Generation Jones Corner

[jim584672]

I guess I'm Jones too. When they blew up those Disco records in the stadium I was so happy. Disco Sucks! I remember gas lines in the 70s, but too young to have a car. Classic rock was stale to me, even back then, New Wave all the way. Growing up in the '70s with all the drugs and sex, but too young to be a part of that. The the '80s came and War on Drugs, AIDS, Reagan, the fun house was closed just as I got old enough so that was out.

Boomers had full pensions and lower SS retirement age. We got shafted, frozen pensions and higher SS age.

 

[Badger]

Many have mentioned the music they grew up with. For me, one memorable hit out of the early 70s was "When the Levee Breaks", which was on the Led Zeppelin 4 album (the man with the big bundle of sticks). It finds new life in 2022, with a group of musicians from around the world. I think it is as great as ever and I hope younger people may find new meaning in a song originally written in 1929.

+++1 Thanks for the video. A '48 boomer here. Parents listened to Glen Miller. I still like that sound. Then in the late 50s R&R came along and I was hooked. I then experienced all the excitement of the 60s and early 70s including the music and continue to listen to it today. I even played in a rock band in the late 60s. This video has the great blues harp and slide guitar of the blues scene during that time. Then disco came along as well as the music that claimed to be part of R&R and it all went down hill.


Cheers!

 

[pacergal]

I have never heard of the Jones Gen, but by dates, I am in it, I guess!

 

[Time2]

. Yet, I'm called a Boomer (1963) I want to embrace my Jonesing.

I'm on the other end of the Jones birthdate, 1955.

We only discovered the depth of classic Motown soul later in life, when we had time to listen and also open our minds.

I think I got into that in my teens, when I had an 8 track. but also played Elvis, The Beach Boys, I had at least on Otis Reading Cassette. I listened to Tommy James and the Shondells, Ten Years After. Pink Floyd.

Disco simply drowned out every thing about soul at the time, and that's too bad. Similarly, classic rock, especially "prog rock" was just a tad too early (Emerson, Lake and Palmer anyone?) to be in the sweet spot. It doesn't mean we didn't like it, it is just that we didn't see it evolve from a group like King Crimson. Indeed, classic rock got swallowed by the New Wave, and like it or not, New Wave is Gen Jones music.

I listened to Yes and yep, Emerson Lake and Palmer.

We didn't abandon classic rock, we just made room for New Wave, a lot of room. Groups like Bondie even introduced us to the future of Rap, and Aerosmith cemented the deal with their collaboration on Walk This Way.

Sorry, but I don't hear that as an intro to rap, the way I hear rap now.

Now, Rap. This is what I think separates Gen Joners from true boomers. We didn't grow up on it, but we made "a little room" for it.

Boy you hit that on the dot. I just don't get it, I'm just on the old end of Jones.

At the same time, we were a bit horrified to see our kids, nieces and nephews mostly late Gen-X early Millenials, take to rap and gansta rap like flies to fly paper. What did they see in this? And what is with those damn subwoofers anyway?

Oh man that's right. Even my teens thought they were cool putting the car seat way back and driving like a gangsta, now in their late 20s early 30s, they have long grown out of that.

Country is my weak point in music history as it wasn't my thing, primarily because I wasn't into classic country that my Boomer siblings grew up on. Still, it got into our veins because a new group of near-crossover artists came to soften the fiddles and slide guitars enough to be pop enough for us to embrace. What Joneser doesn't like Kenny Rogers?

Ya, never enjoyed the classic country, but, yes there is some of country music that has snuck in on me and I enjoy. Lately my wife is getting more and more into county. But none of this would register as she grew up in another country.

 

[Amethyst]

From the 1950's...the real introduction to rap, or perhaps more properly hip-hop, for white people:

I'
Sorry, but I don't hear that as an intro to rap, the way I hear rap now.

.

