What generation are you in?

[begin_within]

Poll question: What generation are you in?

[JDPriestly]

1. You left out War Babies -- around 1940-1945

We are not boomers! We did not live through the depression. We were born during WWII.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Me too. 1944.

[napi21]

5. YEP! That would be ME TOO! I always feel like I'm part of

Generation Forgotten when there are conversations like this one. Everyone talks about The Greatest Generation, and the Baby Boomers, like there's no one in between!

[sarge43]

20. 1943

Along with my brother, I was an additional draft deferment. My father was no coward, but he had a temperament that would have gotten him brigged within a day of taking the enlistment oath. My mother realized this and risked a pregnancy. Plus he was working in a war production factory and running a farm. So, for the record, the war effort got its money's worth.

[TahitiNut]

28. My dad got an induction notice after I was born (1943) and chose ...

... to enlist in the Navy instead of being drafted into the Army. Having a child wasn't a deferment for him, at least. They were drafting married men with children, then.

[sarge43]

48. No, children alone weren't a guaranteed deferment

As noted, my father had other deferments. Plus, he was 35 when I born and he was working on a bleeding ulcer. However, he was getting every month a letter from the draft board saying he had been deferred for one more month. Had the war gone on much longer, he probably would have been bagged.

[cmd]

49. That is my story

Born in February of 43, Dad received his draft notice and joined the Navy in September. I was a rotten only child who didn't like Dad when he came home. He moved in on my territory.

[windbreeze]

21. me too...1941 n/t

[TahitiNut]

25. Yep. It's like we're the "forgotten" generation.

As I've noted before, the generational groupings seem to set boundaries on the basis of the conditions under which people were born and not based on a "common formative experience" during their formative/developmental years. I can't think of a much greater difference than that between those born in the first half of the "boomer" years and those in the latter half. Not only does it present itself in whether the 'members' were actually subject to the draft, but it's also whether they were politically aware enough themselves to have an independent recollection of and feeling about the assasination of JFK and other tectonic events. (Can a 5-year-old have had a real self-aware opinion about that? I doubt it.)

[begin_within]

35. Sorry, I forgot the "forgotten generation" - the war babies. I apologize.

[KoKo]

64. yep...War Babies....Forgotten Generation...Always "Tweenies." n/t

[marmar]

2. From the slacker, coffee house-loving, irony-immersed Generation X....

but I think MTV Generation and Baby Bust also apply to some degree. (I was born in '72)

[H2O Man]

4. Other.

My Generation.

[WiseButAngrySara]

7. LOL! Isn't the The ME Generation? ....n/t

[H2O Man]

9. No.

That came later. "My generation" is a reference older DUers will recognize.

[Cabcere]

43. You didn't stutter

;) I'm 21 and The Who = pretty much my favorite rock band. :headbang:

(I'm hoping that's the reference you were going for...otherwise I'm going to look like a major idiot. :blush: )

[H2O Man]

44. Very good. n/t

[Clark2008]

55. Or Who fans.

They're my favorite band and I wasn't born until 1970.

Just saw then in Atlanta in November and they STILL rock!



(I'm a "Pete Girl," btw.)

[TahitiNut]

53. Do people try to put you down just because you get around?

:party:

[H2O Man]

58. Yep.

Some of my beast fiends do just that.

[cgrindley]

6. 1966

Six months older than Kurt Cobain. From the pacific northwest with the tattoos and nosering to prove it. Was in a whole series of pointless garage bands. The 1966 Fender Mustang currently resides under the bed.

[slackmaster]

8. Looks like we're (almost) all Boomers on this bus

:D

[MaryBear]

37. On this thread, anyway.

:beer:

[bullimiami]

10. i just found out who i am.

:)

Generation Jones. Never heard of it before this poll.

I always knew I didnt fit in Boomer or GenX so I just thought of us as the lost generation. apparently someone else did too and gave us a label.

I was born in 59. Smack dab in the middle of it. I guess im 'jonesin'.

[seabeyond]

18. yes... i have read where i am tali end of boomer, but didnt feel right

i probably fall in the same with 61

[helderheid]

11. Born in 75 - what does that make me?

[marmar]

13. X, but it's very loosely defined. Generally, anyone born between 1966 and 1980

n/t

[helderheid]

14. Thanks! I voted appropriately!

[seabeyond]

12. what would '61 be? n/t

[helderheid]

15. I'm guessing Jones?

:shrug: I'm not sure!

