Recently, I was having a debate with a GenXer about the whole stupid “OK, Boomer” phenomenon. He was defending it, and I was not so much offended by it, as bored; by both the meme and his snarky insistence that he knew things this old man clearly did not. For my part, I was trying to explain to him how while the entire world codes me as a “Boomer,” I am truly, and sincerely, a part of a different group. I wasn’t try to defend Boomers, I was trying to defend all of us in the “late cohort” of the classic Baby Boom.

A group I have since come to learn is called “Generation Jones.”

My argument —which will no doubt immediately be trashed by GenXers, Millenials, and Boomers alike— is that the primary frustration of “OK, Boomer” is intended for the “First Cohort” Baby Boomers.

In case you’ve never really looked very closely, there’s a distinct separation within the Baby Boom, and there always has been. Let’s talk about it, both factually and culturally.

On the one hand, there are the Boomers born during the time when the birthrate was actually booming…rising. That ends in the late 50s. Demographers have taken to calling this the “First Cohort” of the Baby Boom. You can see it in this chart:

After that, the birthrate starts to fall again. And I’d suggest THAT group, the group I’m in, is also very much it’s own distinct group that tends to get forgotten. Many thinkers have take to calling this group “Generation Jones.” Go ahead. Google away. I’m confident both older Boomers and all the generations after us will continue to roll their eyes at all of this. But I assure you: for those of us IN Generation Jones? Learning about it life-changing…and helps explain the weird cultural experience we have lived with our whole lives.

This is what I was trying to explain to that guy the other day. And I’m pretty sure he still doesn’t buy it. And I’m pretty sure I don’t care. But I’m gonna explain it all here, any way. Because learning about it changed my life, and seems to click the tumblers of my own cultural experience into place.

Generation Jones takes in the last bit of the Baby Boom, and also the first bit of GenX.

Our experience was that we attended all the same schools, civic centers, and swimming pools, built for the Baby Boom…but we always felt late for the party. Things were emptying out, shutting down, by the time we came along. Here is a meme that tries be funny about the differences…it’s not entirely wrong, or right. Just sit with the differences a bit, and the picture will start to emerge.

It’s a credible argument that the First Cohort Boomers are the real baby boom since, factually, it’s literally the time when baby-birth-rates were, actually, statistically booming.

Generation Jones has a very different cultural experiences from the classic boomers. We get lumped in with them all the time, but our experiences are really quite distinct. We tend to see the older Boomers as our older brothers and sisters.

I remember the older boomers in my neighborhood growing up. They kinda scared me. I never wanted to be like them, actually. I literally remember being afraid of becoming a teenager in the last days of being twelve.

And for all of my adult life, while I most indeed hung out with these older Boomers, and admire them…I’ve also always hung out with GenXers as much, or more. Part of this is that I’m married to a GenXer. All my sisters and cousins are also in that group.

We Generation Jonesers are distinct AND connected to both these Generations. Our whole lives, we’ve felt like the bridge between them.

First cohort Boomers were conscious in the 60s. They were in childhood or their teens/20s during that period.

Boomers grew up with 1960s rock and roll.
Boomers grew up with a fear of the Vietnam draft.
Boomers have a “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” memory.
Boomers have an “I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan” moment.
Their childhood is all Black and White TV.

Those of us who are Generation Jones remember NONE of these experiences. We only remember these events through history books, or a few very scattered memories.

All I consciously remember of Vietnam was fall of Saigon; because by then I was about ten. But I don’t consciously recall anything else of the pain and suffering of Vietnam, even though I was a child at the time. I also recall nothing of the Civil Rights struggle.

I did pick up the angst and anxiety of the Kennedy assasination, but not because I remember it (even though I was alive); but because I grew up in Dallas where for decades it made the everyday air, for everyone in our city, heavier.

The “Black and White” TV world was something I experienced as a small child, mostly through afternoon reruns.

But the “Black and White images of TV News (things mentioned earlier: JFK, MLK, the Beatles on Sullivan, Vietnam), they might as well have been fifty years before I was born, for all it felt like in my skin.

I learned of these things as history, in books and documentaries, even though I was technically alive for them all. In fact, as a child, I specifically recall feeling defective and odd that I couldn’t remember these cultural events. Older Boomers I knew often chided and kidded me about for not remembering.

“Oh man, you really missed out…”

So, the other day, I was trying to illustrate these differences to this GenXer friend. I was trying, and failing, not to defend all Boomers, but to explain my strange little sliver-of-time to him.

He clearly unconvinced. To try and show me how Boomer I am, he gave me a thought-experiment. He asked me what is, actually, a really great and defining question:

“Who was your ‘rebellious’ band growing up: The Rolling Stones? or The Ramones?”

Again, great question. And a generationally defining question.

But I answered: “Neither…it was The Who…”

I mean, we did listen to the Ramones in college. A lot We cranked it in our dorm rooms, bouncing up and down as we drank Pearl Beer (Hey! We were poor…) We saw “Rock and Roll High School” as a midnight movie dozens of times. But that was after I was older…in college.

I always felt like the Ramones were, sorry to say, kinda “posers.”
Party band, sure.
But “rebellious band?”
No.

