Born in the Wrong Decade
- Thread starter INFJok
- Start date
It is romanticized. Every generation looks back at previous generations through rose colored glasses and thinks,
“Boy, they had it made! It was easy street in those days!”
When the reality is it wasn't. Sure, every generation has to cope with certain problems that didn't exist beforehand, but by contrast there are thing that no longer have to be coped with by the generation that is looking back.
Since you mentioned Boomers. Here are just some not so great things. Mostly from the 1960's.
I was a child during the time much of this happened.
Vietnam.The draft. (Walter Cronkite on TV giving the weekly body counts.)
The Cold War, and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation hanging over your head.
Segregation, racial violence and the riots.
Gender inequality to a greater degree than today.
Polluted air and water. (Both visually look cleaner today than when I was a kid)
Assassinations. (JFK -RFK - MLK & Malcom X to name a few.)
Sonny & Cher. :tongue1:
I wouldn't trade my 60's and early 70's childhood for anything. It was a great time to be a kid.
(I own a pair of those rosy glasses too.)
The early 80's when I became a young adult sucked big time!
I would have rather come of age in the early 50's when everything was booming.
I've thought about this a little. There's a line from the movie "Last of the Dog Men" that says something to the effect of being born a hundred years too early or a hundred years too late. I was born in the 60's. I agree with mindyourhead, a lot of assassinations during that time along with political and social unrest. If you came out of the 60's without getting involved in some sort of social service work consider yourself lucky! Those things had a huge impact on the choices I made in my life. The forties dealt with WWII and all the people lost in that war, the twenties dealt with WWI, the depression, and prohibition. During the civil war days people were dying of infection and before that they believed "bleeding" people would cure them. I guess I wish I could take all of the great things of each time period and have them all in one time period - HA, no such luck, but it's nice to dream. I'm grateful for the folks that came before me and made it possible for me to do some of the things I've been able to do in my life. Folks today have a whole different set of challenges in front of them. The internet version of the wild west, competing in a global world, high powered weapons that are easily obtainable. I don't envy kids as I watch them step out into the world. I just hope I can provide some of what they're going to need to not only survive, but thrive in the world they live in. Things have really stepped up a few notches.
I can't think of a decade or period in the past that appeals to me. I wish I had been born about 300 years from now. I imagine that the world would be fairer and more tolerant by then. Technology would be even more advanced and space travel would be common. Of course, it could be that 300 years from now the earth would be plunged in warfare, drought and famine etc who knows.
On a more serious note. Take all the things you romanticize about and create them in the here and now through your everyday actions.
[MENTION=1355]MindYourHead[/MENTION];
Actually, I'm from Canada, so the war stuff wouldn't have applied to me-- and I think it would have been easy to find a nice small town and settle down there. The gender inequality stuff wouldn't have kept me down, obviously-- and to be honest, I don't really think it would have kept other people down here either-- my mom became a teacher after 1 year of college and she's never had problems finding work wherever she went (not like today). She even switched to supply teaching when she was raising her children… I would have to say that it was pretty much ideal. Most of her friends were employed as well-- there didn't seem to be any of the anger or desperation that young people have nowadays… and plus, married people share their money anyways and I would be willing to bet that more money was spent on my mom and us than was ever spent on my dad.
After NAFTA, Walmart completely gutted my hometown business-wise and the whole town is mostly welfare cases, drug addicts and retirees now-- but when I was young in the 80s, it was a really nice place with a lot of local businesses and live theaters and music festivals and a great sense of community as well. I think the cities probably had a lot of problems, but in the small towns people don't conform to the same standards and they sort of make up their own rules-- prejudice exists, but it's mostly benign (at least in my town it is)... and it doesn't stop people from hanging out, because it's not like there are a lot of options. It's kind of funny how people in the cities think small towns/the countryside is all backwards when really people in the small towns have a much deeper sense of community and belonging than I've ever experienced in the cities.
I guess part of it is nostalgia but my general feeling is that the 60s were a fantastic time to start a career. My dad only had 2 jobs in his life-- and both of them payed well. His big career switch involved taking one 1 inexpensive year of college (which was completely payed for by his first job), followed by one interview and then the rest of his life making a solid middle-class salary with an extensive health plan and heaps and heaps of benefits.
He had a house by the early 70s, 8 years of wedded bliss and freedom, and then a family by the late 70s. I would LOVE that kind of security. I'm basically a mess right now-- I can afford to travel and save for retirement, but I couldn't possibly raise a family or weather a major illness… and I don't even have a shitty job. I don't know how pollution was back in the 70s, but in the 80s at least I could usually see ALL of the stars at night whereas now I actually had to go to an island in the Philippines before I could remember what truly clear skies were actually like.
The cold war was terrible (I was a kid then-- I actually saw Red Dawn at the drive-in with my parents), but if there was going to be one, the countryside would be the place to be… and plus, it didn't actually happen.
In terms of medicine, opportunity, the economy, culture, community, the boomers had probably the best go of it out of anyone in history… in terms of civil rights we're doing well, but the future is not looking good for the west, because all of the jobs are moving overseas… and they're taking the money with them.
Actually, I'm from Canada, so the war stuff wouldn't have applied to me-- and I think it would have been easy to find a nice small town and settle down there. The gender inequality stuff wouldn't have kept me down, obviously-- and to be honest, I don't really think it would have kept other people down here either-- my mom became a teacher after 1 year of college and she's never had problems finding work wherever she went (not like today). She even switched to supply teaching when she was raising her children… I would have to say that it was pretty much ideal. Most of her friends were employed as well-- there didn't seem to be any of the anger or desperation that young people have nowadays… and plus, married people share their money anyways and I would be willing to bet that more money was spent on my mom and us than was ever spent on my dad.
After NAFTA, Walmart completely gutted my hometown business-wise and the whole town is mostly welfare cases, drug addicts and retirees now-- but when I was young in the 80s, it was a really nice place with a lot of local businesses and live theaters and music festivals and a great sense of community as well. I think the cities probably had a lot of problems, but in the small towns people don't conform to the same standards and they sort of make up their own rules-- prejudice exists, but it's mostly benign (at least in my town it is)... and it doesn't stop people from hanging out, because it's not like there are a lot of options. It's kind of funny how people in the cities think small towns/the countryside is all backwards when really people in the small towns have a much deeper sense of community and belonging than I've ever experienced in the cities.
I guess part of it is nostalgia but my general feeling is that the 60s were a fantastic time to start a career. My dad only had 2 jobs in his life-- and both of them payed well. His big career switch involved taking one 1 inexpensive year of college (which was completely payed for by his first job), followed by one interview and then the rest of his life making a solid middle-class salary with an extensive health plan and heaps and heaps of benefits.
He had a house by the early 70s, 8 years of wedded bliss and freedom, and then a family by the late 70s. I would LOVE that kind of security. I'm basically a mess right now-- I can afford to travel and save for retirement, but I couldn't possibly raise a family or weather a major illness… and I don't even have a shitty job. I don't know how pollution was back in the 70s, but in the 80s at least I could usually see ALL of the stars at night whereas now I actually had to go to an island in the Philippines before I could remember what truly clear skies were actually like.
The cold war was terrible (I was a kid then-- I actually saw Red Dawn at the drive-in with my parents), but if there was going to be one, the countryside would be the place to be… and plus, it didn't actually happen.
In terms of medicine, opportunity, the economy, culture, community, the boomers had probably the best go of it out of anyone in history… in terms of civil rights we're doing well, but the future is not looking good for the west, because all of the jobs are moving overseas… and they're taking the money with them.
dude, I feel the same way! i would have thriveddd as a teenager during the 80's.. instead I grew up as a weirdo in the 90's
I live just outside of Minneapolis, MN. About 5 miles outside the downtown core.
When I look up at the sky on a clear night, I can only make out the very brightest of the stars because the light pollution from the entire Twin City metro area drowns the others out.
When we travel to rural Iowa to visit my Wife's Mother, I gaze up and am mesmerized by the awesomeness of it all.
So, in the area of light pollution, it has gotten very bad compared to when I was a kid.
