BOOMER PARENTS, BOOMER MATES: THE DUECE

Image via telegraph.co.uk

Do good boomer parents make better boomer mates?

You read the stats about marriage and divorce and wonder what it takes to make it work?

If you’re a short-time married, pay attention.

What if you’re a long-time married? Same deal, pay attention.

Not so much as pay attention to a blog post, or some blogger, but the other person in the union.

Boomer parents have been paying attention quite a while now.

No one says they’ve got it figured out, but as the sun sets on their once-youthful parade, they offer lessons to the curious.

Is there a more unlikely demographic to pave the way to marital bliss?

With nicknames like Snowflake, Buttercup, Hedgehog, how did they ever make the switch to Janice, Ellen, or Jim?

After a period of running the country and changing the world, what happened to make them show up at mundane civic meetings?

Lone wolf boomers, fly with the wind boomers, became boomer mates and boomer parents.

Was it a big change?

Merle Haggard explained it all in 1969.

We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don’t take no trips on LSD
We don’t burn no draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin’ right, and bein’ free.

I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin’s still the biggest thrill of all

Not everyone tip toed through the tulips together.

Boomers heard Merle sing Okie from Muskogee and celebrated.

Over the years the meaning changed. So did Merle.

From telegraph.co.uk:

Haggard insists there was no drug-taking by the band when the song was written. He tells Men’s Journal: “At the time I wrote Okie From Muskogee, I didn’t smoke. I had been brainwashed like most of America about what marijuana would and wouldn’t do. I thought it was responsible for the flower children walking around with their mouths open. It was not so. But if a guy doesn’t learn anything in 50 years, there’s something wrong with him. I’ve learned a lot about it, and America has, too.”

Every boomer didn’t seek higher consciousness, live on a commune, or get naked in the mud.

Tradition and custom guided a great many to follow the path laid down by their parents, their town, their friends.

Raise a little hell, but remember to toe the line.

If you think that’s the lasting message of boomer parents, keep reading.

Jerry Jeff Walker’s take on the times of boomer youth also started in Oklahoma.

From 1973:

He was born in Oklahoma
And his wife’s name is Betty Lou Thelma Liz
He’s not responsible for what he’s doing
His mother made him what he is

And it’s up against the wall, redneck mother
Mother who has raised her son so well
He’s thirty four and drinkin’ in a honky tonk
Just kickin’ hippies’ asses and raisin’ hell

Tradition and custom only goes so far.

Taken at face value these songs are on the opposite end of the spectrum of acid rock. They aren’t singing Born To Be Wild.

It appears the default behavior involves booze, violence, and a certain brand of patriotism.

Does that sound like it makes for better boomer mates and boomer parents?

One of the most sincere messages I’ve ever heard came from a group of boomer men, boomer parents all.

They knew each other’s wives and kids.

One of them said to another after a nice night together, “If you ever tell me you cheat on your wife, or if I hear you have, I’m going to punch you right in the face.”

“That’s a promise we’ll both keep.”

From New Age sensitive to evolved beings, that’s a message, a warning, to heed.

For manly men, it’s a good message.

Would their wives agree?