A question for you baby boomers - Which was your favorite decade & why?

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Participants in the discussion reflect on their favorite decades, primarily focusing on the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Many express nostalgia for the 80s, citing its vibrant music, fashion, and a sense of freedom, while others favor the 90s for its entertainment and technological advancements. Some participants note a disconnect with younger generations, particularly millennials, and share mixed feelings about the current state of society. The conversation touches on personal experiences and memories, with a few lamenting the loss of friends and the changes in cultural norms over the decades. Overall, the thread highlights the varied perspectives of baby boomers on their formative years and the evolution of societal values.

Which is for favorite decade of the past 60+ years?

  • 1950's

    Votes: 3 15.8%
  • 1960's

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1970's

    Votes: 5 26.3%
  • 1980's

    Votes: 5 26.3%
  • 1990's

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • 2000's

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • 2010's

    Votes: 2 10.5%

  • Total voters
    19
ElliotSmith
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This is a question to anyone reading this who was born shortly after world war 2 (baby boomers).

What has been your favorite decade and why?
 
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1980's.

Because the 1960's did not come to a complete close till about 1980. That is: the 70's were a kind of long post 60's hangover, disco notwithstanding. The 80's were new and fresh. The music was fun and vapid, the clothes were colorful, Hollywood generated a lot of comedies. Things had lightened up.
 
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I was born in late 70s , so I think I enjoyed myself most during years of early 2000s when I first learned about the Internet and started my first courses in psychology and cybernetics at college. I miss my friends and all loved ones, some of who already passed away while others now have to take drugs to keep their bodies and hallucinations alive. If only we had never met, our dreams about being together should have lasted forever more...
 
I was born in 87 so my memories of the 80's are almost nonexistent.

But I do remember the 90's quite clearly, and they weren't bad.
 
after 69 woodstock, must have been a decade long hangover. Anyway, my favourite is 90s, because I was born then and there were better cartoons.
 
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I voted 70's but it's really the 60's and 70's. I lived in two small coastal towns during the late 50s and early 60s before moving to the suburbs of two major cities in the mid to late 60s. I liked the mid 60s to mid 70s, because I made some very good friends, some with whom I keep in touch. I watched the transition from steam to diesel locomotives, and enjoyed the outback and the music.
 
Only two baby boomers answered so far. So much for reading instructions.

I voted for the 80's for the same reasons as zoobyshoe, although I loved 60's music. In the 70's music took a nose dive, by 1973 my friends and I decided music would never be good again.
 
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I was born in '48.

A favorite decade is a hard thing to ask. In terms of music, it had always been the sixties, but now it is the fifties/sixties doo-wop with its emphasis on harmony, love and kisses.

In terms of everything else, it is the current decade, for despite any decadence or corruption in the world at large, I've never been so personally contented and at peace with the world, reconciled to both its realties and its ambiguities.
 
Evo said:
Only two baby boomers answered so far. So much for reading instructions.
Maybe the other baby boomers' eyes are going bad and they didn't see the thread...? :-p
 
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  • #10
I was born in the 1950's, but I find that things keep getting better and better. I like now.
 
  • #11
The 90's were a blast to grow up in because of all the video games, arcades, and electronic entertainment.
 
  • #12
hmm... I voted, before I saw the following, just this morning, posted by my bff, gen-Xer:



I retired last year, and never had to work with a "Millennial".
I'm sticking with my answer.

ps. I told him to hang on.
 
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  • #13
I voted 80's as it was the last time that you knew someone was a bit odd if they were talking to themselves as they walked down the street, that and the fact it was still OK at most jobs to have 'a' beer or mixed drink as a regular Joe for lunch and not get fired as official company policy.
 
  • #14
nsaspook said:
... that and the fact it was still OK at most jobs to have 'a' beer or mixed drink as a regular Joe for lunch and not get fired as official company policy.
I like to chill out sometimes, the more parties the more funs. Sharing is caring. :-p
 
  • #15
ElliotSmith said:
The 90's were a blast to grow up in because of all the video games, arcades, and electronic entertainment.

In my opinion, the 90's was a lost decade. Almost nothing interesting happened in the 90's, with the partial exception of the grunge movement early on. One could argue that the internet was born circa 1995, but the internet we know today wasn't really defined until the early 2000's when broadband became widely available. Before that, it wasn't really clear, to me at least, that the internet was going to be a primarily entertainment and socially driven media. So to put a "stamp" on the 90's and say that this decade was about this or that...I don't what I'd say. Every other post war decade I think had some specific feature that defined it.
 
  • #16
OmCheeto said:
hmm... I voted, before I saw the following, just this morning, posted by my bff, gen-Xer:

I have no idea what the comedy here is. It's just "millennials are stupid and lazy" over and over again.
 
  • #17
Ryan_m_b said:
I have no idea what the comedy here is. It's just "millennials are stupid and lazy" over and over again.

Mainly, because I've lived through all 7 decades, so I've seen these "generational" schisms before.
As I said, I never had one work for me.
And of my 125 Facebook friends, only two are millennials. I had to "unfollow" them, as I find their means of communication almost incomprehensible.

