Calling all members of the Baby Boomer generation

[TheyGrewUp]

For educational purposes, would anyone like to share the good and the bad. I'll start, b1960.

Bad:
Very few of our generation went to university
Very high marginal rates of tax - up to 97%
Many left school at 15
Sexism, racism, homophobia
Beauty parades as the norm
Shame was fostered
Corporal punishment at school
People were still institutionalised
Girls/women were more likely to be encouraged to be nurses rather than doctors
Limited mat leave and pay

Good:
Better availability of social/council housing
Legalisation of abortion (safety)
Contraception
Cheaper property but v difficult for women to get a mortgage without a man
Better upward mobility
Good music/fashion
Post war
Seasonal food
No Sunday opening
No social media?

The GOOD part of my childhood/youth was that I had considerable freedom copared with todays kids. I believe this was more the result of parents then wanting to get children out from under their feet rather than giving them a measure of independence. I played in the street with a group mixed by age and sex and learned how to get on with others and how to fit in with the rules of the game. We were free to wander so long as we turned up for meals. Parents rarely interfeared in friendships and expected us to stand up for ourselves if things got tough. The result was that "boomer" (how I hate that word) children socialised themselves to a very large extent.

The BAD thing was that this hands off approach led to a lack of social mobility. We were encouraged to be content with what our parents had. Wanting to better oneself was regarded as disrespectful and snobbish. My parents were actually pleased I failed the 11+ as they could never have afforded the unform. I left school at 16 (no chance of staying for A levels because I was expected to contribute to the family budget) and my parents continued to standin my way when I wanted to pursue professional qualifications. I managed to take them part time and left home as soon as I was financially able. By then I was sick of being the family ATM.

We are told that university attendance began to expand in the 1960s but few working class young people managed it. I attended uni in the 1980s when there were still LA grants. Its ironic that my mother used to brag to her neighbours that I was a "university leacturer" and yet had done nothing to encourage of help me get there.

Early Gen X here - workplaces had space for neurodivergent people who were often supported and absorbed. Jobs were less pressured.

I’m a late boomer born 1961. There was much more manual, unskilled/low skilled/purely clerical work available for those of a less academic bent. If you could type you could always get a job in an office. And people weren’t exploited and expected to do work above their pay grade.

Born early/mid 50s.
BAD
State secondary school 40 in a class and teachers concentrated on the bright kids, not middle or bottom. Only two went to University, it was unheard of.

Teachers bullied and physically manhandled us. One teacher disliked a particular girl and regularly picked her up by her back of shirt collar and rammed her nose on the blackboard, or threw blackboard rubbers at her.
You had to sit with your hands in your laps and not move or you were screamed at.

You were ostracised if you got pregnant young out of marriage. The shaming was horrendous.

Houses were freezing in winter, ice on the inside of the windows etc.

GOOD
At age 14 I was catching a bus into town and working as a chambermaid (as it was known then) cleaning hotel rooms and bathrooms. Did this at weekends and school holidays, earning money was fantastic.

Left home at 16, moved to nearest big town and there were so many jobs going. I remember going into Alfred Marks in the early 70s, with little in the way of O levels, and the girl in there brought out a huge stack of index cards all with individual jobs she was happy to put me forward for. Feel sorry for kids nowadays. I chopped and changed jobs every year/18months to earn more, I was never out of work.

Luncheon Vouchers - who remembers them? They paid for my lunch every day

The shops were great for teens/20s.... Snob, Chelsea Girl, Bus Stop

Most generations are shorter than the "Boomer" generation and most generations didn't start immediately after a six-year world war at one end and include the biggest sexual revolution in history at the other so my point stands.