Bad Memories for this Baby Boomer
As you know, the Baby Boom era spanned 18 years — from 1946 to 1964 — so it’s rather futile to talk about Baby Boomer ANYTHING, since the oldest boomers (age 61) have had completely different life experiences from the youngest (43).
But that won’t stop me from selecting a few bad memories that were seared into my childhood brain. Remember, it was the 1960s and 1970s.
The Patty Hearst kidnapping
MSG headaches
(See? China was giving us headaches well before the pet-food and toothpaste recalls)
The tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs
Watergate (it pre-empted so much good television)
The Dorothy Hamill haircut
July 18th, 2007 at 10:48 am
is my generation still Gen X? Or was I Gen Y? I’m 32, and I spent my formative years in high school and college during the 90’s. Oh well, I like to think I’m beyond those labels.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Awww, I loved my Dorothy Hamill haircut! I went from hair past my fanny all the way to the wedge in one sitting. I had lots of nerve … even in middle school (then known as junior high!).
July 18th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Evil Spock: I never know the Gen X, Gen Y definitions.
Yvonne: To be honest, I loved that haircut when I had it. I only hate it in retrospect. This is one of the advantages of aging. You can look back in hate.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Damn, that was a horrible haircut. I had it too – well as far as my hair would hold it, which wasn’t much because I have thin, fine hair.
Was there a girl in the world who didn’t have a wedge back then?
July 18th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I don’t thing the Dorothy Hamill haircut really worked on anyone than Dorothy Hamill.
In reality she is very pretty in person, and a weave would look good on her.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Jazz: Nope.
Larry: Uh, what’s a weave?
July 18th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Hi Rhea,
Thanks for visiting my blog. I’m marking your blog as a favorite.
I think there were good wedge haircuts, just like good shags, and there were bad ones, too.
I still have to watch for MSG. A scary memory for some of us was hiding under our desks at school when we had an air raid drill. We thought we were going to have an atom bomb dropped on us.
July 18th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I remember all of these but technically I am one year too old to qualify as a boomer. Every single one of them is stell news worthy.
July 18th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I remember all of these events but had forgotten about them until reading this post.
If I’m not mistaken wasn’t there a shampoo & conditioner called “Short & Sassy” with Dorothy Hamill in the commercial for it?
July 18th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
The MSG headaches I got were killer. This was before it was in the news. I would sit there feeling like my head was in a vise. Yow.
Rosemary: You’re an honorary boomer. You may not be aware of this, but I can bestow that on anyone I choose.
Sharon, I think she was in the commercial.
July 18th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
I got an MSG headache before I actually knew what they were.
Then I went to some place that said “No MSG” and it dawned on me…
I have vivid memories of each of your other selections, especially Watergate. I spent that summer of ‘74 as a housekeeper and I would to have the hearings on as I cleaned. I was rather naive of politics, but I knew it was a huge deal.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I remember all these things along with the Watergate Scandal and Nixon’s resignation as well as the first incarnation of the yellow smiley face that Wal-Mart resurrected.
Sometimes I feel so old!!
July 18th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Was the Farrah haircut before or after the Hamill?
Other bad memories of the era:
- The 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre
- the first (1973) oil crisis … my parents traded in a giant Chrysler Newport for a tiny Dodge Colt (the more things change …)
- All-star disaster movies that even a young teenager knew were awful (Poseidon Adventure; Earthquake; Towering Inferno …). Perhaps that’s not unique to the era … has there ever been a good disaster movie?
July 18th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Cil: Me, too. Those headaches were of short duration but painful.
Linda: My dad actually died the day Nixon resigned: August 9, 1974.
Greg: I think Hamill was earlier. That’s a guess. I almost mentioned the oil crisis. I think for a disaster movie, the recent version of Titanic was pretty good.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
I remember it all, including the ones Greg mentioned. I kinda liked the Dorothy Hamil haircut – mainly because, with my naturally curly (hated) hair, I couldn’t wear one. I did attempt the Farrah Faucet shag thing but of course on me it was curly.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
- Not just the ‘oil crisis’ per se, but the 1-2 hour waits for gasoline
- The mens ties that were too wide even for clowns
- Oddball facial hair and sideburns on all men, including the Big 3 network news anchors
- The ‘Bicentennial’ marketing craze which lasted from late 1974 until 7/4/1976. I told the kids that the hype for the Bicentennial was worse than for Y2K…
July 18th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
I’m an old Boomer –1947 — and I really don’t identify with a lot of this stuff. You omitted the Kennedy Assassination. I really liked the tennis match and don’t consider it a bad memory. And I’ve worn my hair more orless the same way since I was about 6 with a few digressions now and again. Boring — I know,
July 18th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Because I have curly hair the Hamill hair was not an option for me, not that I wanted it, although I knew plenty of girls who had or wanted it.
