Baby Boomer Experiment

It is a momentous year in our family and amongst our circle of friends with a few of our number reaching 50 years old.

There are those who, jovially, at 50 plus years claim it is the new 35 or younger but why should you feel it necessary to reminisce and hearken back to a different period in your lives when at half a century in the bag there is still so much to look forward to?

It is a time to celebrate because we have been part of a big experiment over the last 5 decades and have managed, most of us anyway to get through it without too much reliance on artificial stimulants or the like. We are baby boomers from 1963.

It was a tumultuous time for our own parents and who amongst us has not made that mental calculation back 9 months from our respective dates of birth to try to ascertain the circumstances of our conception. In my life story it was a time of great political upheaval and in the latter part of 1962 the whole world was poised to see the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis which brought the Superpowers close to all-out atomic war.

I can envisage my parents watching and listening to the minute by minute and blow by blow developments in that part of the world and being understandably fearful for their futures and that of their fledgling family, at that stage just my big sister but soon to be the five of us siblings.

I can well imagine that the end of the crisis in November 1962 called for a bit of a celebration, more out of relief in continuity of a simple life than the triumph of capitalism over communism. It appears that my parents may have taken a drive out into the countryside because whenever a certain natural feature on the Chiltern Hills happened to be mentioned in a conversation or, more likely a report on a Gliding accident, they always blushed upon a coy meeting of their glances.

It was not all plain sailing for the rest of the 1960's what with other examples of civil unrest and conflict that threatened to start Soviet and Eastern Bloc tanks rolling into western Europe or a barrage of potent warhead tipped missiles from bunkers in the eastern and mid United States.

As part of the experiment in which we , as 1963 arrivals, were involved and implicated we were also exposed to all sorts of influences which ,over the passage of time, have now been condemned or banned as hazardous, injurious or potentially fatal.

This was not through any recklessness or abandonment on the part of our parents and guardians.

It was the perception of normality.

Take asbestos for example. A perceived wonder material which could be found in just about everything in the 1960's from floor tiles to water tanks, textured coatings to ironing boards and that was just a few of their applications inside the home.

The early plastics from which our toys and baby items, such as drinking cups and teethers were fashioned were likely to have been highly toxic.

It was a time of lead content in paints and rather than just encase it in another layer it was always considered best practice to burn or abrade it when giving the house a freshen up. With the luxury of hindsight this just released the toxic residues into the air to be easily ingested into our baby bloodstreams. The implications of what was a favourite practice of mine as a toddler of sucking idly on a toy soldier made from lead is now a matter of great research into ill health in later life.

Aluminium was also a common material in everyday use but now strongly associated as a catalyst to mental illnesses. Nothing was thought about constant use of cooking pans made from this.

Car Safety for babies and small children was not really a consideration and I can recall about 15 of us loosely arranged in the Morris Minor heading to and from a day out with no form of restraint in evidence.

Antibiotics were not as advanced as they are now but we were often taken around to a neighbours house when a case of measles, mumps or chicken pox was reported. It prompted a social gathering for mums ( Dads and Mumps considered) and a party atmosphere for spotty babies.

In the days before Domestos or anti-bacterial sprays and wipes we did not seem to suffer to any greater extent from bugs, viruses or what we euphemistically referred to a case of the bum-squirts.

In the home we did not have to be protected from ourselves with safety glass, stair-gates or other child-proofing innovations as available today.

If we did get poorly then we were treated with chicken noodle soup or if drugs were called for, Milk of Magnesia or mildly alcoholic gripe water sufficed.

Itchy bodies were liberally coated with camomile lotion.

Head lice were bombarded with the equivalent of DDT or Agent Orange, no doubt highly carcinogenic or flammable.

On the subject of fire safety I do not think that we were particularly protected by retardant materials where we slept or played.

There was no such thing as a Risk Assessment for trips out with Playgroup or Infants School. The same hazards and dangers must have been present as they are today but our perception or just innocence and trust in others was so much different.

We would readily chat with strangers and the prospect of being shown puppies or kittens was encouraged as part of our natural development and education in life.

In successive decades we would be equally exposed to dodgy and risky things from polystyrene tiles to food additives, from early mobile phones to unstable fast cars and even recent crises in what we eat and drink.

These are just a few of the things that we have had to cope with so come on, those who are 50 years old this year should celebrate wildly not just the coming of age but the simple fact that you have survived this long at all.