Yes, I am a baby boomer. Not through choice, of course, who of any of us has the choice of where and when we are born; and indeed, who our parents and siblings are. I do feel very lucky to have been born in the boomer generation though and have greatly appreciated the amount of total choice afforded me and my generation.
I was born in the middle of 1949, just a few years after the end of the Second World War when Britain was starting to recover and rebuild. A time when there was great feeling of renewal and a promise of a settled and prosperous future. Not that baby me thought in that way of course, I just wondered when my next feed was coming. Growing up, through the 50’s meant I was part of the old world. The world on no inflation where a tin of beans cost exactly the same from one month to the next, something unheard of in today’s world. Then, as teenager in the 1960’s, the world of fabulous music, great British and American music was all around and it was exciting to be part of it. It has been said that this was the best time for new music creation and I agree but then I’m a little biased.
When I left school and entered the world of work in 1964 I was offered three jobs to chose from and that was without any qualifications or experience, again something which is unheard of now. All my early working life the grass was always greener elsewhere and so I went, tried it, found it wasn’t and moved on again. Jobs for a lot of us were like that. It’s only in later life that I had to consider the difficulties of changing employment rather than just hand in my notice and walk straight into several other jobs at will.
My generation also had the benefit of the space race, an age where technology went bonkers and began what we know now as “The paper cup society” where everything has built in obsolescence and people have to have the latest of anything and the best designer clothes to keep up with their neighbours.
Had I chosen to got to University I would have been given a grant; a state handout to fund me through my studies and pay for my alcohol. Again something which has changed as students leave their place of learning with low job prospects and with huge debts to contend with before they even think about buying houses, marriage and children.
So I thank my parents for deciding to have me at what has turned out to be one of the optimum times of life. Long may it continue
My Write 