Remember Boom Town? And I mean the “Pablo” sidekick years, not Captain Billy. How about Uncle Gus? Big Brother Bob Emery? Okay, how about Bozo the Clown? Major Mudd? Salty’s Shack? If you remember any of them you’re baby boomer. And you know what that makes you…Special.

Baby Boomers had to have new schools, different music, different politics, different wars and Boomers invented (or at the very least re-invented) sex. All for the betterment of mankind, of course. Well that’s the way Boomers have seen themselves generally.

Naturally I see things a little differently. I think baby boomers are the one big failing we can attribute to the Greatest Generation. Record numbers of babies were born after World War II in what may have been the greatest stimulus package in American history. The trouble is all those kids grew up. That’s not exactly it, they all got older. Can we agree on that?

Nope. The problem is we can’t all agree even on that. You see the one thing the Baby Boomers haven’t ever done well is face reality, particularly the reality of aging. We Boomers (there, I confessed) were all young together and we’ve been loathe to admit that we might not be young forever.

Rock, originally known as rock ‘n’ roll, was youth music. From “At the Hop” to “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” from Elvis to the Stones boomers celebrated themselves as young and sexy. It was never going to end. And even as we entered our 50s and 60s we fought it every inch of the way.

Some of that was good. Eating healthier, exercising, and generally taking care of ourselves. Some of it was just silly. Singing along with “Be True to Your School” and not thinking of it as at least a little bit odd, maybe even satirical, is silly. Thinking Mick Jagger is sexy…well that has always been silly.

So why do I bring all this up now? The Boston Globe recently did an article on Baby Boomers rejecting the terms “grandma” and “grandpa” because it sounds too…well…old. The article referred to a book called, "You Can Call Me Hoppa! The Grandparents' Guide to Choosing a Name That Fits." More proof that denial is not a river in Egypt.
Look kids, if you’re old enough to have grandchildren having them call you “Grand Dude” or “G-Ma Smooth” isn’t going to make you seem hip to your grandchildren. If you have grandchildren you have to face one basic fact. YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE GRANDCHILDREN. The mere fact that they exist proves that you are old enough.

What you need to remember is that there’s a huge difference between being old and acting old. You can pick the number that works for you but at some point we got old. Once you’re gotten your head around that remember my motto, “You can only be young once, but you can always be immature.”

I used to tease a friend of mine at school that he went right from high school to being 40 without any of the fun in between. He just acted older than the rest of us. Like most other things age is all in your state of mind.

But it’s also in the mind of your grandchild. And if you remember your own grandparents you remember that they were old. They were to you anyway. Because the difference between 4 and 54 is more than 50.

It doesn’t matter whether your grandchildren call you “Grandma” or “The Grandster” they’ll still think of you the same way. They don’t need somebody 60 years older than they are to teach them how to be hip.

They need you to be concerned about them and they don’t need a junior grade Norma Desmond arguing that “I am big, it’s the pictures that got small.” Be a grandparent not a superannuated peer. There’s nothing wrong with silly, but be silly with them not to them.