Posted on 07/13/2007 7:39:49 AM PDT by Incorrigible
Selfish?
I recall my folks bought their first home, it was *brand* new. My Dad use to go to the gas station and say, "gimmy a bucks worth of regular". Then they cleaned his windshield, checked his oil and tires. We had everything we needed. And Mom NEVER had to work.
It only took one income back then to buy a brand new home and raise a family to boot.
Just try that today.
Carolyn
Today, one is lucky to even have a secure job. They're almost unheard of.
Conversely, I graduated in the mid-90s. Including myself, I knew of four people (well enough to know these things, at least) that had *not* tried pot. All the rest had at least tried it, if they weren't using it regularly.
Thus, the legacy of 60s generation continues.
As I recall it was in her book “The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution”.
The essay on her website is a pale reflection of the original.
The essence is, however, the same.
Carolyn
You and I are about the same age - I’m guessing I’m a year younger and perhaps luckily for me, all of my friends seemed to be “oldest” children w/o older siblings in college.
I was socially immature enough that the summer of love had come and gone by the time I might have been interested in participating, and by the jaded old age of 15, thanks to Ayn Rand, I decided that wasting my mind wasn’t what I wanted to do.
Me too. While at a later age I realized I wasn’t entirely comfortable with her strict reliance on reason alone as the basis of morality, everything else made perfect sense.
LOL I still have a bunch of her Objectivist newsletters from the late 60s-early 70s. :)
Your answer made me think that we should have a “Boomer” purity test,with questions like “Who is Buffy St. Marie”,fill in the next line after “gliddy gloop gloopy” and did you ever experience Hendrix or Janis in concert?
On a more serious note,I want to point out to our younger critics,that many,many of us who fit the classic Boomer profile,as it’s been described so aptly,were teenagers below voting age when Johnson instituted his Great Society ; many Boomers who hadn’t yet reached the age of majority (which was 21 at the the time) were drafted to fight in Southeast Asia even though legally those soldiers weren’t old enough to vote or even buy a beer.
The Sixties were a period of extreme turmoil,there were terrible riots,students were shot at Kent State,there was the war,there was heavy propaganda against it,plus, we, as still very young people, were also having to deal with the utter trauma of our president being assassinated, in addition to being exhorted to experiment with drugs,sex and to tune in,turn on and drop out. It was so different from the fifties that it was like going to sleep one night and waking up in a different world.
In my opinion we were very vulnerable and our youthful idealism and natural inclination towards independence from our parents at that age was used to manipulate us.
Having said all this,I also want to say that I don’t at all blame my parent’s generation,they went to the world wars,the Korean war,some of them old enough to remember keenly the deprivation of the great depression and they were and are a very patriotic and self sufficient group. I think they had such faith and trust in our country’s leadership and in the American spirit that they didn’t forsee the difficulties we are facing now or that we faced when my generation was growing up.
I enjoy the challenge/romanticism of work, so I’m glad I never had to experience the liberal days of excess.
That’s a great visual.
Promiscuous Boomers have brought about the decline of the Greatest Nation on Earth.
So true,heartbreakingly true.
“Those were the days,my friend,we thought they’d never end”
Who are the Boomers in that picture? Surely you don’t mean Ted Kennedy?
Beautiful response, redpoll.
It sure is.
If you go back to the original popularization of "Generation X", (from the Douglas Coupland book of the same name), it referred to a very narrow group, born between 1960 and 1965, who really are in the demographic shadow of the boomers. It was such a catchy term, though, that it was used to describe a much larger, and later, group.
Selfish?
I recall my folks bought their first home, it was *brand* new. My Dad use to go to the gas station and say, "gimmy a bucks worth of regular". Then they cleaned his windshield, checked his oil and tires. We had everything we needed. And Mom NEVER had to work.
It only took one income back then to buy a brand new home and raise a family to boot.
Just try that today.
Not to mention, they had secure jobs, with great medical benefits, and most had pensions. It was no big deal back then, and was more or less expected.
Today, one is lucky to just have a secure job. They're almost unheard of.
I enjoy the challenge/romanticism of work, so I’m glad I never had to experience the liberal days of excess.
Uh, what liberal days of excess are you referring to? The above was happening in the 1950s and early 60s, when I was a little kid.
You’re a little off on who are Boomers and who aren’t.
From the bios on congress.org:
Kerry birth year 1943-not a boomer
Reid birth year 1939-not a boomer
Pelosi birth year 1940-not a boomer
Murtha birth year 1932-not a boomer
Kennedy birth year 1932-not a boomer
Clinton birth year 1947-on the early edge
Kucinich birth year 1946-on the early edge
I don’t recognize the rest of the people.
Entitlement? LOL!
Here is your comment: "Selfish Babyboomers"
Then I point out to you my non-boomer folks bought their first home brand new, buying a bucks worth of regular gas as they serviced his car, their jobs back then were almost totally secure, with medical benefits, most with generous pensions, etc. All this and Mom NEVER had to work.
All this, new home, rasing a family of 5 to boot, all on one ONE income.
And you call the kids of that generation selfish?
Please!
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