Yep, born in 47. Definitely simpler times until after high school when Vietnam hit the proverbial fan. Yes, to neighborhoods filled with same aged kids and to original skateboards with metal wheels from skates. Appreciate ALL of the music even into the 50's as my sister was 7 years older than me. Hate when websites want you age and you have to go all the way down, down the list to get to 1947!

Ha!! born in 1950 I did exactly the same thing 2X4 and the old metal skates that clamped on your street shoes

+1. I have more in common with the Baby Boomer generation than the Millennial generation.

I'm mostly with RaySachs on this one, the "generation" labels have some informal validity assuming somewhat shared location and class, but the system breaks down because:

There's no set length for a generation in number of years.

The more general meaning of generation, meaning age gap of parents to children or children back to grandparents etc is increasingly messy because the age of childbearing is wide, perhaps even wider now.*

Whatever that somewhat varying length is, there's no always-available Year Zero.**

As several upthread have mentioned, folks early in some presumed generation have significant differences in shared experiences from those later in the same presumed generation. This could be fixed by shortening the assumed length definition of generation, but there doesn't seem to be much interest in doing that.

To some degree "past generations" have overlapping experiences with more recent generations. Yes, there are some differences due to the age the experience happened for someone, but the similarities of experiencing some things may overwhelm that. For example: people from the so-called Greatest and Silent Generations experienced The Sixties along with the Boomers (sometimes beside them). Many/Most of the people one thinks of as an example "Sixties Person" aren't Boomers. Most Punks/New Wave musicians were Boomers, aren't they supposed to be Hippies. My wife and I aren't of the same generations in any charts, yet we both experienced the 80s and the MTV/video era. My parents and I both experienced the events of the Kennedy Administration.


*My teenager says his teacher was surprised this month that someone in his class had a father who remembered the Vietnam War for example. I'm not any kind of demographic median there, but I doubt I'm a complete unicorn in that either.

**Having two World Wars in the past century helped the generational concept as we are to understand it today get established. They make for very convenient and easy to agree on Year Zeros, and because they were World Wars, there's a wider geographic range of some shared experiences.

And that was back in the days when we kids actually played outside. I very rarely see any kids playing outside now. A few years ago a local high school football coach told me one day he thought he would drive around town and talk to kids playing (or playing sports) outside and talk to them about going out for the football team. When I asked him how that went he told me he had driven around town for nearly an hour and never saw one kid outside.

Back when I was grade school age in the 50’s we were always outside. Sandlot baseball was a really big thing. Behind our grade school there were 5 ball fields with backstops. If you group didn’t get there by 7:00 AM all the fields would be already taken then you had to hope that some of them needed another player or two. We played all morning, go home for a quick lunch and go back and play until dinner time. I often got in trouble with my dad for doing so on days when I was to play a Little League game that evening, especially on days I was to pitch. Even of the few days we didn’t do that we were playing something outside and riding our bicycles all over town. Our parents always had a hard time getting us to come in at the end of the day, or even for meals.

That's a new one for me, too. But it's perfect. - thx

I was born December '58, so I'm an English boomer. I remember my mother teaching me the names of the Beatles as if they were members of the royal family, which, in a way, I suppose they were!

Having just read up on it, I guess Generation Jones is largely what I was talking about earlier in terms of early and late Boomers. So it severs the Boomer generation at 1954 and adds in a few years of early Gen X, although I didn't see what those years were spelled out. So I clearly am one.

But what I've been reading about Gen Jones indicates we're generally pessimistic and angry about everything that the older Boomers got that we missed out on. That's somewhat true economically - we reached adulthood just as high inflation and high interest rates were making it nearly impossible to buy a home or get a foothold.

