Posted on 10/02/2001 9:09:10 PM PDT by WIMom
Last night, there was an anti baby boom thread that started with a rant, and before some disruptor trashed it, some of us who were born at the tail end of the baby boom - from 1956 to 1964 - were having some nice recollections. The things that we seem to have in common are the following:
1. We were too young to serve in Vietnam, but remember the news.
2. As far as we're concerned, the music, television and popular entertainment and heroes of the 60s were and still are a matter for personal taste, and don't represent the shining apex of all civilization, icons to be revered by generations to come - in short, the Beatles were just a band that some might not like, and old Trek was cheesy and not well written.
3. Old boomers came into adulthood at the ideal economic circumstance - we've had to work for ours.
4. Our clothes and music tended to be lighthearted, and we are more conservative/libertarian as a whole than the older boomers.
So post your memories of tunes, movies, shows, fashions, school stuff, etc.
And enjoy yourselves!
Thanks to one_particular_harbour for the fantastic idea!
I know what you mean about the Spirograph - I ruined a couple of pictures myself.
Does anyone remember this magazine -- it was actually very good, if I recollect...
My husband born in 1969 received the vaccine and he has a scar that is still visible.
How I grew to hate Babyboomers
At the age of forty two, I'm at the back end of the bell curve for Babyboomers, that population surge that has defined American culture since the early sixties. The problem is that at my age, I could never actually join the fun and frivolity, I had to be a spectator, watching the "older kids" become hippies, protest the war, experiment with drugs, liberate their libidos and generally shape the world to their new vision. For years I was jealous, longing to just be five years older so I could participate. By the time I was the appropriate age to do something, the novelty was long gone. Damn! Like most everyone around me, I mimicked the Boomers in language, attitude, dress, politics, and choice of music. What choice did we have? The culture they were creating was a monolith, eclipsing the old one with the shear momentum of numbers. The world watched in awe or terror as Everything was redefined to conform to the Babyboomers view of things. Wow.
The problem became that I began to disagree with their views. You know, the standard boomer attitudes about corporate greed, the naivete of patriotism, the hatred of Conservative Republicans, the hypocrisy of Religion, the freedoms of abortion (on demand and paid for by the government), the compassionate welfare state and the general selfishness of the Empowered Boomer mindset. They became the power structure. They became the government and the press. It was assumed that I would inherit all their attitudes, and I did so faithfully for years. I was a loyal subject in their realm.
Do I understand them? Oh yes, I'm in advertising, a career that essentially sells them back their dreams. It's embarrassingly simple. Selling the Fountain of Youth to narcissistic babyboomers is like shooting fish in a barrel.
My problem: I began thinking for myself, and it felt good for a change. I found quickly that when the Boomers said "question authority" they didn't actually want the kids to question THEM. Oh, no. Question only the authority of the World War Two generation, those uptight suits who tried to constrict the Boomers new-found liberation. They were the enemy, not us Righteous Boomers, can't you see? This view was pounded home by the huge number of journalists who dutifully swallowed whole the standard hippie ethic. Their compliance was total. Whoever disagreed was labeled a throwback, Nazi, a racist, mean-spirited, you name it.
There became no room for debate. The subjects were closed. Universities regurgitated the standard liberal philosophy ad nauseam until resistance became futile. Heretics to this Boomer philosophy were shouted down or embarrassed into silence. I know. I was one. Try standing up in a college classroom in the seventies and questioning the pervasive mercenary self absorption of the Boomers... they roasted me alive.
Now these selfish crybabys run everything, and it shows. They replaced their parents values: "Everything for our kids" with their own values: "Everything for us". Discipline was for geeks. Self control was for old people. Let's all be Peter Pan, and never grow up! They insisted that all aspects of their life be free from responsibility.
They wanted free sex, without the old-world constraints of commitment or family. They got it, as is witnessed by their staggering divorce rate and six million abortions. They wanted their values to be accepted so they absorbed the press to play along. They wanted compassionate government, so they ramrodded welfare down the throats of the poor. They wanted to be seen as Nice, so they painted a thin veneer of Niceness over all their actions, in a pathetic attempt to disguise their inherent greed.
Now they've almost ruined everything beyond repair. The Boomers took it all for themselves. The government they now run is more fascist than they realize, because they actually cannot see past the Niceness paint job that they invented. We're stuck cleaning up after their mess as usual, like picking up the trash and beer bottles in the morning while the older partiers sleep off their hangovers. Those lucky bastards, sound asleep and oblivious. God, if only I was born five years earlier!
here.
Well, I threw "Brady Boomers" out there, but didn't get any bites.
C'mon in though, the water's fine.
I should have had one of those hats!!
My room was gorgeous tho, big lime green and yellow flowers with orange accents
My theory - and it's only a theory - is that there was not a uniform policy in place regarding how the vaccine was administered. I'm guessing that some practitioners administered the vaccine using a machine, and some merely used manual bifurcated needles.
Another theory regarding scars or lack thereof is that either A. some were more susceptible to having the disease present as a blister than others, or B. Some vaccines (where blisters were produced, leaving a scar) were effective, while others (with no scar) weren't. I'll look up the resource if anyone's interested, but the info I saw indicates that if the vaccine was not properly administered, no blister will occur - and that some people with skin conditions such as eczema, acne, rosacea, etc. - are simply more susceptible to complications from both the disease and the vaccine. And the resource I saw also states that the location of the vaccine makes a difference as to its effectiveness.
At any rate, it doesn't matter now - smallpox vaccines are only good for 10 years max.
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