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Boom Times Ahead
Story by Ellen Ternes 
I've been a baby boomer for just about 60 years. I've been hearing about boomers all my life. Now that I'm helping to lead this huge group kicking and screaming into our seventh decade, I can't get away from boomer news. But today, it's all about how we're getting…uh, how to say this…old. Some days, the only boomer I want to hear about is Esiason.
Well, guess what. Esiason, born in 1961, is a boomer too. Scrap the notion that boomers were only the children born in the late '40s to couples making up for the lost love years of World War II. The population spike that produced 77 million American babies, the largest demographic in the history of the country, lasted from 1946 to 1964. At the university alone, 11 new dorms went up in the '60s to house waves of boomer students.
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Boomer Facts
By 2030
- More than 70 million Americans will be over 65
- U.S. population of 55 and older is about to double
By 2020
- The 65+ work force will increase by 30%, but the 25-54 work force will increase by only 3%
- One quarter of boomers earn less than $35,000 a year
- One third of boomer men, four out of 10 women are obese
- Nine out of 10 boomers want to live at home in later years
- 1,576 of the University of Maryland's 3,674 faculty are boomers
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"A group like this has never been dealt with before or since," says Douglas Gomery, professor in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Gomery, a boomer himself, is one of a number of university faculty who study the boomer generation and aging (assuming one were to actually "age.") They’re looking at where we’ve been and where we’re going.
What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been
"Every generation rewrites history from the perspective of its own time," says Keith Olson, professor of 20th century history. “Sometimes, it takes a long time to see the impact, but there are some tentative conclusions about the baby boomer generation that I think will hold.”
Taking root in the ’60s, Olson says, were three boomer legacies that echo in policies today: The boomer mantra “Do your own thing;” distrust of authority; and the impact of television, in particular witnessing police actions during civil rights marches and the Vietnam war.
Boomers are the television generation, says Douglas Gomery. “Everything the baby boomers did was based on what they saw on television. They grew up as television grew up, and each had an impact on each other. They will continue to drive the media for the next two decades.”
From the perspective of American studies professor Jo Paoletti, another lasting boomer change will be the way America dresses. Thanks to boomers, you now get to argue with your kids about tongue piercings and tattoos. “There is far less formality in dress, about what’s appropriate for age, gender and the occasion. That seems to be permanent,” says boomer Paoletti. “Boomers reacted to the rigidity of the ’50s with the question ‘Why should we do this?’”
“The big surprise legacy of the boomer generation,” says Gary Gerstle, professor of 20th century American history, “is that it will be remembered more for the triumph of conservatism than for the triumph of radicalism. The cultural changes introduced by the 1960s—feminism, civil rights and gay rights—were deeply unsettling for a lot of people and drove them in a conservative direction.”
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