The U.S. Census Bureau definition states the Boomer Generation is composed of those individuals born in the post World War II era between 1946 and 1964. Yet we all know there’s more to being a baby boomer than that. It’s a state of mind, man, one that we all have to wrap our heads around, you dig? We span three decades and are as different from one another as Swiss cheese and lobster bibs. Yet we shared something that’s helped shape the very world we live in today. We were the first younger generation demographic that was targeted by marketers in the Golden Age of Television. We created a culture — nay, a counter-culture — that changed everything that happened before. But mostly we grew up respecting each other enough to agree to disagree on things like who was the true inventor of the Clapper.
If you have any doubt that you are, in fact, a boomer, let this list be your guide. A quick perusal can help you discover that, you may be a boomer if…
- You had a starburst clock in your living room.
- You had a folding card table and matching chairs — that probably came from S&H Green Stamps … or Top Value … or Gold Bell.
- You were ever a passenger in a Studebaker or Hudson Hornet.
- Your first car cost less than $200.
- You know who Mr. Peabody and Sherman were.
- You — or your sister — had a beehive hairdo.
- Your parents always kept a bottle of gin in the house.
- You “knew” what the L.S.M.F.T. meant on the bottom of the pack of Lucky Strikes.
- You recall taking used light bulbs back to the Con Ed store, where they gave you free replacements.
- You owned a black & white TV.
- You went to the drug store to get replacement tubes for your TV.
- You ever sent away 25 cents in coin and two box tops for a toy.
- You made your own Halloween costumes.
- You had a Draft number.
- You ate “Fizzies.”
- You developed a taste for Swanson — or Banquet — Salisbury Steak.
- Your McDonald’s building had golden arches.
- You had TV trays in front of the TV.
- You wore a hat in your annual Easter family photo.
- You ever taped a coin to the arm of your record player.
- You discovered that Spoolies actually worked as advertised.
- You wore a Nehru jacket in public.
- You had your own 2 transistor radio.
- You paid $75 for a calculator that could add, subtract, multiply and divide.
… and so on, and so on… What’s your definition?