BabyBoomers, Gen X, and what’s my generation called? Oh yeah,

Jonathan Pontell's collage of Generation Jones articles - www.jonathanpontell.com

Jonathan Pontell's collage of Generation Jones articles - www.jonathanpontell.com

Generation Jones

by Cari Ogden of Cari-Okie

Hello 4:00 a.m., we meet again. It’s Saturday morning and there’s no good reason to be up, but tell that to my restless legs. But hey! I learned something this morning. I apparently have been living under a rock because I’ve never heard the term Generation Jones.

I’m a frequent reader of Jen-X’s blog. She identifies strongly with the Generation X crowd–those born after the Baby Boomer crowd. Born in 1961 (happy birthday to me this month) I’ve never really identified with the Baby Boomers or the Gen X-ers.
Yes, I was alive when Kennedy was assassinated. But I was two, people! MLK and Bobby Kennedy? I was not quite seven. The Vietnam war was background noise to my Midwestern childhood, my father just barely too old to be drafted and my brother not born until the war was waning. Race riots briefly touched Kansas City. I remember being at the mall with my mother when someone interrupted the Muzak to say the mall would be closing early due to said riots. My friend Susan’s dad rushed to the University of Kansas in 1968 to retrieve a college-aged child after the Student Union was burned down and the National Guard deployed. Nixon and Watergate occupied the headlines while I concentrated on sleepovers with friends.

So I’m not really a Baby Boomer. And I’m not a Gen X-er. Generation X claims Michael Jackson as an icon. Born in 1958, Michael Jackson didn’t become quite the international pop icon until I was too busy raising babies to be impressed. Personal computers, video games, the Iran hostage crisis, the end of the cold war and the fall of the Berlin Wall…all I experienced as a young adult.

But, tah dah, I just found out there’s a name for us folks. Generation Jones, the generation born between roughly 1954 and 1965. Who knew. Well apparently I didn’t. Key characteristics?Less optimistic, distrustful of government, and generally cynical. Mmmhmm. Now we’re talking.

George Clooney, Nadia Comaneci, Lady Diana, Michael J Fox, Heather Locklear, Julia Luis-Dreyfus, Jeff Probst, Meg Ryan, and of course Barack Obama – all born in 1961. So I’m in good company. Or at least interesting company! OK, yes, Andrew Fastow (think Enron) was also born in 1961, but hey, every generation has its crooks.  So at least I have a place, sort of.  I don’t really think “Generation Jones” is a very cool moniker. But maybe we’re just not that cool as a   group. Sandwiched between the hippies and the yuppies, between free love and AIDS, we are too busy trying to keep it all together.

Maybe we should be called the Polyester Generation. Like the preferred fabric of my teen years, we are low maintenance and versatile. Now if I could only claim to be wrinkle free.

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  • http://www.flashfree.wordpress.com Liz S

    I’ve always called our generation “tailgaters.”!

  • http://analisfirstamendment.blogspot.com/ Anali

    That’s my generation too! I only learned about Generation Jones in the last couple of years. I think many of us have felt like we didn’t fit into GenX or Baby Boomers. I guess we have to spread the word!

    I’ve always thought that who was a Boomer and who wasn’t shouldn’t be the years that are commonly listed, but whether or not you remember anything about when JFK was shot. For me, that’s the clear dividing line.

  • pam

    Someone from my high school class (1981) sent around an article a few years ago about “Generation Jones.” I vastly prefer this title over “tweeners,” as in ‘tween the boomers and Gen X. Gag.

  • http://cari-okie.blogspot.com CariOkie

    Hi Liz – your “tailgaters” made me laugh. Pretty descriptive!
    Anali – I totally agree that remembering JFK’s assassination would make a good dividing line. It’s pretty clear cut.
    Pam – the feeling about “tweeners” is mutual. We GenJonesers have characteristics very unique to our generation that aren’t shared by Boomers or GenXers.

  • http://www.thefiftyfactor.com Joanna Jenkins

    I was born in 1958 but I’d have sworn I was part of the “Pepsi Generation” (Remember those commercials). But noooooo, that ad campaign didn’t hit until 1963 so I’m a Joners. Although I can’t really remember ever trying to “Keep up with the Jones”. It seems I’m lumped into the “big picture” Baby Boomer Generation that’s getting blamed for everything these days. Oh well.

    Hope you get some sleep! Thanks for this post.

  • http://cari-okie.blogspot.com CariOkie

    Joanna – I loved those “Pepsi Generation” commercials. “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony…” Jonesers can all probably sing that pepsi commercial.

  • http://itsarealjungleoutthere.blogspot.com Sandy

    I’ve never heard that phrase. I was born in 1956 and definitely identify with the boomers. I’m going to have to read into Gen Jones.

  • http://cari-okie.blogspot.com CariOkie

    I know! It was new to me to. Folks born in the early 60s really are sort of in limbo between the boomers and gen-x. It’s interesting that you strongly identify with the boomers.

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