 

[foxfirev5]

Born in '56 but grew up quick. Most of my memories were the 60's JFK, pretty much on the street at age 10, sitting in the back of a truck during riots in '67, 90 miles from Woodstock but couldn't get there. By the time I got to college in '74 I was pretty much a hellion. Somehow I met DW and we transitioned into respectable citizens. Nobody today would believe our past. I really don't care about how we are now categorizing age groups.

 

[Time2]

From the 1950's...the real introduction to rap, or perhaps more properly hip-hop, for white people:

But, I understood almost every word, can't be rap!!

 

[samcat]

Excellent post! (Joe and I had a private exchange before this post.)

I had never heard of Gen Jones before Joe used it in the Superbowl thread. However, it puts its finger on something I had long felt. I was born in 1963, and my DW in 1965, but we are both the youngest of a large family. Our older siblings were more Boomerish, and this helped drag us along, but we were too young for some of the supposedly defining experiences of leading-edge boomers.

Musically, I would largely agree with Joe, except I never had much space for rap. This is probably mostly because I am not very musically oriented. I was inculcated on New Wave in college, and still had plenty of space for classic rock. I always favored singer/songwriter types, so tracked Dylan, Springsteen, and Steve Forbert (still one of my faves).

I was born in 1965. My only brother is 4.5 years older than I. People are always surprised at the amount of early to mid 70s music I know.

I actually like pretty much all music. Of course, there are tunes that I'd rather listen to but if something is on the radio, I'll always give it a chance.

 

[Andre1969]

GenX would like a word.

On the subject of Gen-X, has anybody ever noticed that, over the years, they've started playing a bit fast and loose with the years that encompass that group?

Seems to me that for the longest time, it was considered 1965-1983. Then, it got shrunk a bit from 1965-1982. But I've seen some sites try to shorten it to 1965-79!

I think what happened, is once the Millennials came along, they were so eager to spew out these "Millennials in the workforce" articles. Only problem is, you can't have those types of articles if none of your Millennials are old enough to work yet! So, they simply shifted some Gen-X'ers to that group, to pad their numbers a bit, so they could get a better sample for when they did these articles.

And then, as Millennials started to get a bad rap for everything under the Sun, they just transferred a few more late Gen-Xers to the Millennial ranks, to try and say "Oh, look how responsible and productive we really are, after all!"

And I'm not saying this to slam the Millennials. Sure, older generations look down on them and make jokes about them, complain, and so forth. But that's been going on since the dawn of time. It's basically a rite of passage.

 

[Librarian]

OK...I'm officially a Gen X (1966) & DH a "Gen Jones" (1962).

I love nearly ALL kinds of music & always have (I don't care for extreme anything...)
DH...he loves current country. He can appreciate SOME of the top hits in our lifetime. He has learned to appreciate some tunes from a fav local cover band but it took A LOT of repetition to get there. He has a "list" of songs he will dance to.

He proudly said he has NEVER danced to Bust a Move (I have, many times)...but strangely he HAS danced to Backstreet Boys ;-)
(that man was NOT a dancer when we met--I had to dance with his friends. But when your wife LOVES to dance...you dance. Smart man.)

 

[Librarian]

I was born in 1965. My only brother is 4.5 years older than I. People are always surprised at the amount of early to mid 70s music I know.

I actually like pretty much all music. Of course, there are tunes that I'd rather listen to but if something is on the radio, I'll always give it a chance.

That was all the music playing on the radio riding around with my parents.
What I find is--I know many of the songs, but I'm not as good with artists from the 70s as following decades.

 

[jollystomper]

I was born in 1958. Having older siblings born in 1953 and earlier exposed me to a lot of late 50s and 60s Soul and Jazz music. One of my brothers would almost continually play John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck. A sister had a large collection of Motown and James Brown singles.

Also, since part of my heritage is Latin and Caribbean, I also heard a lot of Latin, calypso (like the Mighty Sparrow), and Reggae music from my parents.

