WWII ended in 1945, The Korean War began in 1950. In and around all of this what we now refer to as the 'Baby Boom' began to emerge ... Add in those events & conditions leading up to the Viet Nam Era and you have 'The Shadow' Boomers ...

The Baby Boom is now more or less defined by the era between 1945 - 1964 centering on the Eisenhower Administration ... 1954, 1955, & 1956 somewhere between Harry S. Truman & John F. Kennedy ( For You Shadow Aficionados, We must factor in Richard M. Nixon ).

I can remember packing up care packages for my father in Korea, and I can remember at least one of the Eisenhower Campaigns " I Like Ike. " I can also remember a really big snow in 1956 among other images ...

As one of us just pointed out, It's really all about images, sights, smells, sounds and emotions ...

I was complimenting a young woman in our office on her pants yesterday, and I told her that when I started working for the federal government in 1969, women were not allowed to wear pants, even in pantsuits. We could wear miniskirts that came halfway up our thighs, but not pantsuits. I never could see the logic in that.

She looked at me like I was nuts. LOL

I recall the winter of 1966.Mid-Town Manhattan. On any typical street corner the sight was much the same. A gust of wind and some ankle-length greatcoat or another would lift exposing yards of leg. Like you said," Halfway up our thighs."

I remember my family eating dinner together every day at the same time (and no one called or the telephone was not answered if they did) and then watching television afterwards on our ONE T.V. set; kids playing together outside with all parents watching from the houses, if you cried wolf or were hurt, the ENTIRE neighborhood came out; neighborhoods where everyone knew who lived down the street; we dressed up for church on Sunday; going to a restaurant was an occasional event and a real treat; girls in school wore dresses and boys wore Levi's or Toughskins; my parents knew all my friends, I knew all my siblings friends and I knew my parents co-workers; the world at that time just seemed to be smaller.

1969! I didn't start wearing pants at work, even expensive pant suits, until the early 1990s. One very snowy Saturday in NYC, in about 1981, blizzard warnings and everything closed, I needed to go to the office to catch up on some things. I put on lined wool slacks, a blazer, a sweater, leather boots just to go work on a day the office was closed.

Bad mistake...my regional VP happened to have had the same thought, and reprimanded me for wearing pants at the office..it's not professional. Secretaries can wear pants, but not professional employees...do you want to be seen as one of THEM?!? On a Saturday! I'm not sure which was more offensive, the dress demands of his view of class appropriate dressing. The world has changed a lot more recently than we tend to remember:-)

We wore dresses and gloves to go to the department store, and school required even the boys to stay away from dungarees (remember all blue jeans being called that)...they had to wear dress up pants. We all changed to dungarees after school.

Having to dress up anytime you went to an adult's house (friends of parents), to eat out (once or twice a year), or to a movie. Polishing the mary janes with vasoline the night before church so the scuffs were invisible, keeping those white gloves clean so they were ready and spotless for any dress up event.

A new petticoat with ruffles every Christmas (what would most American kids say about underwear as a Christmas gift today?) and needing to keep it crisp for a full year.

Knowing everyone in the neighborhood really hits home...a kid with a cut or scrape could walk in any door and get a bandaid and a cookie, and the moms would call each other to report minor scrapes.

One car per household, so if a dad took the car to work, the other families took that mom to the grocery store or picked up a sick kid from school.

Casseroles for every occasion, a birth, a death, a visiting relative, someone sick...send a casserole or two...one for tonight and one for the freezer. Sometimes if the news of an illness or sadness came right at dinner time, the casserole that was to have been our dinner got packed up and sent with a kid down the street, and we ate hotdogs or PBJs.

My mind is filling with minor memories, thanks for giving me a moment to recall some of the neighborliness we've lost.

Wow, what a flashback for me! I had forgotten all about using vaseline on patent-leather-shoes! and the white gloves! I loved the white gloves, simply because they kept my hands warm!