But OTOH, I wouldn't have traded places with the older Boomers for anything. We benefitted from so many cultural battles they fought - we took for granted in our teen years so many things they had to battle for in their teens and early 20s. And, we didn't have to make soul crushing decisions about whether or how to serve during Vietnam. They grew up with a ton of dislocation and tumult - we grew up relatively free and easy in comparison, taking for granted much that they had to fight for at great emotional cost, at the very least. The payback was that we reached adulthood at the end of the postwar hyper-prosperity and the beginning of a longer term economic reality settling in. To me, those were tradeoffs that worked to the favor of us Jones's, but obviously many people felt quite differently.

I'm definitely in favor of some sort of demographic split in there, though, and Generation Jones does that, in a fairly reasonable place, I think.

-Ray

Well said
 

raysachs wrote on page 1 in post 8:

“ Sorry for the long winded-ness... “

It’s funny ray, cuz I was really enjoying your narrative.
Thanks for the accurate snapshot of life in the 60’s.

And then he writes well again just now.

Great stories! :)

I agree that there's quite a difference between early and late boomers.

I'm at the tail end as well. My Dad was 14 when he joined the army (after years of starvation resulting from Stalin's purges), 16 when he was hit by shrapnel from an exploding grenade, 17 when he got out of the hospital and had to start working to help support his widowed mother and younger siblings. He suffered some skeletal issues from malnutrition, but was one of the strongest, gentlest men I know.

My mother was 13 when she was housed in a "work camp" and beaten to the point of needing several weeks of hospitalization.

War sucks.

I think I'm very lucky in that I had a wholesome upbringing, but with a very real awareness of how bad it all could be. I don't think my kids and their cohorts have a clue.

As far as having different experiences goes, you could say the same about millennials, as far as childhoods go. I was having a discussion with one of my students the other day, born 11 years after me, about how people on the older end of the millennial spectrum like myself can remember a time before the internet and virtual/digital world, whereas he can not. And also remembering a time before 9/11.

Another 55 baby here. I grew up in a great little town right over the NY border. It was like living in a "Leave it to Beaver" town.

And that's a huge thing - do you remember a time before the internet? Massive cultural divide there.

For the early/late boomer era, the question is similar but different - do you remember a time before Television? Equally giant cultural divide. Early boomers can, late "Jones" ones (like me) can't.

I don't even want to think about "not remembering 9/11". Are there really people in the world that young? LoL!

Born in 1950, father fought in WWII, and watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Definitely a card carrying boomer....

Born in 64.
A very late Boomer.
Pun sort of intended.

Ray Sachs nailed it.

Those of you who resonate with this discussion might want to dig up the 1992 classic book, "Generations" by Neil Howe and William Strauss. This is the book that coined many of the terms currently used to describe the various generations, and introduced the idea that generations have certain characteristics and personalities that resonate and repeat over time.

I was born in the summer of 69, so I’m Gen X. My mom was born in 1940 so while she came of age in the 1950s my grandparents raised her elder siblings during the Depression. She raised me to be conservative; by that I mean that to this day the “sell by date” just means that’s the day uneaten food goes into the freezer. 😉

Another 1951 boomer here. We made our skateboards out of plywood and roller skates, stayed outside from just after breakfast until dinner time in the summer, and yes, Dad served in the South Pacific until the occupation of Japan.

During the 50's the Ozzie and Harriet Show probably started my fascination with guitars. I wouldn't miss that show and anxiously waited for the end when Ricky played a song on that Martin Guitar. Oh how I wanted one...

That kid named Burton who played the tele in that band was pretty good, too.

It’s fair to say that anyone who remembers where they were 22 November 63 is a boomer. Conversely, if you remember 7 December 1941, you ain’t.

My dad served in the infantry in France and was in the group who “liberated” Paris. My uncle Mel was stationed in North Africa. My uncle Rom was a navigator in the Air Corp and survived being hit by shrapnel on a mission. The GI bill funded two doctoral degrees in my family—my dad’s and my Uncle Mel’s.

