THE PIG IN THE PYTHON

I was born just after the war in 1946 which makes me a fully qualified 'baby boomer'. Many couples understandably felt it best to delay starting a family until after hostilities had finished so the maternity wards were pretty crowded when I came along. This made me part of a population bulge which has caused a few problems decade by decade with a need to increase facilities and resources to cater for this 'people bubble'.

This was the case in most countries which had been involved in the war of course and in America, Russell Baker of the New York Times Magazine said in 1974: 'All very well for the bulge group, you may say. It will continue to dominate society as it passes through the decades like a pig through a python.' As a result, 'the pig in the python' has become a graphic phrase to describe the impact which we boomers have had on our different nations.

In Britain, first there was a shortage of schools and school places to educate the extra children. Then there were shortages in University places. Following this came a lack of jobs and later still came a shortage in housing as baby boomers reached home buying age. Now of course, we are all reaching the stage of drawing our pensions and the future prospects presumably, are for a greater demand on the Health services as baby boomers become elderly and because of improvements in living standards, live longer than our forebears. This will mean a greater need for hip replacements, retirement homes, heart bypass surgery, home carers and medicines generally.

I would agree with those who suggest that we Baby Boomers feel as if we belong to a club. We identify as a group and in the 1960's we rebelled against the lifestyles and music of our parents and sought our own styles and identity. For me, the epitome of this feeling of newness and rebellion is expressed by The Who in their 1965 song 'My Generation', but there are many other songs which contain the same sentiments.

So we are now a group of ageing rebels and have to accept that as such, we are an easy target for what I hope is affectionate humour! If you haven't already seen it, please enjoy this cartoon which sums our situation up. It is called, 'Baby Boomers begin collecting their social security....'

My favourite line from the cartoon is 'we tripped on acid, now we have acid reflux'. Like all good humour, there is a lot of truth in there. (I take daily medication for acid reflux!).