BabyBoomer Nest

...were you associated with.


The 60s were the Boomer's Activist hay day. Boomers made the establishment listen to what many of the "silent generation" were afraid to say.  

Woodstock was a 3 day festival of peace and music. Where many musicians and artists performed. At that time most of the music played were protests against the Viet Nam War and social injustice protests.

The Black Panthers and the Black Muslims were very vocal and active for civil rights. Many thought both groups were home grown terrorists

The Yippies: The Youth International Party. Yippies were more radicalized than the Hippies. They were covert with their actions.

Yippies created absurdist political manifestos suggesting incredible acts of civil disobedience .Like making the suggestion to put LSD into city water systems.


The Hippies: Where the flower children. They were 60s version of the beatniks. They believed in the Peace Love and Happiness motto. The Flower Children who believed in free love for everyone. They were more peaceful than the yippies but still rejected mainstream society.




Some of us, like me, were too young to be activists. We were still under the thumbs of the "silent generation"   You know, that meek generation whose motto was "take what you get, don't buck the system" 

Yes, I remember in 1968, I was 12. It was a Sunday morning and we were doing our usual Sunday thing,  going to see my Grandparents.

We lived in Akron, Ohio at the time. My grandparents lived down in the tiny burg of Waynesburg.

We had to go down Wooster Avenue, the then hot spot of the city, to get to where we were going.


The Civil Rights movement was in full swing. I remember as the car crawled down the avenue,  looking out of the car window and seeing buildings smoldering, cars turned over on their hoods, people hurling bricks at the police, who were out in full force. And how the police kept pushing the crowds back away from traffic.

I remember thinking what's all the fuss. Why are people so upset. My parents never spoke to my brother and me about politics and civil rights, they just kept quiet and went with the flow.

Then I remembered hearing about a man who had been shot and killed. A famous Black man by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. who only wanted for everyone in this country to get along.

It wasn't until I was up at Kent State that I heard he famous "I have a dream" speech. Oh, and what a speech it was. I still get chills when I hear it.   

In my child-like mind, I remembered thinking, "hurling bricks and turning over cars doesn't seem to peaceful to me."

That's one picture I vividly remember seeing in the 60s.

Years later when I understood about the 60s and knew that I was a baby boomer.  I grasped how the boomers just 4 or 5 years older than I, changed the face of America.

Some justice was  brought through civil disobedience, some through peaceful means. However it was done -- Student Boomers rocked America to her core and made changes for all her citizens better.

This is some information about the month and year of my birth and anyone else born March of 1956:

• Chinese Monkey sign
•  Pisces Sun sign
• Elvis recorded "Heartbreak Hotel"
• "My Fair Lady" opened in New York
• Soaps "As The World Turns" and "The Edge of Night" first aired.
• Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
• Jonas Salk's Polio vaccine was made public
• Elvis first appeared on Ed Sullivan
• Yankees Pitcher Don Larsen pitched the first and only perfect game during a World Series
• The Wizard of Oz was first shown on television

American Economics

• Inflation -- 1.52%
• Cost of a new house: $11,700.00 :o
• Average monthly rent: $88.00 :o
• Average yearly wages: $4,450.00
• Price of of $0.22 cents a GALLON!
• Price of a new car $2,050.00
• Price of Coffee $0.85lb

Popular Films

• Guys and Dolls
• The King and I
• Trapeze 
• High Society
• Around the World in Eighty Days

Popular Musicians

• Elvis Presley
• Bill Haley and the Comets
• Chuck Berry
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Dean Martin
• Johnny Cash
• Ella Fitzgerald

Technology

• First hard disk was invented by IBM
• Black and White portable T.V hits the market
• Transatlantic Telephone Cable goes into operation
• First videotape recorder from APEX goes on sale
• Oral Vaccine developed by by Albert Sabin
• Tefal starts producing non-stick frying pans

Politics

• Dwight D Eisenhower (R)  defeated Adelai Stevenson (D) for United States Presidency

This is just a partial list of some facts I found interesting. No information on world events was added, but there was plenty going on.

From where did the term Baby Boomer come. It's obvious but I want to elaborate more on the subject.

There are different names we Boomers fall under.

Two I've already mentioned but I will write them again  -- "pig in a python" and "a shock wave" Read More

...a shock wave and a pig in a python.

Just because of our shear force in numbers when we came into this world after WWII.

And what a force to reckon with we are.

I wanted this blog to be just for us Boomers, us empty nesters. For us ladies and gents who are done raising babies. Maybe some of us are single by choice or not, but this blog is for us and about us.

I've found along my cyberspace travels that there are a ton of blogs for younger women/men who are raising a family. But, I've found nothing or not much for those of us who are past that time of our lives.

We are women and men, we're not quite old enough to be elderly but not young enough to be of the hip generation.

We are aging like fine wine, smooth, with a sensual  bouquet leaving a want for more.

We still have wisdom to offer and comfort to give.

Let's do it here at the BabyBoomer's Nest.