Boomers

[rwsmith]

Sure...inactuality....

...these are general description with a lot of overlap.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Regarding eldercare, so many of the young consider themselves under no obligation towards parents and grandparents they correctly perceive to be lazy, selfish, self-centered, inconsiderate and immature.
A big part of the boomers problem was that many people got married and had children because it was "the thing to do", then found out they didn't like being parents-and had no aptitude for it.

 

[Wee Hooker]

All of us old coots used to be called Baby Boomers. Who are (were) the boomers? Here are some hard numbers and old memories that help define us.

The first boomers were born in the first year after the end of the Second World War, 1946 (I was born in 1949). We were raised by parents who valued life and liberty and who wanted a better life for us than what they had experienced ... the great depression and world war.

America came of age during and after WWII. Through the nineteen fifties America became the arsenal of democracy, a world leader, and the home of a booming economy where people could expect to eventually own a home, and electric appliances, and automobiles.

We were raised to expect that all things were possible with hard work and honest effort. The first boomers came of age (in my terms, graduated high school) in 1964. I graduated in 1967. Many found jobs, some attended college.

In the mid sixties America finally confronted the ugliness of racism. The "Great Society" and the "War on Poverty" were, in my opinion, noble efforts by decent men to make changes that were badly needed in the country. Young activists, black and white, were murdered in the south while fighting segregation.

1964 also saw the formation of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley. This leftist movement spread to university campuses across the nation in the mid sixties. In 1965 the Vietnam war began to heat up. I started college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were murdered in 1968.

The college draft deferment was eliminated in 1969, and I drew #259 -- which meant that I would never be called before the next year's birthdays came up in the lottery. I never went to Vietnam, and I protested the war at home every year that we fought it. But the men who fought, whether as volunteers or as draftees, are the bravest and most honorable among us. The war was hated at home, but *never* the men and women who served (by any reasoning people at least). And over 50,000 died before it ended.

The first boomers, born in 1946, turned 65 (standard retirement age) in 2011. I turned 65 in in 2014. We are the leading edge of the boom as it approaches retirement age. We are brave, it's proven, and we are outspoken. Just look at any documentary on the nineteen sixties or seventies if you don't remember living through it.

So, why am I dredging up all this stuff? The boomer tsunami (harbor wave) is rising -- and it's only starting. It isn't just that the numbers will overwhelm Medicare, Hospitals and the Elder Care industry, it is also that the boomers coming will not roll over and accept being treated like trash! We've lived through the craziest of times, crazier than these times, and we have survived!

Treat us like unwanted dirt, and you'll find unwanted dirt where you don't want it. Elders vote. Many elders have resources. Many elders are connected. Many other elders *need* the resources provided by government. Don't mess with us! Don't disrespect our brothers and sisters. We are brave (proven). We are outspoken (proven). And there's a whole bunch of us coming!

As a boomer myself, I'm a bit unnerved to think that there will be less of us voting every year as we come into our last decades. Allot less of us in 20 years or so. That leaves the door open for those of the millennial (i.e. "everybody deserves a trophy) generation" and their "me first" offspring behind us to shape the world of our final years.

 

[Golddollar]

As a boomer myself, I'm a bit unnerved to think that there will be less of us voting every year as we come into our last decades. Allot less of us in 20 years or so. That leaves the door open for those of the millennial (i.e. "everybody deserves a trophy) generation" and their "me first" offspring behind us to shape the world of our final years.

Hopefully what we lack in total population will be made up by percentage of participation in voting. They don't call Social Security the "third rail" of politics for no reason.

 

[rwsmith]

Hah, thanks for the vote of confidence...

Hi Boomers!

Gen X'er here. I fully support what the OP is saying. If there are any children of boomers here, don't fall for the anti-boomer propaganda.

It IS propaganda. One way that a dominant elite (every society has them) maintain their position is by cultivating "generation gaps." Don't fall for it! Love your parents. Mine are fiercely anti-gun, and I still love them.

