Talking About My Generation

What do I think about Boomers? Do you really want to know?

I arrived on the planet at the very peak of the Baby Boom. Some 4.3 million children were born that same year—the most ever in US history. But we showed up late in the game, and by the time my cohort reached our teen years, the 1960s and its generational upheavals were mostly over.

There was already a gap. The Boomers invented it—check out the usage of the term generation gap during the course of the 20th century. The rupture happened when I was still a child, so I inherited it along with most of the other things older Boomers gave to America.

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By the same token, my classmates and I played no part in the other riotous events that now define our so-called generation. The year I turned eighteen, the US government even eliminated registration for the draft. So not only did I avoid serving in Vietnam, but was never at risk of deployment. By the same token, there were no big student protests during my college years.

Maybe that’s why I never really felt part of my generation. Nowadays when some young dude mocks me with the jibe “Hey Boomer!”—well, I have to stop and think. “Yeah, I guess I am a Boomer,” I say to myself, “but it doesn’t feel that way.”

Even more to the point: I dislike Boomerism too.