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Introduction Or Preface
Introduction
In 1995, when the first 3.2 million Baby Boomers turned 50, reached for their reading glasses, their water bottles, and their cell phones, My [Middle-Aged] Baby Book was there to celebrate and chronicle this crucial developmental stage.The Internet barely existed. Googling was something babies did. A blackberry was edible, and, if you had a rotary phone, you could stay on the line and talk to a human.
Every aspect of the culture has changed radically. Eleven years ago, people weren’t “folks,” and Viagra wasn’t in the vocabulary, never mind in the medicine cabinet. Now, it’s “Good-bye” evolution, Venus and Mars, jogging, video cameras, privacy, CDs, anchor people, answering machines, Blockbuster, dating services, catalog buying, and frequent-flyer points. And it’s “Hello” cloning, domestic divas, performance-enhancing drugs, preemptive wars, spirituality, Netflix, QVC, e-dating, 24/7, 9/11, ringtones, DVDs, rap, breast augmentation, tattoos, and teardowns.
And my how they’ve grown! In the past 11 years, some 35 million Baby Boomers (including the 4 million who will turn 50 this year) have been added to the ranks of Middle Age. They deserve to have—actually, they insist upon having—their own new, totally updated, expanded, unexpurgated, reborn Baby Boomer baby book, and they want it now. Where else can they celebrate the signal events of their middle years: their first colonoscopy, their first conservative opinion, chin hair, and liver spot? Where else can they record vital personal information: their body mass index, resting pulse, and reflexologist’s cell phone number? What other book will tell them how to stay middle-aged forever?
While time marches on at warp speed, boomers have found a way to freeze-frame it, thanks to cosmetic surgery, nutritional supplements, and counting backward by tens. Fifty is the new 40; 60 the new 50; and, as soon as they get there, 70 will be the new 60. At this rate, or at least until generations yet unborn rise up and rebel against them for depleting the nation’s financial resources by defying death, figure on a revision of My [Baby Boomer] Baby Book every decade.
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