by Buddy Netter

Created on: May 22, 2009

Talking 'Bout My Generation

There has never been a generation quite like the Boomers either before our time or since. No other generation has ever impacted society, broken down as many barriers or challenged accepted norms to the degree that we have. Our clothes and hairstyles puzzled adults; our outspoken ideals outraged them. During a single decade, the 1960s to be exact, our music took us from the lovesick ballad Puppy Love to acid rock. We were the first to publicly recognize and renounce racism. We stopped a war that we didn't believe in. We stood up for women's rights and showed the world that women are, indeed, people too. We ended the hypocrisy of unwed mothers, where girls were either sent off to visit a faraway aunt and have their child adopted by strangers or forced to marry an unwilling boy who, in turn, would abuse her and make her life miserable, all in the name of keeping up appearances. Because of one generation, a lifetime of seemingly set in stone values were forever changed.

Where did we get our tenaciousness and unflappable resolve? We certainly came from good stock. While our fathers were off fighting WW2, our Rosie the Riveter moms worked in factories and built the planes used to bomb the enemy and win the war. Our fathers returned home to a victorious heroes welcome and settled down to marry the girls they left behind. Men took over the positions temporarily held by women. The country was booming in industry, building, and the economy was thriving. Families moved to the suburbs, while Dad went to work each day to provide for a stay-at-home Mom and kids, usually numbering from two to four.

We Boomers born to the gallant war heroes and their loyal wives lived in an era of freedom and luxury like no other generation before us. Many of us were no longer forced to help with farm chores before school in the morning and after school as well. Some of us took on jobs such as babysitting or clerking after school, but it was voluntary because we wanted to earn some money-we were not forced to drop out of school because we were needed to work the farm. We had freedom to play after school, and play we did. We could walk or ride our bikes to nearly any given destination, whether to the show or a friend's house without fear of kidnapping or molestation, and in the event that it was too far to walk, our moms were more than glad to drive of us. The world we inhabited was totally child oriented. Television programs were family

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