boomerag 2

That boomer post got me thinking. The baby boomer era was in full swing when I hit the scene. I was born on the 20th day of September, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, California. I am told it was a hot, sticky evening. I was a healthy 8 lbs, 14 oz. My mother recalls the hospital nurses exclaiming over my pink, pudgy cheeks. There are no photographs of me as a newborn, so I’m not sure what I looked like, but 8 lbs 14 oz sounds pretty healthy. The attending physician, a Dr. Walker, signed the routine paperwork. The bottom of my foot was dipped in ink and pressed against a small, pink card with my name on the front. After my arrival, I was bundled up and trundled off to the baby ward while my parents worried whether they would be able to afford the $100 hospital bill.

I was born into a world filled with all the fear and anxiety associated with the aftermath of WWII. Harry Truman was President of the United States. The Cold War with the USSR was in full swing; national intelligence was busy estimating Soviet capabilities for clandestine attack against the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction. (Half a century later, that statement has a familiar ring). Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Mario Lanza, Johnny Ray and Eddie Howard all had hit songs with titles like “Because of You,” “Be My Love,” “Cry,” “Sin,” and “How High the Moon." The first color telecast of a football game on a network occurred that month, and a scientist by the name of Nicholson discovered the 12th moon of Jupiter. The Senate Crime Investigating Committee declared Italy the heroin trafficking center of the world. The United Nations was busy acting as referee between the fledgling Israel and its hostile Arab neighbors. (Some things don't change.) Polio was still a common crippler. Bell Labs was introducing the transistor’s amazing versatility to industry. Herbert Hoover delivered a speech entitled “Men are Equal Before Fish” to the American public – a rather eloquent treatment of the virtues of getting back to nature and calming one’s troubled mind by going fishing. The Korean war was raging. George C. Marshall was serving his last month as Secretary of Defense, retiring just after the United States concluded three important security treaties with the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand, and with Japan. This last pact coincided with the signing of a peace treaty between Japan and 48 other nations, marking the official end of the Pacific phase of WWII. “I Love Lucy,” “The Red Skelton Show,” and the Ed Sullivan Show were the most popular TV shows. Pope Pius XII had just delivered “INGRUENTIUM MALORUM” (On Reciting the Rosary) to Catholicism’s Venerable Brethren, Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Ordinaries having Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.

Of course I’m only relating what I’ve been told of that time, being little more than a crying, hungry brainstem. I still cry, I'm still hungry, and my brain? well...

boomerag

Ever think about that word, *boomer* ? The word transmits a feeling forceful expansion - all muscle and sweat and bigness. It has heft. You pucker your lips, open your mouth to form a perfect O, and with the authority of an orator, push the sound out over your tongue. When I say it, I always emphasize the BOOM, with the er a mere ornament, a grace note enhancing the central note.

The word itself is fun to follow. Check out the entry in Wikipedia. Historically, a boomer was a tradesperson in certain American industries like oil or construction. These gave rise to spinoff terms like boom-up (to change jobs, usually with better pay) and boomtown. Today, we nickname serious atheletes Boomer (think football quarterbacks and baseball pitchers). The military can't ever be left out of the fun, so to submariners, a vessel that carries ballistic missiles is a boomer. Then you have your garden variety boomer mushroom, an Australian leaping boomer (aka kangaroo), a mountain beaver boomer, a cartoon strip character boomer, and even a robot boomer.

But my favorite boomernomer happens to be an American demographic category. Soldiers returning home from overseas after World War II (how many bloggers remember that war?) were largely responsible for a giant spike in the nation's head count between 1946 and 1964. The baby boomer generation - really, a generation plus - effectively messed with the conservative (read constrictive) cultural norms of the period. But you knew that.

Why boomernomer drivel as my first posting? Maybe that question will be answered by any blogsniffers willing to deconstruct the whimsical.