2010: The Leaf, one of the first mass market electric cars, is launched by Nissan. Baby boomers gobbled it up. 1992: U.N. Security Council votes unanimously for U.S. led forces to enter Somalia. 1991: No, son, it’s not real wrestling. Hulk Hogan defeats Undertaker to become the pop culture WWF champion for the 4th time.Read the Rest…
While you may be feeling a bit disappointed that you’re no longer young, you’re ecstatic that you’re no longer clueless. ~Marianne Williamson, writer The boomers’ biggest impact will be on eliminating the term ‘retirement’ and inventing a new stage of life…the new career arc. ~Rosabeth Kanter, business professor › The police address you as “Sir”Read the Rest…
My real name is Michael James Vincenzo Gubitoisi. I was one of those hot-shot kid actors who went on to a hot-shot adult career. Every baby boomer and his mother knew me. I had a miserable childhood. My old man was an alcoholic who slapped me around. I ran away from home at 14. AfterRead the Rest…
Whatever you say about Michael Jackson – and just about everything has been said – he was an incredible baby boomer music talent, evident from a very young age. Lead singer of the Jackson Five, watch the lads at their first television appearance in 1970 on the Ed Sullivan Show. Michael was singing with the groupRead the Rest…
“What do we want?! Peace!! When do we want it?! Now!!” What did we get? Tear Gas. The March on Washington. 1969. Young anti Viet-Nam War baby boomers came in droves. Demonstrators put the total number of activists at 500,000+. Police counted 150,000. Nixon said well under 100,000. The New Times estimated 250,000. Viewing theRead the Rest…
With all due modesty, I became such a big baby boomer celebrity, how could I not fade a little after retirement? That moment came later than planned and cast some unwanted limelight. A “palimony” suit filed by a personal secretary in 1981 turned my life on its head. In one fell swoop, I was “outed”Read the Rest…
What an offbeat title, I thought. Peter Smith’s reminiscences of his baby boomer Chicago childhood and later adventures in Viet-Nam and Minnesota live up to its portent. While his style is as smooth as silk, the vignettes explore the road bumps of everyday life, a “stream of episode” centering around family, church, school, friends, andRead the Rest…
I was your typical suburban baby boomer kid, but cuter and very ambitious. I started modeling at 16 to supplement my allowance. A girl has expenses, you know. I got my big break when I landed a job on Hugh Hefner’s television show, Playboy After Dark, where I “hung out” for atmosphere with a bevyRead the Rest…
Happy Halloween to all my movie fans! Is there a baby boomer who can’t conjure up my horrific, evil face? With all due modesty, I was brilliant as the hysterical, devil-possessed Regan in the pop culture classic, The Exorcist. The Academy nominated me for Best Supporting Actress in 1973, the youngest actress so honored. SoundsRead the Rest…
It was a full frontal assault on button-down mass media consumer culture. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it became the most flattered publication of the 1950s with wannabes like Crack, Sick, and Crazy – just the tip of the parody iceberg. The inimitable Alfred E. Newman, symbol of Mad Magazine Beginning asRead the Rest…
