|
Boom
Sometimes I
think people equate being a Boomer with a youth that embraced a
muddy Woodstock meltdown and communal flings and ended with photos
of one's self as a flower child, poised between Nirvana and the
munchies. So handy to put all Boomers in one basket.
Not
Most Boomers I know grew up under the watchful eye of the stern
and Silent Majority. No Woodstock. No commune. No flower child
frocks. No Nirvana, narcotic or otherwise. And no out loud,
blatant anti-war protests. No, sirree. So, who are we!
Life has been a
numbers game for Boomers
Just too many babies born at once. Too few desks for us in schools.
Too few after-school, part-time jobs. Too few decent jobs after
graduation. Too few slots at college. Too few affordable houses when we wed. Always competition
for these prizes. Today, there aren't even enough cemetery plots to
go around.
Life has been of questionable duration
As children of the 1950s during the Cold War, we became practiced at
diving under school desks during air raid drills. Our faith in the
desk prevailed, or we feared annihilation before the age of 18.
Fear didn't stop
there. Early on, we faced sweltering summers when the prospect of catching
polio kept public pools closed. Some did get polio and lived altered
lives. At the shore, we got sunburned
too often and spent nights under a coating of Noxzema or Calamine
lotion, only to learn we may have sealed a potentially terrible fate for
years to come.
Life has been
filtered by the blue light of the Silent Majority
Brooding fathers who never acknowledged the wounds of post-traumatic stress after
World War II and the Korean War simply had nothing to say to us as
they watched prize fights in front of the blue tube, took out
the garbage, and dutifully footed our bills. Mothers bustled about to make up
for the silence, folded the TV tables and polished their perfect
homes.
Life has been a question of uniformity
In our youth, many Boomer girls I knew wore school dress uniforms (that we hiked
above our knees once the dismissal bell rang). As certified preppies. we wore
preppy outfits. (bras and shaved legs mandatory) Madras plaid skirts ruled. So did loafers and
varsity sweaters. Today, Liz Claiborne and Ralph Lauren labels sell them
still.
Music defined life
Most of us born after 1946 knew The Beatles were a
once-in-a-lifetime music phenomena, no matter how much we danced to The Four Tops, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and The
Supremes. A transistor radio was a ticket to paradise, a stereo and
headset the best way to hear the piano's final reverberating note in
"A Day in the Life."
Yes, Virginia, there
really was discrimination against women
Young Boomer women endured the exasperation of having to justify the
pursuit of a college education and of then settling for jobs where typing
was mandatory and a week's pay was no way equal. Meanwhile, we skirted
routine overt
sexual advances in the workplace and hoped predators would simply grow old or move
on. It was not funny.
Steep Stairway
to Heaven
For the Pepsi Generation, the push to conform as ordered by the
Silent Majority vied with the pull to self-actualize. Many Boomers
married too young. We garden-hosed the kingdom of suburbia. In marriage Number 1, half
of us stumbled badly
and moved on.
But life after divorce proved to be an economic
disaster for ourselves and our children. For decades. Every economic downtown was
a blow to a single parent. The division of property crushing, at best.
And personal freedom was short-lived, given the demands of single
parenthood and a sexual revolution over-shadowed by fear of AIDS and
STD.
Your Mother
Should Know
Caught between the rearing standards of pre-war motherhood and our postwar career
aspirations, we were never in the right place. If at home raising
children, we chafed at the uneven division of labor in the home and
longed for our financial independence. If in the work
force, we fretted over the whereabouts of our latch key kids.
Top
|
My Expressionist Phase
Pond 2
Reason to be
grateful and not dead
On the plus side, most of us escaped the terrible experiences of war and
Great Depression that preceded 1946. It cannot be overstated that most of
our lives have been lived in a peaceful society - booming with
promise, heady technology, labor-saving devices, historic space
exploration, and medical advances that may keep many of us alive
into our 90s.
Goodnight Saigon
- Good morning, Bagdad
Those who were swept up in the Vietnam War represented a fraction of
this Boomer wave. Far more found their way to deferments from
service. And returning veterans faced more than zealous war
protesters. As reported, at Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) posts,
some faced
scoffing vets from prior wars,
who trivialized the average year spent in Nam compared to their
years in Korea or a WWII theater, especially if there was no Purple
Heart to quiet them down.
Today. the gulf
between those who went to Vietnam and those who escaped the draft
remains haunting. As vets age and need the care they were promised
by the nation they served, they face a burdened system hardly able
to care for the young men and women wounded in recent conflicts.
See You on the
Dark Side of the Moon
We've felt the Big Chill for a long time. It would be nifty if our society didn't continue to gripe about our
existence — all those Boomers — and now, all the Social Security
money we will need.
Please note: Over the years, we put the money in the treasure
chest. I officially started at the age of 16. I still contribute. We've made contributions and watched the chest
being raided by callous administrations. It would be fitting if we did not end
our lives as we began them — being just deemed too much by our own
society.
Lest I forget:
It's a trip
Boomers have covered more leisured miles on the planet than any
prior generation. Our minds are full of the world's wonders. We've
been handed more cause for joy than sorrow, faced greater
opportunities than obstacles and may well profit from the medical
advances and technology promising long and healthy lives. Our iPods
brim with books, music, and blog commentary. It's even Boomers
and their grandchildren who drive up web cams stocks. Imagine: a
60-year old and three-year old conspiring to meet on screen. You've
just got to
love it.
Reggie Morrisey
(2009)
Top
|