BABY
BOOMER BABBLE
A
Boomer Thanksgiving
Boomers have a lot to be thankful for. Here are a few
of mine:
1. Thank heavens our fathers were horny when they
returned home from WW II. Seventy-eight million of us in 14 years. That's a lot
of horny.
2. We're lucky to have survived childhood. Our mothers
didn't know to not smoke or drink while pregnant, there were no child-proof
caps on medicine bottles, we slept face down in lead-base-painted cribs, there
were no child car seats, and we ran all over town without any supervision. We
ate Hostess Cupcakes and Twinkies, drank sugar-sweetened Koolaid, ate white
Wonder Bread, and used real butter, but somehow we survived.
3. Boomers learned early on, thankfully, that the only
thing you were going to get if you "got set in your ways" was
disappointed.
4. At Thanksgiving, we always had stuffing that was
actually stuffed in the turkey. Today, they say that's dangerous. I don't know
one person who died from authentic stuffing. We also had hand-mashed potatoes
and pies made with lard crusts. Those were things to be thankful for. Now they
are things that are loathed.
5. The TV came into being right around the time we
did. That's probably something we should be thankful for, although I'm not
entirely sure. Our first TV was bought around 1954. It was a black and white
RCA with a 19" screen. During my childhood, TV was an optional form of
entertainment. A baseball game, basketball game, or sandlot football game
always came first. I'm definitely thankful for that.
6. I'm thankful that I come from a generation where
education became a prized commodity. I was the first one from my family to go
to college and receive a degree. More than anything I learned, I'm thankful for
the diversity I experienced in college and the radicalization that I went
through. It certainly helped me move my own family towards a more open,
inclusive kind of world view.
7. One of the underlying principles of
"boomership" is to do something meaningful with your life. The
central question I've heard asked time and again, and have asked myself
repeatedly, is "What is life all about?" There are choices to be
made. If you don't make them with some level of responsibility, they'll be made
for you. This ends up being played out in many different fashions. For me, it
has ended up with trying to stay involved with the community, serving, and a
career in the social services, which, while looking at my social security
earnings, seems to have been quite a charitable endeavor. The question I
continue to struggle with is no longer "What do I expect from life?"
but rather "What does life expect from me?"
8. Boomers were, for the most part, brought up in a
more lenient, less disciplined environment. Dr. Spock was the child guru of the
time. Rather than the motto "Spare the rod, spoil the child," it was
"Put away the rod, it's doing your child harm." I'm thankful my
parents followed his advice, although by no means did everyone. I was never
hit, paddled, or abused, physically or verbally. That example has led me to
adopt a non-violent, pacifist existence, to the best of my ability. I am
thankful I was able to pass that on to my own children. That is how we will
overcome violence and stop wars.
So anyway, there are some things I'm thankful for.
Sounds like more of a confession. Maybe you can relate to some of that, maybe
you can't. At any rate, have a Happy Thanksgiving. If nothing else, maybe at
this point you're thankful you aren't a boomer.