Becoming one of those Boomer families was something perhaps we should reflect upon, just to make sure it was ....for real!
As the hordes of children born in these early years of the Boomer generation swelled, so to did the Hospitals, Schools, towns, cities, transportation,shopping malls,and everything in around and connected to the social structure of the masses.
So many families expanded so quickly, that it was not uncommon to be part of a "herd" totaling on average, 7-10 kids and in many cases up in the mid to high teens in family numbers. Living in and being part of a "BoomerGeneration" family carried with it many good points, and indeed, was known to be quite trying at times. Growing up with and among these fellow families and gangs in and about the neighbourhoods of our local mining and steel communities was without doubt, a most unique challenge, not without many obstacles in and outside of the family home.
With so many kids under one roof, or within one classroom, or attending one special event, perhaps a Sportnite for example,was as well a lesson in learning some of the most important facts of everyday life, like Patience perhaps, or sharing as another. No matter where you went, when you went, what you went for, you could be sure a Line-up was going to be before you in every situation, you had the challenge of day by day competition for all the events of Boomer life. Fighting inline for space was a constant.
So many of those circumstances we now take for granted were anything but, yet we can now peer back and reflect with a snicker or a grin in retospect of, LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, That's right, LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, because as we learned in some difficult ways, more often than not, that Life's lessons were not always played out with the fairness of a guidebook or referee. No siree, there was no time for selfishness, nor crass, nor procrastination. Well, first,for fear of that contant threat of a Back hander, or belt across the arse, that's why!
Yes, life as a Boomer is said to have been a much simpler path to follow as compared to todays Connected generations, allbeit, more disciplined, and indeed more family oriented, I am sure you would agree. Most certainly, there were less distractions available as compared to today's rapid pace of technology.However, even with less clutter in our lives to have prevailed through , the total congestion of that Company house hustle and bustle, and to emerge, in warm morning moments, to de-freeze from overnite frostings, and keep the sense of humor that ultmately kept the mind alive and ready for the onslaught of madness that would attack it , was akin to any war game that our current genx ers play today in their cyberspace world.
Keeping those same thoughts fresh about your senses of what coming of age as a Boomer really meant, we can pose a number of statements to assist with that thawing of the grey-matter of the cranium, and if for only a short circuit moment or two, we will peer into and back through the time machine of Yore.You really, really, really know you're a BOOMER....When.................................
You recall the Pit Whistle, blaring evey day at noon, then at 12:15 you were having lunch when the Ding, ding ding ding, ding dong ding dong of 1270 CJCB news with Robbie Robertson and the sports with Don MacIssac,probobly introduced by Freeman Roach, or Ann Terry.
You really know you're a Boomer, When.you remember where you wre the first time you saw that multi-colored Ice cream truck stopped in front of your house on a saturday afternoon, and the very first soft servr swirled ice cream cost 5 cents and 10 cents for a large.....nickel more for nuts or chocolate....mmmmmmm
You really know you're a Boomer, Whenyou can remeber stepping into the Sanitary dairy, on Senators corner, on your way to Common school hockey practice at 6 am and getting one of those huge red or yellow apples for 5 cents. You made it to town on the first bus of the morning, which always carried the day shift miners to 26 and 20 collieries.
You really know you're a Boomer, Whenyou saw the nite Elvis first appeared on the Ed sullivan show, and the network would not allow him to be shown below the waist, or another moment when time stopped to unleash the premiere appearance of 4 mop topped lads from liverpool who by the way were the one and only beatles...and the onslaught of the Rock and Roll era that has yet to subside....Rock and roll will never die!
You really know you're a Boomer, Whenremember the Nuclear first alert sirens that were erected on the site of all schools in canada including here at home, in reponse to the heat up of the Cold war and the Cubam missle crisis.
You really know you're a Boomer, When you recall the pentup excitement you felt all winter long waiting for the Annual Sport nite at the Miners Forum, when Johnny Cash actually played live at that same Iconic Venue,perhaps you had supper at Riga's spegetti shop before the concert, or had a Hot Pork at the rendezvous after the Friday nite Dance aalso at the Forum.Maybe you had Lefty "rack em up at the rat-Hole" Saturday afternoon, punched card at the casino with Nick onany Schoolday afternoon, or cashed in a 5 in a line at Greasy Mikes on a stopin for a hamburger at the Counter.
