Posted on 04/27/2019 1:30:44 PM PDT by Maceman
On 4/19/2019 I posted a thread asking Freepers which generation they belonged to. The thread was an attempt to satisfy my curiosity regarding the generational breakdown of FR because I have gotten the sense that most of us are rather long in the tooth.
Naturally, as a 20-year member of this esteemed site, my hope is that it will ultimately start attracting younger members in order to continue the critical job of spreading the conservative perspective to new generations.
I received 389 responses to my original post, of which 219 actually provided information regarding respondents' birth year or generation.
Here are the results:
Thanks for your efforts anyway.
in case you want to take part in the survey.
FWIW, I’m X.
The WAR BABIES are about from '38/'39-to early '46; or a year later to start with and an earlier ending. It's a confusing time period ( wartime usually is! ) and naming generations started with the BOOMERS!
That whole "SILENT GENERATION" is a newish thing and NEVER included most of the WAT BABIES, who were just ignored by those who made that name up.
Another Boomer
I did already
I fully agree.
I’ve always referred to myself as a War Baby, not one of the Silents. ...Born 9 1/2 months after the Pearl Harbor attack, I was too young for WWII and Korea.
Finished my Navy active duty about 2 weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis in ‘62, when most on active duty had their enlistments extended for a year.
I’m a boomer, born in 1953.
As I stated earlier, naming generations really got started with the BOOMERS.
Nobody, but NOBODY called any one "THE SILENT GENERATION" until rather recently and it makes NO sense at all!
The "GREATEST GENERATION" is also a VERY appellation and and comes from a book title; of all things.
There are patterens...wars, the aftermath of war, good times, bad times, and yes, the Great Depression was only one of many previous ones, that occurred; NOT the ONLY one America ever lived through.
The '60s were a bit like the '20s, for example; new, crazy dances, experimental films, less constrictive clothing for women and flamboyant dress for men.
The 1920s were akin to the end of the 1880s and some of the GILDED AGE "GAY NINETIES".
And so on and so forth throughout history.
What are these times akin to? Well, it's difficult to say, because in some respects they are somewhat like the '30s with BUT with a booming economy. Perhaps more like the turn of the 20th century when anarchism and MARXISM became became a problem here.
“I think going to a weekend long orgy in 1969 pretty much cemented the generations fate.”
Unlike you I went to plenty of rock concerts in the late 60s. And in fact I gave some hitchikers headed for Woodstock a ride although I wasn’t interested in attending myself.
I never saw an orgy at any of the concerts I was at. I’m pretty sure that’s just your own prurient imagination at work.
I did see plenty of people smoking pot, which I believe your own generation has seen fit to legalize. Along with Tinder- that’s kinda for orgies, isn’t it?
Labelling the generations was a tool for marketers primarily. They were using ‘Silent Generation’ or something like it long before it filtered out to the public, to identify the cohort between Baby Boomers and our WWII generation parents.
IIRC “the Greatest Generation” was invented by Tom Brokaw to celebrate our aging and dying WWII parents. No one had called them that before.
‘Baby boom’ and ‘Boomers became well known because writers were always using it to describe how our population bulge was affecting schools, housing, medicine, clothing, entertainment, you name it.
It was actually during the "BABY BOOM" that the term WAR BABIES was coined. It wasn't about marketing nor selling to that cohort...it was coined whilst talking/writing about what the HUGE Baby Boom was doing to the population in general, vis-a-vis schools going on 1/2 day sessions, being overcrowded,new parenting verses how they had been raising kids before, etc.!
Yes, it was a book by Tom Brokaw...the title of which is THE GREATEST GENERATION.
The compartmentalizing of generation really began in the early '50s with calling it THE BABY BOOM, which led to others denouncing the adults THE GRAY FLANNEL SUITERS ( from the book and then the movie of the same name ), meaning "conformity".
The thing is...there really wasn't all THAT much "conformity" back then. People bought,watched, listened to what was available, but that didn't mean that they all thought or acted alike.
Good work. It must’ve taken a lot of time and effort, especially because some of us didn’t actually give a date/age. We just hinted around. :-)
No surprise that the vast majority of us are 50 and older. Younger people don’t talk about the news as much.
The big difference in % of Boomers vs. Xers might be explained partly by the dates: Gen-X covers only 12 years in the chart, whereas Boom covers 19 years.
I’m what is as known as an “Xennial”
Excuse you. But I was not born when your Woodstock was going on. And I am too old for the legal pot and tinder. Like I said boomers and millennials destroyed the United States. Gen x was the perfect generation with regards to fighting to save the country.
Must have missed it - boomer (Old car made in ‘52)
1947.
The next generation (my grandkids and most babyboomer grandkids) are known as Generation i (italic i) and will bring back the good we are waiting for. They are being told the stories of the good old days and they are in awe. So keep telling the grandkids what a great country consists of...love of God and country.
Which means 56% of us are smart-asses.
(I'm only part smart-ass - on my mother's side....)
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