Memories of Baby Boomers

By Debbie Anne Dashner

As I was preparing this work, I asked some young adults (early 20s of today) what they know about the baby boomers. One reply was, You had morals. Today, people dont. Another reply was, My grandmother is one, and she worries a lot. Then he qualified his statement with this idea, No, she really takes good care of us. Thus, he was implying that the baby boomers are very humanitarian.

Naturally, each of these statements is a value judgment and is open to opinion, and everyone knows that every generation has good and bad people. However, I would qualify the statement that the first young man said with this idea: I do believe that the baby boom generation has been a generation of traditional values in a very special way that no others in modern times seem to have been. Another way to say that is to say that baby boomers followed their parents values in a way that no other generation of modern times has done.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543483802

Debbie Anne Dashner

My name is Debbie Dashner, and I belong to the Baby Boom Generation.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Debbie Anne Dashner.

ISBN:                  Softcover                      978-1-5434-8339-0

                            eBook                           978-1-5434-8380-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 03/13/2018

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

U2 Plane Downed

Kennedy Wins

Bay of Pigs

First Man In Space!

First Earth Orbit!

Has Russia Attacked?

I Have a Dream!

JFK’s Assassination

The War in Vietnam

The Six Day War

Protests

One Small Leap for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind

Apollo 13

End Notes

Bibliography

Economic Events

Cars!

Airplanes!

Electric Typewriters!

The First Computers!

Advent of the Malls!

Fast Food!

Entertainment

Tape Recording!

Television!!!

Fashion

Preface

My name is Debbie Dashner, and I belong to the Baby Boom Generation.

Younger readers may ask the question: just who are these Baby Boomers that we hear so much about? How did they get that name?

Acco`rding to Mr. Jones in Great Expectations: American and the Baby Boom Generation, immediately after World War II, there was a great eagerness to have babies, especially, since there had been little or no time to have babies during the World War II years. Therefore, almost everyone of that generation was very eager to have babies after the War, lest that generation die out! There was, (understandably), a very great fear of that happening right after World War II, since many of the young men had died fighting. Therefore, it was almost every World War II couple’s patriotic duty to have babies and to have as many babies as possible, so that America would not get behind other countries in population growth. Mr. Jones explains that probably no other time in modern history did one generation have so many babies. Therefore, that is how the name, baby boom came about to refer to all of those who were born from the years, 1946-1964. Babies boomed all over the place. I guess that explains the words of one of my small town principals (that I remember to this day), We’re expecting to have six first grade classes—even more. That represents quite a lot of first grade classes for a small town! Also, it might explain the teacher shortage that lasted until several of us graduated from college in 1971.

As I was preparing this work, I asked some young adults, (early ’20’s of today), what did they know about the Baby Boomers? One reply was, You had morals; today, people don’t. Another reply, My grandmother is one, and she worries a lot. Then, he qualified his statement with this idea, ‘No, she really takes good care of us." Thus, he was implying that the Baby Boomers are very humanitarian.

Naturally, each of these statements are value judgments, and open to opinion, and everyone knows that every generation has good and bad people. However, I would qualify the statement that the first young man said with this idea: I do believe that the Baby Boom Generation has been a generation of traditional values in a very special way that no others in modern times seem to have been. Another way to say that is to say that Baby Boomers followed their parents’ values in a way that no other generation of modern times has done.

I have been reflecting on this idea recently, and I believe that I have come up with a reason why this is so. I have yet to see it discussed in writing. Why shouldn’t we follow in the footsteps of our World War II parents? (One World War II gentleman, recently, called that generation: ‘the greatest generation’.) After all, what had that generation just accomplished? They had just had a hand in winning probably one of the most awful and difficult wars in all of history. Everyone at that time, after that War was over, believed that civilization itself had triumphed. Also, the United States, in particular, had suffered nothing on their homeland—in contrast to almost every other country in the world. Almost every other country in the world had suffered immeasureably and unspeakably. Also, the United States was richer than any other country at the time, (possibly due to the fact that their thrust into World War II had much to do with ending the Depression, since it provided an overabundance of jobs for everyone), and, with their wealth, the Americans helped practically every other country on the planet to get back on its feet with the great Marshall Plan. So, in all ways, a great victory had been won—unfortunately, at a terrible cost for every participant.

Well, shouldn’t the winners