I started my Substack about a year ago under a different title, The Raven Lunatic on Substack. Since 2009. I wrote a column that ran in my hometown paper, the “Columbia City Post” expanding to twelve other dailies and weeklies in Indiana. In the mid-teens, my column was picked up by the now-defunct Senior Wire News Service and ran in newspapers and magazines all over the US and Canada.
I don’t think The Raven Lunatic is a good name for Substack, so I’m changing it to “Late Boomer, Born After 1956” to hone in on people who may be uber-interested in my content through the lens of a younger Baby Boomer. The Boomers have been defined as people born between 1946 and 1964. Yet, many recognize that there’s a world of difference in the experiences and outlook of those born during the first part of the Boom, and those born in the second part.
Unless we had older siblings, we weren’t involved in original rock and roll. But Three Dog Night, the Eagles, The Carpenters, America, Chicago, Bob Seger, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, and yes, Bobby Sherman. Bobby Sherman was a teenybopper’s heartthrob, often on the covers of our magazines “Tiger Beat” and “Seventeen” who sang “Julie Julie Julie Do You Love Me?” and other not-memorable songs. (At the bottom of this new post is a 2010 blog post I wrote about Sherman.)
We weren’t hippies, but our fashion was influenced by those older than us. We wore low-slung bell bottom jeans (after school, had to wear dresses until 1971).
The Space Race began right when we were born, for me, Sputnik flew when I was three months old. Having read about the combination of excitement and fear in the US during first flight, I wonder if my parents stood outside their tiny apartment and looked into the October sky for the blinking lights of the small satellite. Smaller than a refrigerator, yet Sputnik was a BIG deal that led to a race still going on today.
Much like the youth who started their careers in or after The Great Recession, we started ours in recession. While some of our generation made bank on Wall Street, those of us early in our career in the Reagan years fought the higher mortgages and took longer to do as well as our parent’s. We were lucky to have quality low-cost education available to us.
Men who were Late Boomers missed the Vietnam War (term used loosely) which ended in the early seventies. My husband, born a month before me, did not have to register for the draft, born a year or so too late.
So, if you are interested in the nostalgia of the Late Boomer, this is the place for you. I’ll be writing about most of the same subjects that interest me, and I hope will interest you.
I write because I want to be heard. Please read and share my work and for heaven’s sake, comment, ask questions, make me think. I’m retired from my career for almost seven years now, and I do this work because I like researching and writing and dialogue with readers.
I also work for popular publications and I’ll probably share things I’ve written in this space,, e.g., this piece ran on “Shondaland” two days ago. https://www.shondaland.com/shondaland-series/shondaland-bridgerton-behind-the-scenes/a62135534/friends-to-lovers-a-chance-meeting-turned-into-a-lifetime/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFRrQZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHbhOqID47mMyiTZ4rYppPGlIqdOUCQo2Bj7Yd7TYCR1m6wAGoIAb3FtvVw_aem_PYV0O-DE3RfNHxCOokO0kA
In summary, thank you for hanging with me, and I hope you’ll be interested in the new material I’ll be publishing.
July 15, 2010 from “The Vintage Raven Lunatic”
It's Bobby, Not Paul
My friend Sharon went to see Paul McCartney in concert in Salt Lake City earlier this week. She was ecstatic over the concert and her front row seats. She sent her Midwestern friends a blast email extolling the joys of seeing one of the remaining lads from Liverpool up close and personal.
She admitted to tears in her eyes when Sir Paul strode on stage.
I'm happy for her, but I have to admit something.
I've always pretended that I wanted to marry Paul, but it isn't true. Of course I love the Beatles, but when they played Shea Stadium I was in second grade, praying to not be called last for Red Rover on the playground.
My secret fantasy was about a five foot nine inch dreamboat from Van Nuys, California. I adored Bobby Sherman. When the theme song, “Seattle,” of Here Come the Brides played on ABC, I could not wait for Bobby to appear on the screen. He was one of three brothers, and by far the most beautiful.
The theme song said, "The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle," but the blues eyes I've ever seen were on Bobby Sherman.
Bobby Sherman frequently appeared on the cover of “Tiger Beat,” which I bought for a quarter at our Rexall Drug Store. There I bought my album of "With Love, The Scrapbook Album" (1970) for $3.99 and played it on my Close and Play until it was warped. The album covered stood up to resemble a picture frame. There Bobby sat on my bureau, his cute little smile flirting with me every day.
By the time I entered my teenager years, John and Yoko had already gotten a little peace at the Amsterdam Hilton, and Paul had long been married to Linda. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were dead, we were mired in the jungles of Southeast Asia with no way out, and Woodstock was history. The National Guard would shoot four dead in O-h-i-o that same year, and Bobby was still my love.
-30-
Born in 1950, I was ahead of you, but I did love the TV show "Here Come the Brides." I'm old enough that I remember Perry Como singing the theme song--I didn't even know Bobby Sherman did! I always loved that when he retired from being a star, he became an EMT--an even bigger star.
As a Gen X person (b. 1967) I appreciate these insights. My oldest brother is in the Late Bloomer range but he did not appear to be a big music guy. He did, however, introduce me to:
1) The Three Stooges
2) National Lampoon
3) Bagels