ARE BOOMERS MORE PATIENT/TOLERANT THAN THOSE WHO FOLLOWED?

If you answered yes to that, I have a few ideas as to why that might be true.

One reason is that Boomers are the last generation to be raised with landline phones. These were phones that did not identify the caller and kept ringing until the caller gave up and disconnected. Most landline phones were in the kitchen or the living room/family room and provided little privacy to young people who still lived at home but yearned to have a private conversation with their friends or sweethearts. If you were lucky enough to have an extension phone in your bedroom there were still no guarantees; anyone in the household could pick up one of the extensions and listen in to your most intimate conversations.

When I was dating my future wife, her parents had installed a kitchen wall phone with an extra-long handset wire that allowed her to reach the basement stairs for some semblance of privacy. When we were talking her younger brothers would open the basement door and bother her or, worse than that, sit outside the closed door and eaves drop on our conversations.

One addition to the anti-privacy landline situation was that if someone else in the home answered the phone, they would know who was calling. It was not possible to be assured of privacy when it was necessary to take a call at home (And, with no cell phones, taking a call at home was about the only play) whether it was from a new love interest, a loan consultant, a lottery win (Not so common back then), a doctor’s office, a police inquiry- whatever!

To make a long story short, I contend, that this situation prior to cell phones and even handheld portable landline phones, strengthened our patience, The snoopier the siblings and, sometimes the parents, the more our patience/tolerance was enhanced!

Our TV experience was Black and White only, at least early on. We were limited to four channels, five if your area had a PBS (Public Broadcasting System) station.

Very often TV shows would end with a “cliffhanger”, and the viewer was forced to wait a whole week, sometimes a season, to learn “The thrilling outcome.” If you’re “boomer age” you probably remember the anguish “Dallas” fans experienced when they had to wait over the summer to learn who shot JR! There was no “binge viewing.”

All of the broadcasting stopped every night. I don’t recall it as a set time, but most channels were not broadcasting after midnight or one O’clock am. When the stations signed off, they generally put up a test pattern and played the national anthem. A Facebook friend, Diane, reminded me that with the test pattern there was usually a warning that it was past curfew and, sadly, there were updates on how many soldiers had died in Viet Nam that day.

There were no remote controls on the early TV’s. As my brother-in-law complains to his kids, “We had to walk across several feet of shag carpeting, sometimes in our bare feet, to change the channel!”

All of these TV tests, I believe, helped boomers to learn patience and tolerance.

Another “patience tester” that we faced was that many of the cars in our time came with manual transmissions that were much cheaper than the newly invented automatic transmission option. No such thing as hopping in the car, popping it into gear and going. We had to release the parking brake, push in the clutch (While holding a foot on the brake), put the car into gear and slowly release the clutch to engage the transmission. If this wasn’t done properly the car would lurch forward (Or backward-depending on the gear -1rst or Reverse) and die or, minimally, make a grinding noise that alerted everyone around that you had “missed the gear.”

On the few times that dad was able to leave our only car at home when he went to work, mom would take us on errands and endure one of the four boys in the family saying, “Dad doesn’t make that funny noise” every time she “ground the gears.”

Another point about cars back in the day, it was possible to remove the keys with the transmission in neutral. On more than one occasion, I was aware of cars ending up in the street after rolling out of the driveway when a driver exited their car without putting it in park (For automatic transmissions) or gear (For manual transmissions). 

Learning to drive stick shift cars took more patience than learning to drive automatics, believe me! I learned to drive in a Chrysler 300 with an automatic transmission. I did not feel that was much of a challenge. After I was proficient at driving my brother Pat taught me drive a manual transmission in his 1969 Nova “Three on the tree” (3-speed transmission on the steering column). This car was equipped with a transmission that was much easier to shift than the car my parents drove back in the day. It was designed to make shifting smoother by “synchronizing” the gears.

I still made “That funny noise” a few times in my lesson and killed the engine a time or two. The grinding gears and killing the engine are not good for the car and I thank my brother for allowing me to mistreat his vehicle until I got my timing right.

Four of the vehicles I have owned have had manual transmissions and believe me, they sure do try your patience- especially on a grade at a stop light when the guy behind you pulls near your bumper. Remember, you have to put the clutch in with your left foot and apply gas with your right foot. That does not leave another foot to put on the brake, so the car is going to roll back at least a little. Add a vehicle right behind you to the mix and that results in a “patience building event!”

In an “un-official poll” a couple hundred of my boomer friends and I participated in, it was determined that the majority of us did not live in air-conditioned residences until high school or later. AC was a rare commodity that few stores or public places had until the late 60’s to mid 70’s.

For those of you who have had AC all of your life, try to imagine waking up and knowing it was going to be a hot day because the sheets on your bed were wet with your perspiration? Sorry but that had to be said. Anyone who is scoffing, remember how you feel for those occasional hours or days that you lose your AC.

This definite lack of comfort during our “formative years,” I believe, helped strengthen our patience.

How many of you have ever tried to “re-fold” a paper road map?

In those days of yesteryear, before GPS, a vacation trip required a foldable road map that was usually purchased at the local gas station. This sounds like a simple task- but I assure you, it is not!

Refolding a road map may rank among the most difficult jobs on earth- don’t fact check this; I may be mistaken. 

I was the fifth of six kids in my family. I did not get to sit in the front seat of the car often. My next older brother was usually competing with me and pulled rank whenever he could. Regardless, I put in a request to sit in the front seat any time, and every time, one of my parents pulled their keys off of the rack by the back door.

One of our few vacations was a trip to Iowa. My dad had borrowed a camper trailer from a friend; so, my usual seat in the very back of our station wagon- a seat that faced back- would be even worse because I would not be able to distract myself by looking at cars and scenery behind us.

I campaigned hard to wrangle the coveted front seat, between my parents. I was faced with their probable refusal because my next oldest brother, Paul, protested that he deserved to sit there citing that he was older but still small enough to sit there without anyone feeling uncomfortable.

Finally, a compromise was struck. I could sit there part the way if I could re-fold the roadmap- Ahhh, piece of cake! How hard could it be?

The answer, as hard as it was to face, it is very hard.

Paul shared the duties with my sister Pam, both of them had solved the puzzle of map folding.

My sister Polly and I failed the challenge and were voted off the island, or at least into the backseat!

These are a few of the many trials we faced as baby-boomers. I hope some of you will comment on tests that I have failed to mention, or didn’t experience.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed, please comment with your views on this subject. I appreciate your input and look forward to hearing from you.

Phil