Are you a Baby Boomer?

[Wade Hampton]

Given the shared cultural references given by many people on this forum, it seems as though a substantial proportion of us fit the description of “baby boomers”: our fathers were the age to have fought in WWII or Korea, we were born in the second half of the 1940’s, the 1950’s or early 60’s, and we’re mostly old enough to remember when the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show.

Does this description match you?

Just curious....


Wade Hampton “Yes, I Qualify” Miller

[Brucebubs]

My 18 year old father-to-be was in the Royal Australian Air Force for the occupation of Japan in 1945.
Married in 1952.
I was born in 1956.
I remember Beatlemania.

[Wade Hampton]

You’re a Boomer.

When I was a kid every house on my block except one had kids living there, and all of the fathers had been in WWII with the exception of one dad who’d been in Korea.

The nice thing about having that many kids in the neighborhood was that you could always find someone to play with.


whm

[dermeister1331]

I’m in my 30s, but with Silent Generation parents—One of whom is recently no longer with us. So, no I’m not a boomer, but I feel I have a lot in common with them as far as moral upbringing and musical tastes. Certainly not on social matters though haha

I will add for context that my parents were raised by parents who were part of the Lost Generation.

[Big-E]

I was born in '55, the year after "rationing" ended in the UK so sweets/candy were starting to become available again-great for us kids but not so good for teeth! Following family tradition, my dad enlisted for the Navy in WW2 but ended up being sent down the coal mines as a surveyor (much to his regret). As a teenager, I often wonder what our school teachers, many of who had served their country, thought about their rebellious pupils! Yes, I remember the Beatles appearing on the Ed Sullivan show, it was on the news

[1neeto]

Gen X child of boomers here. I identify a lot with the boomer generation because of how I was raised.

With that said...ok boomers have your thread. [emoji1787]

[Silurian]

Born in '67 so that makes me early Generation X.

[raysachs]

I am, but I’m a ‘59 model and I contend that the experience of early Boomers and late Boomers was so different they shouldn’t be considered the same generation. I have a brother who’s an early (‘47) Boomer and a sister (‘45) who missed it altogether bt about 4 months. My brother and sister came up in the innocent ‘50s, were driving when the Beatles hit, were old enough to be fully traumatized by the Kennedy assassination, were old enough to either serve (or not) during Vietnam, and are basically the generation the fraught all of the cultural and political battles of “the ‘60s”.

Whereas I remember the Kennedy assassination and the Beatles, but I was a very little kid and neither changed my life at the time. Vietnam ended well before I was draft age, and by the time I was “of age”, the Summer of Love, the sexual revolution, the civil rights movement (the first one, anyway), the early women’s movement, environmental movement, and gay rights movement had all happened or were well underway, MLK / RFK / Wallace had all been shot and assassination attempts were a way of life. everyone took smoking weed and having sex in high school almost for granted. I was 10 years old when Woodstock and Altamont happened, and 11 when Joplin, Hendrix, and Morrison died and the Beatles broke up - that stuff was OVER before I even got started. I’m very close to my older siblings, but they were almost more like a second set of parents to me than siblings, at least until we were all kind of middle aged. We grew up and came of age in COMPLETELY different worlds!

Without getting into their politics at all, suffice it to say that our two previous US presidents were both technically “Boomers” but were probably the two most diametrically opposite people that we’ve ever seen in that office - one was a very early Boomer, one a very late Boomer. I’m not sure where the break point would be, but the lived experience of people born in the late 40’s and earlly 50’s couldn’t be much more different from those born in the late 50’s and early 60’s.

Sorry for the long winded-ness, but I dealt with demographics as a huge part of my career and I’ve thought about this stuff both personally and professionally a LOT.

-Ray

[rokdog49]

Yes I am.
The effect the “boomer” generation has had on the world is profound...both good and bad.

[Mbroady]

Born in 63, so I was on the tail end of the boomers ...boom boom boom

[rsay777]

Yes and I remember making my own custom skateboard with 2x4's and the wheels of an all metal skate. Then, finding a steep sidewalk to test it on. I never broke any bones but I did use plenty of first aid supplies.

[Jim Owen]

Hi Wade,

Yep. Went to school in a crowd. The old buildings weren’t big enough to hold us. Getting from class to class was a crush when I was in high school in Raleigh.

[JonWer]

My first musical instrument was a red and white plastic flutophone, issued to all elementary students about 3rd grade.

Rode bike to school, peanut butter sandwich for lunch with Twinkie for special occasions, had to complete homework before playing with neighborhood kids, always outside (including winter). Dinner at 5pm sharp, back outside until 9 pm, when sirens for curfew went off.

Adults were Mr. or Mrs, never first names, got my *** paddled most weeks, soap in mouth if we swore. Made money mowing lawns, shoveling snow, paper route. Saved to buy Levi’s, Adidas or Converse and banana bike. Never expected to be given anything.

So, yeah, I am a boomer!

[Daniel Grenier]

Yeah, I fit that and my father did WWII from start to finish as a heavy equipment mechanic in the Canadian Army Corps of Engineers. And, of course, I remember The Beatles on Ed Sullivan simply because it was/is the reason I picked up the guitar in the first place.

[fitness1]

On the tail end, born in July '62.....but raised by people born before 1900 (maternal Grandparents lived with us and took care of me when Mom and Dad were at work)

I'm thankful I was instilled with my Grandparents values - although it makes it harder to "exist" in our current state of affairs.