| Okay, we got it - a lot of babies were born in the | | | | a novel set in ancient Greece. There's nothing |
| decade after World War II ended. Here's what I | | | | wrong with all that Flower Power stuff, but it isn't |
| don't understand: all these millions of babies were | | | | my experience.Set us free, release us from the |
| born, and then the birth rate dropped; and all | | | | Baby Boomer group - we want to go off on our |
| those babies that were born in that 1946 - 1964 | | | | own. The tired "I did the wild drugs and peace and |
| period are known as the Baby Boom generation.If | | | | freedom bit, now I'm going to get rich" doesn't fit |
| the kids had kept coming, would we be talking | | | | even one of my contemporaries. Think about it. |
| about a Baby Boom that extended from 1946 to | | | | We didn't grow up in Ike's fifties and react to that |
| 1972, or 1975? And if so, would we keep defining | | | | upbringing by inventing pot parties. We grew up |
| the whole blinking generation by the trends and | | | | with Vietnam on the evening news, watching RFK |
| events that shaped maybe the first ten percent | | | | and MLK and Malcolm get shot down, and then |
| of them?I was born on December 31, 1959. I | | | | saw Watergate, the icing on the cake, around the |
| have exactly nothing more or less in common | | | | time we entered high school. Of course we |
| with the stereotypical Baby Boomer than with | | | | became punk rockers! What would anyone do?In |
| any other human being on the planet. I don't | | | | our twenties, half our gay friends died of AIDS, |
| know from Howdy Doody. Ed Sullivan is a dim | | | | sometimes two weeks after the first symptom |
| memory, already a caricature by the time I was | | | | appeared. In our thirties, we began to have |
| old enough to pay attention. I can't remember | | | | children - the Boomer experience of kids in college |
| Father Knows Best. Annette Funicello? Give me a | | | | and beyond isn't ours, either. Of my high school |
| break. My older brother went to Woodstock, one | | | | graduating class of 1978, only one friend (Dave) |
| of the younger attendees at age 15 (and got his | | | | has a 15-year-old (and Dave was always more |
| sleeping bag stolen); I was at home with the | | | | responsible than the rest of us). My youngest is |
| younger siblings, watching the moon landing.All of | | | | three; John has a two-year-old. Steve the former |
| the signal events associated with the Baby Boom | | | | ticket scalper (a master sign painter/"letter-head" |
| are my older siblings' experiences, not mine. I | | | | in Berkeley) has a one-year-old.Honestly, when I |
| don't remember JFK's asassination. Hippies were | | | | think of the boomer stereotype, I think of my old |
| slightly exotic when I was six or seven years old, | | | | boss, Marty. Only ten years older than me, the |
| and then really boring.I have my own set of | | | | guy seemed like a fossil, culturally: he didn't know |
| reference points. My poor brother Pete, an even | | | | jack about anything that he didn't read in |
| further-out-on-the-curve Baby Boomer than I, | | | | Customer Service Management Today magazine. |
| born in March of 1964, wouldn't even remember | | | | He would bring new-car brochures to work and |
| the few Boomer references that register for me. | | | | show them to me. I could not relate, because I |
| How can we all be lumped in one group together? | | | | was sleep-deprived after having danced all night |
| Could any set of people born over any 18-year | | | | and coming into work directly from Medusa, the |
| period be expected to have that much in | | | | after-hours club. One day, when we were finshing |
| common? We just don't. Ask a real Boomer, a | | | | up a project together on a Saturday, Marty said |
| 1946-through-1956 Boomer, how he felt the first | | | | "You really like music, don't you? Who's that on |
| time he heard the B-52s. Whaaa? We heard | | | | your Walkman - Gruppo Sportivo?" That's right, I |
| "Rock Lobster" and had to call 15 people and say | | | | said. I also had the Roches and Ben Sidron and |
| "Wait until you hear this, it's random, it's the | | | | the Gap Band and Joan Armatrading and Fear and |
| greatest thing."Un-boom me, now. I insist. I could | | | | the Palominos on there. And Marty said, "Yeah, |
| give a damn about the Summer of Love. I never | | | | I'm into Iron Butterfly." I just stared at him. "Um, |
| trusted anyone over 30 any less than anyone | | | | are they still recording?" I asked.Un-bundle us, |
| else. When I started going to concerts in high | | | | un-boom us, we opt out. Have a happy sixtieth |
| school, it was (briefly) 70's rock bands, and then | | | | birthday, Boomers, and be well: just leave us out |
| (avidly) Tuff Darts and Blondie at Irving Plaza. If | | | | of the club, because we are a whole 'nother |
| anything, my contemporaries are the Tickets | | | | thing.Liz Ryan is a workplace expert, 25-year |
| Generation - it was "can you get tickets to Zappa | | | | corporate (Fortune 500) HR executive, and the |
| at the Beacon? What about Ian Dury at Max's | | | | founder and CEO of WorldWIT, the world's |
| Kansas City?"I was at the Blondie concert on the | | | | largest online community for professional women. |
| pier at Asbury Park when Debbie Harry got | | | | Liz is an international keynote speaker on |
| booed for singing "Heart of Glass" (disco sucks, | | | | workplace, work/life, leadership, and women in |
| remember?). I remember Son of Sam and | | | | the workplace topics. WorldWIT provides internal |
| dancing to Rick James and the New Year's Eve | | | | communication and community-building services, |
| fire on my 19th birthday at the Ipanema Club | | | | consulting and training to employers seeking to |
| near Times Square. I remember when Sid Vicious | | | | create a diversity culture and to increase |
| died, like it was yesterday. I read Go Ask Alice | | | | retention and engagement of women and |
| when it was assigned to us in tenth-grade English | | | | minorities. Liz lives in Boulder, Colorado with her |
| class, and related to it the same way I would do | | | | husband and five children. |