The Newsweek article below is written by a former Valley kid from the Class of '82, the same year I graduated from high school. Initally, I was simply going link to it. But after reading some of the article's comments, I thought I'd say more.
My parents didn't officially get divorced until I was about seventeen, but I did know a lot of kids who grew up in split homes. My parents were much younger than this writer's parents who were of the WWII generation. And I didn't move to the Valley until '85. But I can still relate a bit. We grew up with the same social changes that were occuring during the '70s and '80s.
Many of the articles commentors refer to the writer and our generation as being navel-gazers, whiners and only thinking about "me, me, me". Yet, in my opinion, we as a group (kids born in the '60s) are rarely heard to comment on our growing up in that era. Sure, we hear from the Boomers (former Flower Children) all the time. And, yeah, I blather about my childhood beause I write and that's part of my life. Childhoods are significant to people; that's when people become cognizant of the world, form first impressions. So why is it wrong for my group to talk about how they responded to growing up in an era of turbulent social changes? I think it's sociologically significant to hear how former-children responded to divorce, being raised by single parents, being latchkey kids and other side-effects of the times. If you ask me, my group doesn't get heard from enough about how we have turned-out, or about what we thought of our experiences.
Most kids I grew up with, and still keep in touch with, have definite opinions about those unique years. But, if we do look back, it usually involves lots of laughing about how we dealt with certain things. One friend has the driest wit, she makes my stomach hurt. My sister, too, always has me howling about everything from the progressive schools she went to, where she could rollerskate in class, to the adults' farout lingo and groovy parties we used to spy on. Far from whining, my friends are people who, maybe because of their pasts, put extra time and effort into their families and relationships. I guess after growing up watching some of the goofy stuff the adults were doing around us, it was natural to have formed a great sense of humor.
With that said, this article isn't funny. But I can relate to it... just a bit.
The Divorce Generation Grows Up
Grant High School's class of '82 were raised on 'The Brady Bunch'—while their own families were falling apart. These are their stories—in their words.
(Below are excerpts)
...Such are the scars of growing up too fast—something many of my classmates were doing in the '70s. As newly single mothers went to work to support their families, children were being left to fend for themselves. "We were latchkey kids," says Elyse Oliver, whose mom took a job at Hanna-Barbera studios, painting animated characters for shows like "The Flintstones" to provide for Elyse and her sister. "We had the little necklace with the key on it and we'd walk home from school, let ourselves in and take care of ourselves until she came home about 6 or 7...
...In many ways, the urge to stay married is stronger in my classmates' generation than the urge to get divorced was in my parents'. Perhaps this was a backlash to divorce...
Fellow member of the class of '82 here. I went to a Catholic high school in Florida, and even there, it seemed like there was a period of time when everyone I hung out with had divorced parents except me. We were definitely in the vanguard of seeing a skyrocketing divorce rate - what's interesting is that it hasn't grown all that much since then (although I've contributed to more recent statistics).
I'll go back to read that Newsweek article - thanks for the link. I think you're right; people our age really don't seem to talk so much about how we grew up, except with each other. We're like an afterthought to the Boomers as far as public image.
I'm currently reading a novel about a girl (with divorced parents) growing up in Southern California in the 1970's, The Ruins of California by Martha Sherrill, and some of the details really take me back.
Posted by: Florinda | April 17, 2008 at 07:56 PM
Florinda,
I always love hearing from people in my age group. Like you said, we usually just talk amongst ourselves. I don't often find things to read or see documentaries about us and what we thought of that period, the way I hear again and again from the Boomers. I couldn't agree more about our group being an "afterthought." As a matter of fact, I keep wanting to write a piece about that.
It just makes me laugh that the counterculture of the '60s was all about rebelling against their parents before them. Yet the children of that era speak up and we're swatted down as whiners. To this day I hear 60-year-old women talk about having to grow up in the backward '50s - which is interesting to hear their perspective. But we have opinions, too.
By the way, that book, The Ruins of California, sounds interesting. Is it good?
Thanks for commenting!
Posted by: Michele | April 18, 2008 at 09:20 AM
I think this picture sums up what our generation dealt with.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danteinferno/1340249416/
Posted by: ralph | May 04, 2008 at 03:42 AM
Thank for making this valuable information available to the public.y
Posted by: Vince | October 21, 2008 at 07:12 PM
This website is very nice and colorful too. Its nice to have something to show others where you attend church and to show all the smiling people filled of the goodness of the Lord. You have a wonderful website here. May God rich bless you always.-
Posted by: Marly | May 13, 2009 at 03:28 PM