[seabeyond]

16. i am guessin jones would be,.... living up to the joneses? never heard of it

interesting. that would have been my time. what i heard of often. not what my parents chose to live, or not what we learned growing up.

thanks

[nebenaube]

17. me too... on the day of the bay of pigs...

sometimes I wonder if mom's stress has anything to do with my awareness/paranoia... I never heard of the Jones generation either. Is that a reference to "keeping up with the Jones"?

[seabeyond]

19. this is what i am guessin n/t

[davsand]

50. We are "Jonesin." Means a strong craving or desire.

Maybe we are "Jonesin'" for an identity, maybe we are "Jonesin'" for the stuff promised in the 60's and abandoned in the 70's.

I'd never heard of the Jones Generation, but I have to tell you it makes some sense to me. It also makes some very real sense to me that there is a VERY real difference between those of us born in 1960 and those born in 1945. Our early years were pretty different, and for SURE our teen years were a LOT different. (If you ever doubt it, watch the movie Dazed and Confused and contrast it to American Graffiti.)

I'm a Jones Baby, and I'm happy to finally be able to ID it!


Laura

[WiseButAngrySara]

69. Yep, you're right! I would have gone with the 'Keeping up with

the Jones's myself, but from Wiki link:

U.S. social commentator Jonathan Pontell identified the existence of this generation and coined the term “Generation Jones” for it. Generation Jones has been referred to as a heretofore lost generation between the Baby Boomers and Generation X, since prior to the popularization of Pontell’s theory, its members were included with either the Boomers or Xers. The connotations of the name “Generation Jones” include: a large, anonymous generation, and the slang term “jonesin’”, which refers here to the unrequited craving felt by this generation of unfulfilled expectations.

[begin_within]

22. Jones is between Boomers and X. I'm in it too. More info at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones

[DemReadingDU]

29. Thanks, never heard of this term either

While I am most definitely a 'boomer' (1949), most of my brothers & sisters would be considered to be part of the Generation Jones.

[Annces]

23. Generation Jones

A modern-day warrior
Mean mean stride,
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean mean pride.
RUSH


Soy un perdedor
Im a loser baby, so why dont you kill me?
Beck

[AnOhioan]

24. 1964, the tail end of the Boomers n/t

[XemaSab]

26. X marks the spot

I was born in 77 but I have a LOT more in common with people born in 67 then people born even a couple years after me.

The question is "What were you wearing in the year 2000? Low rider bell bottoms or a flannel shirt?" :shrug:

[Ediacara]

27. I'm on the X/Y cusp

But I think I mesh better with Gen Y, so I chose Gen Y.

[Individualist]

30. You need to add another category

As others have noted, we who were born between 1940 and 1945 seem to be the "Forgotten Generation".

[Grey]

31. The Silent genertion ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Generation

1942, so they lump me in both the Silent and Boomer, or you could say they each claim me?
but that's me, no one ever, really, claimed I belonged.....

[lumberjack_jeff]

32. Never heard of Generation Jones until I found out I was one.

On one hand, I think all of this categorization is kind of silly, but, having been born in '62, I could identify with neither boomer nor generation X.

[JackRiddler]

33. Is it too late to put years on this so we actually know which is which? nt

[DemReadingDU]

34. this link has references to the years

just look on the right side of the page...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Boomers

[begin_within]

60. Yes, but I think it's more about which culture or values you identify with. The years

are listed here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generations

[MedleyMisty]

36. I was born at the end of 1980

I chose Generation Y. Was that right? I think I've talked about it with my husband before and he says we're sort of either the youngest end of X or the oldest end of Y. And when I think X, I tend to think of people in their thirties.

By the way, why do we name generations anyway and why couldn't someone come up with better names than X or Y?

Also, I thought the progression was alphabetical. What are the baby busters and MTV generation?

[kwyjibo]

56. I was born in 1980 and I believe I'm a part of the MTV generation

Check out this article on the MTV generation from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_generation

[lectrobyte]

38. I belong to the Blank Generation.

[annabanana]

39. When can the "Boomers" drop the "Baby"?

I mean, just how grey do we have to get? Hmmm?

[etherealtruth]

40. The very end of the baby boomers

Which is ann odd place to be.

Those of us born at the end of the "boom" (the early 1960's)... really don't have the same experiences as those that were born before us.

[WoodrowFan]

42. we're "late boomers"

me too (1959). We're "late boomers." Remember Vietnam but to young to worry about fighting in it. Too young to remember JFK but remember Watergate.

