Nostalgia

For us baby boomers, nostalgia is remembering "what we were when"! It's all about our families, friends, schools, places, events and "things" that we knew from growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s. What really shaped our values, our habits and our perceptions? What do we remember most and what might we have forgotten?

As we know, we "boomed" as an age group because World War II caused so many couples to delay their family plans from earlier in the 1940s. By the late 40s - early 50s, it had become a couples society; an astounding 97% of "marriageable" men and women were indeed married. And of course, the logical result of a couples society could only be a families society!

Growing up, you probably remember your parents and grandparents telling you how their lives were changed by two world wars wrapping around the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, and of course the other influences brought on by liquor prohibition, early radio, and the beginnings of the industrial revolution. But for us it might be any number of things, even such horrific events as the assassinations of a young president, a civil rights leader and a presidential candidate; the war in Viet Nam; protest music, the drug culture and civil unrest; the resignations of a sitting president and vice president; the oil embargo, long lines at gas stations and skyrocketing costs of energy.
  
For baby boomers, the events, politics, and culture of the 50s, 60s, and 70s were all significant, in fact shaping us from birth.

For us, fifties and sixties nostalgia have many different roots---the toys we played with, the shows and commercial ads we watched on TV, the 50s and 60s music we heard on the radio, the food we ate, the clothes we wore, the cars we drove, and of course the events and politics of the day. Do you remember being part of “The Pepsi Generation"? That “Mustang Makes It Happen”? “Make Love Not War”? How about flower power and flower children? Could our college campus have been Kent State?

There were so many things going on – some of it good and some not so good.

Nostalgia Relived

Relive the times of your life from the fifties and sixties, and just for the sake of balance, don't forget boomer humor, plus trivial pursuit and Burma Shave! And if you haven't already done so, make time for Classic TV and Oldies Music.

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