I attended vary diverse high school and then got exposed to a lot of rock, particularly what was played on a lot of the Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) stations. That's were I added groups like Chicago, Yes, Traffic, Deep Purple, Santana, Beatles, Beach Boys, and Allman Brothers to my favorites. Meanwhile some stations had a R&B album format, paying mainly album cuts instead of singles (this when I first saw how heavily edited singles were). Kool and the Gang, Earth Wind and Fire, the "long" Motown tracks (a lot of Norman Whitfield productions) and long "Sound of Philadelphia" tracks, Sly & the Family Stone were in heavy rotation. It was also the era of the "Boom Box", and before and after school folks would group around various sounds are "argue" about bands.

College years were primarily Funk, Jazz, and Disco. I did not "hate" disco as I liked to dance, and, being shy, dancing was a good way to meet women. But I got into funk a lot for the first time - Parliament-Funkadelic and all its derivative bands, the funk bands from Ohio (Cameo, Ohio Players, Slave, Zapp, Lakeside, Heatwave, Wild Cherry, etc.) and other places (Brass Construction, Mass Production, BT Express, Average White Band, GQ, Kleeer). I remember having to explain to so many classmates the difference between Funk and Disco.

Then in college and after (1977-1983), I was a deejay on its FM station, and while my primary show was R&B and Funk, I also did shows in the Rock, Jazz, Disco, and (with help from DW, as it was her favorite type of music) Classical formats. I learned how to "mix" records, and then started DJing parties as well. I used to love "shocking" people by mixing rock and funk songs together that had similar beats - I'd the the rockers asking about the funk song, and the funkateers asking about the rock song.

Rap came onto the radio in those years. The first rap song we played regularly was "King Tim III" by the Fatback Band, which is considered the first commercial rap/hip-hop song. We would debate how much rap we should play on the air; I recall for most of my years on the air we would (a) limit it to 2 or 3 songs per hour, and (b) the songs could not contain certain lyrics or drug references. I also remember when Chic's "Good Times" came out, it then seemed that every up and coming rap group sampled a version of that song's bass line. Good for the Disco show where we mixed songs together for long periods of time, but not for our regular R&B and Funk shows.

I was not into country music at all, in truth because, in the circles I was in then, it was deemed "racist". Before 1980 if you asked me to name a country song the only one that would come to mind was "Dueling Banjos" or "A Boy Named Sue". But when I started working with Megacorp I started traveling to areas where country music is big and gladly learned otherwise. I think the first country musician I heard and liked was Eddie Rabbit in 1980. I started checking out various artists and do enjoy it more these days. Movies like "Brother Where Art Thou" educated me on older country songs.

I'm probably more selective about which country or rap songs I like, compared to other musical styles.

The MTV period came just before I stopped doing radio shows, but I kept DJing parties through the 80s so a lot of the dance music in that era sticks in my mind.

I have had education to educate "younger" folks who grew up listening to "sampled" rap tracks, to point them to the original song(s) used in the track. For example, I remember at a pool party in the 90s when the "Men in Black" movie theme was playing, and mentioning that the original song the music was taken from was better, and the kids asking "What original song?" I pointed them to Patrice Rushen "Forget-Me-Nots", and they were shocked that "it IS an old song!"

The majority of the songs on my phone, that I listen to for workouts and long driving trips, tend to be from the 60s thru the 90s, with a few before and a few after. I played so many of those songs so many times on the radio and DJing parties that the ones I like are burned into my head and memorized .

 

[pdxgal]

I was born in 1964. Never heard of Gen Jones until this thread. I'm technically a tail-end boomer but never really fit in with that whole description as I'm too young to have experienced much of what is associated with boomers.

+1. Born in 1961. I dated a guy 15 years older for 3 years, and married a guy 13 years older. Their experiences were very different from mine, not just culturally but financially. Like OP noted, by the time I started working pensions were being phased out in favor of 401ks. I had to get student loans for grad school (albeit not nearly as much as many of today's students). Housing prices in CA where I grew up were starting to become increasingly unaffordable. Though technically a boomer, I can sympathize with the angst supposedly felt by GenX about many things. On the plus side, women's lib in the 70's helped pave the way for me to have a career starting in the late 80's.

