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Baby Boomers

14th April 2012

I’m a baby boomer. I was born after my father, like millions of other soldiers, returned from serving in World War II. Not long after, he married my mother and they started their family. My wife is also a baby boomer and her family was started similarly.

The census bureau says that children born between 1946 and 1964 are considered baby boomers. Since I was born in 1949, I suppose that I’m at the leading edge of the baby boom generation.

Last week as I was returning from a trip to the West Coast, I picked up a copy of the Sunday Los Angeles Times.

I was literally stunned to read Tom Petruno’s article in the business section who presents this amazing fact: “every 24 hours for the next 19 years an average of 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65”*.


a baby boomer with daughter and grandchildren

Wow. Think about that number: 10,000 individuals every day for 19 consecutive years. Grab your calculator and do the math and you’ll see that 69 million of us will reach retirement age between now and 2030. Are any of you surprised by this fact?

Mr. Petruno’s article centered around the havoc that might ensue as retirees unload their stock market holdings. He wonders what would happen to the share prices if there aren’t enough buyers to purchase their shares. While the article is an interesting read, I’m thinking of other implications that such a large cohort will place on our nation.

My preference is to shy away from public discussions of politics and social welfare. So please excuse me while I skip over any serious political and social issues confronting our aging population and move on.

So how does this discussion fit into Stay Focused?

I’ll start with a local camera club to which I belong. It’s a rather large club with about 100 members. I’d have to guess that half of the members are baby boomers or older. This is quite a large proportion. These folks have the time to spend on their photography hobby (or profession). The time is well spent judging by the impressive results. You might think that the group is more “classic” – shooting landscapes and portraits. But the artistic side is just as evident as we regularly see in the creative competitions. And from all indications, the older generation has had no trouble making the transition from film to digital.

As a frequent visitor of many of our national parks, I’ve noticed that other older people are following me to some of these great sites. Rather than the greening of the national parks, there’s a trend to the “greying.” And of course every vistior comes into a park with a camera ready to record their memories.

Anyway, there’s a lot of us older people with seemingly more and more time on our hands. Maybe it’s time to start that business that I’ve dreamed of for so very long: “Photo Tour Guide to Yellowstone”.

Happy Shooting.

*****

Written by Arnie Lee

* from the Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2012.