2012;
402 pages. Full Title : Boom! – A Baby Boomer Memoir 1947-2022. New Author? : Yes. Genre : Non-Fiction; Memoir; Pop Culture. Overall Rating : 7*/10.
"OK
Boomer."
What in the world did we Boomer Babies do to make that catchphrase become so
popular?
I
mean, I know we brag about our music,
but hey, it really is the best ever. The Beatles, The
Rolling Stones, The Doors, Bob Dylan. None of today’s bands can touch those
groups. Yeah, if you want to get
technical about it, none of those acts featured musicians who actually were baby-boomers, but we claim them as
our own anyway.
Our drugs were better,
too. Getting high on weed and tripping
on acid. Grooving to cosmic vibes and
psychedelic colors, while the lyrics to Donovan's "Mellow Yellow". Can today’s
opioids and other meds give you anything like that? Nah, I didn’t
think so.
Even the sex was better back
then. Free love and all that. Birth control pills were just becoming
readily available and AIDS had yet to appear in the world. Talk about perfect timing.
And
last but not least, we had the best protests. We’d turn out by the thousands to shut down
colleges, chant slogans, and get our heads bashed in. Man, I love the smell of tear-gas in the
morning. So what d’ya say about all that,
young‘uns?
“OK Boomer.”
What’s To Like...
Boom! is a
memoir, a genre I rarely read. The author is Ted Polhemus, a genuine baby-boomer, since he was born in 1947. Ted started out life in Neptune City, a small town
in New Jersey, close to the more-famous rock-&-roll mecca of Asbury
Park. He studied anthropology at Temple
University, and has lived in the UK for the past 30+ years. So he’s gotten to observe the Boomer culture firsthand from both
the American and English perspectives.
The
book is divided into 11 chapters, namely:
Ch.
1: 1947 - Introduction
Ch.
2: Coming Home – First four years
Ch.
3: Suburban Life – Moving to the suburbs
Ch.
4: Modern Times – The teens
Ch.
5: Sex
Ch.
6: Drugs
Ch.
7: Rock ‘n’ Roll
Ch.
8: Protest
Ch.
9: Swinging in London – Moving across the pond
Ch.
10: No Future – The birth of Punk
Ch.
11: 2022 – Where we’re heading
Being
a memoir, the author recounts a bunch of his personal experiences, but only as
they relate to the Baby Boomer culture.
I’m three years younger than Ted Polhemus, so a lot of what he went
through resonated with me. He remembers
exactly where he was when JFK was shot; so do I. He revels in the childhood memory of family
trips to the local Carvel Soft Ice Cream store; so do I. His first plane trip was in 1969; mine was in
1968. He laughs at the silliness that arises in a
couple of his acid trips (including dimension-hopping and a cat exorcism);
so can I.
There’s a heavy emphasis on the music of the times, and the author's tastes in that area are excellent. Asbury Park gave us Bruce Springsteen and Southside
Johnny, two of Ted's and my favorite rockers.
The author seems to not think much of Prog Rock, and we’ll have to
agree-to-disagree on that one. But his tastes in literature and movies/TV are also top-notch.
Era-specific
trivia abounds, and I loved it. Hugh
Hefner, the patriarch of Playboy
magazine, was raised a strict Methodist.
There is no apostrophe in the biker-gang name “Hells Angels”, I never
noticed that before. And “Levittown” was
a nationwide phenomenon that greatly catalyzed the 1950s mass exodus from cities to suburbs; I remember billboards touting one of those Levittowns close to where I grew up.
The e-book version is 375 pages long, but the text actually ends at page
315. The next 40 pages are titled
“Sources and Inspirations”, and are simply pop-culture lists divided into
headings of Music, Films, TV shows, Fiction Books, and Non-Fiction Books, all of which show you what tickles the author's fancy. This is followed by a Timeline and some Polhemus family photographs which aid in getting a feel for life as a baby boomer.
The final chapter, enigmatically titled “2022”, is Ted Polhemus’s
predictions on how what’s in store for the aging Baby Boomers. Written in 2012, it is well thought-out, but
pessimistically bleak. Today, eight
years later and a mere two years before 2022, I am happy to say the most of the
forecast doom-and-gloom has not panned out.
Kewlest New Word ...
Twee (adj.)
: excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental.
Others: Semiological
(adj.)..
Excerpts...
Despite
everything which happened in fashion, style and music, 1947’s most significant
historical influence was ultimately one of simple demographics.
There were 3.9
million of us born in America in 1947.
It had been 3.47 million in 1946.
Compared to only 2.8 million in 1945.
A similar “baby boom” occurred throughout much of the world following in
the wake of the end of WWII, and had a remarkable impact on world history – a
reverberating impact which is still being felt in the 21st century;
this simple demographic blip and its underlining of a generational model of
history (“my generation”) becoming the key storyline which shaped the narrative
of the post-war world. (loc. 228)
In a nutshell,
the problem with Rock minus Roll was you couldn’t dance to it.
OK, you could
wave your hands around or jump about a bit, but in truth very few of us even
did this. Watch the DVD of Woodstock where, a handful of happy
Hippies cavorting about at the beginning and end excepted, what you have is
half a million white people sat on their butts looking up at a stage. When, finally, Soul Funksters Sly and the
Family Stone come on, we realize what’s been missing: syncopation – the “ugh”,
that slight but all important warping of the space-time continuum which, once
Rock had arrived, would have to seek sanctuary in Soul and Funk. (loc. 2002)
Kindle Details…
The Kindle version of Boom! sells for
$6.00
at Amazon right now. ANAICT, the only
other e-book available at Amazon by this author is StreetStyle,
which sells for $14.99. Ted Polhemus
has more than 20 other books to offer in “real book” format; you can see the complete list at
Wikipedia.
“The teenager may first have
been pandered to in America, but Britain handed them the keys and, blowing
raspberries at the Old Guard, just told them to get on with it.” (loc. 2584 )
There
are a couple of nits to pick, none of which involve the book's content. From least important to most:
The photos are cool, and can be expanded, but not in the usual
“finger-stretching” way. Instead of
tapping on a pic, press on it. A menu
will pop up which includes the option to zoom.
This then activates the finger-stretching technique.
Like any memoir/autobiography, there is probably a bit of “skewing” of events in the past to the author’s favor. Most of
the personal things here seem reasonable, with the possible exception of the
airplane sexploit at the end of Chapter 5.
Finally, for an author with 20+ books to his credit, the editing here is
atrocious. Typos abound, and some
passages get repetitious. The most
egregious typo was “Jimmy Hendrix”. It’s “Jimi”. Dude, that’s unforgiveable. 😎
But I pick at nits. Overall, I found Boom! to be an fascinating and nostalgic
read. Ted Polhemus presents the history
of the Baby Boomer era in an objective fashion – noting both its plusses and
minuses, and that's a big plus.
7 Stars.
In looking at Ted Polhemus’s
bibliography at Wikipedia, Boom! seems like
a one-off effort, unrelated to his other works.
I sorta get the feeling this was a “bucket list” item, written by a
65-year-old Baby Boomer looking back over his life. If so, the project was a success.
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