My bad memories start with the murders of Martin and Bobby.
Oil crisis memory – having to wear a coat to class, because the school had turned down the heat to save money. Of course that was also when we started getting a week off in February (save money by not having to heat the school) which was a good thing.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Blast from the past! I had a Dorothy Hamill haircut in 7th grade. Dorothy Hamill haircut and Angel Flight pants (I think those were the brand — cordouroy, with a rainbow-shaped seam across the seat). Yep. That about sums it up. Horrors.
July 18th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I remember these events and when I first started dating my wife, she had a Dorothy Hammel haircut. I really liked it.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Bad memories: AMC Pacer
July 18th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Shit! I can’t relate to any of this.
I hate feeling like I can’t be part of the club.
I guess that makes me generation X ?
July 19th, 2007 at 12:15 am
I think my generation was deemed Generation “who gives a crap”.
Now that was god aweful!
July 19th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
1960’s – 1970’s stand out news events in the UK ?
Union strikes
Succesive inept governments
Air travel for the masses taking us to, erm, Spain
“I’m backing Britain” campaign where we were all encouraged to buy inferior British goods for twice the price.
The Common Market farce (now the EU)
Cars that wouldn’t start in bad weather
Warm beer and just crisps (potato chips) as food in pubs
England winning the football world cup, just the once
England losing in the football world cup, lots
…and more
July 19th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Did I miss something….
How about the assassination trilogy: JFK, MLK, RFK…?
Very personal bad memory: mom covering me with baby oil with a few drops of iodine and sending me down the shore…ouch!
July 19th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Ralph: I completely forgot about the Bicentennial. Of course. It was the year I graduated from high school.
Kay: What a difference a few years make.
Chelle: The oil crisis was nuts as we walked to school in the dark.
Jen: Didn’t we all have that do?
Tom K: It was cute.
Wesley: Oh, yeah!
Michelle: Oh, sorry. But please come back. There’s plenty of stuff here that you don’t have to be a baby boomer for.
Crock: But you had the Farrah Fawcett do.
Gary: Great to hear your UK perspective on that time.
July 19th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Lorrie: The assassinations were huge, of course. But those are not the events that seared into my pea-brain. For one thing, I was a wee 5 years old when JFK was killed.
What the heck is with the iodine??
July 19th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Oops. Did miss a few assassination mentions.
Bad recent memory: eyesight fading.
I’m curious: are there more Boomers out there who need glasses but refuse to wear them?
July 19th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Lorrie: Good question about the glasses. I don’t refuse to wear reading glasses, I just hate carrying them around with me.
July 19th, 2007 at 9:48 am
You’ll get there. I started carrying them in a little hard case to protect them. That was when I only needed them to read the fine print.
I have now progressed to wearing them on top of my head at all times (now I don’t know where to put my sunglasses). This can be dangerous if one grabs reading glasses off head and puts them on while driving on highway.
Anyway, I’m getting away from bad memories.
I think you should add an adendum for “no memory”. Definately a Boomer issue for the older crowd.
July 19th, 2007 at 9:53 am
The iodine thing: not sure what the purpose was except that maybe it made your skin turn brown to give a sense of a tan. The baby oil masked the faux tan by searing the skin off your body. Geesh! If a mom did this to their kid today DSS would be all over it.
When’s the last time you could peel an entire sheet of skin off your sunburned back?
July 19th, 2007 at 11:28 am
I guess I’m the weird one in this bunch. I like MSG. I prefer it in my Chinese food. The flavor characteristic it adds is unmistakably missing, to my palate, when it’s not there.
One of my favorite “Seinfeld” moments was when Kramer was ordering Chinese food over the phone and he requested EXTRA MSG! I have never gone that far
July 19th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Suldog: You’re lucky you don’t get those headaches. Wicked. I know what you mean about the flavor, though. It’s good.
July 20th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Leisure suits with the loud polyester shirts underneath. VERY bad memory (and a fashion that should NEVER come back).
June 24th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
[...] Jean King and Bobby RiggsWatergate it pre-empted so much good televisionThe dorothy Hamill haircuthttp://www.thegeminiweb.com/babyboomer/?p=1064Super-Hair.Net: Style ProfileDorothy Hamill gained national attention in 1976, when she won a gold [...]