Baby boomers are the 76 million or so people born between 1944 and 1964, children of the ‘Greatest Generation’ following the end of World War II. That makes us between 61- and 81-years young today.
Boomers experienced the threat of nuclear war during Cuban missile crisis. We all remember where we were the day President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on live TV. Then Martin Luther King, and just 63 days later Bobby Kennedy. We watched or participated in civil unrest fighting for the civil rights movement. We witnessed that grainy black and white image of ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’, as man walked on the surface of the moon for the first time.
Boomers are known as the “flower children” of the 60’s. We were the first generation to grow up watching television. Known to be a little rebellious and challenged the status quo, experimenting with drugs and the concept of free love and something called the sexual revolution. We loved rock and roll music. Half a million showed up to Woodstock. We saw two new states join the USA, Hawaii and Alaska. And, learned how to toss the first Frisbees.
Nearly 10% of our generation served in an undeclared war where the average life span of a helicopter gunner was just two weeks. Boomers were horrified at the daily death totals being reported in Vietnam, posted on the news like the score of a ball game. Shocking images of war were broadcast into our living rooms on the 10 o’clock news, bringing about an unprecedented wave of student activism and public demonstrations. And then Kent State.
Our Boomer generation also enjoyed a time of economic growth like never before seen on this planet. Nearly everyone owned a car, a TV, store bought clothes, TV dinners and a nifty new thing called a microwave. Home ownership exploded with the new age of prosperity.
Perhaps the greatest advancement came in technology. In one lifetime baby boomers have gone from party line telephones to handheld smart phones with more computing power than the Lunar landing module. Television no longer signs off every night. Now we are blessed, or cursed, with 24-hour entertainment and constant news 7 days a week.
The impact of TV on that first generation of viewers was huge. Some say it literally changed the course of the country. It likely helped to end the war in Vietnam and certainly brought about social change. But did TV reflect the soul of the baby boomer generation or change it? I have a vivid memory about the day that our one and only local TV station was changing to “living color”. Sitting in front of our console TV set, I anxiously waited to watch Gunsmoke in color. Only to learn that a black and white TV will never display the shows in color. It was one of many early life lessons for this baby boomer.
The boomer generation were witness to so many extraordinary changes. Some called them advances, others questioned society’s direction. Every generation witness changes. Ours, the baby boomers, was certainly one for the record books.
WmFrancis 2025
