I was alive then but I was only a year old, so I had other things going on like sleeping and throwing my food on the floor (so I'm told).
One big expectation of baby boomers is that they can remember exactly where they were when JFK was shot. This is one reason why I don't really consider myself a baby boomer.
I know, the US Census says 1964 and I was born in 1962, I've heard it before, but hear me out.
The first boomers were born in 1946. My parents were born in 1939, so my parents really aren't much older than the first boomers.
I missed all the shared moments that defined the baby boomer generation.
I don't remember JFK, other than after the fact.
I barely remember LBJ other than asking my parents who the president was once and being told some guy named Johnson.
The first President I really remember was Nixon. My parents hated him but I wasn't sure why. I remember Watergate but that was in the 1970s.
The first President I voted for was Reagan (sorry, my bad, seemed like a good idea then).
I don't remember the Beatles appearing on Ed Sullivan in 1964. I was 2 years old. I don't remember ever watching Ed Sullivan for that matter.
I watched cartoons, a lot. I have an encyclopedic knowledge of 1960s and 70s cartoons.
I didn't "turn on, tune in and drop out" at the summer of love because I was 5 years old in 1967.
I didn't fight in Vietnam and I didn't protest Vietnam. I was vaguely aware that we were fighting a war in a place called Vietnam but I didn't really know where it was. I was 6 years old when the Tet Offensive occurred.
Based on the TV shows at the time I thought we were still fighting Germany and Japan.
A few years later my uncle came back from Vietnam and showed me pictures of dead Viet Cong, which I though were really cool, like most boys my age probably would have.
I do remember Martin Luther King being shot and my parents being very upset but I didn't really understand who he was, just that my parents liked him.
I didn't go to Woodstock. I was 7. I remember Woodstock as being the name of Snoopy's little bird friend.
I do remember the moon landing, because I was really into anything involving space or science fiction. I was certain that by the year 2000 I'd be living in a space station or a moon colony.
I didn't know any hippies except for maybe my 5th grade teacher. He was a nice enough guy but he always wanted to teach us folk songs when I wanted to be studying science (how else was I going to become an astronaut).
The Beatles broke up in 1970. Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin both died that year. I was 8.
I turned 16 and got my driver's license in 1978. I graduated High School in 1980 and College in 1984.
The 1980s is when the baby boomers all started to lament the passing of their youth. I was still in my youth at the time.
The classic boomer retrospective "The Big Chill" came out in 1983. I was 21 then so I didn't do a lot of reminiscing. With the exception of Meg Tilly (1960 I looked it up) every actor in that movie was at least 10 years older than me.
There was a 1980s show that was popular with boomers called "30 Something". I was a young 20-something then so I didn't really identify with it.
So what's it all mean, other than I like to ramble on? Just that I don't count myself as a baby boomer regardless of what the US Census says.
Nothing against baby boomers, but imagine your older brother/sister always telling you about this great party they were at that you couldn't go to. That's sometimes how I feel about the 1960s. I was aware of it, but I didn't really experience it.
So what does that make me? Gen-X? No, not really. Some people have suggested 1961 (others say 1965) as the beginning of Generation X but I've never really identified with that group either.
I belong to this little in-between group that's not really boomer and not really Gen-X. Some have suggested calling us "Kennedy Kids" and I kind of like that name. Just because I don't remember him doesn't mean I can't like him.
Camelot!