 

[JoeWras]

On the subject of Gen-X, has anybody ever noticed that, over the years, they've started playing a bit fast and loose with the years that encompass that group?

Seems to me that for the longest time, it was considered 1965-1983. Then, it got shrunk a bit from 1965-1982. But I've seen some sites try to shorten it to 1965-79!

Yes, so enter the Xennials. I happen to know a few in this roughly 1979 to 1985 born year. Like Gen Jones, it is a loose cross-over idea, but not cannon in the bible of sociology.

Xennials came of age during a huge transition between slow internet and analog phones, to the Millennial experience of fast internet and personal phones. My Xennial pastor would mention this because he wanted to connect to the old and young.

 

[Ger0n1mo]

I was born in '58 and remember as a child that my age was not included in the Baby Boomer period. I suppose sociologists expanded the age range through the years. I do remember being called the Me Generation, mostly by advertisers. But, not a good moniker as it implied being self absorbed.

Many sociologists hate the idea of these generational labels and I agree. Many of the traits assigned to a group is only because of their age. And, as we age our perspectives change too.

 

[razztazz]

Many sociologists hate the idea of these generational labels and I agree. Many of the traits assigned to a group is only because of their age. And, as we age our perspectives change too.

Interesting. I'm sure at least some sociologists would prefer a better way to refer to cohorts but none of term have come up with anything yet. I am a sociologist (one of degrees) and I've found they just love striating groups into other groups and subgroups.

I will admit to some affection for the label Generation Jones. Finally a section for my team. Growing up, and especially entering adulthood, I never understood why I was a "Boomer." Boomer to me meant Hippies, hula-hoops, that weird hard rock, (Jefferson Airplane et al) and what my father referred to as "hate music"" (Eve of Destruction, Blowin' in the Wind, San Francisco) and of course the draft. IOW those fun but slightly crazy teenagers who lived next door. Never heard of Buddy Holly till 1972 or 73 when the '50's made a come-back.

 

[jollystomper]

Many sociologists hate the idea of these generational labels and I agree. Many of the traits assigned to a group is only because of their age. And, as we age our perspectives change too.

I would agree based on the experiences with my siblings. The 7 of us were born between 1949 and 1966. Depending on the range of the label 5-6 of us us were baby boomers and 1-2 Gen X. Certainly the age gaps were a big difference when we were young even among those in the baby boomer range. A big example is my older brothers having to deal with the draft and the Vietnam war, and losing close friends in the war, whereas for me and my younger brother it was something to read about in the papers. But by the time the youngest hit 18 and was in college, we started having much more common experiences among each other and could better relate. By the end of this year, our age range will be 73 to 56, and within that range we have more things in common than not.

 

[djsander]

I’m in the Gen Jones camp. Having started life in 1960. As far as music I listened to a border blaster out of Juarez in my younger years.. My high school years we lived in Panama so I was exposed to everything. Armed forces radio played different genres throughout the day. So we would get rock, country, Motown, top 40 and probably other music that I don’t recall. Saturdays was American top 40 with Casey Casem. I never considered myself a boomer and not gen x either.

 

[CaptTom]

My tastes in music are all over the place. I want to change the subject. So, I Googled news in 1978, the year someone born near the middle of Gen Jones presumably started paying attention to more news items. Some fun facts:

- Jim Jones's followers commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana
- Pope Paul VI, dead at 80. New Pope, John Paul I, 65, dies unexpectedly after 34 days in office
- Succeeded by Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Poland as John Paul II
- New joke makes the rounds "Is the Pope Polish?"
- Sony introduces the Walkman
- A fusion reaction in a reactor at Princeton reaches 60 million degrees F for 1/20 of a second.
(And still today we hear fusion power is "just around the corner.")
- Movies: Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Animal House.
- The first Garfield comic strip debuts in U.S. newspapers.
- Toys: Air hockey, Simon, Hungry Hungry Hippos.
- Video game Space Invaders released.
- John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy were finally tracked down by authorities.
- Rainbow flag first flown in San Francisco as a symbol of the LGBTQ community.
- The first GPS satellite was launched into orbit.

