# Is the term Boomer Generation loose enough to include someone born in 1936? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2020, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002 "2020-10-27T06:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002/21 "2020-10-28T04:37:01Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > That started a housing boom, new schools were built, more restaurants. The economy boomed for many years because of that large generation of children. Lots of schools, shopping centers, etc. As those boomers grew older and their children started families, even more housing boom. As those boomers grew even older, but less children were being born after the mid-60’s, schools starting closing, but more retirement communities were built. Fast forward another 15-20 years, and you have a boom in nursing homes. I had an economics teacher who described this as being like a [snake that just swallowed a whole elephant](https://stephaniebrewton.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/6a00d83455b25469e201156e499e03970c-320wi.jpg). You can see the elephant moving down the length of the (inside of) the snake, a big bulge in the snake moving from the snake’s head toward the tail. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002/22 "2020-10-28T06:34:58Z")
> [@Octagon](#): > > So those who came of age in WWI ( “Lost Generation”) can be subsumed with the 1883-1900 period. Is that correct? The term “lost generation” was popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who took it from Gertrude Stein, who heard it from a French garage owner, who was just using it to berate someone. Then it was used for a particular group of American writers living in Paris after World War I. Then it got applied to everyone born between 1883 and 1900. The implication was that coming of age during the war affected them. This all strikes me as being pretty arbitrary. > **[Lost Generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Generation)** > > The Lost Generation was the social generational cohort in the Western world that was in early adulthood during World War I, and preceding the Greatest Generation. The generation is generally defined as people born from 1883 to 1900, coming of age in either the 1900s or the 1910s. The term is also particularly used to refer to a group of American expatriate writers living in Paris during the 1920s. Gertrude Stein is credited with coining the term, and it was subsequently popularised by Er In the... ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002/23 "2020-10-28T07:51:00Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > \*my older brother and I are technically both “baby boomers”. He grew up thinking the Kingston Trio was the cat’s ass. Clarify, please. Is “cat’s ass” an identifier, or an evaluation, in this usage? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002/24 "2020-10-28T07:54:07Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > The term “lost generation” was popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who took it from Gertrude Stein, who heard it from a French garage owner, who was just using it to berate someone. Then it was used for a particular group of American writers living in Paris after World War I. _Then it got applied to everyone born between 1883 and 1990._ The implication was that coming of age during the war affected them. This all strikes me as being pretty arbitrary. Wow. LONG generation. What kind of gestation period are we looking at? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002/25 "2020-10-28T14:03:48Z")
Sorry. I should proofread better. I meant 1900. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002/26 "2020-10-28T16:02:31Z")
Moderating: Fixed it. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002/27 "2020-11-02T07:44:34Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > o the boom years start after 1945 and end after 1965. > Just in time for the kids to grow up enjoying the post-war economic boom, and then turn into hippies Kids born in 1965 didn’t enjoy the post-war economic boom. They enjoyed rising unemployment (all the jobs soaked up by the cumulative excess births), and when they did get jobs, no promotion (all the senior jobs soaked up by the preceding boom). People born 55-65 don’t get a generation name only because, being relatively poor compared to the older boomers, they aren’t of much interest as a market segment. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002/28 "2020-11-03T15:28:33Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > There is, in astrology, the concept of being born “on the cusp”. The same thing could be applied to the concept of generations. The analogy to astrology is apt. The idea of dividing people up by their birth years is fundamentally questionable. It basically is a kind of astrology. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002.md?page=1)