11/23/2021

150 Signs That You May Be a Baby Boomer ....

 

I arrived right at the end of the Baby Boom generation, but my parents lived the dream.  Take a walk with me through 150 "best generation" memories ... and add your own if you feel so inclined!

1.                You and your friends rode EVERYWHERE on your bikes, which you “pimped out” for special occasions with playing cards tucked into the spokes.

2.                You paid for groceries with checks

3.                You remember the smell of mimeographed worksheets

4.                Your English class was color-coded SRI cards from a box

5.                You spent hours in front of MTV waiting for your favorite videos to show

6.                You remember when Luke and Laura got married

7.                You drank Cool-aid out of character glasses from the local gas stations, cooled by ice cubes from a metal tray

8.                You remember the sweet, sweet agony of standing in front of 20 different jello parfaits at the Hot Shoppes, knowing you could only pick one

9.                Your parents let you play outside.  All day. Unattended

10.            You anxiously awaited the release of the next Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book

11.            If your wanted pizza, you had to go out for it

12.            Your phone had a rotary dial and only one person could use it at a time. (Bonus points if you remember yelling at everyone to get off the phone so you could connect to the internet.)

13.            You had to call out-of-state relatives after 8pm because that’s when long distance rates went down

14.            You caught fireflies in a jar and used them to light your room at night

15.            You rode in the back of pickup trucks and no one thought that was questionable

16.            You had a record collection

17.            You weren’t sure if Princess Leia would end up with Han or Luke

18.            If you liked a movie, you had to hope they would re-release it the next year

19.            You saved the TV Guide from the Sunday paper so you knew what TV programs were on

20.            You called a phone # if you wanted to know the time or weather

21.            You remember the agony of busy signals

22.            You ate casseroles made out of canned soup and vegetables

23.            You sewed “peace sign” and “smiley face” patches on your bell-bottoms

24.            You tied your ponytails with pieces of thick, colored yarn

25.            Your favorite day in PE was “parachute day”

26.            You sang Beatles songs in chorus

27.            You rode a Big Wheel

28.            You remember gym class mostly as a series of humiliations: dodgeball, chin-ups, rope climbing, polyester gym clothes that reeked of BO no matter how many times they were laundered, and public showers

29.            TV dinners were the coolest thing ever – even if the fruit compost was always at least partially frozen despite 2hrs in the oven at 350 degrees.

30.            You remember the Hawaii episode of Brady Bunch (yes, the one where Peter finds the cursed Tiki)

31.            You identified with one of the characters in Breakfast Club

32.            You remember watching filmstrips in elementary school

33.            You had an M.I.A. bracelet

34.            You remember the magical feeling of walking through a shopping mall draped with decorations at Christmas

35.            You wore a plastic mask and stiff, scratchy packaged costume for Halloween. (Bonus points if you remember collecting money for UNICEF at the same time.)

36.            You had no idea how many of the songs you loved were actually about drugs

37.            You watched variety shows on TV (Carol Burnett, Sonny & Cher, The Captain & Teneil)

38.            You learned to read from Golden Books

39.            You ordered something from K’Tel

40.            You played ALL the politically incorrect games – Smear the Queer, Red Rover, dodgeball - without realizing they were so very wrong

41.            You decorated your room with posters from Teen Beat or Woolworths

42.            You wore suntan lotion designed to make you MORE tan, not less

43.            On special occasions, your family went out to dinner at Tiki-tastic faux Polynesian restaurants at the local strip mall

44.            Your worksheets came from a “ditto machine”

45.            You still think of Sprite as the “Uncola”

46.            Your bologna had a first and second name. (And sometimes your mom served it fried)

47.            Your friends collected hot wheels, comics, or _____

48.            You didn’t always understand everything in MAD Magazine, but you knew it was inappropriate

49.            Your TV required time to “warm up” and came with an antennae that had to be minutely adjusted to ensure reception. (Bonus if you remember using tinfoil to strengthen the signal)

50.            You popped popcorn on the stove, or in a popcorn popper

51.            Your bought your pet from the Woolworths

52.            You remember the excitement of a Kmart Blue Light Special

53.            The guy at the shoe store measured your foot using this incredibly complex metal tool that was always cold – and yet somehow the shoes never quite fit

54.            Birthday parties were held at houses, not restaurants, bowling allies or indoor playgrounds. You wore party hats, played some games, ate cake, watched the birthday boy/girl open presents, and then waited for your parents to pick you back up. (Bonus points if you remember your mom insisting that you dress up.)

