Boomers Quotes

“After decades of shaping of the world, the Boomers are finally facing their end. It’s something we all must deal with one day. But when you’ve experienced power your whole life, the end of one’s life is the ultimate moment of being powerless in the face of something you can’t change.
And they hate the very thought of it.”
― I.M. Millennial

“In between one heartbeat and the next, I know my time in Boomertown is at an end.
And not even for my sake or Bailey’s, but for Ace’s. I came, I saw, and unlike Caesar, I did not conquer. But then, I never could have done that, anyway.
I think that’s the real secret to the Boomer generation.
They gave us a rigged game from the start. Gen X, Millennials and Zoomers played against the house. We were told we could win if we just worked hard enough, but most of us have lost out in some way or another.”
― I.M. Millennial

“Many of my parents’ friends own more than one house, sometimes so many that whole dwellings sit unused and empty for years. And so it’s an odd contradiction that they often seem to get stuck on the most minute details when it comes to renovations. My hypothesis is that this is a way to feel the thrill of ownership come to life again. It’s polishing the already gilded lily.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“I’ve found environmentalism isn’t popular with many Boomers unless it gives them good social value; a round of applause for recycling or for purchasing themselves the latest state-of-the-art electric car. They were born amid one of the largest eras of value-by-resource-extraction, and they’re just not wired to understand scarcity.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“The house is in moderate condition, but when we do the usual dance of exploring the price range, the agent clarifies that the owner has high expectations.
The owner interjects and I hear the full story from the man himself. ‘My house has been valued at a million,’ he says with a grin. ‘Though I’ve been told it might be worth more than that. Would you believe it only cost me a year’s income back in the eighties? Had three children and never had to worry about money or a place to live. And now the value of it just keeps going up! It’s unbelievable what people have to pay for houses these days. Never would have imagined it.’ He cackles at this, as if it’s the funniest thing in the world.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“I’m her grandmother!’ my mother repeats, now shouting. ‘I have rights. I get a say in how she lives her life!’
That’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it?
Rights.
Who has the right to dictate to family, friends and the world about how people should live, how things should work and what life means?
Boomers have expressed these rights for decades. And they’ve refused to cede authority and autonomy to the generations that follow. Even the Trailers live in the Boomers’ shadow.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“Kindness has no price. It isn’t for sale but comprises the tens, hundreds and even thousands of ways we relate to people. It’s a lesson that I don’t feel most Boomers have ever understood. For them, everything in the world has a price tag. But then, that’s what they’ve learned from their time and place in the world. Anyone and anything can be bought.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“Over the time that I’ve been away, Boomertown has become heavily populated by those either approaching retirement or already deep in it. It’s such a strong demographic trend that I’ve been told there are t-shirts at the weekend market poking fun at the number of walkers about town. And by walkers, I don’t mean people on foot, but those metal frames that fill the pavements outside local cafes.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“But that’s what it’s like being a Millennial in a Boomer’s world. There’s always someone else pulling the strings.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“The more a Boomer population settles in a town, the more they attract renovation-supporting industries. The more these industries show up, the more attractive that town is to Boomers with a hunger for home improvement.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“In general, Boomers, as a generation, have sowed their crop and they must reap what they’ve planted. They are and will be admired, feared and reviled in mixed measure. They made everything about themselves, and subjugated both their parents before them, and everyone who followed them, in equal measure.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“Nigella and Porter provide meaning to their patrons. They help Boomers feel young again by offering new activities to vicariously participate in. Their helplessness is attractive to a generation that sought profit and now seeks, with some urgency, purpose at the end of their lives. Nigella and Porter are the perfect proxies. Their search for meaning can never end. The sudden obsession with hunting is just another stop on an endless journey.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“Being back in Boomertown has exposed us to an unforeseen avenue of questions from my parents’ Boomer friends.