[etherealtruth]

47. I like that: Late Bloomers

:rofl:

You are correct about our memories and experiences ... I would just add (re Viet Nam), generally our parents were too old to be drafted (by the time the draft really got going) and our siblings were too young to be drafted. Though we remember Viet Nam ... we weren't as deeply impacted by it as those just slightly older than us. (There are always exceptions to this, but this was the experience of all my friends and I)

[begin_within]

65. I was born in 1960 and I feel like I am part of a different generation than my sister,

who was born in 1946. I feel like that generation "got their share" way before me. She's basically in a different socioeconomic class from me. And has somewhat different values and political beliefs too.

[etherealtruth]

67. Born in 1962 ...

"We" became sexually active when abortion was legal, birth control was readily available ... and sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS came on the scene.

JFK was killed before we had coherent memories of things outside our families. The events surrounding Viet Nam and Watergate are things that we recall happening in a disassociated kind of way ... we were too young to truly feel the impact or understand the consequences.

Those that came before us could work hard and get ahead ... they were able to do better than their parents ... we got educations, work hard and hope to do as well as our parents.

Though we are lumped into the baby boomer generation we have very little in common (for good or bad) with the bulk of the BB generation.

[begin_within]

68. I don't remember the JFK assasination, but I clearly remember the RFK and MLK ones,

and the moon landing.

[davsand]

70. I remember my Mom telling me it was "history" when JFK's funeral was happening.

I was NOT very old, but I DO remember that much about watching the funeral...

I was born in 1960, and my group did not know what it was for our nation NOT to be at war until we were 14. I was a kid that got yelled at for putting peace signs on my 4-H project because my Mom was afraid the 4-H judges would be offended by them. We also were the kids that didn't know what it was to live in a nation that wasn't divided by a war. (Sounds all too familiar today, doesn't it?)

While I was too young to be horribly impacted personally by Viet Nam, I do remember watching the draft and talking in hushed tones about "Would he (my brother) go to Canada?" if his number was a low one. I also remember my Dad telling him to make sure his grades stayed high so his student status would never become an issue.

I was also a kid that argued with my Dad about Calley and Mei Lai and the idea that the higher ups KNEW about it and did nothing...

I was out of the house and on my own in 1978, and it was a time when there were no sexually transmitted disease we knew of that would kill your ass (however--there WAS Herpes which was to be avoided!) Pot was about $25 a bag for REALLY good sticky stuff without seeds and stems, and the other drugs were plentiful. Angel dust, Black Beauties, White Cross, Ludes--they were ALL around back then. We drank a lot of cheap sweet wine and Coors Beer (because it was not sold here at the time.)

I was socially aware--doing abortion rights volunteer work at that point in time--but not consumed by it. I remember being ok with all the gay people I knew (there were a LOT of them, BTW) and it was a time when Bi was Chic. Seemed like ALL the stars were "playing for both teams."

And did I mention that drugs were EVERYWHERE you looked?

Seems to me that my experience of growing up has about ZERO to do with what folks just a few years older experienced. There is some overlap, but we really were a group of almost hedonists--and I don't think most of the Boomers were (except for maybe the folks at the end of the Boomer Generation--and even those guys didn't have the access to birth control that we did.) We did the drugs, we drank the booze and sex was a given. (Come on--how many of you saw Saturday Night Fever and LAUGHED when the chick handed John Travolta CONDOMS? You know who you are!)

We are not Boomers.


Laura


edited for clarity

[B Calm]

41. 1951 Baby Boomer

[Cabcere]

45. I guess I'm Generation Y

According to Wikipedia's article on Generation Y, the Challenger disaster is one of the major divides between GenX & GenY - GenY-ers are mostly too young to remember it. I was born six hours after it happened, so I guess that counts? :shrug: Most of the other "markers" seem to fit for me, too.

[Blue_In_AK]

46. First year babyboomer - 1946

[Mnemosyne]

51. I am a member of the *High*ly Proud Basketball Jones Generation! Yeah!

Basketball Jones Lyrics

(WOW, never realized these guys wrote this song, how cool!)