Yes, the boomers had economic advantages that we will never know. Good on them! Never fall into the trap of envying those who are more well off -- it's mind poison (speaking from experience).

My parents never, ever passed on wisdom to me that they had received from their own parents. It's not their fault; they couldn't pass on family wisdom, because they got sucked into the generation-gap ideology that was pushed back in the 60's, that said: "Your parents are old-fashioned, ignorant victims of the evil system that killed MLK and brought you the War. You know better than they do," etc.

"Interbellum Generation

Greatest Generation

Silent Generation

Baby Boom Generation

Generation X

Generation Y or Millennial Generation

Generation Z or Internet Generation"

The above should be an unbroken chain, not a series of gaps.

Thanks for that. One thing that a baby boomer likes to here is a level headed young man that can think for himself. It's so RARE these days.

I've learned to be grateful for what I've got. I've always wanted to get a big paycheck but what I got was a job, a house and three meals. That's what my parent gave me and I'm not sorry.

 

[rwsmith]

Thanks,

Regarding eldercare, so many of the young consider themselves under no obligation towards parents and grandparents they correctly perceive to be lazy, selfish, self-centered, inconsiderate and immature.
A big part of the boomers problem was that many people got married and had children because it was "the thing to do", then found out they didn't like being parents-and had no aptitude for it.

Another place that society has screwed up big time. People used to live as generations and people took care of each other. You can't say, "What's this country coming to?" when the reasons are right in front of your face.

 

[AZretired]

OP Said:"The war was hated at home, but *never* the men and women who served (by any reasoning people at least). And over 50,000 died before it ended."

I was born in "54 enlisted in 1972, prepared to go to Viet Nam but they sent me to Germany. That said I know several returning Vets who were spit on in Airports and called many names I shall not repeat. As I remember it the G.I. was just as hated as the war.

 

[STCM(SW)]

OP Said:"The war was hated at home, but *never* the men and women who served (by any reasoning people at least). And over 50,000 died before it ended."

I was born in "54 enlisted in 1972, prepared to go to Viet Nam but they sent me to Germany. That said I know several returning Vets who were spit on in Airports and called many names I shall not repeat. As I remember it the G.I. was just as hated as the war.

That being called a baby killer and spit on happened more then once to me and my men......
That's when we started to travel not in uniform...

 

[JayFramer]

Some would say the Boomers ruined the world, too, so it's all perspective I guess!! Every generation says they're the best. Others say they're the worst. Who really knows?

 

[Rustyt1953]

Some would say the Boomers ruined the world

How did we accomplish this?

 

[Abbynormal]

My Cousin born in 1944 considers herself to be a "Boomer" and really gets XXXXed at me when I remind her that she's a "War Baby"

This has been going on for years!

 

[Golddollar]

OP Said:"The war was hated at home, but *never* the men and women who served (by any reasoning people at least). And over 50,000 died before it ended."

I was born in "54 enlisted in 1972, prepared to go to Viet Nam but they sent me to Germany. That said I know several returning Vets who were spit on in Airports and called many names I shall not repeat. As I remember it the G.I. was just as hated as the war.

I was in college wearing my AFROTC uniform and I heard a girl refer to me as a baby killer. It didn't bother me because I knew her to be a complete airhead.

 

[llowry61]

Born in 61, the very tail end of the boomers. I agree that it will be interesting to see how those of us born in that 60 - 64 timeframe will fare. I am trying to figure out who will pick up the assets of the boomers. I have read that it could be a real problem for the late boomers. I guess we will find out what will happen to all of the 4000 sf houses etc as we all decide to move into condos.

 

[carpriver]

As a Boomer I served in Vietnam, was spit on and called names, yet I continued to serve my country, helped bring about the end of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War. We raised sons with values I learned form my parents. Hard work pays off, Love God, Love you country and love your family and help those who that need help.