It's also funny, because the "millennial's" response was just as good, if not better.
They are what they are, because of us.

Bam!
 
  • #18
OmCheeto said:
Mainly, because I've lived through all 7 decades, so I've seen these "generational" schisms before.
As I said, I never had one work for me.
And of my 125 Facebook friends, only two are millennials. I had to "unfollow" them, as I find their means of communication almost incomprehensible

You find communication by anyone under 33 (the upper age for the usage of the term) incomprehensible? I guess I'm just generally baffled by the lengths to which people will generalise a demographic of the population.
 
  • #19
Ryan_m_b said:
You find communication by anyone under 33 (the upper age for the usage of the term) incomprehensible? I guess I'm just generally baffled by the lengths to which people will generalise a demographic of the population.
Not "anyone"... :oldgrumpy:

I thought Binzing was a college student when I first found PF. Then I found out he was a 4 foot tall 14 year old.
I'm sure there are more kids out there like him. I just haven't met any of them, outside of PF.

hmmmm...

Code:
Generation      born between
Lost            1883-1900
Greatest        1901-1924
Silent          1925-1942
Baby Boomers    1943-1964
X               1965-1983
Millennials     1984-2003

Ok. There are a few more millenials on my FB list, but they are on the "gen-X" cusp.
I can tell, as I think they are all right around 30, and have shut off the "year" on their birthdays.
Ha!
That's another thing that never changes.

"No one will trust you, after you turn 30".
:oldbiggrin:
 
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  • #20
Ryan_m_b said:
I have no idea what the comedy here is. It's just "millennials are stupid and lazy" over and over again.
These kids, today!
 
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  • #21
Ryan_m_b said:
I have no idea what the comedy here is. It's just "millennials are stupid and lazy" over and over again.
I adore most of the 20-somethings I know. I strongly believe they live in a more difficult world than I grew up in. I remember getting offers for employment when I was their age, despite the fact that I knew *nothing* about anything. I didn't realize how lucky I was.

Today, 20-somethings don't get the same opportunities my generation had, based on numerous anecdotes I've heard from them and their parents (who are my peers). Yet even though they don't have the opportunities we had, they remain optimistic, and engaged -- especially through volunteer work.
 
  • #22
Fifties and early sixties for cars and consumer goods you could maintain yourself. Music? Fifties and seventies. People? Fifties --- still real.
 
  • #23
OmCheeto said:
Not "anyone"... :oldgrumpy:

......
hmmmm...

Code:
Generation      born between
Lost            1883-1900
Greatest        1901-1924
Silent          1925-1942
Baby Boomers    1943-1964
X               1965-1983
Millennials     1984-2003

.....
:oldbiggrin:

OK so for 1959, I do fall into the baby boomers years yipeeeee :rolleyes: :smile:
 
  • #24
Obviously it is the 1960s, it's just that none of us can remember why.
 
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  • #25
OmCheeto said:
...
"No one will trust you, after you turn 30".
:oldbiggrin:
Why ? 30s are no longer teens or 20s to keep whining about the losses or are having better plans in making a "deal" ?
Can't it be that it's all the outside that covers all the broken pieces inside ? No ? OK!
 
  • #26
Silicon Waffle said:
I like to chill out sometimes, the more parties the more funs. Sharing is caring. :-p

This is not party time. Being a boomer I never associated having an adult beverage with food at lunch with parties. We all ate our food, drank our drink and went back to work or school just like we had finished breakfast with a cup of coffee. Nothing special about it.
 
  • #27
Ophiolite said:
Obviously it is the 1960s, it's just that none of us can remember why.

Obviously it's not the 1960s because most of us can remember why. I remember thinking as a teen , is this what life is all about?
 
  • #28
Silicon Waffle said:
Why ? 30s are no longer teens or 20s to keep whining about the losses or are having better plans in making a "deal" ?
Can't it be that it's all the outside that covers all the broken pieces inside ? No ? OK!

It's an old saying.

AUTHOR: Jack Weinberg

QUOTATION: We have a saying in the movement that we don’t trust anybody over 30.

ATTRIBUTION: JACK WEINBERG, twenty-four year old leader of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley, California, interview with San Francisco Chronicle reporter, c. 1965. Weinberg later said he did not actually believe the statement, but said it as a kind of taunt to a question asking if there were outside adults manipulating the organization.—The Washington Post, March 23, 1970, p. A1.

[ref]

Does anyone know if it's still used today, by the gen-Xers and the millennials?
 
  • #29
nsaspook said:
This is not party time. Being a boomer I never associated having an adult beverage with food at lunch with parties. We all ate our food, drank our drink and went back to work or school just like we had finished breakfast with a cup of coffee. Nothing special about it.
It depends on people who take things more serious than others do.
OK, I will give it up. No messy party.
 
  • #30
nsaspook said:
Obviously it's not the 1960s because most of us can remember why. I remember thinking as a teen , is this what life is all about?
I think that was a reference to the old joke: "If you can remember the sixties, you weren't there."

Regardless, you're right. It was an unbelievably stressful decade. I still have my draft card, now quite tattered, that we were required to have on us at all times. The government was literally forcing kids into the military, with the alternative being prison.
 

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