Poll: What generation are you?

[5Miler]

Baby Boomer as well, born in 1953. My parents both born in 1929 so too young for WWII but my Dad was a Marine during Korea. I had draft number 39 in the drawing of Feb 2, 1972 when I was 19. Fortunately, the draft was discontinued the next year although I had already enlisted in the Air Force by then. I don't wish anyone to have to deal with conscription ever again.

 

[jazz4cash]

"Identify with" ... what does it mean? IMO we should all try to associate and have a good conversation with all age groups. Now it might happen that they do not feel the same need to converse. That can be disappointing. Oh well.

I agree but that wasn’t the point. I was responding to another poster using the term but I do think it’s easier to associate and have good conversations with your own age group vs. distant groups.

 

[aja8888]

Wow this poll really stirred up all of us old fogies!

Yes, this thread makes me feel old. Well, I guess I am!

 

[Ronstar]

^^ You’re not old. Old starts at 95.

 

[lucky penny]

I'm one of the Baby Boomer generation, born in 1948. For many years it was said that my generation included those born from 1945-1950, during the time when members of the WW2 military were returning home and starting their families. I still feel more in common with the older Baby Boomers than the rest of what people say is my generation.

And by the way, THANKS for calling us the Baby Boomer generation instead of that awful designation as the Boomer generation. When I was a kid, a "boomer' referred to a bowel movement and I hate that assignment.

I'm your age & never heard that usage of boomer.

 

[Ginny]

I'm a boomer and a Navy sub Mom so boomer means something different to me too.
Kids are millennials and 5 grands are all gen alphas.

 

[jollystomper]

Wow this poll really stirred up all of us old fogies!

Perhaps because people are seeking the "perfect' generation - sometimes their own - or a generation to "blame". In truth, every generation has flaws, because every generation is made up of people.

 

[Andre1969]

I'm your age & never heard that usage of boomer.

The only time I ever heard anything remotely close to it was on "All in the Family." Edith used to refer to it as "Making a Boom-Boom." Archie responded with "You can call it Boom-Boom if you want; I was raised on Number Two!"

There was also Mildred "Boom Boom" Turner, who showed up three times over the years, as a buxom waitress at Kelsey's Bar, where Archie frequented. She was played by Gloria LeRoy, and was also in an earlier episode where she played the wife of one of Archie's old buddies from the Air Corps.

 

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

The earliest baby boomers likely had grandparents who talked about the depression and had used horses for transportation. They met WW1 veterans and may have had parents who went to WW2. Communications were minimal still and rural areas socially may have lagged metropolitan areas by 5 years or so in social changes. A very different background than last of the baby boomers from urban areas.

A lot of problems were found and work arounds were dealt with. Thinking specifically about food shortages and more productive plants and realization of pesticide and phosphate in detergent problems. Anyhow i think it was a good time to be an American in the USA generally. As problems were identified and dealt with others were focused on. Sort of like parenting, is easy to say what your parents should have done after the fact when other stuff is know.


Regarding the eventual strengthening world economies kind of making us financially weaker, it is easy to sell products if all the other manufacturing plants were bombed to the ground and not recovered.

 

[audreyh1]

Both my parents were Silent Generation but I still heard many stories of what their parents went through during the Great Depression even though I am a late Baby Boomer. DF experienced the Dust Bowl personally.

 

[Aerides]

As for the groups after Gen X, I do not think they are even thinking about retirement too much yet. Or perhaps they are, but they are using a different technology to discuss it.

This is key. Message board forums are "old school" for the internet. The youngs aren't interacting this way.

 

[Lsbcal]

The earliest baby boomers likely had grandparents who talked about the depression and had used horses for transportation. They met WW1 veterans and may have had parents who went to WW2. Communications were minimal still and rural areas socially may have lagged metropolitan areas by 5 years or so in social changes. A very different background than last of the baby boomers from urban areas.

...

Interesting that you should mention this. I'm in the early BB range (born 1948). I did hear some stories of the Great Depression and looked at old black/white photos of my parents in those years including WW2. One photo was of my Dad in his teens leaning against an the outside window area of a laundry store in Brooklyn where he worked at the Depression's beginnings.

My Mom's Dad lost a rental apartment in the Depression. He made hats in Chicago area. My Mom had to plead with her parents to get some schooling in a secretarial school.

Both my parents died in their late 60's from what I think was work related and environmental factors. Health topics were not up to today's standards. Like getting proper nutrients, exercise, and not smoking.

Those stories of those years have had a strong affect on how I see things. I always have a Plan B for equities as a kind of insurance against the worst. I think this is wise as we get into the later years where there is little time to make up for a serious decline in the markets. I've had to work at spending in retirement without getting silly about the small change stuff.

 

[Car-Guy]

^^^^
That picture reminds me of my first "steady" job after school hours. Started out at .50 an hour and I worked about 30 hours a week. I was probably about 15 at the time. (Maybe) I got a 50% increase after a short while to .75 an hour. A year or so later I got another raise to a full dollar an hour and I was glad to get it. Bought several new motorcycles and a coupe of used cars by working at that job.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

X

 

[AudiDudi]

The earliest baby boomers likely had grandparents who talked about the depression and had used horses for transportation. They met WW1 veterans and may have had parents who went to WW2. <snip>

I was born in '52. My grandparents were born in 1899 and 1900. They talked to, and knew well, people born in the 1840's. My grandfather was in the Navy in WW1. I heard lots of stories about the depression. In the mid 60's, I remember eating jams my grandmother had canned during WWII, 20 yrs earleir (it didn't kill me!)

 

[Amethyst]

I was the unexpected late-life kid of parents who were adults during the Depression and first-time parents during WWII. Depression and war shortages/rationing stories were common household fare, and I was taught frugality and DIY from an early age.