You have great memories of the dances at the Miners Forum, St.Annes Parish Center, Holy Cross, Caledonia, and the stag lines at all of them. The productions of Jesus christ superstar, Godspell, and seeing Reveen the Hypnotist at the Savoy.Ya saw lots of concerts at the old sydney forum,BTO, April Wine, Lighthouse, Bob Seger, Stampeders, mohagany rush, Peppertree, and many more. Ya drug yer way into the band-shell for live concerts in the park, you attended and followed hockey teams like the EPA flyers, The Colts, Miners and you were a rabid fan on friday nite or sunday afternoon for many of the classic matchups....(Qt.of chateau-gai) optional!
You recall when there were more than a dozen Broomball teams in glace bay alone, at least 12 little league teams , two divisions, Softball was ..Every where, and the Whip was the newest way to Pitch a ball. Ya probobly went to the Big top circus over at the south street field, the Bill Lynch Circus every summer vacation at Phalen field, (By ritual).
Manual training was kool at central, butts, McNutt, tinman,as was Domestic Sciencefor the ladies. Ya skated just about anywhere, anytime, at the sight of a dropped puck, on Ponds, reservoirs, ballfields, brooks...wher-ever/and ya'd stay till er toes, fingers, nose and ears were froze so hard ya had to hold steady over the fireplace fer an hour to thaw out.
You really knew you're a Boomer when you could recite the first and last name of every bootlegger , where they dwelt and dealt , where they kept their stash, what their specialty was, and they knew you and yer fadders name, and they knew what you were up to by what you were buyin( ya usually didn't buy a pint of gin fer yerself) perhaps a lady friend ? The first actual drive thru in the entire area was a Bootlegger! Ya also knew all the cops by name and they all knew you too, you knew who were the good Guys and who were the Brutes, who would give you a break and who would run yer ass to jail in jig time. You knew , who Not to push for fear of yer life, and if and when ya did end up in jail fer the nite, ya knew whwn to be QUIET, dependin on who was in the adjoining cells or who was the desk seargent!! Are you initials etched into the concrete walls of the old cells in the basement of the Town hall?
You knew you wre a Boomer when ya landed at school one september and there were not enough Classrooms or deskd to hold ya'll. So they added trailers to fit everyone in. Then if ya recall, it was School in Shifts. And if you didn't like that , well there was always, The casino, rat-Hole, the Army, or Shelburne!!
When ya spent most of yer time in and around town , not schoolin , ya may have gone to teddy's, mikes, Pikes, hamoods,jays, rendezvous,venice, georges, tartan lunch, Woolworths,grill, and so many other fine eating and gambling establishments. My fav was upstairs at the venice for a Large Combo-Extra Mushrooms, and coke.
You recall that your earliest forms of transportations other than shoeleather were Hitch-hiking, and in the winter, Hookin Bumpers.(ma! i lost one of my Gloves today) not sure where or how!
You could get into the matinee at the savoy or russell with BoxTops from Red-Rose tea, you were a regular at the friday nite shows at the russell and never missed a midniter, The Chip wagon was always prked next door in that little nook...still around to this day!
You knew you wre a Boomer when ya knew exactly where ya heard the news of the JFK assasination, ya most likely watched while in school,in amazement when the men land on the moon in 1969 . Ya recall the 1972 Super series between Canada and russia and that Henderson Goal!!!!
Ya spiffied up a few times over the years to make yer First Communion, Confirmation, even tho it pained you greatly to say ...Bless me fadder...fer I have sinned. Ya looked good at least the first day of each school year and on (Gradin Day).Yep ya washed up pretty good when ya had to.
Occasionaly, you frequented the lunch counter at Woolworths, performed the 5 Finger discount at the old met, peoples store and the five and dime....those family size chocolate bars caused more than a few tooth-aches i'd say.There were actually pay phones and phone booths all over the place, even tho the page you needed was never in the book, if there wasa book! The main Clinic was upstairs above the IGA and ya better plan on makin a day of it if you were in need of a doctor . The only thing Dentists knew how to do was pull and tear yer gums apart.
