in time

  Each of us grow up in a unique way. That's true even with siblings. I was the youngest and according to my siblings, spoiled. I was also named for my dad, a junior version, and felt like I was expected to be him. Dad was certainly the measuring stick. He was a man among men. That is how I thought of him, a role model of intelligence and skill. He was a man of his time no doubt about that. I tried my best to be that man growing up. It took many years for me to reach this conclusion, I'm not living in his time. Seems like it should have been obvious to me long ago but it wasn't. Was it admiration or respect? Or was it something else?

  My fathers time was as a member of the greatest generation. It it what was he was born into, his circumstance. I came along in 1953, a boomer. That term wasn't used until 1963 however, published in a newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune. It meant someone born more or less after world war two. That meaning has been expanded over the years and is now generally applied to anyone that is "old." It means more than age, it indicates the values or concerns a person may hold. To some it is also an insult to be called a boomer. It is not an insult to me as I am indeed a member of that generation. I had absolutely nothing to do with that. I can't take credit for it or use it as an excuse for anything. it is what it is. 

  Now I am a boomer just like my dad was a member of the greatest generation. He passed away in 1990 and I'm not certain he ever heard of that. I know he never said anything to me about that. He wasn't a rebellious sort to the best of my knowledge, just a bit of a wild child by all accounts. I did know and work with some of his peers and heard some great stories about him and his youthful antics. He did have a certain zest for life as that used to be called back in his day. I remember his three piece pin striped suit, fedora and those shoes with the white tops on them. All quite the fashion in his early years. I heard his friends talk of his dance moves as well, old swivel hips they called him. I did see a glimpse of that at my sisters wedding. He was only sixty six when he died, I'm now seventy one. 

  I'm expecting my first great grandchild in January. Starting with my dad she will begin the fifth generation. According to the internet, generation Alpha. I guess she will be an Alpha female. That's if we are still using that term seventy years from now. She will grow up in a unique way, same as all of us. Her father is studying to become an attorney and her mother is a registered nurse. She will most definitely grow up in a far different environment than myself, my son, and my grandson. She will have all those opportunities I have been told I was denied by circumstance. My hope is she does get to know her great grandfather just a bit. I knew mine, just a bit. He didn't seem all that different than my father, just a bit crankier. I did admire him, especially when he told my father he was wrong about things and my father never argued with him about that. Dad just stood there and took it. Afterwards I might hear him muttering and complaining but he never said a thing to Gramp. 

  All the generations before me have accomplished great things. Those generation fought the revolutionary war, the civil war, the war of 1812, WW1 and WW2. Some fought in Korea as well. In all of those wars we were victorious except Korea which ended with an armistice. My generation, the boomers fought in Vietnam and many other conflicts across the globe but have never tasted victory. I was there for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm and that is as close as we came. But it wasn't really a war at least in my eyes it wasn't. We were just there to help. 

 What have the boomers accomplished? According to one source on the internet, which we boomers invented, although Al Gore likes to take the credit, "The sixties defined the era of social change, and the Baby Boomers led the charge through activism, social change, and freedom. Baby Boomers opened our eyes to social attitudes with a decade of riots, boycotts, antiwar demonstrations, and protests for civil rights." That is our legacy and for that we are called "boomers." And just what is the current generation doing? Well, telling us boomers how wrong we are about everything while protesting and rioting for the very things we have already done. But history will write a different story I'm certain of that.  

  The Alpha generation is on the way. I wonder what they be told of the boomers, those people from the dark ages. Boomers believed there were only two genders. Boomers believed in a God more than science. Boomers even thought you should have to work for everything! It was a dark time for sure. The time the white people ruled! I wonder what my father would have to say today if he knew he was a part of the greatest generation. Would he agree? To be honest I think he would, and I couldn't disagree with him on that one. It's a strange thing that takes a while to understand, things are always better in the past, yet our hope is that things will be better in the future. It is what each generation aspires too. In order to do that however, you have to learn from the past.