EVERYTHING A BABY BOOMER SHOULD KNOW
Back in the ‘60s this Country underwent a cultural revolution in which every Baby Boomer was both a participant and a victim. Whether you were part of the peace movement, the ROTC, Martin Luther King, or the Tin Man, it was an exciting time to be alive. Not everyone was a radical, but it was much like living in the “Roaring Twenties” because life was being explored beyond the limits of all previous conventions. It was Rebel Without a Cause, and 2001: A Space Odyssey all rolled into one huge malaise of a decade or two.
Cultural Revolution was our gift to society. We created the “Pop Culture,” but were the last generation to grow up without a personal computer.
The dream of putting a man (golfing?) on the moon was astronomically genius. But not all Baby Boomers share such wonderful memories. In fact, most of us share memories of deep compassion for the death of loved ones.
There was much anger in society during those days. While hippies freaked out in Golden Gate Park to the virtues of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll,” many of our neighbor’s sons were seen being shipped home from “Nam” in a box. It was enough to make every mother cry and every youth frustrated with anger. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assasinated within one month of each other in 1968, The question was why nothing was the way our parents said it would be.
We Baby Boomers all lived through those strange days and only we know what they meant to us. But we can all agree on one thing. During the era of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison, (See Personal Welcome) “hair” had some aggrandized connotation, some ethereally superior meaning than the cliché of “anti-establishment.”
So strong were the feelings against long hair that fathers hated sons for growing it and sons hated fathers for not tolerating it. It was rednecks versus the politically incorrect term of “queer;” it was baby killers versus flag burning cowards, Panthers and Klansmen, and a whole lot of wandering hitchhikers that needed to be stopped – drug dealers and hecklers included. Much blood and violence was shed; and for what? Over hair? Over skin color? Over politics? The Civil Rights Act was only passed in 1964.
Then ten years later every man in America from Alabama to Alaska had long hair of some shape or form. And whether or not it was in or out of style by that time, people had forgotten the reasons for all the social injustices it had created. And guess what? Women stopped wearing bras just for the effect.
Now, entering the year of 2006, two longhaired institutions, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones, have each finished a combined tour of over 100 American cities, bringing together millions of fans and billions of dollars in concert revenue. In the front rows to the back rows of those sold out stadiums were the doctors, lawyers, teachers, and everyone from the bakers to candlestick-makers that thirty to forty years ago either loved or hated long hair.
What’s the point? In defining your legacy try to remember how life’s twist and turns affected you. You are your mother and father’s child; you are not them. Those family values that seemed so obviously right or wrong back then may not be so for much longer. You need to take the time to reflect on the past to make sure you don’t make mistakes in deciding the best way to preserve and distribute your legacy into the future.
Not all longhair stars flamed out like Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison. Others such as McCartney and the Stones will be with us forever. The Stones played halftime at the Super Bowl for God’s sake, 42 years after their first Ed Sullivan show. Did you see Mick Jagger do his same old strut?
We’ve got a long ways to go. If they can do it, we can do it! But you better believe they have one heck of an estate plan in order.
An Insider's Guide to Estate Planning
TO ESTATE PLANNING:
KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!
Why pay money so an attorney can try and explain the difference between a Bypass Trust and a QTIP Trust, when this book will answer that question long before you have to pay for a consultation?
This guidebook helps you map out your estate plan so it goes exactly where you want it to go. It explains the tools you need to give away or preserve your money, homes, businesses, heirlooms, cars, boats, jewelry, tools, art, memorabilia, and every other artifact of life you have accumulated over the last 45 to 65 baby booming years.
Mark S. Cornwall, Esq.
210 E. Figueroa Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101