I'll stop now. Maybe this sparked some memories. Did any of them surprise you?

 

[Gumby]

For anyone who thinks the world is horrible today, I present the 70's, the years between my 11th and 21st birthdays, and worst decade of my life.

1970 – when the decade opens, the US is still engaged in the Vietnam War, which had killed 49,000 Americans and had riven the country. In May, the U.S. invades Cambodia, sparking riots across the country. Among other events, 4 students are shot to death by the National Guard at Kent State University in Ohio and 15 killed at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Subsequently, 100,000 people protest the war in Washington DC and the “Hardhat Riot” occurs in NYC. 9000 more Americans would die before the war ended.

The Clean Air Act is passed, but the air is still dreadfully polluted. I personally recall the impenetrable haze, punctuated by the gas flares of the refineries, driving through the Meadowlands in NJ.

The TV news is filled with pictures of starving Biafran children with swollen bellies, as the civil war in Nigeria draws to a close. That news alternates with the gruesome reports from the Manson Family trial in California. In September, the Black September Group in Jordan hijacks and blows up 4 airplanes. The Baeder Meinhof Gang and Red Army Faction in Germany and the Red Brigades in Italy continue their campaign of terror, with kidnappings, murders and bank robberies. A cyclone hits Bangladesh and 500,000 people are killed – perhaps the most lethal natural disaster in history.

The inflation rate in the US is 5.7%. If you want to buy or sell stock, you pay a fixed (high) commission. There is no such thing as discount brokers until after 1975.

1971 – the country learns the horrifying details of the My Lai massacre as Lt. William Calley goes on trial. In May, 500,000 people gather in Washington DC and 125,000 in San Francisco to protest the war. The Pentagon Papers are published and the public learns of US government duplicity.

Race riots occur in Camden NJ and there is a violent takeover of Attica prison in New York. Violence increases as “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland take hold. There is also a war between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

President Nixon ends the Bretton Woods system by ending US dollar convertibility for gold. Wage, rent and price freezes are implemented. The US inflation rate is 4.4%.

1972 – the Troubles continue in Northern Ireland, including riots at the Maze prison. Bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong resumes and Haiphong Harbor is mined by the US. Thomas Eagleton is driven from the Democratic ticket because it is reported he was once treated for mental illness. Palestinian terrorists murder 11 Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympics in Munich as the world watches in horror. There is a race riot aboard the USS Kitty Hawk. With the return of the Apollo 17 mission, the US gives up on manned space exploration. There is a smallpox (a disease that no longer exists) epidemic in Yugoslavia.

After decades of abuse of our nation’s waterways, culminating, most notably, in the Cuyahoga River being so polluted that it caught fire in 1969, the Clean Water Act is finally passed. The nation’s rivers and lakes are so heavily polluted that the task is daunting indeed. The U.S. inflation rate is at a decade low of 3.2%. The DJIA reaches a high of 1067 at the end of the year. It will not see this level again until 1983 in nominal terms, and not until 1993 in real terms.

1973 – The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee. The Watergate scandal erupts into the public consciousness. Piece by piece, the public learns about lawlessness at the highest levels of government. The Saturday Night Massacre occurs in Washington when Nixon fires his attorney general and the deputy attorney general because they won’t call off the special prosecutor. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns for wrongdoing unrelated to Watergate.

The US sponsors a military coup in Chile, which overthrows and kills the legally elected president, Salvador Allende. In October, the Yom Kippur War erupts in Israel. US nuclear forces go to Defcon 3 (i.e. – ballistic missile submarines head for their launch points, SAC planes are manned and ready for takeoff) and the world is closer to nuclear war than it has been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Arab oil embargo ensues and gas lines become a common sight in the US. The US inflation rate nearly doubles, jumping to 6.2%. The country begins a brutal 2 year recession that will see the US economy contract by 2% per year.

