I heard a great song titled “Kids of the Baby Boom” on the car radio today. I have to share my thoughts with you about the memories that the song rekindled for me in my mind.

The song was written by David Bellamy in 1987 and sung by the Bellamy Brothers. It made it to number one on the country chart, but today was the first time that I heard the song. Remember, I am a kid of the baby boom, so sometimes I’m a little slow on picking up the new songs. But really, 1987? That was 29 years ago.

The opening lyrics of the song are:

Our daddies won the war then they came home to our moms.

They gave ‘em so much love that us kids were born.

We all grew up on Mickey Mouse and the hula hoops,

Then we all bought BMWs and new pickup trucks.

And we watched John Kennedy die one afternoon.

Kids of the Baby Boom.

On my way driving from Randleman High to the elementary school to watch the senior class play skits, I heard on the radio of my red 1958 Renault that President John Kennedy had been shot and killed in Texas. The words of his death were burned into my memory forever. I have no memory of  the senior class play other than it was on the day Kennedy died, and it was about 2 p.m. when I heard the announcement.

Mickey Mouse was big when I was a kid in the 1950s. I can hear the sound and see the sight of the Mouseketeers, wearing those big black mouse ears and singing the theme song for the Mickey Mouse Club, “Come along and sing our Song …”  You have to remember Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, who was everyone’s sweetheart.

She died at the age of 70 in 2013.

Hula hoops! Yes, I had a blue one.

No worries here in the “land of milk and honey.”

I loved the TV show “Winky Dink,” with the plastic sheet that you could put on your old black and white TV and play “connect the dots” with Winky Dink. You can still buy a Winky Dink kit from Amazon, but it wouldn’t be the same with a color TV and no Winky.

Back to the “Kids of the Baby Boom” song:

Now we all can run computers and we all can dance.

We all have Calvin Klein written on our underpants.

And at 6 o’clock like robots we turn on the news,

And watch those third-world countries deal out more abuse.

Remember the first man on the moon.

Sammie (my wife) and I had graduated from college, got married, and were living in Chesapeake, Va. We watched the moon walk on our small black and white TV. I don’t have Calvin Klein man on my underpants. I go with Fruit of the Loom and Hanes, myself.

Our children do “look at us like we came from Mars.” My daughter has to help me get my Apple TV network working. She can’t understand why I can’t remember all the log-ins and passwords for all of my electronics. She makes fun of me and all the little scraps of paper I have with my passwords and electronic addresses.

If you are a boomer like me, take a listen to the song on your computer and revisit some of the memories of your boomer years. That is, if you can find all those little scraps of paper with your passwords.