I'd love to hear the story.

And that, my fellow Gen Xers, is Issue #002.

Gen No Net will be back next Saturday with more useful finds, smart tips, worthy escapes, and just enough nostalgia.

Until then, get out and go enjoy Mother Nature’s gifts.

Gen No Net

Know another Gen Xer who'd enjoy this? Feel free to forward it to them. 🤙