All Together Now...
Well, that PBS program was constructed a little oddly, but seemed very perceptive indeed.
One key insight: The explosion of television and other mass media during the 50s and 60s made ours the first generation in human history to repeatedly share formative experiences at precisely the same time.
Not all 78 million of us, of course. Economic realities and other issues left some folks behind, but still....
The Kennedy and King assasinations. The Cuban missile crisis (duck and cover). Howdy Doody and Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet.
So, in the end, half of us (more or less) developed crushes on Annette Funicello - the cute one - at the same time. Later, half of us (more or less) developed crushes on Paul McCartney - the cute one - at the same time.
Never before has a generation been as...bonded...by mutual experience as ours.
And now, as we enter our 60s, here we go again. Together.
1 comment:
Most interesting number arising from the PBS special was this: When Social Security was developed, people were dying at about the age 63. Hence, the age 65 as the point at which SS kicked in. In today's numbers, that age -- the age at which we would be able to collect SS -- would be 97!
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