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Accredited Baby Boomer Brings His Insights to This Local Newspaper

By Tom Anselm

Good day to all!  It is my privilege to be able to share the fun and foibles of life with the readers of The Independent News.

I have been writing a bi-weekly column since May 2002.  The focus has been on the life and times of a card-carrying Baby Boomer.  Namely, me.  Born in 1949, I’ve seen the launching of Sputnik and the even more wonderful invention of central air conditioning.

Men have walked on the moon and Stan Musial retired.  Indoor malls flourished, and then faded.  I’ve seen baseball games in all three Busch Stadiums, and drank metal tumblersfull of grape Kool-Aid so cold it hurts your teeth.  I’ve lived through Beatlemania and Vietnam, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the destruction of the Twin Towers. Elvis rose to prominence and died.  So did the Kennedy’s, and Martin Luther King.

I remember watching Howdy Doody and Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring on a 12-inch black and white television in a cabinet the size of a small gun safe.   Today, I “Google” everything, but I’m still trying to figure out how to download files to my desktop.  My first recollection of a phone number started with “M.O.”, which stood for the Mohawk exchange, and now I can text, somewhat successfully.  But no Tweeting for this guy, thank you very much.

Home for me is in the Florissant zip code, and my wife Jill and I both grew up a few miles from each other in the post-World War II communities divided by Bellefontaine Road.  We’ve raised and schooled our six children in North County since marrying in 1973, and plan to stick around.  We are proud to say we live in NOCO, and can’t imagine living anywhere else.  Except maybe, Santa Monica.  What a climate!  Five of our eight grandkids share this same community, with three temporarily exiled in the land where Cubs and Bears abound.   At least we pray it’s temporary.

I have recently retired from teaching special education for over 20 years.  Retirement has been unlike anything I expected, but exactly as I thought it could be.  I hope to be explaining what seems like that contradiction, as we roll along together in this historically unpredictable economy.

As members of this particular group born between 1946 and 1964, Baby Boomers comprise the largest surge in population this country has ever seen.  Everything has been affected by this number, from housing to entertainment to fashion to electronics.  We continue to be a formidable economic demographic, with advertisers targeting us daily.  Except now, instead of hot music and hotter cars, the focus for us is on retirement funds, arthritis remedies and senior living enclaves.

But we share commonalties.  For many of us, our kids are grown and on their own.  For others, they are starting high school.  For some, we are still in the upward struggle for income and recognition.  For others, we are facing the end of the second third of our lives, that of being full time workers.  Over 10,000 people are reaching the age of 65 each day, and this will continue for the next two decades.  Retirement either looms, or beckons, depending on your view, and financial circumstance.

But for all of us, those in the Boomer category and those not, there are some certainties.  In the words of 70-year-old Bob Dylan (NOT a Boomer!)… “the times, they are a changing.” And as Jill likes to quote, from the 1999 Semisonic song “Closing Time”… “every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end.”

So here’s to wonderful changes, and a new beginning.”

(Editor’s Note: Tom Anselm’s column had appeared in the North Suburban Journals in recent years before it was announced that that publication would cease printing. When Tom called about picking up his column for the Independent News, we were aware of his following and considered a no-brainer to have insight now appearing in our newspaper)

Feel free to e-mail Tom with comments to: tjanselm@sbcglobal.net

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