Boomer bust

I am a boomer, as in Baby-Boomer. Not sure how or why my generation was given this title and not sure I like it but what the heck. So, being a boomer I have lived through some interesting things. First and foremost for me was that Sunday night when my boyz were on Ed Sullivan. I remember it like it was yesterday...all my cousins sitting around at our house transfixed in front of the tv ( about the size of a mini cooper) waiting for the EVENT to take place. We all busted out in screams when THEY hit the screen...my Dad, coffee in hand, walked into the room and stood for a minute and said...'look at the hair on those 8-balls' shook his head and walked back to the kitchen. Life as I knew it would never be the same. And I fell for the whole package, the shoes, (beatle boots) the trading cards, records, books, magazines (tiger beat, 16...), bobble heads and flicker rings...

Some things about being a boomer are etched in our memories forever...the day Kennedy was shot...our school didn't have a fancy-schmancy intercom system, there was a black phone on the wall that never, ever rang...except this once. My teacher went to the phone, stood for a minute and then turned to us, tears streaming down her face and said...'Children, you are going home early'...for some odd reason, we knew something terrible had happened. And after all, we were taught to expect the end of the world..tuck and roll if we are on fire, hide under our desks in case of a bomb, 'duck and cover' the cheerful little song went. Buses took us home that cold November day to a house filled with silence and Walter Cronkite trying to make sense of it all.

The day Martin Luther King was shot, then Bobby Kennedy...we were getting use to the horrible things and took refuse in those four 8-balls who sang about 'love, love, love...all you need is love'