Week 2 EOC - My Demographic, The Baby Boomer

Growing up in the 60’s and 70's was interesting. I was born at the tail end of the Baby Boomer Generation, so my demographic is between Baby Boomer and Generation X. Sometimes I feel more like a Generation X’er, than a Baby Boomer, but then one of the characteristics of a Baby Boomer is maintaining youth and a flair for life. My mother was born at the tail end of her generation, but, she is more like a Baby Boomer, because she thought and acted younger than her age, and hung out with people much younger than herself, artists, musicians, bohemians, beatniks, and hippies, who all  wandered in and out of my mother's house, because she rented rooms to college students going to UH. Couples actually lived together without being married, and at the time, it was frowned upon, everywhere else. Terms like 'cool, man', groovy, 'shacking up', the 'older generation', and the 'Generation Gap' came into being. I’d come home from school and walk into the living room, stepping carefully over cords and wires connected to musical instruments and musicians and their girlfriends crowded into every space. The place was a hippie pad with cool artwork, lighting, and always music...records playing on the record player. My mother was the lead singer in her rock, blues, and r&b band. I remember it being my job to write down the lyrics to all her songs and put them into her songbook. I was exposed to many different musical flavors of the time; the Beatles, Motown, Southern Blues, Folk, Gospel, Jazz, Classic and Rock. One of my favorite memories was pouring over the album covers of various bands and artists, reading every lyric, acknowledgement and musical credit, listening to the records with headphones on, the place lit up with black light posters...wow! Music back then was not just about listening, it was about experiencing. These influences would later form my own musical tastes and songwriting experiences. I was also exposed to the drug culture of the 60’s and 70's; pot, LSD, uppers, downers. Someone was always high on something in my house. I never had to sneak to do anything, but I was required to be honest and never lie. I grew up learning to be very self-reliant, never expecting from or depending on my mother for my needs to be met. I was also taught to be creative and unique, even rebellious against mainstream society, another characteristic of my demographic, the Baby Boomer Generation.