Generation Jones Goes to the White House

I'm one. President-Elect Obama and his wife both are. So is Alaka governor Sarah Palin. But have you heard of Generation Jones, aka "The Jonesers?"

I first heard about them in 2000, in the midst of "Baby Boomer this" and "Gen X" that. "You're a Boomer," said my coworkers and the pundits. "You were born between 1946 and 1964 - Woodstock, Vietnam." "Are you kidding?" I'd think. "I was just a kid then." I didn't know from Woodstock, except as a Peanuts character.

Then I read an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about Jonathan Pontell, who coined the term, and now has a Generation Jones website. Generation Jones are the people born between 1954 and 1965: the end of the Boomers and the beginning of Generation X. Why Jones? There are several definitions: it embodies the idea of a large, unknown, invisible generation, or a generation longing for its own identity (or "keeping up with the Joneses" and conspicuous consumption.) We are the generation of shag carpets, avocado appliances, the Brady Bunch, and Watergate. We are one quarter of the adult U.S. population. (Interestingly enough, the article disappeared from electronic sources for awhile after the Tasini court decision, so I was glad I'd printed it off.)

The president-elect will be the first Joneser in the White House. I heard Garrison Keillor last week on A Prairie Home Companion noting the end of the Booners in the White House, and I was intrigued to see on the Generation Jones website a section on its impact on the Presidential election. We've hit the big time, with coverage in Newseek, the Chicago Tribune, and YouTube. Obama's older daughter is the same age as my daughter, just as my brother and I were about the same ages as President Kennedy's kids. In my quiet, Midwestern way, I'm celebrating. My people have arrived.