Baby Boomers

A promotional brochure from A & H Sportswear, the New York manufacturer of Miraclesuit, cuts to the meat of the matter: "Look 10 pounds lighter in 10 seconds, the 10 seconds it takes to slip it on. It will shape and firm your body so you look slimmer and feel better -- no more jiggle when you walk."Made of a Lycra spandex that has "triple the holding power" of the average swimsuit fabric, the company, which began selling Miraclesuits only since last year, says the suits are "designed to shape and firm your waist, hips, thighs and buttocks."

THE BABY BOOM generation -- the roughly 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 -- has been reshaping American society for five decades. From jamming the nation's schools in the 1950s and 1960s to crowding labor markets and housing markets in the 1970s and 1980s to affecting consumption patterns almost continuously, boomers have altered economic patterns and institutions at each stage of their lives. Now that the leading edge of the generation has turned 50, the impending collision between the boomers and the nation's retirement system is naturally catching the eye of policy-makers and the boomers themselves.

Boston -- It was past midnight by the time Bill Clinton and Al Gore arrived, like elated and tardy rock stars, at the final concert of a grueling national tour.They were puffy around the eyes, and raspy around the vocal cords. But if, as Paul Simon once wrote, every generation throws a hero on the pop charts, this was their moment. The baby boomers bus tour was, finally, headed for Pennsylvania Avenue.In the din of victory celebration in front of the Old State House in Little Rock, the music played the subliminal message of this campaign, ''Don't Stop Thinkin' About Tomorrow.

Beth Divney always believed that owning a home was sound advice. And, until recently, such wisdom seemed infallible. After all, home prices in most places hadn't declined since the Great Depression.For much of the 1970s and '80s appraisals soared in most areas, impelled by a demographic bulge of baby boomers buying their first houses, lenient lending practices, tax incentives and the aggressive marketing of co-ops and condominiums.But now Ms. Divney is one of tens of thousands of recent homebuyers, many of them young professionals, who own homes that have declined in value, often to the point that the home is worth less than the outstanding mortgage, a condition ** known as negative equity, which some bankers refer to as being "under water."

I constantly forget where I put my keys and my glasses. And I bet you do, too. I can't remember what groceries I need unless I write them down, and I tend to forget by the time I find a pen and a piece of paper. I can't remember where I was going when I decided to get up out of my chair. I can't remember whether I sent that email or only thought about sending that email. I can't remember my passwords, so I write them down. Thank heaven for speed-dial because I can't remember telephone numbers anymore.

MILLIONS OF American GIs just back from World War II wasted little time in 1946 getting married, settling down and raising families -- a rush of new responsibilities that left the parents bewildered about the best way to handle child-rearing. That's why they eagerly embraced the common-sense teachings Dr. Benjamin M. Spock.Indeed Dr. Spock, who died Sunday at 94, was both a household word and the proxy pediatrician for that huge bulge in the nation's population known as baby boomers -- the surge of children conceived by returning GIs. He gave young couples reassurance and sound guidance on child-rearing that became the bible to a generation of moms and dads.

It's hard for baby boomers to imagine, but if you had gone to a classic American cocktail party of the 1950s and asked for a glass of white wine, people would have wondered if you were some kind of Commie spy.Those were the days of martinis and Manhattans, of Scotch on the rocks and rum-and-Coke, except for the bad New York state champagne everyone drank on New Year's Eve.It wasn't until the 1970s that wine made its appearance as a popular American party...

WASHINGTON -- Just after noon, the words we knew someday we'd hear came down from the Capitol and echoed over the long rivers of people on the West Front."

A kind of epic fable that rambles through recent American history, "Forrest Gump" is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound bites and fury, signifying everything.Forrest is the sprite of the baby boom generation. Can it be meaningful that he's got an IQ of 75? As played by Tom Hanks, that specialist in decency, he's one thing baby boomers have never been: completely un-self-conscious. This makes him almost the Patient Zero of baby boomer concerns, present at the creation of most of our obsessions.

With baby boomers producing fewer children than earlier generations -- at the same time that Congress is debating limits on the government safety net, a demographer warns of a possible problem ahead:The elderly of 2030 may be living without the network of kin that Americans today rely on for emotional, physical, even monetary support.But there could be an answer, says Kenneth W. Wachter, a demographer at the University of California at Berkeley. And that is: stepchildren -- the product of the baby boomers' divorces.