The Baby Boomer Generation
was between 1946–1964.
Currently today between
the ages of 57 and 75.
So that would make most
of us still alive and kicking

No, two people experience,
their generation the same.
It depends upon your age
going through the experience
Facilitates our gauge.

These is what I remember along my way.
Details, I leave out the baby boomers will know what I’m talking about.
One of 8 kids I’ve seen many layers
These recollections are from many players
This memory train stops ,Ends 1979

My generation as a child;
Buying our clothes from the
Sears and Roebuck catalog
Weekend chores morning till night
Sunday church, youth fellowship group
A treat to play baseball in the street
First set of wheels a Banana Bike
with high handlebars, Ten Speed bike
We road for miles but never lost our way.
Made and played with Paper, Airplanes,
Lincoln Logs, Click Clacks and Jack’s
We dug holes to make a Mini Golf Course

I sold fruit from our many trees For lunch
money cafeteria food 4 fruits NO sac lunch,
We were resourceful, earning our own way.

The boys had a Paper Rout
The girls Babysitters. I bought my clothes, by the age of 12 with babysitting money.
And happy to doit.!NO more sister’s things
The embarrassment of hand me downs

We covered our School Books with
Brown paper, trash bags, creative Kids used
comics from the newspaper cool!
We walk to school and back, never alone

We dial a rotary phone plugged in the wall.
Dial zero for operator to connect your call
Yellow page phonebook to find numbers.
chores and homework done, before fun!
Boys collected Baseball Cards MadeCrafts

Junior High; The quarterly Shop classes
Boys Only,
Auto Shop, Wood Shop,
Electronic Shop and Plastic Shop
The boys sold what they made
for a pretty penny(expensive price)$$

Drivers Ed
In the classroom and in the Car
The schools had four Cars;
4 kids and the Instructor

Home economics
Girls Only;
learn to Sew, A-line Skirt, Gym Bags
with Embroidered Names, one freestyle project. Anything from Turning jeans into a Jean skirts. Imagination creation,
Original design Homemade crafted gifts

Cooking Class had 7 mini Kitchens
Nutritional well-balanced meals, but my favorite Cake Baking tips and techniques.
We had a lemonade Stand in the summer
Sold Fresh lemons off your fruit trees.
Baked cookies, cupcakes, and cakes as well.

Every meal was made from scratch
Feeding 10 meant more than one batch.
We ate Dinner as a Family every night
Us kids, brothers and sisters were tight
We went to Drive-in, Movies in our PJs
We got our information from Encyclopedias
We waited for the Milkman, and the Helm’s 
Whistle Blow, Diaper Services at the door.
We listened toTransistor Radio on the floor.

My Generation as a Teenager
Bellbottoms and Crop Tops” peace signs”
mini skirts, go-go boots, moccasins beehive
Hair with Flowers everywhere
Bought my First Vinyl Record

Rationing Gasoline;, odd, and even days
By The last digit of your license plate
In 1993 and again in 1997. Gas Ran Out!

Changing the TV channel with the ****
First black and white TV followed by color
FineTune the antenna, rabbit ears for clarity.
We piled in the wood panel station wagon

A Phone Booth on every corner $.10 a call.
The simplicity of it all
Until The Moral pendulum Shifted Society
The shooting of John F. Kennedy
I knows where I was the day it happened
The shooting of Martin Luther King
These two Events shaped our Generation.

The Vietnam war, Kent State Univ. shooting
Our Generation Before
Cell Phones, CDs, ATM, machines, Internet, Pagers, Cassettes Tapes Eight Track tapes
in the car. The swear jar

We barter food, sold eggs Goods,& Serves
Wore Galoshes to school on muddy roads

My generation as an Adult
Neighbors Voted in our garage
Their loving façade was an allusion Mirage  
Never answer “Who did you Vote for”
Airing ***** laundry in public, not smart
VOTING couples screaming, fighting in the street taught me.NEVER talk about;
Religion and Politics. Two Deadly Battles
The price, too High, to lose, your happy life

Gypsies gave daisies At the Airport
Make Love Not War, Peace bohemian style
California rock ‘n’ roll bands in the city
And to the sand, Artistry in the air
Music flourished,Bands played everywhere

The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd,
The Beatles, , Crosby, stills, Nash, Young
Simon and Garfunkel every day fair
Woodstock a whole other scene
To describe it, you had to be there

Drugs,;mushrooms, ***, psychedelics, acid
Roxy, & Rainbow Club where the weirdos went or Chinese tour buses,
filled with people dressed in 60s wear
Men wore a camera around their neck, Hawaiian shirt, black Horn rimmed glasses, Ladies poodle skirts with Peddicoats and white button down blouses and sweaters
in the 1979. I kid you not. strange people!
I wanted to ask what movie they saw that made them think this was California style?

