When Mama tells Baby that she’s made a lovely lunch for him, she doesn’t know that the animals are listening at the window. And they are much hungrier than Baby. While Mama bangs on her drums – boom-biddy-boom-biddy-boom-boom-boom – the yellow cat, the brown dog, the red rooster, the black-faced sheep and the brown-and-white cow each eats a titbit thrown on the floor by Baby. Good Baby, who has eaten all his dinner, gets a banana for pudding and, this time, he eats it all up. Boom-biddy-boom-biddy-yum-yum-yum! Children will love joining in the story as the animals enter one by one to gobble up the baby's lunch in this wonderful read-aloud story from bestselling author Margaret Mahy and beloved illustrator Margaret Chamberlain.

The writing of this book goes back some 14 years ago, reading a book, Out Of The Garden - Toys and Children’s Culture In to The Age Of TV Marketing, By Stephen Kline. This would show how through Children programming, its popular culture, advertisers, and marketers, through market strategy get us to buy their products. I knew from the beginning that it would be a hard sell, to try and give you a heads up, into how we all be doped, coned, persuaded into wanting you to know how this happened, and played a big part in everyone life, at any given age or generation you were part of. As I put it, “When you were born, your story begins!” We all know the news event of each decade and the popular Movies and music. But did you have any ideas how we all (each decade) unfolds, how our spending habits came to be, what were the influences, how you drove your parents crazy into buying what you wanted. And your parent themselves, and buy public itself, into buying their next purchase. I hope you can see the pattern. You and I, are so different, but I’m sure very much the same, we just have our own story to tell.

Bobby "Slick" Leonard has etched his name forever on the Mount Rushmore of Indiana basketball, and in Boom, Baby! he shares memories from his storied career. Leonard takes readers inside the Indiana locker room with legendary head coach Branch McCracken and onto the court when he hit the deciding free throws as the "Hurrying Hoosiers" topped Phog Allen's Kansas Jayhawks. He recalls the NBA's early years, including being drafted by a Baltimore Bullets team that folded soon after selecting him. He tells of his time as the winningest coach in the ABA's nine-year history, securing three championships in his first five seasons with the Indianapolis Pacers. In his final act, "Slick" endeared himself to new generations of Hoosier hoops fans as the longtime Pacers radio voice, with his trademark call "Boom, Baby!" for a successful three-point shot.

This engaging collection of essays explores the many ways Americans of every race, class, gender, and political leaning experienced the Baby Boom. This revealing new work goes inside the Baby Boom generation to look at how everyday people within the boomer demographic changed—and were changed by—the course of American history. Baby Boom: People and Perspectives does not focus on one single historic moment, but rather follows different groups within the Baby Boom generation as they move through history. From the generation gap of the 1950s to the civil rights movement, from Vietnam and the counterculture of the 1960s to Watergate and the Reagan era, and from the Clinton years to September 11th and the recent resurgence of conservatism, this insightful social history shows how Baby Boomers across the breadth of American society experienced and impacted the same historic events differently.

Fewer than 20% of Baby Boom women will experience a secure retirement. Marriage, education, occupation, home ownership—these variables predict their future. Possession of all four indicates retirement security, and absence of any increases risk of old-age poverty. This riveting sociological study also examines the social relations and structures that will determine the retirement experience, options, and decisions for more than 40 million Baby Boom women. These women's material base and social status are examined through the use of empirical data, and the key predictors of their retirement are identified. The massive entry of Baby Boom women into the labor force increases the importance of retirement planning for working women. It comes at a time when existing research models and data are outdated and inadequate to effectively predict their future retirement experience. Over the past 30 years, American men and their spouses have benefited from the linear, undifferentiated model of the traditional male retirement. For the Baby Boom generation, however, the nature of work has changed significantly. The current retirement model may not serve Baby Boom men as well as in the past, let alone Baby Boom women. In contrast, this book offers a new, dynamic model that considers the social and work structures influencing women's lives and that accurately reflects the predictors and parameters of Baby Boom women's retirement.

Without the baby boom, the United States would be a different place. The Vietnam War would have lasted longer. Rock and roll would be less pervasive. The civil rights movement would have changed laws and attitudes more slowly. But women might be further ahead in job status and pay if there had been no baby boorr.. Hous ing would be cheaper. The economy would have done better in the 1970s, and people now in their 20s, 30s, and 40s would be making more money. For the past 30 years, the baby boom generation all those born between 1946 and 1964-shook American economics, politics, and culture. But the full impact of 7 8 PREFACE the baby boom is yet to come because the generation is just now gaining the economic and political power to de termine events. Though the baby boom is a diverse generation linked only by its date of birth, that link is critical. The gener ation spans 19 years, which means many boomers ex perience the same things at the same time-going to col lege, getting a job, marrying, divorcing, buying a house, starting a family. Because of this, the baby boom in fluences what America's businesses produce, what the media write about, and what the politicans support. It focuses the nation's attention on itself; its concerns be come the nation's concerns. Whatever age the baby boom is becomes the nation's age.

A portrait of the baby boom generation celebrates the bad trips, questionable politics, and outrageous styles of the author and his generation while analyzing how the boom shaped contemporary America.