A Joneser's rants and riffs, ideas and trends, musings and innovations - all for your perusal and reuse. Steal it. Use it. Tell others.

Friday, July 20, 2007

A Gen Joneser's rant against being called a Boomer

John-John Kennedy was only three or four years old when his father was killed. And the image of this young boy saluting at the side of his father's casket is the only memory I have of that historic time, because I was four years old, too. I am not a boomer. Boomers went to Woodstock, burned their draft cards, had free love, and were the first yuppies. I was playing with Tonka trucks, watching Johnnie Quest, worrying about herpes and then AIDS, and wondering why I bothered going to college because it sure didn't look like there were many jobs available in 1982 when I graduated.

I was born in 1959, and am part of a cohort born from 1955 to 1964 that has about as much to do with boomer mores and cultural icons as Jimi Hendrix has to do with disco (the latter, by the way, was the music my generation was listening to when we "came of age.").

So create labels if you must; but please, leave me out of the Boomer group. I am a Generation Joneser - as in, "jonesing" for all the promises that were made to us, only to find out they were gone or otherwise unavailable by the time it was our turn. Oh, and in case anyone's interested, there are more of us than there are of those born in the previous decade.

Hey Madison Avenue! Are you listening??