When you were home yer fav toys were, johnny 7, rifleman guns, slinky, etch-a - sketch, lincoln logs, walkin dolls, talkin dolls, hoola hoops, skip ropes, cowboy hats, an hockey sticks.A hrd drive was a shot comin at ya from oneof the bigger guys playin hockey or tryin to get to town hitchin after a winter storm.One snowplow covered the whole town and most times it was days before yer street was cleared.If ya had a TV it had rabbit ears as tuners, ya had to bang on the side or top of the damn thing to stop the lines from movin and skippin, and most likely a Tube would burn out about 10 minutes before the hockey playoff ws to start, so ya headed to the store with a bunch of possible burn outs in yer pocket, to test them and hope that the store had the one ya needed..(phew). Elsewise, you were then bangin on someones door , pleading with them to ask you in to watch the game at their house.(Can I come in to watch the 3rd Period???PLEASE??) And you recall the saturday games did not begin here till almost at the end of the first period.HUNH??
You recall that you had a routine perhaps of playin the Bingo machines at whatever store you were nearest to in the Hood, and on weekends and manual training day you made it to Town to test yer skills at the many and various Hot Spots, for young gamblers. Ya played the Punch-boards, they were in every corner store and pool hall, 5 cents a punch, some 10, even a quarter....what a rip off! But ya kept buyin them!
Boomers will also remember those funny white and pink lumps of (sugar) we were given to take by theHealth nurse in school, still not sure what it was....LSD, or what?, but we all got them and those TB Dot dot dot shots. Test positive for them and ya may end up in Point Edward Sanitorium!! OH OH?
When we were young Orphanages were part of the norm, you often wonder first, where did they all come from and second where did they all go??From our Sunday School classes we would go to the Little Flower to visit with the kids and share an afternoon of games and fun with them, but we were prevented from having any followup contact or to makefriends with them...too sad! Anotherprt of that era makes you relive the constant threat by your folks to send you to ""REFORM SCHOOL in SHELBURNE" if you did not tow the line and do as you were told and stay out of ""TROUBLE". Many headed down to the South Shore to get back on the straight and narrow!
Around the same time that all of these life changing events were occuring, on TV one night in 1964 , 4 mopped topped lads from liverpool made their North american debut on the Ed sullivan show.John, Paul, george, and Ringo, better known as the Beatles began the change in music that continues to this day....what a "REVOLUTION"? the music scene from that point onward would shape the world of mine, yours and that of billions for decades to come.
As you became more aware of your options in the 60's -70's, so much emerged within and throughout the societal structures and the changes in thinking and doing. The psychadelic movement, that feel good inside world of trancandental meditation, the Maharishi yoga, inner peace , and all out groovin to the beat of a different drum. Being a boomer took on a whole new mess of options when you headed out in a world of exploration. The emergence of that green leafy substance known as pot,mary jane, hootch, grass, hooters, its more powerful derivitive commonnly referred to as Hash-Hish, comedy duo by the name of Cheech and Chong, halucinatory drugs like THC, mescaline, MDA (the love drug), Acid, PCP, and if you were really really stupid , which i must admit I was not, Speed!! SPEED KILLS-MAN!!! and it does and it did!
With all these (playthings) to ingest, inhale and snort, the companion to keep the rythym going became the MUSIC of Life and the heart and Soul of our movement was captured deep into a period of teenage Angst, from the late 50's as we moved away from Elvis and the Bobby sox patrol to and thru the beatnick days and on into the British Invasion of the 60's , combining with the new found charges of the now popular anti war movement in North America, and so we had bands and artists such as: Bob Dylan, Pete Seger, Joan baez, Joe Cocker,moody blues, deep purple, the who, led zeplin, the stones, yes, zz top, CCR, 3 dog nite,chicago, and on and on and on. As you piled up your repertoire of 45's, 8 tracks, cassettes, LP's and reel to reel, the music just kept on comin....April wine, Bto, Guess who, Jimmy hendrix, the doors, somuch and so great was this element of harmony that it still moves you to the beat of life to this very day.
From the movement of music we were framed by another medium which had an enormous impact on our lives , that of the world of TV.....wow! you knew you were part of the Boomer generation when you recall : the man from uncle,lassie,rin tin tin,rifleman, rat patrol,dragnet, car 54 where are you,lucy, mr ed.,munsters, looney tunes, dick tracy, ed sullivan, red skelton, danny kaye, smothers bros, laugh in, zorro, don messer,bob hope, red fox,sing along jubilee,hop-a long cassidy,and so many more, they filled the one channel B&W TV with the rabbit ears that needed a little bang on the side every so often to stay focussed and in tune. From test pattern to the friendly giant to captain kangaroo, and howdy doody and the gang, the boomer years packed in so many of those earlier series that we still watch in reruns and on youtube to this day. Ah it was the fodder , all of it for morning discussions while awaiting the bus to school or at recess times or perhaps over a plate of chips and gravy at the rendezvous , later in the day when you Hooked away for the afternoon.
