please empty your brain below
But dg, this means you are a “Xoomer”! Proud “Xennial” here!

Dan | 29.09.21 - 7:13 a.m. | #

Have you been reading Bobby Duffy's book? I haven't yet but I'm looking forward to it.

It's frustrating being on the cusp, isn't it. Ive always thought the big divide was between those who got National Health orange juice and those who didn't. Those who did always felt to me like the charmed generation.

Sarah | 29.09.21 - 7:15 a.m. | #

I'm a mid-Boomer (1954) but most of my friends are 10-20 years younger, mainly because I can't stand most people of my age (self-entitled ****wits).

Martin'O'Holcombe | 29.09.21 - 7:21 a.m. | #

*cynical snort*

Scott | Homepage | 29.09.21 - 7:22 a.m. | #

Reminds me of the old joke - l don't believe in horoscopes but that is because I am a Sagittarius and we Sagittarius are so sceptical.

Pedantic of Purley | 29.09.21 - 7:46 a.m. | #

I am a Millenial/Generation Y as I believe we are also known.

But with a Silent Generation (although he's definitely not silent) father and 1946 mother, I have a foot in that camp too, with generation x siblings and one millenial and three generation z nephews + one niece.

I do find even though I am what the Daily Mail would call 'woke' that some people my age, some younger than me quite annoying!

That is not because of the politics they hold (same as mine), but because everything is so dumbed down (note I'm not a right winger, or Brexiteer or Conservative), just that things in life are sometimes not as serious as they should be (well, the serious things at least).

(Jonathan) | 29.09.21 - 8:06 a.m. | #

pedantic.. an old joke is often new to somebody (me in this case, and I have filed it away in my grey cells for use).

MilesT | 29.09.21 - 8:09 a.m. | #

As a young person I initially aspired to or met some of the stereotypes of a late Boomer. Then the 1980s happened, and my reaction to the selfish, acquisitive, superficial Thatcherite era demonstrated that my outlook was (and remains) entirely atypical for my given category, and more akin to GenX'er.

Frank F | 29.09.21 - 8:24 a.m. | #

Being a boomer - who gives a ****?! ;-)

deruf | 29.09.21 - 8:28 a.m. | #

I'll always remember this conversation I had with a friend in the mid-nineties when we were discussing Douglas Coupland's "Generation X" book. We were students then and pretty much right in the middle of the Generation X range in the article.

Friend: I loved that book!

Me: I don't have anything in common with them, don't lump me in with Generation X. I'm going to be different, I'm going to be Generation Y.

Friend: That's such a Generation X thing to say.

ST | 29.09.21 - 8:32 a.m. | #

Isn't Baby Boomer an American term? I'm sure I read on a well-known blog that the author's year of birth was the that of the highest ever number of births in the UK - 1965.

dg writes: 1964.

Paul | 29.09.21 - 9:01 a.m. | #

I understand much less of this than of most postings, as I'm pre-1946 and I don't recognise the apparent boundaries discussed.

Ian | 29.09.21 - 9:09 a.m. | #

Someone once wrote* that the date of origin of London bus routes can also determine whether that route was/would be successful. A baby boomer route would likely be more successful, ie carry more passengers/last longer, than, say a millennial route.

* - No they didn't.

Stuart R | 29.09.21 - 9:32 a.m. | #

I've never felt I was a Boomer (1963). I only became familiar with the term around 20 years ago and have rapidly come to despise the definition as it is so not me.
I should have been born in 1967. I'm definitely more Hippy than Boomer!

Cornish Cockney | 29.09.21 - 10:13 a.m. | #

Another fascinating read - thanks.

I'm just over ten years older than you and it amused me to realise that if I wrote a similar piece I would use surnames as we rarely used our first names in secondary school. A big change from primary school!

