I don’t know why, but lately I have been thinking about my particular generation. Maybe it has something to do with the political rancor we see today and how I recall some of those same spirited conversations at our dinner table, or maybe it’s because I recently had some dental work and am feeling nostalgic for my original tooth.
Depending on who you listen to, the baby-boomers generally end in 1960 and the Gen X’ers start at around 1967 (although President Obama, born in 1961, considers himself a Gen X’er…he’s always been exceptional, hasn’t he?). Why is there no label for the cohort born in the 1961-1966 range (which yours truly falls into)? On the chart of generational epochs, it seems my peer group is persona non-grata. Said a different way, on the audiophile spectrum of life, my generation is the cassette tape.
The Greatest Generation defeated Nazi’s in Europe and Imperial Emperors in Japan and then landed on the moon for an encore. My generation bummed beer and cigarettes from these people. The Baby-Boomers fought commies in Asia, engaged a War on Poverty and Discrimination, and, befitting a generation marinated within its own sexual revolution, had a cheerful, “can-do” outlook to life. My generation only saw their pictures (and an occasional 8mm film). From the Boomers, my generation inherited HIV and double digit mortgage rates. Very nice.
My generation didn’t gentrify anything, land on anything, or defeat any one or thing. Rather than doing more with less, we actually did less with less. Simply put, we were Lost in Space (and I asked Santa for both Judy and the Robot).
My generation was the tool by which our parents fought the war on inflation. We were the “shrinkflation” generation. Remember, we’re the ones who asked “where’s the beef?”. Other generations had iron and wood and leather. We had chrome and plastic and vinyl. The Greatest Generation had Glenn Miller’s Big Brass Band and we had the Plastic Ono Band. Yet, we persevered through teacher strikes, oil embargos, and Olivia Newton John singing “Have you Ever Been Mellow”.
So, what of it ?
Maybe driving a Gremlin or Pinto was our form of birth control. Maybe we’re the generation that still checks our loose change for wheat pennies. Maybe we thought Progressive Rock was party music. Had one of us sailed with Columbus, perhaps the world would still be flat. Some other generation always figures it out, and we are happy to oblige and wait.
Perhaps history will remember us as the “apathetic” generation (or something similar).