Car Races on Van Nuys Blvd.
Parking with your boyfriend
Teen center held under 21 Dances.
The San Fernando Valley(Valley Girls)
Really said “for sure”. “Totally awesome” “whatever” “ not even” “ As If”

Orange Grove and walnut trees as far as the eye can see. The city Tarzana was named after Tarzan. South of the Boulevard 4 miles from Michael Jackson’s house. Modest home. Difference as night and day

Curiously, I never thought we were poor
We were rich in love, and that was more than enough. Help a friend in need
Because it’s the right thing to do.

people were people, Just getting along
Decent folks Kind and Caring,Sharing
God-fearing Christians, Moral Values
Live and let Live. The American Way

Realize that true happiness lies within. Waste no
time or effort searching for peace and contentment
and joy in the world outside.

Happiness is not in our circumstances but in
ourselves. It is not something we see or feel
like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.

Give yourself a perfect day. Do what makes you
happiest. Look upon what gives you joy.

Speak to those who warm your heart. Listen to that
which lifts your spirits. Surround yourself with sights
and sounds and people who give you pleasure.

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet,
enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow
to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.

The greatest happiness in the world is the conviction
that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, in spite of ourselves.

The three things we crave most in life - happiness, freedom, and peace of mind are always attained by giving them to someone else.                                    
                                                                ­                              Jon York  2024

"I  like  living.  I have been  wildly,  despairingly,  acutely
miserable,  racked with sorrow; but through  it  all  I  still
know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."  
                                                                          Agatha Christie

As  humans  we  need  regular doses of  unreasonable  beauty,
sublime anomalies, beguiling ephemera, and inexplicable joys.

I  chose  to  be  optimistic,  it  feels  better.  I choose also  to  be
truthful, gentle, and fearless.

Time is really the  only capital that  I or any human being  has,
and it is the only thing we can't afford to lose. Let your choices
reflect your hopes, not your fears.

The past is where we  learn the lesson. The future is where we
apply the lesson.

It is only a short trip. Enjoy it. You are not what you have done,
you are what you have overcome.
                                                       ­                                      Jon York   2024

All  the  words and thoughts
behind my words come from
a  place of love as I  travel the
roads in the memory of this poet.

Walking the streets of this poets
memory I come to a meeting place.

Where the river mirrors the sky
in glassy completion, where the
earth gives way to water, where
two souls surrender to their smallness.

A fleeting moment in a temporary
existence, this moment is met, again
and again in a place that transcends time.

We were together for such a short
time but in my mind she will be for
a lifetime.

I have to wonder why? It seems only
the blink of an eye and she was gone.
                                                                                              Jon York  2024

Stop waiting for the right time.
Time isn't waiting for you.

NOTE TO SELF: You got this.
Know your limits and crush
them. Rid your mind  of can't.

When you see something beautiful
in someone, tell them. It may only
take a second to say, but for them it
could last a lifetime.

They will love you or hate you, Either
way, you're gonna shine!

You decide who you want to become.
Don't listen to other peoples opinions.
It's just noise. Learn not to give a ****,
You'll be happier.

One day you'll wake up and there
won't be anymore time to do the
things you always wanted.

Do it now.
                                                                                             Jon York   2024

She was a special person I always cared to
know,  for our lives would intermingle  no
matter  where  we  would go or where  we
would  be.

She was always a shadow or an image in
my mind or a faint and hazy memory that
life had erased with time.

The days  went by, the  weeks  rushed on,
and before I knew it a year was gone. Then
I looked up and 50 years were gone.

If from life you take the best, and in life you
keep the jest, if love you hold, no matter how
the years go by, no matter how the birthdays
fly -- you are not old. But if your ambitions'
fires are dead -- then you are old.

It is the human touch in this world that counts,
the touch of your hands and mine which mean
far more to the fainting heart than shelter and
bread and wine.

For shelter is gone when the night is over, and
bread lasts only a day, but the touch of a hand
and the sound of the voice sing on in the soul. 
                                                                                              Jon York  2024

Everything changes in an instant.

Not sure if I need ***, sleep, or to
punch someone in the face.

I  have  to be stronger  than  my excuses
and I have to hold myself accountable,
stay committed and never give  up.

I  have  to start with who I am,  use
what I  have, and do what I  can.

The man who is a master of patience
is master of everything else.

I must find the fighter in myself and
realize the fact that if I'm not where
I want to be, that should be enough
motivation.

A wise man once said nothing.

I must make a conscious effort to hear
no  ****, to speak no  ****, and to  take
no ****. Life is what you make of it,
not what you think of it.
                                                                                             Jon York   2024