55.            Playground equipment was made out of concrete and metal, and no one had a problem with that

56.            College actually WAS like Animal House

57.            You sat next to the radio with your hand poised over the “record” button of your tape recorder, hoping to catch your favorite song

58.            You made mix tapes and gave them to your friends

59.            You owned a bottle of Aquanet

60.            Your Mom bought her makeup from the Avon Lady

61.            They played “Celebrate” by Sly & the Family Stone at least once at your prom

62.            You had to go to the TV set to turn the channel

63.            You learned your grammar, history and multiplication tables from Schoolhouse Rock

64.            You learned how to type on a manual typewriter

65.            On road trips, you stopped at the Stuckeys or Howard Johnsons for meals

66.            You knew your way around a yoyo

67.            You got pinched for not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day

68.            You started monitoring the TV Guide weeks in advance of each holiday so you wouldn’t miss the holiday specials – especially Charlie Brown & The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

69.            Your aspirin tasted like oranges

70.            You owned a beeper or Palm Pilot

71.            Your diet plan included Tab, Slimfast and/or Jazzercize

72.            The furniture in your room included a mushroom lamp, _________, and/or shag carpeting

73.            You waited all week wondering what was going to be on the Wonderful World of Disney TV hour next Sunday

74.            Your TV was color but many of the shows you watched (I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, etc.) were in black and white

75.            You remember when your local arcade introduced the first video game

76.            Your school supplies included books wrapped in repurposed brown shopping bags, a pencil box, paste, and a metal lunchbox with glass-lined thermos that always broke

77.            You know all the words to at least one song from the album “Free to Be You and Me”

78.            Your mom owned at least one wig

79.            You kept the prizes from cereal boxes, because they were actually cool

80.            You still remember how amazed you were when you heard microwaves could bake a potato in 10mins

81.            The women in your life used clear nail polish to stop runs in your pantyhose (Bonus if you remember that the pantyhose came in an egg-shaped container)

82.            Your car had ashtrays, no A/C, and handles for rolling down the windows

83.            Your mom set your hair in rollers as a kid; later, you got it regularly permed at the local salon

84.            You remember the summer everyone in your neighborhood installed a bug zapper

85.            At Christmas, the neighborhood dads ran those strings of big lightbulbs all the way up to the top of the roof

86.            If you want on vacation with your family, it was usually to your grandparents’ house

87.            You owned a pet rock

88.            Your mom did all the cooking; your dad did all the home maintenance & outdoor chores

89.            Ouija boards, Doodle Art posters, and prank phone calls were a staple of slumber parties

90.            On snow days, they put chains on the wheels of the school buses

91.            You partied with Bartle and James

92.            You remember playing Pong

93.            Your elementary school celebrated May Day

94.            You rocked either shoulder pads or a wide tie

95.            Airlines gave you a free mini-suitcase of toys if you were a kid (and the kit always included a pin with wings)

96.            Your eggs and milk were left in an insulated box on the front porch by the milkman

97.            Your idea of a playlist was a stack of 45s on the record player

98.            You remember seeing movies at the drive-in

99.            You remember cigarette machines

100.        Every Christmas you thumbed through the Sears Wishbook to pick out the toys you wanted for Christmas

101.        You glued S&H stamps into booklets which you then redeemed for such glamourous prizes as toasters, juicers, and towels.

102.        You watched Evel Knievel perform trick motorcycle jumps

103.        You remember  these words: “The thrill of victory …. The agony of defeat”

104.        You know what Joe Namath looks like in panty hose

105.        You used an adding machine to figure out your taxes

106.        You watched Howdy Doody, Romper Room, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, Captain Kangaroo, or The Mickey Mouse Club without irony.