 

[Car-Guy]

My great grandfather was born in ~1863 and I can still remember talking to him when I was a teen in the mid 1960's. (He lived until he was 102) I wonder what the label is for his generation? Old West? Civil War? Olden days? Or maybe just 1800's?

 

[MarieIG]

I recently came across this list, which I found useful since I can never remember which is which, and thought it might be interesting to see what our mix is here.

I left the first and the last off the poll, since they are unlikely to be represented on the forum. Personally, I'm a Boomer, my parents were the Greatest, and my grandparents the Lost.

. . .

Ditto.

 

[FlaGator]

Perhaps because people are seeking the "perfect' generation - sometimes their own - or a generation to "blame". In truth, every generation has flaws, because every generation is made up of people.

Further to that, we're all "gifted" what our predecessors have done. No surprise Boomers (writ large), as the largest demographic cohort, have had an influence on domestic and global politics, housing, employment structures etc. - more so than prior or current generations.

I've heard complaints in some quarters from Xers and Millennials about boomers ravaging future generations for their own benefit. Maybe legit, maybe not, but no one produces hard data to back up those assertions. Reminiscent of late 60-early70's protests-by early Boomers. Personally, I have made substantial sacrifices, as have many of my late-Boomer cohort friends, to ensure our Millennial/Zoomer kids won't have that complaint.

My parents were born in 1932/37 and I never once heard them comment, much less complain, about their parents and grandparents bequeathing them the Great Depression, WWII, or unresolved, long-standing civil rights issues.

So, shut up and make it work. We didn't control when we were born. All we can do is make the best of it and ensure any offspring learn how to do the same.

 

[Teacher Terry]

My grandparents were in WW1 and my dad in WW2. One of my grandpa’s was too old for WW1 and traveled by covered wagon with his grandparents from Kansas to Chicago. Hearing all the stories made me very grateful for the life I lived.

My dad was happy to have a job at American Motors paying well but as a tool grinder it ruined his health in his 50’s. Sadly my mom blamed his smoking instead of his job. I wish I would’ve known the truth before he died.

 

[rodi]

Having looked up on wikipedia, I'm pretty comfortable with Gen Jones. It describes late boomers as 'having grown up in the malaise years of the 1970's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation#List_of_named_generations

My kids are gen z.

 

[Calico]

Further to that, we're all "gifted" what our predecessors have done. No surprise Boomers (writ large), as the largest demographic cohort, have had an influence on domestic and global politics, housing, employment structures etc. - more so than prior or current generations.

I've heard complaints in some quarters from Xers and Millennials about boomers ravaging future generations for their own benefit. Maybe legit, maybe not, but no one produces hard data to back up those assertions. Reminiscent of late 60-early70's protests-by early Boomers. Personally, I have made substantial sacrifices, as have many of my late-Boomer cohort friends, to ensure our Millennial/Zoomer kids won't have that complaint.

My parents were born in 1932/37 and I never once heard them comment, much less complain, about their parents and grandparents bequeathing them the Great Depression, WWII, or unresolved, long-standing civil rights issues.

So, shut up and make it work. We didn't control when we were born. All we can do is make the best of it and ensure any offspring learn how to do the same.

Well said.

 

[Andre1969]

My parents were born in 1932/37 and I never once heard them comment, much less complain, about their parents and grandparents bequeathing them the Great Depression, WWII, or unresolved, long-standing civil rights issues.

So, shut up and make it work. We didn't control when we were born. All we can do is make the best of it and ensure any offspring learn how to do the same.

Y'know, I'd never thought of it before, but I can't recall a single instance of any of my parents, aunts/uncles, great grandparents, etc, complaining about the generations before them, or blaming them for whatever the complaint-of-the-moment was. They might blame particular people, or whatever political party was in charge at the moment, but they never painted a whole generation of people with the same broad brush.

Most complaining I'd tend to see would be in the other direction, mostly older people telling younger ones how much easier they have it.

 

[Koolau]

Early Baby Boom. Grand parents were all born in the 1800s! DW's dad got home from WWII (Pacific) and 11 months later she came along.

My parents still recalled seeing their first airplanes in 19teens. My aunt actually wing-walked with a barn stormer until grandma put her foot down.

Both parents recalled the 1918 flu (mom almost died and she lost several relatives.) Dad was disabled so no WWII service (almost too old as well) but mom and dad both w*rked in defense plants.

Following the war, there were no j*bs for women or disabled men who had not served, so mom and dad started the family business. I was born "into" it and helped until after college graduation - and beyond as I contributed DW to manage the business and I continued to help as needed. The business is still robust with 3rd generation looking to retire early (just turned 50.) I told her "it's a lot easier to get INTO business than it is to get OUT of it." She was not amused.

I've considered a tag line that I find more appropriate all the time (as a BB, especially):

"I always knew I would get old. I just could never have imagined it would happen so fast!"

Staying at the old family "homestead" - the house I came home to from the hospital post-birth - I still have many of my old toys in the attic and still see the bb holes I made as a kid when I would shoot at the mobile hanging in my bed room. My mom was an absolute saint. I think I was easy on our kids because I remembered what being a kid was really like.

Thanks for the nostalgia (it's become just about all I have left.)

 

[Amethyst]

The ranting and accusations are for two main reasons:

1) A feature of modern times is that social media encourage ranting and complaining; good luck getting the ranters to shut up, may as well tell a dog not to bark; and

2) People hope somebody in the targeted generation will feel guilty, and will give them more goodies and breaks. Good luck with that, too.

I've heard complaints in some quarters from Xers and Millennials about boomers ravaging future generations for their own benefit. .....

So, shut up and make it work. We didn't control when we were born. All we can do is make the best of it and ensure any offspring learn how to do the same.