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