Alan | 29.09.21 - 10:26 a.m. | #

I'm 3 years younger than DG, and I would use surnames... Perhaps that says more about the type of school than the generation? (11-plus, single-sex state grammar school for me)

Colly | 29.09.21 - 10:43 a.m. | #

As a millennial teacher I was amused to note a few years ago that I was 'officially' the same generation as my students despite being about twice their age. There were one or two things we had in common, such as facebook (which my current gen Z students see as only for old people.)

Alan | 29.09.21 - 10:47 a.m. | #

Is it a coincidence that Radio 4's "More or Less" programme had a piece on generational labels this morning?

dg writes: Obviously, yes.

I am younger than Colly, but my primary school teacher used surnames, although most of her younger colleagues used first names. Secondary school was also surnames only, except for a newly-qualified teacher who joined the staff when I was in the 6th Form. Both schools were all-boy. I gather from my sister that first names were the norm at her school.

timbo | 29.09.21 - 11:00 a.m. | #

Born in 1947 I was an early Boomer, though in the UK it was known as 'the bulge' - the bulge in birth rates immediately after the soldiers came home from the war. It was, I suppose a difficult time, with the country near bankruptcy and its infrastructure crumbling and worn out. There was little central heating, television, plastics or computers, few people had cars or (landline) phones, clothes and food were both rationed and lacking in variety. But we children had known nothing else and just accepted that was what the world was like. It's quite astonishing to look back and see how much has changed in my lifetime.

Peter | 29.09.21 - 11:10 a.m. | #

I've always thought the age splits were far too dominated by American consideration to be relevant to us.

And they're far too long anyway, somebody born in the late Gen X period would have come of age under Cool, Britannia, Tony Blair etc which has little in common with coming of age in the early 1980s.

Mikey C | 29.09.21 - 11:52 a.m. | #

Good luck finding any two articles that agree on what generation starts and ends where. I believe the 1946 start point for boomers makes sense. This makes my father a boomer but my mother a member of the silent generation (which is pretty ironic). Gen X is never clearly defined. According to some lists it ends in 1976 or 77. Some take it way up to the early or mid 80s.

daveid | 29.09.21 - 12:47 p.m. | #

Have you ever looked up what your former school colleagues are doing now and whether your hypothesis is proven or not?

kerspatula | 29.09.21 - 2:08 p.m. | #

1948 so a Boomer, but because I left the UK in 1963. I had all the perks of being a Boomer, but I have a complely different world view, because I never was immersed in the toxic tabloid news.

Michael | 29.09.21 - 2:50 p.m. | #

As someone born at the other end of Generation X I definitely there is a big difference between my peers and those a few years younger than us. Not only did I not have to pay university tuition fees but I was the last year to receive a student grant. And most of my contempories were able to get a mortgage and buy a house within a few years of leaving university.

cjr714 | 29.09.21 - 4:03 p.m. | #

It just goes to show that broad brush separation into category boxes is often unsuccessful.
The beginning date of baby boomers works the world over. For the next break perhaps it should have been the end of O levels, in this country at least, rather than some arbitrary year. Those GCSE-ers don't know they're born!

JP minimus | 29.09.21 - 9:04 p.m. | #

I’m now quite shocked to have learnt that some of you referred to your schoolfriends by surname! I’m going to be quizzing my Boomer parents about this.

Dan | 30.09.21 - 7:16 a.m. | #

I'm also surprised to learn of the surname/first name divide so relatively recently. At my mixed-sex secondary school (1971-78, a grammar school turned comprehensive in my fourth year there), we all used first names, and some of the teachers were also known by their first names. When I entered the world of work in the early 1980s - the Civil Service - again it was all first names.

Alan S | 30.09.21 - 8:50 a.m. | #

When I entered the world of work in y1948 everyone in a pay grade higher than you was always addressed as 'Sir'.
This continued until at least y2000.

Pieter Xxxx | 30.09.21 - 10:52 a.m. | #

Some people just naturally lend themselves to being referred to by their surname.

John | 30.09.21 - 8:09 p.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy