006 Baby Boomers II

What a Boomer Remembers! Take #2

Let’s start this out when we were very young. Our mothers were told by the popular press and their communities to be like June Cleaver and Harriet Nelson. Magazine articles in 1946 and through the 1950s urged women to “embrace their roles as wives and mothers.” 

I am envisioning frilly aprons, high heels, and homemade pies as June or Harriet stands in the new Sears appliance kitchen awaiting the return of hubby and the 2 children (James and Mary – most popular baby names 1946) to her nest. Women who did not marry were advised that if she had no “MRS,” she should become a teacher or a nurse or a secretary until a husband was snagged. Humph! Thank goodness for 1963’s Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique as she argued that many women were being “buried alive” and dissatisfied.

I graduated from high school in 1964--the end of the Boomer era. In the intervening years, we got--via our parents--TVs, hi-fi systems, charge accounts. We ordered our mouse ears to wear watching Mickey Mouse Club in 1955. Good Grief! I remember Jimmy, Annette, Karen and Cubby, Doreen, and ??? Who am I missing? 

We grew up  with new technology.We bought 45 rpm records with our allowance, danced along with American Bandstand. We had Frankie Avalon, Bobby Darin, ELVIS, the Supremes, Chubby Checkers, and the BEATLES! 

We watched “I Love Lucy” on Monday night and Ed Sullivan on Sunday night. 

We had sleepovers and birthday parties, and hoola hoops, Slinkies that never seemed to work on our stairs and Silly Putty for the Sunday comics (after church, that is). Our parents and the teachers worked in tandem; if I did something amiss at school, Mom knew about it before I got home. Oh, I was forever grounded for something or the dreaded NO PHONE! 

We practiced sitting under desks in case of a Russian attack. Sputnik was launched in 1957 along with the first of the Civil Rights acts. We took the polio vaccine. Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as the 49th and 50th state. NASA was formed. MLK made his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. JFK was elected in 1961 and some saw America as Camelot until his assassination in 1963. I was in history class that day when that p.a. announcement came on to announce JFK’s death. You have a vivid memory, too.

In the 1960s, many Boomers became part of the counterculture.  Student activists made themselves known on college campus. Massive demonstrations took place against the war in Vietnam. Lots “dropped out, turned on” and grew long hair. Along came the pill and “free love” and communes. What a change from 1946! 

A quick review of the defining events for Boomers makes reminiscing such fun and shows how we adapted. The year 1954 began desegregation with Brown v. Board of Education. I don’t think I even thought of race relations until schools integrated. Vietnam War, protests, Woodstock 1969 as well as the first draft since the beginning of WWII made us look at our parents and politics and what we wanted from life. Government and politics took a blow with Watergate 1972. And in 1993, Clinton became our first Boomer president. Now, there is an interesting man! And, brava,Hillary. How have you held up?

So many changes. So many events that changed our lives. How did/do we decide what’s right for us? These decisions were straight out of quantum physics and the case of Schrodinger’s Cat in the box. Is the cat alive or dead? Seems everything had arguments that could be deemed valid. Did we spend too much time thinking? If you know one thing, you might not know the other. I still feel like I am not sure what I want to do when I grow up and I am still afraid to open the box to see if the cat is dead. (If you don’t know this physics quandary, it is fascinating and worth at least a Wiki read.)

And, let’s face it. We have experienced a revolution. The technological revolution. We were blessed with an upstairs and a downstairs phone when I was growing up. I could pick up the phone and ask “central” (her name was Hattie) to connect me to my grandparents at Boyce 73. Now my cell phone sleeps by me on the charger. And, I should note, I am waiting for the Galaxy VI from Samsung 

for my Christmas gift to me!

And, computers! Oh, how I wish I had had Word in 1968 when I did my thesis. Oh, no! It had to be typed in triplicate on a TYPEWRITER with FOOTNOTES at the bottom of each page. This is when I learned many new curse words. I remember in the early days of teaching when I took a computer class on a Radio Shack computer. I was so proud I created a loop for the library checkout counter that read: “today is ________; are your books due?” 

How clever was that! HA! Now my HP is as fast as Hughes Net (uh – different story) will let me go. My big decision is Word or Publisher, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

We Boomers have adapted. Hard choices sometimes. No choices at others. Schrodinger’s cat example from my physics class too many years ago taught me about paradoxes.

I am still finding that life is not black and white, but many shades of gray. Hang in there, Boomers! Maybe the best is yet to come. Next time, I promise to finish up Boomer info. Have to do it, though, as my compilations of music, books, and movies is too good not to share! And, oh yeah, my 50th class reunion is in October!

Thanks for hanging in with us!

 Glenne White