I'm from the tail end of the baby boom. I identify with most of the stuff about that era

[captain queeg]

but there’s plenty of things that I didn’t necessarily experience first hand. I was thinking of something today. I guess I was still too young to be swept up by the Elvis craze. Or maybe it’s because I’m a boy, my older sisters were sure crazy about him. One sister used to take us younger ones to see the latest Elvis movies at the drive in. I happened to be visiting her when Elvis died. When she heard the news she locked herself in the bathroom for several hours, I’m sure she was in there crying.

I thought of him when I’ve been waiting for some mail. Not his best or anything but he could make most anything sound good. It seems like the stars that burn too bright too young often have an early fall and that often true to this day.

https://m.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

1. I liked Elvis the younger

The bloated guy in the white satin outfit and cape -las Vegas Elvis, I’d had no use for.

[kskiska]

12. Same here.

But I'm not even a baby boomer. I'm a war baby, born while WWII was still going on. I was crazy about Elvis in the 50s, but like John Lennon said, "Elvis died when he went into the Army." I married early, so I wasn't even part of the Beatles craze in the 60s.

[Sherman A1]

2. I'm of the same era as you

Never liked Elvis or the Beatles. In fact most of the music of the age I found to be pretty sad. I’m sure that others did and still do, just not to my tastes.

[alphafemale]

3. I am very tail end and boomers are like a foreign land to me.

Maybe a land I visit and like the people.

But still somewhat out of my ability to fully comprehend the mindset.

And specify white boomers.

They were the people who generally thrived from the post war Boom economy and benefit programs their parents had received.

[haele]

14. Generation Jones - culturally between the Boomers and Gen X.

I'm there, also. Our parents were Post-depression War babies, technically still Silent Generation, just "young enough" to experience Boomer lifestyle as teenagers even if they were born before the end of WWII.

Gen Jones are typically tail end Baby boom and leading edge Gen X, we are not old enough to remember Woodstock and live the early 50's lifestyle beloved by nostalgia, but too young for the typical Gen-X tech boom culture. Gen Jones also shifts two/three years from 1958 to 1961 depending on whether you were born in more progressive or more traditional region of the country. It's very much more a cultural exposure growing up, than it is pure age.

We came of age during the tail end of the Civil Rights era, during the cynical Nixon/Ford political era where the promises of the Boomers began falling apart, and just in time to miss the sexual revolution of our older siblings due to AIDs and the beginning of the Drug Wars.

There's little fond nostalgia for our particular generation, though we did grow up with some pretty questionably psychedelic kids shows -HR Puffnstuff, Rankin-Bass cartoons....

They won't do a nostalgia show for us.

Haele

[area51]

15. Generation Jones here too.

[shrike3]

16. Another Generation Jones member.

[bedazzled]

20. I liked the monkees!

The Beatles were a cartoon show to me

[captain queeg]

22. Never heard that term but seems appropriate.

Born in 57 but we had a large family so there was a good deal of spillover. My oldest sisters were in the Elvis era. Brothers were in the hippie era more or less. Technology certain had huge impacts but of all the changes going on in our society I think the sexual revolution (women in the work force, single mothers, etc) was by far the biggest change.

[JHB]

18. Another very tail ended, dragooned in by statisticians...

...but not part of it.

[RobinA]

23. Thinking There's "The Mindset"

is your problem with comprehending. Also, many of us did not benefit from any post war boom economy. I (as an example of a mid-Boomer) graduated from college in 1980. The economy was a shambles with unemployment at 10% where I was.

Boomers aren't a monolith.

[alphafemale]

25. Most Boom kids (white ones) had parents who had an easy house payment.

With plenty of extra funds for education.

College education in those years could also usually be paid with a part time job if needed.

Not an expectation to be in debt to college predatory loans until retirement.

[Emile]

4. I remember when us boys used hair grease. Damn, getting old sucks!

[twodogsbarking]

8. Butch wax.

[Freddie]

5. Born in late 1956

Born too late, I think, to experience a lot of what people think us Boomers lived through. The first “new” Elvis record I remember was the still-awesome “Suspicious Minds”. Elvis movies were the bottom half of a double feature. I love his music now but as an “after the fact” fan.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. Original boomers here (1946) and I loved Elvis. Never cared much for the Beatles.

Besides having a great voice, Elvis was drop-dead gorgeous and our parents hated him. I remember quite well his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1956.

Like so many young performers, Elvis was used by others for their own financial gain, with no regards for his well-being, mental or physical and it led to a tragic outcome. That still happens today.

[captain queeg]

10. I've seen movies from then. The crowds of young women swooning over him.

I’m sure it freaked out the older crowd. I was surprised to learn, a few years ago, that my dad had taken my two oldest sisters to see Elvis perform in Cleveland. He dropped them off and picked them up afterwards. Not sure what he did during the show but my dad was no doubt typical of dads back then so it was pretty surprising to hear.

[kentuck]

7. Elvis was a cultural icon.

He had a tremendous impact on the world, culturally speaking.

[twodogsbarking]

9. It's ok if you liked all of it, isn't it?

[dwayneb]

11. Yes - same here

I like almost all music from all eras. Even Disco.

Everything from classical to big band to jazz to 60's top 40 to the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Nirvana, Billie Eilish, John Prine, Johnny Cash, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis. It's a long list.

[MissMillie]

13. I think I'm right around your age. No one in my family listened to much Elvis

As a young adult, I learned to appreciate a different Elvis.

[shrike3]

17. Someone I used to know told of traveling in Turkey.

And coming upon a village where many people seemed to be in the throes of utmost grief. Elvis songs were being played everywhere. That is how he and his companions got word that Elvis died.

[electric_blue68]

19. Born in '53. No older sibling, not an Elvis fan. The Beatles...

were my first Rock band. I never looked back! 😀💖🎸
I listen to a University station to pick up on new bands etc

[maxsolomon]

21. Boomers are '45 - '64

I'm late '63, born a few weeks before JFK was assassinated. I don't really have much in common culturally with someone who's 75 years old.

Presley is OK (I own the Sun Sessions, his 1st recordings, which is the only Elvis you need), I don't really remember the Beatles while they were together. I remember the Moon landing only because it was a BFD.

That said, I kind of enjoy getting to claim Boomerness. It surprises the Millennials and Zoomers.

[RobinA]

24. Born In 1958

and I own my Boomerness, too. What I won't own are comments that all Boomers are alike. Some commonalities, but that's about it.

[maxsolomon]

27. That's exactly what a typical Boomer would say.

Just kidding!

[John Farmer]

26. Do you remember being warned not to eat the snow?

That was a thing in the late 50s, before the Above Ground Test Ban Treaty. Snow might contain (and sometimes did actually contain) nuclear fallout from atomic bomb tests. My father was a physicist; I remember all the neighbor kids being warned.