The Boomer Generation

The boomer generation is like no other generation in history. Born between 1946 and 1964, we have rejected many of the traditional values. We have lived together without the benefit of marriage, women have chosen to bear children with no plans of marrying their child's father, the divorce rate has sky rocketed and more women are in the work force than ever before, often earning more than their male counterparts.

But we have been the healthiest and the wealthiest of any previous generation. We have expectations, know what we want and are convinced that we shall receive - in most cases. Boomers control over eighty percent of all personal financial assets and have more than fifty percent of all discretionary spending power. We spend seventy-seven percent of all prescription drugs and do eighty percent of all leisure travel. Approximately forty percent of all boomers left their parents' religion.

We are the first generation to grow up with television, become involved in protests, sexual freedom, drug experimentation, the civil rights movement and the womens' movement, bringing about many changes; we rejected authority and have begun to fight for the environment. We have witnessed the assassination of J.F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Vietnam War and seen the first American land on the moon. We welcomed rock and roll, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Woodstock. And we have been influenced by all of these things.

Those in the boomer generation for the most part have a strong work ethic, are hard workers, are self-reliant, competitive and have not been afraid of confrontation. They believed they could bring about change and they have.

We were raised in the years of the innocence of the Fifties, followed by the Sixties, an age of discontentment as more and more mothers joined the work force and the traditional family began to die a slow death. The turbulence of the Sixties defined the early boomers generation. The Seventies produced activists. Divorce peaked at fifty percent in 1979. The Eighties was the beginning of technology with the birth of the personal computer. During the Nineties HIV/Aids left an impact on the generation with many newly divorced boomers out dating again.

We now represent 26.75 percent of the American population but some of us can still use a hula hoop. We are better educated than our parents. Over seventy percent of all boomers are technologically proficient. We are healthier and have a higher life expectancy. Most baby boomers have no intention of sitting in a rocking chair and whiling away the hours. We are busy, active and have many plans for our future.

Boomers have not let life happen to them as so many other generations have. We have taken control of our own lives and to a large degree have determined our own destinies as near as we are able to do.