Posts Tagged ‘generations’
Just Learned
After a lifetime of identifying as a tail-end Baby Boomer, I have recently discovered that I am a member of Generation Jones, a distinction coined by an American cultural commentator in 1999. Consisting of people born between the years 1954-1965, the issues we faced during our coming-of-age years were different from our older Boomer siblings. I certainly recognize the characteristics of pessimism and cynicism in my young self that are generally attributed to Jonesers.
I remember being told in a class in high school during the energy crisis years in the ‘70s that it was unlikely we would ever live in single-family homes by the time we would be having kids of our own. The use of DDT had made bald eagles nearly extinct. We were burning a hole in the Earth’s ozone layer. The Watergate scandal led to the US President’s resignation. Classic rock music was getting squished by disco and punk. It was all rather depressing.
When Cyndie and I started dating, I held the mindset of not wanting to bring children into the messed-up world. In reality, we did buy single-family homes, I landed a good job, we raised two wonderful children, and thankfully, their development helped me to discover the need to seek treatment for depression.
While reading about Generation Jones, I saw this tidbit that made me chuckle: What does Elvis mean to these three generations? Boomers > King; Jonesers > fat; Gen Xrs > Costello.
My Boomer siblings remember when phone numbers started with letters. When I was starting high school, we had a second phone line exclusively for teen use. Boomers watched the “Mickey Mouse Club” on TV in black and white. I watched “The Banana Splits” or “The Monkees” in color.
The distinction makes sense to me. The span of time originally associated with the Baby Boom generation was too long. Things changed so fast, we Jonesers grew up in a different world compared to the main Boomers.
It’s all a far cry from life today. Cyndie and I are currently navigating the complications of avoiding driving on the fresh sealcoat on our driveway for a couple of days by parking in the back yard and driving through the back pasture and the hay field to get to the road.
While Cyndie was closing gates after I had driven her car through, she took a picture of Mia coming over to see what the heck we were up to.
When I made the second pass of cutting all the overgrown lawn areas a few days ago, I left out the labyrinth. Not only does the grass need cutting in there again, but the bushes are in dire need of a visit from the hedge trimmer.
I wonder how much of my drive to have our landscape look well-kempt aligns with the traits of being in Generation Jones, or if it’s more a carryover Boomer trait.
I’ve learned enough things in my life to sense that there are likely as many similarities between the two generations as there are differences.
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Ancestor Cloud
I made a word cloud that includes 5 generations of surnames of our children’s ancestors. That is 64 names: 2 parents; 4 grandparents; 8 great-grandparents; 16 great-great-grandparents; and 32 great-great-great-grandparents.
The name Hays occurs 5 times but there are only 4 Friswolds because that name changed from Frisvold four generations back. Cyndie’s mother’s and my mother’s maiden names show up 4 times each.
Our kids are all those people. I’m only half of the people named and Cyndie is the other half.
The kids visited yesterday for our immediate family Christmas gathering and I was mentioning how different from each other Cyndie and I are. Julian then pointed out, “And I am both of you.”
We definitely contain multitudes.
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Hays Days
Just like all the small-town fairs and carnivals that come up with names like “Schooner Days” (Eden Prairie, MN) or “Rutabaga Festival” (Cumberland, WI), this weekend is “Hays Days” at Wintervale.
Cyndie pulled out a collection of sidewalk chalk and Heidi Shatek created a gorgeous logo for our event. One highlight of the day was a visit from a relative my siblings had yet to meet. We share a great-grandfather because each of our grandfathers were brothers. I met Jim Hays after he contacted me while researching our ancestry. Now most of my siblings got to meet him too.
Another highlight was having our son Julian bring a drone that allowed the easiest group photo we’ve ever taken.
The scavenger hunt I devised worked out slick. I think I had more fun hearing about people finding one of the ten items than they did finding them. “Old metal gate in the woods… three different types of pine cones… carabiner clip in use… two different rain gauges… butternut tree seed pod…”
Asher was in his glory with all the attention and loved being in the middle of the action.
There was no shortage of scrumptious food prepared by loving hands to keep much of the activity close to the kitchen throughout the day. Toward evening, many of the folks needed to head home but two adults and a crowd of third-generation cousins hung around for a sleepover.
Tent camping was considered but the ease of just crashing indoors in sleeping bags won out. There was a chance of rain that bolstered that decision but rain never came. We continue to endure a serious dry spell that has the soil cracking and the dust under kicking horse hooves creating clouds.
As Hays Days winds down today we can turn our sights to another season. Yesterday we announced a save the date for February when the lake place is reserved as the sight of a winter gathering of our clan.
Here’s hoping we boost the numbers to include even more families than were able to show up to this weekend’s Hays Days at Wintervale.
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Relative Something 