Neither Silents nor Baby Boomers, we are the PreBoomers, born in the U.S. when America was amping up for World War II (circa 1938). And now, in 2023, in these, our sunset years, we’re saying, “Oh s***, here we go again!” This ain’t our mess!
We were born before television, penicillin, polio vaccine, plastic, and disposable diapers. The “Man In The Moon '' was just a nursery rhyme until 1957 when the U.S.S.R. (i.e.) Russia launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. Climate change meant that the seasons were changing. And the only animal that had become extinct was the Dodo.
From Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 to Japan’s surrender in 1945, “Made In Japan” was considered junk. Made in China was exotic until they became communists in 1949.
The U.S.S.R. and the U.S. had been uneasy “friends” fighting WWII, but by 1951 we fought them for Korea, settling on an uneasy armistice, establishing the demilitarized zone at the 38th parallel and two Koreas. That’s when we learned that the Soviet Union had an “Iron Curtain” and we were fighting a Cold War.
Other friends turned into enemies in the 1950s, like Cuba–where wealthy Americans went to party under the Batista regime. And Iran, in the early 50s, under Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh–who was our enemy–overthrown by the Western friends of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (aka the Shah of Iran), our friend, but then overthrown, making Iran once again, our enemy.
Growing up in the 1950s, who can forget “heroes” like FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy who routed out the communists who were hiding in plain sight. To all who were not well-informed or who had forgotten how to think critically, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a communist traitor and the burgeoning Civil Rights movement was a stain on America’s perfect image of itself.
PreBoomers went to neighborhood schools, where we learned penmanship (using our #2 pencils or “real” ink pens) and phonics. We could eat in the cafeteria, but there was no free lunch.
We practiced fire drills and bomb drills, dropping beneath our desks when two bells were sounded. No one knew just exactly when the Russians would attack, but since they had the nuclear bomb, we were pretty sure that they would.
PreBoomer families began to take unexpected turns in the ’50s and ‘60s. Almost everyone had a television set by the mid-1950s, and suddenly almost everything we had wasn’t good enough. Antiques became old stuff. We never heard of recycling. We just threw stuff away. Or we burned it in our backyard incinerators.
It took a little getting used to when mom and dad–who had always slept in twin beds (for sanitary and health reasons, we were told)-- suddenly were sleeping in a gigantic king-size bed. But we were in for an even bigger shock, ten years later, when mom and dad got a no-fault divorce, remarried and we were suddenly members of a blended family.
By the time Baby Boomers hit the playground, PreBoomers were in high school, working their first $1.00/hour jobs, depositing money into banks (that all closed at 3 p.m.), taking on more chores, now that mom was working, and looking after our kid brothers and sisters. Watching the kids was an obligation; we had to go outside of the home to get paid to babysit. Fortunately, by 1954, Swanson’s TV dinners came in handy when we had homework and the younger siblings were “starving.”
There was a strict delineation between girls and boys back in the 60s. Boys took Shop. Girls took Home Economics. Almost everyone took Typing I, but it was the girls who took Typing II and III, so they could get “good” secretarial jobs. Some of us worked on the school switchboard, giving us super skills for becoming phone or switchboard operators.
A boy with multiple sex partners was a stud. A girl who wasn’t a virgin was a whore. Boys with athletic skills were tapped by universities and colleges. But girls with athletic abilities were “Tomboys.” There was no Title 9.
Since the birth control pill didn’t become commercially available until 1960, if a young unmarried woman became pregnant, she was “knocked up.” She could disappear for five or six months (hiding her pregnancy), or she could arrange for an illegal abortion. It was shocking how many physicians practiced after-hour abortions when a parent’s money was right.
This was certainly the case before Roe v. Wade in 1973. Great news for young adult Baby Boomers. But it was just a smidgen too late for the generation of young women who, from 1961 to the mid-1970s, sent over five-hundred-thousand of their husbands and boyfriends to fight communism in Vietnam. Our boys could get drafted at age 18, but we couldn’t vote until we were 21.
The last U.S. draft was on December 7, 1972. PreBoomers came of age during the Vietnam War. All except the early Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1954) knew anything about our generation’s trauma.
It is true that most ethnic slurs had been dropped by the 1960s, but for black folks, still routinely called the N word, we were “colored” then “Negro, then Afro-American within just one decade. Very confusing.
In those days, Mexicans didn’t fare much better. More than five million Mexicans came to the U.S. under the brecaro (i.e.) laborer program, during the 1950s and 60s, and over a half-million of them decided to stay. Their PreBoomer offspring were just as discriminated against as their Black peers, inching their way up to the American Dream.
During the many Baby Boomer “Summers of Love,” in the late 60s and 70s, with the abundance of sex, drugs, and rock‘n’roll, most PreBoomers had settled down. The future was pretty much set; according to custom, by family decree or careers that involved little of the new technologies.
Let’s be honest! By the 1980s it was the Baby Boom generation that stretched the boundaries, took the risks, challenged the status quo, and got invited to the golf club. Their youthful vigor, self-confidence, and gift-of-gab were irresistible to those old Silents who hadn’t had a good laugh since 1962.
Baby Boomers were everywhere–sliding into the Boardroom, jumping into politics, developing exurbs next to their more modest suburban neighbors, replacing shopping streets with shopping malls, or cozying up to Grandpa enough to become executor of the family trust.
Baby Boomers, who had always had the spotlight, took center stage in the 1980s. And today, forty years later, they haven’t given it up: Not for their younger Generation X siblings, not for their kids, the Millennials, or even their Generation Z grandkids.
We, PreBoomers, want Generation X, Y and Z to understand that we are not Baby Boomers. And we’ve heard enough hype in our lifetimes to fill the Yellow Pages. [Before technology, we had to physically look up phone numbers in the phone book.] PreBoomers know what is really fake news!
In 2023, PreBoomers are the only living generation that truly understands the Baby Boomer mindset. With all our experience and expertise, we can be the Secret Weapon for Generations X, Y, and Z, if only they will allow us to serve.
© Valerie Shaw, M.PR