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The last members of the Baby Boom generation, according to demographers,
were born after Kennedy was shot, after Martin Luther King Jr. had his dream,
after the Beatles landed in America. These second-wavers, as they're sometimes called,
hardly seem to belong to the same cohort: They are more conservative politically,
worse off financially, too young to have fought in or against the Vietnam war,
the defining event of our times. But they, too, were weaned on television. They, too,
lived under a nuclear cloud. And like most of their generation, they shared expectations
of self-fulfillment fueled by an expanding economy.
The 1960s is the decade that defined the boomers and also the time I and my friends
were teenagers. The music, events, and the social changes made a permanent impression on us.
Those of us born during the "peak" boomer years, '52-'57, were in our formative years
during the sixties. There were so many changes in the sixties that how old you were during
the decade greatly affected how you turned out. 1961 was a whole lot different from 1969!
Those born at the early end of the spectrum were in our early 20s by 1970. Some of my
friends were at Kent State at the time of the shootings since I grew up in Ohio.
The deaths of President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King; the
Vietnam war and related protests; and the Watergate scandal all made deep impressions on us.
At the other end, those born after 1959 have no direct recollection of the assassination
of President Kennedy; they were not yet listening to rock music by the time the Beatles
broke up. They were much more likely to use illegal drugs, often to a great and disturbing
excess. And they were never subjected to the military draft.
Quite a difference for one generation!
This is taken from a Life Magazine article"Baby Boom turns 50" an essay
written by Robert Friedman with some comments of my own sprinkled in.
bravenet.com