 

[Golddollar]

As a Boomer I served in Vietnam, was spit on and called names, yet I continued to serve my country, helped bring about the end of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War. We raised sons with values I learned form my parents. Hard work pays off, Love God, Love you country and love your family and help those who that need help.

Good for you and thank you for your service.

 

[Robert L Wells]

OP Said:"The war was hated at home, but *never* the men and women who served (by any reasoning people at least). And over 50,000 died before it ended."

I was born in "54 enlisted in 1972, prepared to go to Viet Nam but they sent me to Germany. That said I know several returning Vets who were spit on in Airports and called many names I shall not repeat. As I remember it the G.I. was just as hated as the war.

I didn't want to stir up bad memories. I'm sorry for all the stupid people who did that. They shamed themselves. When my friends got home (they all did) we had beers and looked through the photos they had taken. I admired them, even though I had protested the war. I would have gone if I had been called, but I'll never really know what it was like.

 

[Robert L Wells]

Good for you and thank you for your service.

Amen. Amen.

 

[ExcitableBoy]

Some would say the Boomers ruined the world, too, so it's all perspective I guess!! Every generation says they're the best. Others say they're the worst. Who really knows?

You are only partially correct. Some of the "Boomer" generation, a very small portion, can be blamed for social problems in later years. These would be the "young skulls filled with mush" who entered college and were "taught"/inculcated by elitist/effete professors in their own versions of how to steer society to match their skewed vision. Thusly, the hippie movement (to a degree) and the anti-war movement. Many anti-Viet Nam war rallys were being directly piloted by said professors... and their students, being easily influenced due to lack of any "real world" experience, drank the Kool-Aid. A fair percentage of these students became teachers and professors, and never left the world of academia.

The "DNA" was passed on to these Boomers, who, in turn, passed it on again in their teachings to the next generation, and then the next, in a vicious cycle. And now, everything is subject to protest, often to the point of violence. It is a "right", in their minds, to be able to bully, blackball, harass and even physically harm those who disagree. These elitist thugs are in the small minority, but they seem to have a huge sway, overall, because they deem themselves to be "protected" because they have the higher "moral ground". Unfortunately, they are protected, due to lack of fortitude by the powers that be.

The Boomer Generation may not be the greatest (My vote is for the Depression/WWII/Korea years), but at least most of us are of the last of those born who grew up, and remain, respectful, aware, diligent, hard working, law abiding and patriotic.

Can you say that about those that have followed?

 

[shouldazagged]

I'm a Depression baby, a high-mileage 1937 model. We're shuffling off this mortal cluster faster than the boomers and have some pretty different memories, and some different ways of looking at things. We did most of our coming of age in the Eisenhower years, as the children of parents who had known hard times in the Depression and still were struggling.

In some ways our lives were simpler, for which I'm grateful; but it cost us some confusion as we watched the changes the Boomers wrought.

When I was in high school (graduated in 1955), smoking weed was the province of musicians and coke was restricted to the wealthy on both coasts. Valium was first available by prescription in my senior year. We heard grisly tales about heroin addicts, but never saw them on our streets. If my generation had had access to the drugs the Boomers could obtain and use, I probably would have been dead fifty-plus years ago.

My sister, born 1950, is a Boomer and an ex-hippie. We have a great deal in common and are very close, but we grew up with vastly different frames of reference.

You guys changed things very fast, most of it but not all for the better. We Depression kids often felt we were playing catch up, because we were.

 

[nachogrande]

DITTO

Well..and referring to "privateinvestigator's" post a little, My parents came from the "Great Depression"...I sure learned how to Pinch a Penny. I've made Pres Lincoln squeal more than once.


P.S...My dad did instill in me to work with my head and not with my back, like he had to. (And I did)


WuzzFuzz

BUT, Dad made me work with my back as well. NO SUCH THING as waste, no food ever went bad. I still have baby food jars my older brother was fed from, full of bent nails.