As for The Stones, they were OLD. Seriously old. I didn’t identify with them. (Hell, they have kids almost my age…) I had tickets to see them my freshman year in college. I was to drive to Houston for the show with some friends. I was excited, because I’d never seen them, and felt like I was supposed to. But, as it happens, I had a Spanish test that day, and never made the trip.

So, like everyone in Generation Jones, I liked both the Ramones and Stones.
But….the band I identified with as my band of teenaged rebellion?

The Who.
Hands down. They continued to write songs of of rebellion and rage even as old men. They themselves were indeed first cohort. But they also crossed the two Baby Boom cohorts…and bridged them…as I always felt I did too. Albums like “Qadrophenia” and later “Who Are You?” got worn out on my turntable. I saw them in 1980 —at the height our Generation Jones’ teenaged years, well after the older Boomers were in the working world, but I was in high school– at a Reunion Arena; and I lost my hearing for about a day.

BTW…did you know The Who have a new album out?
Yep…it’s great.
They’re still pissed off. Check out these lyrics:

“I’m rockin’ in rage
Well past my prime
Denying the curtain
Waiting on time
So this is the carver
The death before age
I thought I’d be calm
But I’m rockin’ in rage”

Are the Stones writing songs like that? (ijs…)

So, let’s end with an exercise to illustrate the differences between the two cohorts…let me define the distinct differences between Classic Boomers and Generation Jones.

Boomers Leaders:
Bill and Hillary Clinton.
George and Laura Bush.
Donald Trump.
Generation Jones Leaders:
Barack and Michelle Obama.

Boomer Comedians: David Letterman and Jay Leno.
Generation Jones Comedians: Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert.

Boomer Actresses: Diane Keaton.
Generation Jones Actresses: Sandra Bullock.

Boomer Women Musicians: Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt.
Generation Jones Women Musicians: Patty Griffin, Amy Ray.

Boomer Male Musicians: Billy Joel, Duane Allman, Jimi Hendrix.
Generation Jones Male Musicians: Lenny Kravitz, Prince.

If you’re unable to see the clear generational differences here, the generational shift, I really, truly, can’t help you.

And to be clear: In all of this I’m not at all trying to suggest we Second Cohort Boomers, Generation Jonesers, aren’t old.
We are most definitely old.
But, increasingly, so is the front end of GenX.

Nor am I again trying to “pull the spot” back on all Boomers. You GenXers and Millenials who are all so very ready for the Boomers to be off the stage…in many ways I am with you.

I was SO excited when Obama was elected and Jon Stewart was on TV. What a great few years that was. It felt like a generational shift was happening. But that shift was brought to you by Generation Jones.

I naively thought that the time of the Older Boomers had finally and permanently passed; that the First Cohort folks were finally off the stage. Of course, I knew that the culture would eventually pass to GenX and beyond… and that that was as it should be too.

But now, looking back, that little sliver of time turns out to be our one, brief moment for Generation Jones. And now, the culture has moved to yet another weird place.

The Obamas and media stars like Jon Stewart were looking AHEAD to the YOUNG, not back to the old. They admired the older boomers, as I do…but they were future-focused in terms of the people they surrounded themselves with. They listened to, and respected, a younger generation. They bridged those gaps, the way all of us Generation Jones folks do.

And then, we got Trump.
And now, it looks like we might get Biden or Bernie.

And if you’re pissed about that, all I can say is: “I’m right there with you.”

If feels like to you like an unnecessary return to the First Cohort, I agree. I’m ready for a generational change. I’m ready to not be beholden to The Boomers ever again. I’m not even suggesting the spotlight return to us Generation Jones, either. I get that our little sliver of history was always gonna be small.

Hell, the whole point of this essay is to point out how most of the folks, on either side of us, don’t even understand that we are a “thing.” Most of us don’t understand it either. But when “Generation Jonesers,” themselves are first shown the evidence for our group, they almost always say something like “this explains everything that’s always been confusing about my life….”

In closing, I’d ask you to please be a tad kinder to us in Generation Jones, who are nowhere near “retirement age” just yet. Yes, we are old, but we’re not off the stage just yet; and many of our hearts with all of you who are younger than us. We’ve always felt a separation from, and a connection with, those First Cohort Boomers.

I said months ago that my favorite candidates for president would be generally younger…that it was time to “turn the page” on the Clintons the Bidens, the Bernies and the Trumps.

I still feel that in my bones.
Deep in my bones.
And where are we?

Ugh.

GenX and Millenials, I feel your pain. I’m ready to stand with you.
Just know that.

But… if you just want to throw out a stupid, snarky memefied “OK Boomer” at ME?

Then I just have two words for you.
In my best Pete Townshend voice:

“Fuck you.”

_{(Footnote: If you are a subscriber to WhenEFTalks, and are super confused about why this appears in your feed today…I fully intended to post this back in 2020 when it was originally written. Tonight’s 60-year anniversary of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan has inspired me to finally do this. I’ve also updated my original writing so that it more reflects the use of the term “Generation Jones.” So, now it’s here in the WhenEFTalks archive, for future citation. Thanks for understanding, and sorry for any confusion…EF)}