As a member of Gen X, I realized a long time ago that most “Back in my days we didn’t have… and we had to make our own fun!” is often nothing but jealousy. I knew if I had all the nice things my kids have now when I was their age, or what kids have nowadays, I would be just like them.
With all the contemplations whether or not this is “the” Shannon. I think a black haired girl with straight bangs named Shannon was Greg’s “Generic Brat Girl” default. And when he needed a brat girl of that age as Toni’s cousin/niece, he merely used the “Shannon” template, hoping that his valued readers would have forgotten about her.
The first words my oldest child said was “Dada did it”. They are 20 years old now and we still have no clue what, exactly, it was that I had done.