In particular, why do Bailey and I only have one child? Also, when will we have more children? How does my daughter feel about being an only child? Do I know only children are very sad and lonely? And that only children end up spoiled, crazy and socially maladaptive?”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“Boomers with any property at all have made fortunes selling their lawns, garages, driveways and spare plots to developers who are desperate to capitalise on the property boom and the younger generations desperate for somewhere to live.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“Short-term stays are a favourite Boomer investment strategy. It’s so easy to throw up a quick demountable at the edge of a driveway and then rent it out for an exorbitant nightly rate.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“Boomer parents can have strange blind spots; they always seem ready to blame anyone but themselves or their children. I think this happens because they see their children as an extension of themselves. If they themselves are perfect, then so must their children be.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“I’d come to Boomertown to find a sanctuary. But I hadn’t realised that in doing so I’d stepped into a trap. I hadn’t lived with my parents for years and I’m realising I’d underestimated just how much they were interested in again being active in guiding my life.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“To better gain economies of scale, higher sales and lower costs, shops everywhere have ballooned into tremendous warehouses. They are staffed by young people who have less knowledge about hardware than I do, and who roam the aisles looking for places to hide from their most voracious and vicious customer; the Boomer on a mission to buy hardware.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“Do all Boomers think Millennials are riven with anxiety? Maybe we are. But maybe we’re justified in feeling that way about a lot of things. The world’s in a pretty sorry state.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“... many Boomers exert unhelpful and unhealthy levels of control over everyone around them. The Boomers’ parents, the generation that went through war, recession and global pandemic, described their own children as selfish. And in a way, it’s the most selfish act of all, to control people as if they’re chess pieces on a board and will stay where you place them.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“On both weekdays and weekends, Boomers descend on hardware stores to fill trolleys with paints, rugs, lawn ornaments, plants, light-fixtures and other gee-gaws to improve their already palatial homes. They move like predatory marauders, ready to snatch those red-hot deals off the central aisle stands.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“I’ve seen statistics that Boomers drink a great deal more than their Millennial children and that Millennial alcohol use is declining year on year. It could be because Millennials have less disposable income. Or it could be that we need all our wits about us to navigate life’s many challenges.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“The Boomers are out in force, wrapped up in big jackets, on foot or riding mobility scooters. They push everyone aside as they barrel along the cleared sidewalk. This, in a town that still has ordinances against youth on skateboards.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“My mother is genetically wired to love bargains and free things, irrespective of whether they actually save her money in the long run. There was, during my childhood, many a trip halfway across the county to use a coupon worth a few coins, likely using up more than the equivalent saving in fuel. A collection of napkins, salt, sugar, and other condiments purloined from local restaurants alway seems to fill the kitchen cupboards at home.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“Bailey, Ace and I continue to look for a place to live, and, it would seem, so is everyone else. In fact, word around Eden Perch is that a prosperous millennial woman from Boomer City has expressed interest in the scrubby lot that sits behind my parents’ home. According to my mother’s contact, the woman is not only interested in purchasing the land but also in building. With this revelation, the whole suburb is in an uproar. None of the other residents of Eden Perch want to buy the plot, but they don’t want anyone else to have it either. And now that someone else has shown interest, every objection comes crawling up to meet the challenge.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“All the things available at these discount stores are not just cheap, but cheaply made. They have a short lifespan and are often difficult to recycle. Which means they end up in the rubbish, part of the Boomer generation’s significant contribution to the environmental destruction of our age.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“The clever part is, his comment isn’t entirely a negation, but a gentle sowing of the seeds of doubt. That’s how some Boomers fence; little flicks of the sabre tip, thin shallow cuts.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“As we hit November, the cold weather sets in and the first few snowfalls arrive. It’s the beginning of the festive season. At least for the Boomers. In Boomer City, it always felt like everyone worked until the last week before Christmas. In Boomertown, there’s a long descent into the holiday that starts around November. I’ve heard it ends somewhere near the end of a tiddly January.
I guess it’s a side effect of having an entire town populated by people nearing or in retirement. There’s no grand yearly business calender to follow. Just the seasons which mark a different progression of festivities.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“My mother has a quiet arrangement with a contact at the local council and so she receives notice of any development applications in Eden Perch before they’re made public. A quiet wink, Boomer-to-Boomer and all that.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir

“I guess possession is nine-tenths of Boomer law.”
― I.M. Millennial, A Year in Boomertown: A Memoir