My Life Before & Without Boomers & Yuppies

By Herb Blanchard

When I originally came up with the idea for writing about boomers and yuppies, I had the vision of a book of around 80,000 or so words. As it progressed, I began to realize that I really didn’t have that much to say on the subject of LIFE BEFORE BOOMERS & YUPPIES, my first title. My thoughts and ideas also started to take on a life of their own as they always do when I write creatively. As my thought processes changed, so did the words flowing onto the paper. (On the monitor actually.) Consequently, the title no longer fit so it became MY LIFE BEFORE & WITHOUT BOOMERS & YUPPIES. A more fitting title and it made me happier because as I said, everything changed and it was now more about me and life as I experienced it.
NO! I am not becoming a member of the ME Generation. I just think the best way to get my ideas across is to tell it as it really was and how I, as one to be born into the middle of the Silent Generation (1925 to 1942, I was born in 1937.) sees and interprets what the boomers and yuppies have done to our society.
Please, do not get me wrong, I do not believe that all of the people born after 1943 are stupid,selfish, and/or greedy. But there are surely more of them than in any other generation that I know of, and more than society needs. Anybody with an open mind and anything beyond a sixth grade education, can see where the problem lies. You don’t need to be a sociologist, or other overly educated person to see what is happening. We just have to stop being clueless and realize what is going on and how they are affecting our society. I know and have known some really great people in these generations. They are very nice people who have and in some cases, are still working hard to make this society a better place to live and their frustration of their generation mates is also obvious.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Herb Blanchard
• Release date: Feb 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458112477

Herb Blanchard

Herb Blanchard is retired and living in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. He is a Vietnam Era Seabee veteran who spent several years stationed on Okinawa and made many trips to the island during his two tours in Vietnam. He followed his six year Seabee tour with an Air Force hitch of four years as a KC135 tanker crew chief flying to and from Southeast Asia and flying combat missions over Vietnam and off the coast of China. He took every opportunity to return to Okinawa be a two day lay-over or a 120 day TDY. Herb made and had many friends American and Okinawan on the island. He knew the island and its people well and enjoyed every day he spent there.

Book preview

MY LIFE BEFORE & WITHOUT BOOMERS & YUPPIES

by

Herb Blanchard

My Life Before & Without Boomers & Yuppies

by Herb Blanchard

Copyright 2011 Herb Blanchard

Smashword Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Book Description

First of all, this very short book is autobiographical. Written by a man who lived the title and to this day does not appreciate what these generations are doing to our society. Many others have expressed their opinions in much the same way so the author realizes that he is not alone in his negative opinions of them. He is not trying to change their ways. He realizes that that is impossible.

Defining the Creed of Boomers, Yuppies & their Offspring

I'm assuming that as you read of what life was like for a kid going through the throes of growing up and getting an education in the 1940s and 1950s you do think about and compare it to what it was like to be educated in the 1980s and now, the present time, ABY time, (After Boomers and Yuppies time. Generation X and the now Generation Y and E, [Entitlement] also known as Generation Me.) Because that is what this is all about.

The simplicity of BBY time, (Before Boomers and Yuppies time. The Greatest Generation followed by us, the Silent Generation.) against the complexities and loss of social values, as well as the dependency of technology that ABY time has brought us. A society in which members can hardly think for themselves, seldom if ever, accept responsibility for their own actions and are constantly assured of how great they are even when they screw-up. Their feeling of entitlement to EVERYTHING they want without earning it and never having anything withheld from them.

Teenagers and young adults who have no respect for their elders and think that they know everything because they have been told since the first day of their lives what a great job they are doing and how much they know even when they are ignorant as donkeys of the subject they are going around espousing about. My, we mustn't tell a child that they have to wait until their elders get served their coffee first, or that they fouled out of a basketball game because they weren't playing by the rules, or that they can't exceed the speed limit because the law sets the limit for that piece of road in the interest of people’s safety. But no, it's okay to speed because mommy and daddy speed.

It isn't wrong to stretch the rules, break the laws, or to be condescending to an elder. Just don't get caught stretching the rules, breaking the law or being disrespectful. THAT IS THE WRONG THING TO DO, ----- GETTING CAUGHT!, That is.

GENERATIONS

1901 THRU 2004

G.I./Greatest Generation - 1901 - 1924

Silent Generation - 1925 - 1942

Baby Boomers - 1943 - 1960

Generation X - 1961 - 1981

Generation Y/E (entitlement)

Generation Me/Echo Boomers

Generation Millennial - all inclusive 1982 - 2004 & present time.

PREFACE

When I originally came up with the idea for writing about boomers and yuppies, I had the vision of a book of around 80,000 or so words. As it progressed, I began to realize that I really didn’t have that much to say on the subject of LIFE BEFORE BOOMERS & YUPPIES, my first title. My thoughts and ideas also started to take on a life of their own as they always do when I write creatively. As my thought processes changed, so did the words flowing onto the paper. (On the monitor actually.) Consequently, the title no longer fit so it became MY LIFE BEFORE & WITHOUT BOOMERS & YUPPIES. A more fitting title and it made me happier because as I said, everything changed and it was now more about me and life as I experienced it.

NO! I am not becoming a member of the ME Generation. I just think the best way to get my ideas across is to tell it as it really was and how I, as one to be born into the middle of the Silent Generation (1925 to 1942, I was born in 1937.) sees and interprets what the boomers and yuppies have done to our society.

Please, do not get me wrong, I do not believe that all of the people born after 1943 are stupid,selfish, and/or greedy. But there are surely more of them than in any other generation that I know of, and more than society needs. Anybody with an open mind and anything beyond a sixth grade education, can see where the problem lies. You don’t need to be a sociologist, or other overly educated person to see what is happening. We just have to stop being clueless and realize what is going on and how they are affecting our society. I know and have known some really great people in these generations. They are very nice people who have and in some cases, are still working hard to make this society a better place to live and their frustration of their generation mates is also obvious.

ONE

As I grow older I realize that the world I grew up in and inhabited for over seventy years no longer exists.

It was in a medium sized town south of the city of Boston where I was born. I was given the first name of an uncle, (by marriage), who I learned to know and understand, but for many years I resented being given the name of somebody whom I didn't particularly like or respect. The first of many people who I considered the nonentities in my life. A vain look at people? Probably.

I was the only kid in the first grade at Jefferson Elementary School in Weymouth, Mass. who had only a first and last name. No middle name because my mother thought that two long names were enough for me to deal with and why burden me with a longer name. Right away I was on uneven ground with my peers, though they had only middle names with a here or there Junior and an occasional II or III. No hyphens, slashes, or four part names. Plain old names like Joseph, Joe for short, William, Bill for short, and Charles, Chuck for a nickname. The girls were Mary, Ann or even Annie and an occasional Mary Beth. There were no Ridges, Orions, Birches, Paris or Plums. And definitely no weird spellings such as Kraig and Edouard. You see where I’m going, obviously.

Early in life I was a wanderer. On my first day of school