The boomer years had so much of that carefree, sometimes simple and easy pleasin way about it, sure and often there wasn't much you could choose , what was there however was an element of connectivity, and lasting endurance, and for the most part that was the norm as we experienced it. if you could go back to any point in time to consider just one change to any piece of the "Experience", most likely, as the majority of Boomers agree, you would not change a thing.It is what it is, it has evolved as it has, and you made it through to the other side( thats where you are now) jest sayin! Now you have the habit and it's a good habit, of reminicing, replaying, reliving and relaying so much of that part of Time over and over and this time , it's Ok to tell the kids, the grand kids and others about the way things were and compare them to whats now current and hip. Look at what we have done , with the tools that are currently part of our lives we have taken the past and made it the present. At every oportunity we are exposing and expressing our memories and relating what and who we are because it means something, it is US, telling our Story. We don't want what we have endured , the roads that we travelled and the challenges that we faced to go unseenor to become lost. Sure , our memories fade, our recollection of all the facts get scattered, and often times we are mashed and meshed in fog banks where clarity is not imediate, we challenge ourselves to Remember because it is Good exercise for our minds!
We seek everyday to stay focussed, to be able to strongly maintain clear images of our past because it is important to our present and of our future, whatever that future may be? We are Boomers with stories to tell about each and every chapter of the wonderful lives that we have lived. We want to express those images in full living colour ( even though for the most part it was B & W, except for an acid trip or two)and show them now in HD and plasma, and provide the full spectrum of all of our trips, wherever they took us!!
We as boomers are wishing to erupt forward with honesty and candor about our place in time, the roads we took, the streams we challenged and the dreams we shared. We seek to reflect back and without fear or predjudice, to amuse ourselves and each other with all of those life's stories-revisited!
We are boomers now, some on Cruise, some on cruises, most near retirement, and for some, with others in the drivers seat, we watch the events of our wonderful decades that past on DVD, TV, Internet, youtube, facebook and so many other media. It is so Fantastic,to be able to view and review your life in this manner! To have an oportunity like this that allows us to rewind and review the best years of our lives, with the aforementioned tools and technology, and have in our hands the ability to facilitate the transmission of those lifes moments, to be able to replay them, relive them, reconnect to the players who shared them and take it all back to the original playgrounds...is phenomenal in itself! Yes?
Yes, Boomers, we are able to re-witness the transformations within our own Time Machines. certainly, none of us can see the future, but, we can go back, rewind and restate what our Visions and Dreams once were, how they looked from the beginning. With these new tools at our command and at the touch of a finger, we get to share all the energies and the magic that transcended over the decades. There have been so many Times, Events, Inventions, occurances, happenings, movements, and indeed gazillions of great moments of which We ! The boomers were and still are party to. You will concur that no generation of people have bore witness to so much, nor shared in so many Historical and life changing happenings....From all the smaller personal items recalled such as Staglines, Road hockey, delivery men, corner stores, snack bars and poolhalls, to the much larger and serious data like Church fires, major storms, assasinations, men on the moon and Archie Bunker, as well as Devastating Mining tradgedies and the total loss of the ways of Life like Coal mining and Fishing and steel, we were there!!! We inhaled it, we ate it, we slept with it , we woke with it, we married it and we are it!!
Talk about being there when it happened, doin the deed, and Wearin the T Shirt; Our generation, The Boomers, of which i write hold the title to more events of Historical relevance, more commemorative data able to now fill tara bytes of hard Drives, more Music, enough to keep 10 generations pulsating and more sound bites and video clips to make Reality television to stand aside and have Oprah rename her network to the B.G.N. , The Boomers Generation Network. The Premier episode would undoubtedly be titled""LIFE AS WE KNEW IT..THE BOOMER YEARS".
So : lets not ever forget, nor lose sight of , Where we've come from? Who we are? What we Saw? How we Got here? Don't be shy about telling your story. YOU are an Integral piece of an ever connecting puzzle, that unless you are willing to share your wisdom with others, chronicling the journey, only the truest pixel of clarity, of this Movie saga, called, "Life as we knew it", will be hazy. Clear away any sense of fog, wipe away any steam on the car windows, and set sail for the land of Boomers lost!
This Generation .....being a Boomer and all....ya never know whats next...do ya????