1974 – there is a rash of destructive tornadoes in the central US, the worst in 40 years. The Symbionese Liberation Army is on the loose with Patty Hearst in California. In Northern Ireland, the deadliest bombings yet occur. President Nixon resigns from office as a consequence of his impending impeachment over the Watergate scandal, the first US president to ever do so. Turkey invades Cyprus. The inflation rate nearly doubles again, rising to 11%. The DJIA drops to 570 in December, nearly a 50% loss from the peak.

1975 – the Vietnam War finally ends, as Saigon falls to the North Vietnamese. The searing image of a helicopter on the roof of the U.S. embassy cements the ignominy of the US abandonment of the South. The Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia and genocide ensues. US Marines are abandoned to their fate in the Mayaguez incident. The Red Army Faction takes over the German embassy in Stockholm. There are two assassination attempts against President Ford. Both the president and vice president elected in 1972 are gone. New York City is on the verge of bankruptcy. The inflation rate this year is improving, and now only 9.1%.

1976 – The US enters the bicentennial year in a subdued mood. There is an enormous race riot at a Florida high school. Divisive public debate erupts over the fate of Karen Ann Quinlan, a NJ woman who lies in a coma after a drug overdose. Legionnaire’s disease erupts at a convention in Philadelphia. The US inflation rate drops to only 5.8%; it will not be this low again for the rest of the decade. The unemployment rate hits 7.7%.

1977 -- President Carter pardons Vietnam draft dodgers, infuriating many Americans. There is a terrible plane accident at Tenerife in the Azores, killing almost 600 people. There is a massacre in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 34. The New York City Blackout occurs, resulting in 25 hours of rioting and mayhem, highlighting the city’s troubles. The Son of Sam (aka “.44 cal. killer”) terrorizes a weary city through a long hot summer. The US inflation rate is 6.5%.

1978 – Winter brings a gigantic blizzard that disrupts travel and closes roads in many Northeastern states. There is a gigantic oil spill from a grounded tanker, the Amoco Cadiz, in France. The Red Brigades kill former prime minister Aldo Moro in Italy. 918 people commit mass suicide at the Jonestown Temple in Guyana. The U.S. Supreme Court rules, in Univ. of Cal. Regents v. Bakke, that racial quotas for college admissions are unconstitutional, setting off a firestorm of debate that continues to this day. The world’s first “test tube baby” is born in the UK, also setting off another firestorm of debate that continues to this day. Two Roman Catholic Popes die, and there are three popes in one year. Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated in San Francisco. Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first major American city to go into default since the Great Depression. The US inflation rate rises to 7.6%.

1979 – A disturbed teenager (Brenda Spencer) in San Diego opens fire at an elementary school, shooting two teachers and eight students. The Iranian Revolution occurs and the U.S. Embassy in Tehran is seized. The 53 American diplomatic and military personnel seized in Tehran will be held until 1981. There is an associated oil crisis and gas lines return to the US. There is a blowout at the Ixtoc oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, and 176 million gallons of oil are spilled. The Sandanistas seize power in Nicaragua. The IRA kill Britain’s Lord Mountbatten. The Grand Mosque in Mecca is taken by militants and recaptured by French commandos. 250 are killed and 600 wounded. Millions of people fear for their health and safety after a nuclear meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant in Harrisburg, PA. The US inflation rate hits 11.4%. President Carter gives his famous “malaise” speech to cap off a troubled decade.

 

[JoeWras]

CaptTom spurred some memories. 1978 is pretty key for a 63 baby. High school, driver's Ed, interest in girls or boys, and so on.

I want to share a kinda funny story. A "how I know I'm growing up" story. So Mom and Dad are ballroom dancers. They decide that they need to check out disco. So they drag young Joe along to the movie "Saturday Night Fever." I'm both enjoying the adult content and squirming in my seat because, well my parents are here.

Travolta's thick accent gets the best of dad. A lifetime of Chicago can't cut through the thick Brooklinese. So he asks me, "What is that he keeps calling her?". So, I never said any bad words in front of dad, but now I had no choice. I had to tell dad the word, a bad one. The dreaded C-word.