107.        Your think of NASA every time you see a bottle of Tang orange drink

108.        You receiving AOL CDs in the mail every week

109.        You remember people smoking in movie theaters, restaurants, and the grocery store

110.        You remember when Salisbury steak, chicken livers, and eggplant parmesan were cafeteria staples

111.        You remember when TV channels used to sign off at the end of the night. (Bonus points if you remember the anguish of waking up early on a weekend morning, only to discover the TV channels weren’t yet back on.)

112.        Woolworths stocked everything you could imagine ever needing – from clothes to farming supplies to pets

113.        You remember TV commercials and billboards advertising smoking

114.        Your mom served you strange combinations of fruits, vegetables, marshmallows and nuts suspended in layers of colored jello

115.        You looked up telephone numbers in the phone book

116.        Party invitations came in the form of cards that arrived in the mail

117.        Your mom brought out the “good china” for special occasions, like dinner parties or holidays

118.        You wrote and mailed formal thank-you notes to people who gave you gifts

119.        You have a polio vaccine scar on your arm

120.        You used a pencil to rewind your cassette tapes

121.        You died of dysentery on the Oregon Trail. Over and over again.

122.        You remember Asking Jeeves or following technical advice from a talking paper clip

123.        The store placed your credit card on a machine that physically embossed the information onto a thin sheet of copy paper

124.        Your teacher used a chalkboard

125.        You suffered serious physical harm playing on the playground equipment at the local park – shooting off the side of a spinning merry-go-round due to centrifugal force, face-planting onto a wooden see-saw, or tumbling off the top of towering metal climbing bars.

126.        You remember when hashtags were used for either numbers or playing tic-tac-toe

127.        You can still say “twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesoniononasesameseedbun” really, really fast

128.        Doctors, dentists and banks ensured a regular supply of lollipops. (Bonus points if you remember lollipops with teardrop-shaped stems and/or long rows of lollipops attached by their cellophane sleeves)

129.        Your high school had smoking halls; perhaps even a smoking courtyard

130.        Your camera came with flashcubes. (Bonus if you also dropped off your film at one of those parking-lot film stands.)

131.        You learned cooking from Julia Childs or the Galloping Goumet

132.        After decorating the Christmas tree, you blanketed the whole thing in an impenetrable layer of silver icicles.

133.        Your bathroom rocked a shag toilet lid cover and patterned TP

134.        You remember the burn of mercurochrome as your mom slathered it onto your open wounds

135.        You begged your mom for a quarter to ride the mechanical horses/cars/rocket ships outside the local grocery store or gas station

136.        You got pretty good at drawing Winky

137.        You succumbed to the lure of Columbia House’s offer of 13 records or cassette tapes for $1

138.        You slathered suntan lotion on your skin so you could become MORE tan.(Bonus points if you also lightened your hair using lemon juice.)

139.        You watched Soul Train and American Bandstand to learn how to dance

140.        Your list of childhood pets includes an ant farm and/or sea monkeys

141.        You remember when curbs overflowed with metal pop-top rings and cigarette butts discarded by passing drivers

142.        You entrusted your deepest secrets to a diary with a cheap metal key

143.        Your friends wrote actual messages in your yearbook, not just signatures

144.        You competed with your friends over who could create the longest gum wrapper chain (Bonus points if you also used a loom to make potholders)

145.        You stocked up on canned food in the basement in case Cuba & her Russian allies decided to launch a missile attack on the U.S.

146.        You remember why the Native American standing next to the Grand Canyon was crying

147.        You remember making shrinky-dinks, creepy crawlers and dip-flowers

148.        You stored your school supplies in a pencil box

149.        You still remember the smell of Colorforms

150.     Your parents owned engraved silver cigarette lighters which they refilled with lighter fluid 

151.        No one ever shopped on Sunday because all the stores were closed

152.     Your family had their picture taken at Olan Mills

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