Posted on 02/27/2011 3:03:31 AM PST by Scanian
Baby Boomers are having a hard time. Not just with the economy, or the health issues that crop up in your 50s and 60s, or even getting caught between taking care of our aging parents and unemployed kids.
No, I’m talking about the fact that many Boomers, of which I am one, do not want to grow up.
Those of us born in the Baby Boomer period, between 1946 and 1964, range in age from 47 to 65. We are either on the young side of old, or we’re just a hop, skip and hopefully not a fall into 70.
I don’t know that we mind growing up, but many of us don’t want to grow old. But certain Boomer minds have somehow merged the two. In order not to grow old, they have taken the position that they will simply not grow up.
You see it in the absurd notion put forward by journalists and advertisers — “50 is the new 30.” “60 is the new 40.” We buck each other up by dressing and behaving like it’s true, as though if we repeat it enough we will actually make it so.
And because we are Boomers and have been at the forefront of so many innovations, from rock ’n’ roll to the computer, some have this misguided impulse to act hip. Have you ever seen so many 50-year-olds dressed like teenagers? In my grandfather’s and even my father’s era, grown men did not wear sneakers, shorts, T-shirts and caps unless they were actually involved in an athletic activity. Grown men did not go to work looking like they were headed for sleep-away camp.
My grandfather dressed in slacks and a shirt and sensible shoes and a suit every day for work.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
They like to project imagery...symbolism, etc.
“I’m not at all vain and you can tell by my unkempt hair, whiskers, casual attitude, shoes and the clothes I wear. I think it’s important to identify with the poor...If I was trying to be neat, clean-shaven and making myself look and smell good, I would appear to be self-centered, into vanity and that I spend a lot of time gazing into the mirror.”
HAH! They spend just as much time in the mirror making sure they look like they do!
For some reason a large percentage of young people think ALL! Boomers were hippies who lived on communes and smoked dope listening to the Grateful Dead. The fact is only about one or two percent of Boomers could be classifed like that. Most Boomers got jobs out of high school or went into the military. Many went to college, got their degrees and raised families. People should read Jonathan Leaf’s “Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties” to get the truth.
Most? You are a person who makes exceptionally ignorant remarks.
Now I remember, Naval Academy Prep School. We had one of them when I was at NRD Cleveland from 86-89. You really shouldn’t call A Navy CHIEF anti military and anti American. Because if you’re a Chief, you’re really just an E-7 and if you’re an officer, it’s so unbecoming. So you in Naples? Gaeta? Thanks for your service. Oh and I’ll make sure to remember I’m a fraud when I cash my retirement check on Tuesday.
The writer missed the mark. The problem is not with the Boomers, it’s with the entire nation, and the problem is this: we have become a nation of slobs.
Look around in a nice restaurant, at a concert, or at church, and notice how many men are wearing sandals, shorts, tattered message T-shirts, and of course, the ubiquitous Gomer Pyle baseball cap.
And women go to these places in the same clothes they do the housework in.
I will admit, though, that a 55-year-old does look stupider in public dressed like a junior high school dolt than does a junior high schooler.
That’s right, I don’t think there is an ounce of politics in that woman’s article even if she IS a freakin’ socialist.
What we’re talking about here is simple TASTE!
That seems to be something which started to fade away a long time ago along with CLASS!
Do whatever you want, it’s a free country. It is just a little nicer when we try to show a little respect for our fellow Americans by taking a hard look in the mirror before going out in public.
“I see many old fa..”
I say “alter cockers” sometimes. It gets the point across.
Please see my #107 re. TASTE.
And he would have looked like a freaking idiot mucking out the barn or pouring a cast iron part. He would have been run out of the coal mines and thrown off of a fishing boat. He would have been confined to a mental institution showing up like that to most jobs.
It’s the independence and entrepreneurial spirit of the baby boomers who brought this country further innovation then any other generation in history. The baby boomers brought us to the moon and back and made it possible to communicate across the globe in milliseconds.
To try to put every “boomer” in some box is not only small minded but totally ridiculous.
You are right. Trouble is a lot of the lefty/hippies went on to be politicans or stayed stoned or both and we tend to be judged by them.
Mel
Indeed.
When it's 110 here in Arizona, I wear (clean, nice) shorts and a (clean, nice) t-shirt or golf shirt to the supermarket or to the hardware store, Denny's or Texas Road House. But if I go to a church, a nice restaurant, or a more upscale event, I dress up more. Not necessarily in a suit or tie, but clean, nice, and respectful.
(Whenever I see a grown man in a nice restaurant dressed like a teenage dolt the phrase "People of Walmart" pops into my head, LOL!)
Actually, that would be the generation before ours.
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napscoordinator's mommy and daddy turned out a spoiled, bitter punk of a kid. There is NO WAY on earth that you can dispute this (I wanted to copy your post exactly but the grammar was just too mangled).
I'm 57, and greying gracefully, but I still say 'awesome' and 'cool', and don't see anything wrong with that. I still wear t-shirts and jeans, because they're comfortable, but I will NOT wear hip-huggers, because they DO look ridiculous on a middle aged woman. Heck, they look stupid on chunky teenagers, as well, although, some fashion guru must have convinced them that 'muffin-tops' are sexy. I don't see it.
I don't act like I'm 18 anymore, but I don't see why anyone should get their knickers in a twist if I wear tie-dye from time to time. I'm not trying to be 'cool'. I never have, even when I WAS a teenager, and I don't plan to start now. Besides, I'm an unapologetic conservative, and that's about as far from 'cool' as you can get, in this day and age. ;o)
No, I am 53 and am a baby boomer. My father's generation, including specifically my father, brought us to the moon.
And they used slide rules and black and white televisions without transistors. No computers.
Did somebody pee in your Honey Nut Cheerios this morning.........
When a muffin-top is more like a bundt cake, it's time to hang it up no matter what age the wearer might be. Rolls of fat lapping over are not appealing regardless of the name applied to them. They're still rolls of fat.
Agreed. Social security and Medicare (in other words...weighting Federal expenditures toward the retired) were done before the boomers came to the fore. Boomers elected Reagan who won the Cold War and forced Clinton to do welfare reform.
I think the older generation set socialism in motion and we're still having a hard time unwinding from what they did. And when I look at pictures of Woodstock I always think, "where were the parents"?
I've worked in the same profession for over thirty years, and have worn basically the same clothes to work the whole time. Not all dressed up, like I was going to Walmart; just jeans and a nice t-shirt or golf shirt with sneakers (or Cabelas mountain boots in the winter). I've got some really nice suits for church and such, but I choose to be comfortable when it has no bearing on my income (my boss wears similar clothing). Now, picking which holster and sidearm to wear is a different matter...
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