Wait… I’m a Boomer Too?

A short time ago a book called The Generational Puzzle was published.  It is a chapter book of sorts written by various guests and put together by Joyce Knudsen.  Joyce asked me to contribute as so I tried but, in the end she passed on my effort.  Why?  How should I know?  Perhaps I’m not really baby boomer material.  I will post a page or two of my 7000 word entry once a week.  Have a look.  Then read some of what Knudsen accepted.  http://www.amazon.com/The-Generational-Puzzle-ebook/dp/B00A1I0VGY.  Then let me know what ya’ think.

Saverio

One of my websites is called ‘comicfictionnoir’ and the chapter postings can also be found there http://comicfictionnoir.com/blogging_info.php

You can also catch my blogging on Digital Journal or follow my tweets @Author_Saverio

Part one of:

Wait… I’m a Boomer Too?

There’s something happening here

What it is ain’t exactly clear.

                                                                --- Steven Stills

Hey, that’s what I say.   It ain’t exactly clear what being a boomer really is.  I never think of myself this way.  Others do, which leads me to ask: What is a Boomer?  

Anyone ever take a basic class in statistics?  Teachers in this field definitely don’t want the blame cast on them so one of the opening lines is usually this:  Correlation does not imply causation.  Then you are told the story about how alcohol consumption leads to pregnancy.  “What?” You say.  “I always thought it was…“  This was the problem in 1946 and 1947, no one could understand the statistical implications with the rise in beer consumption (let’s forget per capita for a moment).   Beer consumption in the USA rose dramatically in the years right after WWII, relative, that is, to the previous five years.  Along with this increase in alcohol sales was a large change in the number of births in the USA.  Alcohol consumption goes up, pregnancy rate goes up… ergo; alcohol consumption leads to pregnancy.  It is quite simple.

Now my mother was, more or less, a teetotaler; she hardly ever drank, so she told me.  But my guess is she did drink, slowly.  She drank so slowly in fact it was the late 1950s before I came onto the scene. 

Of course there are changes associated with the boomer gang, lots of changes in fact, but these changes were already posted on the boomer bulletin board or were in full swing when I was still a toddler.  Let me be perfectly clear on this.  The day the music died was the same day I turned two years old.  So don’t blame me, I had nothing to do with it (remember correlation does not imply…).  And, what did all these changes mean to me if I was just growing up?  I had no idea of what the existing structure was so how could I separate the actions leading to change from the popular norm?  

My first recollection of this time period was one of those days that would be jotted down with an asterisk, or two, as all infamous events are.  It was Friday, November 22, 1963.   I was six and a half years old and I was in first grade.   I didn’t exactly hear the news.  It was 1:30 in the afternoon, Eastern Standard, and I was in school.  I did watch as someone walked into my classroom and whispered something into the ear of the nun who doubled as my teacher.  Then I saw the teacher burst into tears.  A few minutes later school was let out.  On my way to the buss I noticed all the nuns and support staff crying.  It wasn’t until the bus dropped me off and I was walking up the street to my house that one of the older students passed the word around.

 “The president has been shot.” 

I didn’t really know how to respond but I gave it a go.  “Who’s the president?”

Stay tuned for Part II which I will, hopefully, post next week.

Writer in Residence

I was in The Book Garden (https://www.facebook.com/frenchtownbookgarden) a few weeks back when a guy came in and told me his name was FAB.  Now, stay with me, this isn’t a joke. 

“Okay,” I bit, “what is FAB short for?”

“Mr. Fabulous.”

Right, just what I needed, another lemming who gives himself a moniker and thinks he’s someone, has some talent or who knows … whatever.   But he did have a nice smile and dreadlocks that made my balding pate envious.  So I relented, gave him the benefit of the doubt and conversed.  This was easy, and I was extremely fortunate to have done so.

Now FAB is like a resident artist at The Book Garden.  He has a story to tell and the telling is what he is good at.   The story brings to mind a song I am very fond of written by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) and used in one of my all time favorite movies (Harold and Maude). 

And if you want to be me, be me
And if you want to be you, be you
'cause there's a million things to do
You know that there are.

I have spent a great deal of my life wondering what it would be like to change tack, you know, put on a different pair of shoes.  Wondering what I would see from a different angle or, even better, to easily swing from one state of being to another, just because … I can.  Now I’ve met someone who has done this via his own choosing and, it seems to me, he really understands ‘There’s a million things to do.’   Mr. FAB has realized that if you sit and ponder instead of get up and walk, well, there will still be a million things you haven’t done tomorrow.

Other people have traveled along different paths in their life but the question is, simply; did they do so on their own volition?  Many, like me, have landed in strange new worlds by accident but like Mr. FAB, if you put your foot out and test the new water you will grow fuller with the experiences.  And, in that journey comes new friends which allow you to build your own community grander than it was before.

Mr. Fabulous was a name given to him early on in his Appalachian Trail journey.  If you want to know why just stop by The Book Garden anytime Mr. FAB is in and … talk with him.  It is a very interesting experience.

Saverio Monachino

Saverio is the other ‘writer in residence’, the one who is relegated to the basement.

Saverio's web page