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| The Beatles introduced on Ed Sullivan February 9, 1964 |
We are the 'baby boomers'
conceived in the 50’s when Elvis was King.
We
are God fearing, hell-raising all-American kids, educated in a small town,
taught to fear Jesus in a small town...
We survived
the turbulent 60’s:
We
saw the Cold War and the end of Camelot;
watched
as Kennedy fended off the Soviets in Cuba,
working
to find peaceful solutions abroad
and
racial equality at home.
He fought
a war on two fronts
….and
was gunned down.
Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of dreams;
of
peace and tolerance, a better world for
our
children, and our children’s children
…
and was gunned down.
Bobby,
our new hope, our golden boy
…
he too, was gunned down.
Too
young for the marches, the war surrounded us,
brought
into our homes each night by the voice of Walter Cronkite
…and like John, Martin and Bobby,
we dreamed of peace.
We are
the Beatles generation…embraced their music from moment we heard them.
We
grew up with Opie and Lassie, Robin Hood and Superman.
No
Kindles no tablets; give us a super hero comic book any day.
We
listened to Dylan and Fogerty, Crosby, Stills Nash and Young, Jethro Tull
We are
the teenagers of the ‘70’s...
We
held our collective breath waiting for draft cards to arrive.
Then, just like that, the war was over.
Our
lives moved on, college , work, marriage, children, career…
and
we listened to the pop rock of the 80’s
that
morphed into techno, and rap, a music evolution—
a
revolution set in place by those four lads from Liverpool.
We cried over senseless murders of children; our classrooms no longer
safe-havens.
We
chose sides on gun control; yet all of our hearts mourn the innocents.
Yes,
we’ve lived through the good, the bad and the ugly—
…and
we are still going
Think
about it— we’ve been around through JFK, RFK, MLK; Elvis, the Beatles, Dylan;
war and peace, another war and so much more. We saw the fall of the Twin Towers,
and the fall of the Iron Curtain. We were here for Roe v. Wade and Watergate, Star Trek and Star Wars, and the original ‘space race.’ We’ve seen innovations in medicine, and
computers that fit in the palm of your hand. We have instant communication with
anyone, anywhere in the world. We’ve ushered in the first black president, and
may yet see the first female president. We are the computer techs and the
mechanics, the greens-keepers and bakers, the poets and the dreamers. In the almost 6 decades that we’ve been
on this earth, we have seen history…lived history…made history…
…but hell yeah, we’re still here...
Here's to us!
© Ginny Brannan 2014
Who says you can't go back…looking back on the last 4 decades and beyond, on the occasion of my 40th class reunion. For my fellow classmates and my friends from BFUHS class of 1974, and all the other 'boomers who remember...
Follow the lavender links to the music and the speeches, the real trip down memory lane.