I just blurt it out. He pauses, looks at me, and says. "Oh.... Wow..."

After the movie dad says,. "Dancing was great, but they swore more than we did in the army.". It was an interesting day, and one small step in growing up .

 

[jollystomper]

For anyone who thinks the world is horrible today, I present the 70's, the years between my 11th and 21st birthdays, and worst decade of my life....

1977... There is a terrible plane accident at Tenerife in the Azores, killing almost 600 people.

I do not have all of the numbers, but to expand your your excellent post, overall airline safety was worse then than it was today. The 70s were the peak for airliner accidents and fatalities. It seemed as if a major crash occurred almost every quarter. In addition to the 1977 crash you mentioned - still the deadliest in aviation history - it was much worse then than it is now. I don't have all of the detailed stats. But I recall much more commercial accidents in that decade than now. It seemed like one with a large number of fatalities occurred once every quarter. A couple of other majors ones I remember were the two crashes in 1970 involving College Football teams (Wichita State and Marshall) and the 1979 American Airlines crash in Chicago, as some folks I had just met from Megacorp knew people who perished on that flight, and it was just before my first ever airline flight.

Then there were also the hijackings. The 70s were also the peak decade for those. The "friendly skies" were a lot less friendlier back then.

 

[jollystomper]

This video applies to our "group":

Two things related to this video I vividly remember, that seem so different today:


1) Not being "tethered" to home via cell phone. In summers a typical day for me and my siblings was getting up, going outside, meeting up with friends, and deciding what to do. Once were hit 12 or 13, If we decided to go somewhere we would tell our parents generalities ("we're going biking") Our parents would not likely not see us again until dinner time or later (we might stop back for lunch, but more often we would by something wherever we were, you could get a good lunch for less than a dollar). If our parents needed to reach us, they would check with neighbors, and as long as they knew we were with other kids, they were not worried.

2) Pickup sports games. We would go around to school yards and parks, see another group playing softball/basketball/football, and challenge them to a game. 99% of those games ended without issue. No referees, we'd call on our fouls and penalties, and disputed calls would even themselves out ("ok, we'll give you this one, but we've got the next one"). When fights did occur, it was (a) between 1 or 2 pairs of individuals, (b) hand-to-hand, no weapons (indeed, using any type of weapon in these fights was looked upon as being a "coward"), not last very long before being broke up by the others. More often than not, after the fight the groups would settle down, if we saw then again we'd play and get along, even becoming friends.

 

[Ballhawker]

It strikes me as kind of strange that Generation Jones is defined as 1954 to 1965, when the Baby Boomers are defined from 1946 to 1964. The definition goes on to say it includes the first few years of Gen X, but this isn't so, it includes exactly 1 year of Gen X. Everywhere I look Boomers end at 1964, including Wikipedia. So basically Jones is just the 2nd half of the Baby Boomers. For it to be an "overlap" generation it would need to include several years of Boomer and Gen X years. In the end there are no real "generations", just a continuum of people being born and dying.

I was born in 1965. So right on the cusp of the Boomers, but technically a Gen Xer. So my music influence came from my older sisters. I love all of the early rock including the Beatles, Stones, Who, Moody Blues, Cream, Led Zep, etc. and later classic rock like Ozzy, Sabbath, early Van Halen, early Aerosmith, on into grunge rock. But I also love Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Steely Dan, Heart, Yes, ELP, CSN&Y, etc.

Dislike Rap and HipHop. Not much into new wave and punk at all, although Bowie was awesome. Disco was just a version of pop for a while, in my opinion, and generally bland and not creative.

 

[CaptTom]

It strikes me as kind of strange that Generation Jones is defined as 1954 to 1965, when the Baby Boomers are defined from 1946 to 1964.

I agree. But I never accepted whatever authority decided boomers were through 1964. To me that suggests that men coming back from the war in 1945 were still fathering children at an unusually high rate 21 years later. The math just never worked for me.