The Baby Boomers

 The Baby Boomers 

By Barbara Thomas 

 We have listened to the W Y. Z’d’s plus the Naughty Nineties generations so let’s share the life of the Baby Boomer generation.

 1938-1945 

 Well, that’s us. Most of us would still be a twinkle in our Dad’s eyes if it hadn’t been for Herr Adolf Hitler, (formally a house painter, soon to become one of the most hated and evil man of his time) unless of course you were a Frauline or a Heinz. 

 Well, let’s see: First came the phoney war, followed by what would later be referred to as: The Second World War. Our Fathers were drafted, seconded, and many enlisted. 

 Time was precious, very few weekend passes before embarkation. Girlfriend’s promising to be there (where ever that was) when their gallant men and women came marching home. 

 Rules were broken, the men in the forces explaining to their girl friends “Oh come on only once it won’t hurt, I’ll be careful, promise, it will be something to remember me by when I’m away fighting for King and Country”. 

 

 Oh! how many times those words were spoken? So off went our brave men leaving their wives, and girlfriends, crying at railway stations. 

 

 As the war gathered momentum, many civilians in the British Isles were either killed injured or made homeless through constant bombing, life was hard but harder still for the women who had succumbed to the passion of that moment. 

 

First came the sickness, then missed monthlies, then the reality that they were pregnant. Married women although not at all happy at their situation at least were in wedlock, the other poor wretches, in many cases, were disowned by family, thrown out and told not to return.  

 The maternity wards were full, especially during the months after the war began. Then the men would come on leave, and then off back to war with more pregnancies until the orphanages were busting at the seams. Although women shared the same goal, survival, some fell by the wayside, destitute.  

 Hitler did his worst on British cities, towns, and villages, but through all this the women grew stronger and more defiant. 

 Then single women were seconded to the land to carry out farm duties, work in factories, driving ambulances, buses even delivering planes. Princess Elizabeth (our future Queen) became an ambulace driver.

 They never complained they just got on with the job, more times than not with their children clinging on their mother’s skirts.  

 Mothers with several children were exempt, but they kept family and home together against amazing odds.  

 Today’s naughty nineties and X, Y, Z’s poke fun at the fashion that women wore then and the songs that were sung,  the elderly still calling the radio “the wireless”. (Where children would take the batteries on a pram down to the oil shop to be topped up) These people have no idea that most homes, in fact many homes had no electricity, hot water, no bathroom only the large tin bath hanging outside on the wall in the yard which everyone used and one bath a week down at the communal baths, where a pump outside would open up from a key outside, for the water to fill their baths.  

 This was the world we Baby Boomers grew up in, no fancy foods, the meal was put on the table and you ate what you were given. The music we listened to was our parents choice. We sat and listened to the Archers every night. My brothers used to listen to ‘Dick Barton Special Agent’, under the bedclothes, on a home made crystal set, the highlight of their day. By the time the men returned home after 6 long years the cast had been set, Mum’s word was law.  

 The War Babies, as I prefer to call them were brought up to respect others. Not all of them did I know, and those children become feral and unfortunately drifted into a life of crime. 

 Schools were full, with the children that had been born either at the start, middle and end of the War. Just a thought, many may not have existed had it not been for the war.

Barbara Thomas 3/03/2026