Gotta say that the GI bill radically changed America. Boomers were taught by folks who went to uni with significant governmental assistance. Prior to that time, university profs were typically from the upper class.

I believe you mean 22 November, 1963. I remember it only very vaguely. Everyone in my house seemed very upset and the TV was on all day. I was 4 and I remember it, but it's one of those almost dreamlike, spacey memories. Too young to even begin to understand the gravity...

-Ray

I remember it well. I was in Grade 8 and we had a serious discussion on whether them Russkies were going to take advantage of the chaos and attack. We lived beside a building with an air raid siren on it. When it went off I nearly pooped my pants.

Born in 1946. I was conceived in San Diego where my Dad was a Navy nurse taking care of the wounded coming off the ships from the Pacific and my mother was a Rosie the Riveter. I wanted two things - a horse and a guitar. Times were tough and I got neither. Have the guitars now, but no horse. You can't fall off a guitar.

A ‘56 model here. I’m so happy to be in the middle of the boomer generation with memories of all that’s been mentioned. I’m so thankful for...where I was born and the places I’ve lived, who I’ve married and kids I’ve raised, what I’ve worked at, things I’ve built, the personal experiences and vast range of transformational cultural changes and world events I’ve witnessed and remember, whether good, bad or otherwise, all the music I’ve heard, learning to play the guitar and my songwriting influenced by the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s...and the nostalgia that endures as I age through the brief period of time I have been lucky enough to be on this planet. I consider myself blessed and am full of gratitude.

Yep. I’ll edit. Brain cramp

'57 model here. Being a Navy brat, I lived on base until I was about 15. Heck, I thought civilians were just out of uniform!

I also remember playing outside every day and woe to me when I was so far away I couldn't hear my Mom calling me in as it got dark, especially if my Dad was the one who came looking for me.

FWIW, even though I was born in 1957 (which seems to make me a Jones Generation according to some but I identify as a Boomer nonetheless), my Dad did serve in WWll, along with Korea and Vietnam. His Naval career spanned 30 years and a couple months.

I figured that was enough for the both of us. :D

Best,
PJ

Yes, technically a boomer (1964) but I agree with a lot of what has been posted, the last few years of the boomers had a slightly different experience, although our upbringing was similar.
But one stark difference I've noticed reading these is dependent on what country you were raised in. Viet Nam is very prominent for some, but was not a factor for boomers in my country.

I am grateful I grew up in the era that did.

I've never checked into who comes up with these generation charts, but it is an interesting concept. If I were doing it you can bet it would look a whole lot different and have different titles.
Anyway, I am a "Baby Boomer" and don't know completely why, but I would rather live in the 50s than any other age I have seen so far.
Things were SO much different then in a good way.
And where I lived as a child people were kind to every one, there was no class division and no educational frumpiness that I ever saw - not until the 60s anyway. The feel back then, in the 50s, was epic and classic Americana, IMHO.

I was born in 1955 to hard working parents whose greatest gift to me was their work ethic and never quit determination to succeed no matter what life throws at you.

Born 1950. So yeah...boomer all the way.
I always seem to be in the middle of everything. Including last century.
Born in the middle of Texas, too (Waco).
As others have mentioned, things were different.
Down here in almost-year-round-heat country, we had fans but no air conditioning in our family home until I was 13 or 14. No AC in any school I went to, either...grades 1-12.
Play outside pretty much round-the-clock? Yep.
Lotsa kids to play with? Yep.
Sandlot baseball? Yep (elementary school was 1-1/2 blocks from my house, so 4 dirt & grass baseball fields laid out and available all summer long...later they paved the whole darn thing!).
Recall Ed Sullivan appearances of Elvis...the Beatles...etc.? Yep.
Also, duck & cover bomb drills, air raid sirens, and later participation in the first draft lottery (1969)? Yep. (My number was 88.)
Not all boomer experiences were idyllic. Just sayin'...

Dirk

Born in October of 63, so I just snuck in under the wire.