Artist: Barry White & Chris Rock Lyrics
Song: Basketball Jones Lyrics
Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones
Got a Basketball Jones, oh baby, oo-oo-ooo
Yes, I am the victim of a Basketball Jones
Ever since I was a little baby, I always be dribblin'
In fac', I was de baddest dribbler in the whole neighborhood
Then one day, my mama bought me a basketball
And I loved that basketball
I took that basketball with me everywhere I went
That basketball was like a basketball to me
I even put that basketball underneath my pillow
Maybe that's why I can't sleep at night
I need help, ladies and gentlemens
I need someone to stand beside me
I need, I need someone to set a pick for me at the free-throw line of life
Someone I can pass to
Someone to hit the open man on the give-and-go
And not end up in the popcorn machine
So cheerleaders, help me out
{cheerleaders sing repeatedly...}
(Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones)
(I got a Basketball Jones, oh baby, oo-oo-ooo)
{while Tyrone Shoelaces sings/speaks...}
Oh, that sounds so sweet
Sing it out
C'mon Coach Booty, Red Blazer, sing along with me
That be bad, honky
Yeah I want everybody in the whole stadium to stand up and sing with us
Oh yeah, sing it out like you're proud
All right, everybody watchin' coast-to-coast, sing along with us
Bill Russell, sing along with us
Chick Hearn, sing along with us
Chris Schenkel, don't sing nothin'
Oh, it feels so good
Gimme the ball I'll go one-on-one against the world, left-handed
I could stuff it from center court with my toes
I could jump on top of the backboard, take off a quarter, leave fifteen cents change
I could, I could dribble behind my back
I got more moves than Ex-Lax I'm bad
I could dribble with my tongue
Here I go down court, try to stop me
You can't stop me 'cause I got a Basketball Jones
Here I come
That's my hook shot with my eyebrow
Yeah, I could dunk it with my nose
I'm, I'm bad as King Kong, gimme the ball
I'm hot, I'm hot as..., I'm hot as..., I'm hot as... uh
Uh, uh, uh, uh
(Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, Basketball Jones)
(Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, Basketball Jones)
(Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, Basketball Jones)
(Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, Basketball Jones)
{fade}

Of course, when this guy is around, no one needs to "jones":


b. early 1958

[Clark2008]

52. What's Generation Jones?

I think I'm just a touch too old to be Generation X.

I'm 37.

[loudestchick]

71. Yeah, me too. I'm 38 and the idea of being a slackin' X-er...rankles.

[Subdivisions]

73. You both are Gen Jones, neither Gen X or Boomer. Link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones

[loudestchick]

74. thanx! I remember Reagan and Khrushchev and the cold war of words

but not the Cuba Crisis...JFK was as remote and hallowed as Lincoln...I remember the last time Elvis left the building. I was a Senior in HS and watched Challenger explode on TV live in my HS library. I remember MTV's first broadcast day.

They organize us by the things we remember...but I also feel the impact of the generation that preceeded us.

[yy4me]

54. 1942, it was a good year! Why no slot for those of us born

during WWII? We went through the end of that war, the Korean war, Vietnam and now this current mess. I'd say we deserve a slot in your poll, we've been through a lot. I must say that after Vietnam and our strong protests against that war, I thought I'd not see another folly like that. How naive of me.

[Thirtieschild]

57. Voted Beat Generation but really a Depression Baby (1935)

There aren't many of us. At the time we were called the Silent Generation. (Big article in Time or Newsweek, senior moment, can't remember which.)

[Sir Jeffrey]

59. MTV Generation here...

too old for Gen Y, too young for Gen X.

[proud patriot]

61. Gen X

[Vinca]

62. Another boomer - 1949. nt

[Daylin Byak]

63. I was born in 1987

What generation would I be in, i'm not sure.

[featherman]

66. Born in 1944, graduated, married, a father, and employed before

"flower power" and the "summer of love" probably puts me in the "Beat Generation". Teen years (1957-1963) influences included JFK, Kerouac, Ferlinghetti, Ingmar Bergman, early Dylan, folk, Do Wop, Civil Rights Movement, etc

[Subdivisions]

72. Generation Jones. Caught between the Boomers and Gen Xers

and having almost no generational identity.

[rainbow4321]

75. Wow..I always wondered what us 1965ers were called

Cuz the other generation labels always ended right before '65 or started afterwards!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones

[Odin2005]

76. The Millenial Generation (people born from 1982 to 2001)

I HATE HATE HATE HATE the term "Gen-Y." I get nauseous every time the media uses it, I am a Millennial, a "Millie."

[nonconformist]

77. Gen X'er.... 1973 nt

[blogslut]

78. Thank for the Generation Jones info

I too, always felt out of place. Years ago, I wrote a wee poem about it:

I was born in 1960
and when I was three,
They blew away
old Johnny K.
and nobody noticed me.