The Changing Decades Of A Baby Boomer

On the first day back at school at Clee Grammar, Cleethorpes, the Head, Mr Shaw, started by saying “a new year and new decade “. It was Colin Shaw and it said C. Shaw on his office door. Appropriate for a seaside town! This got me thinking, At the age of 14. a decade had been a lifetime. The next decade would be another life time. In 10 years, I would have done my O and A levels, gone to college and may be even married! 10 years! I could not comprehend it. As it happened, each decade of my life did change dramatically. 50’s school. 60’s Grammar school and college. 70’s Family, allotment and weightlifting. 80’s O.U. and climbing UK. 90’s climbing Europe. 2000’s Retirement. 2010’s mountaineering worldwide and then 2020’s Covid! I started taking photos when I cycled over the Alps in 1964. Since then, I have amassed 7000 slides. 40 years later photography went digital and now I have another 10,000 or so. Therefore this little book is a photographic record of the changing decades of my life.

The baby boom of 1945-65 produced the biggest, richest generation that Britain has ever known. Today, at the peak of their power and wealth, baby boomers now run the country; by virtue of their sheer demographic power, they have fashioned the world around them in a way that meets all of their housing, healthcare, and financial needs. In this original and provocative book, David Willetts shows how the baby boomer generation has attained this position at the expense of their children. Social, cultural, and economic provision has been made for the reigning section of society, whilst the needs of the next generation have taken a back seat. Willetts argues that if our political, economic, and cultural leaders do not begin to discharge their obligations to the future, the young people of today will be taxed more, work longer hours for less money, have lower social mobility, and live in a degraded environment in order to pay for their parents' quality of life. Baby boomers, worried about the kind of world they are passing on to their children, are beginning to take note. However, whilst the imbalance in the quality of life between the generations is becoming more obvious, what is less certain is whether the older generation will be willing to make the sacrifices necessary for a more equal distribution. The Pinch is a landmark account of intergenerational relations in Britain. It is essential reading for parents and policymakers alike.

The Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, form the single largest demographic spike in American history. Never before or since have birth rates shot up and remained so high so long, with some obvious results: when the Boomers were kids, American culture revolved around families and schools; when they were teenagers, the United States was wracked by rebelliousness; now, as mature adults, the Boomers have led America to become the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world. Boomer Nation will for the first time offer an incisive look into this generation that has redefined America's culture in so many ways, from women's rights and civil rights to religion and politics. Steve Gillon combines firsthand reporting of the lives of six Boomers and their families with a broad look at postwar American history in a fascinating mix of biography and history. His characters, like America itself, reflect a variety of heritages: rich and poor, black and white, immigrant and native born. Their lives take very different paths, yet are shaped by key events and trends in similar ways. They put a human face on the Boomer generation, showing what it means to grow up amid widespread prosperity, with an explosion of democratic autonomy that led to great upheavals but also a renewal from below of our churches, industries, and even the armed forces. The same generation dismissed as pampered and selfish has led a revival of religion in America; the same generation that unleashed the women's movement has also shifted our politics into its most market-oriented, anti-governmental era since Woodrow Wilson. Gillon draws many lessons from this "generational history" -- above all, that the Boomers have transformed America from the security- and authority-seeking culture of their parents to the autonomy- and freedom-rich world of today. When the "greatest generation" was young and not yet at war, it was widely derided as selfish and spoiled. Only in hindsight, long after the sacrifices of World War II, did it gain its sterling reputation. Today, as Boomer America rises to the challenges of the war on terror, we may be on the cusp of a reevaluation of the generation of Presidents Bush and Clinton. That generation has helped make America the richest, strongest nation on the planet, and as Gillon's book proves, it has had more influence on the rest of us than any other group. Boomer Nation is an eye-opening reinterpretation of the past six decades.

Do you remember washing in a tin bath by the fire, using outside lavatories and not having a television? Did you grow up in the 1950s and were you a teenager in the swinging sixties? If the Festival of Britain, food rationing and the Queen's coronation are among your earliest memories then you belong to the post-war baby boomer generation. How did we end up here, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, when it all just seems like yesterday? In this fascinating new trip down memory lane, Paul Feeney remembers what it has been like to live through the eventful second half of the twentieth century. This nostalgic journey through an era of change will resonate with anyone who began their innocent childhood years in austerity and has lived through a lifetime of ground-breaking events to the much changed Britain of today. There are also some wonderful pictures to help jog our memories of bygone days.

The budget battles of recent years have amplified the warnings of demographic doomsayers who predicted that a wave of baby boomers would bleed America dry, bankrupting Social Security and Medicare as they faded into an impoverished old age. On the contrary, argues award-winning journalist Chris Farrell, we are instead on the verge of a broad, positive transformation of our economy and society. The old idea of "retirement"--a word that means withdrawal, describing a time when people gave up productive employment and shrank their activities--was a short-lived historical anomaly. Humans have always found meaning and motivation in work and community, Farrell notes, and the boomer generation, poised to live longer in better health than any before, is already discovering unretirement--extending their working lives with new careers, entrepreneurial ventures, and volunteer service. Their experience, wisdom--and importantly, their continued earnings--will enrich the American workplace, treasury, and our whole society in the decades to come. Unretirement not only explains this seismic change, now in its early stages, it provides key insights and practical advice for boomers about to navigate this exciting, but unsettled, new frontier, drawing on Chris Farrell's decades of covering personal finance and economics for Bloomsberg Businessweek and Marketplace Money. This will be an indispensable guide to the landscape of unretirement from one of America's most trusted experts.

This encyclopedia defines and contextualizes the Baby Boomer generation and the wide-reaching contributions of its members throughout modern American history. Comprising some 80 million Americans born between 1946 and 1965, the Baby Boomers have significantly changed every aspect of American history and culture. The members of this generation experienced some of the most tumultuous times in American history; indeed, the Boomers helped create these pivotal eras. From the advent of rock and roll to disco and rap, from the sexual revolution to the arrival of AIDS, and from race riots to the election of a black president, Baby Boomers have seen it all. Through nearly 100 alphabetically arranged entries, this encyclopedia gives later generations insight into the contributions of the Baby Boomers, and it helps members of that generation better contextualize their own experiences. Included entries are written in a clear and engaging manner, covering politics and activism, entertainment, the economy, gender roles, arts, pop culture, sports, religion, drug and alcohol use, and many other subject areas.

Here's a popular history of the Baby Boom Generation told through the vignettes, quotes, quips, sayings and slogans that characterized and shaped an era. A fascinating roller-coaster ride through the first four decades of the Baby Boom, Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty paints an indelible portrait of those days. Historian Howard Smead brilliantly chronicles America's stormy generation and its stormy times with a refreshing approach that uses the expressions Boomers themselves loved and lived by. From Spock babies and the Golden 50s, through protest and change, Vietnam, Woodstock and the disco 70s, to the rise of the conservative right and the arrival of the Reagan Era, the glory days are all here. For Boomers and others interested in this effusive and influential generation, this signature work is a must.