oh, oh no, you just turned my previously labeled world upside down.

Born in 1959, it was by the time of the mid 60's that I'd developed enough basic senses & awareness to wonder/think on my own.... and even at that young age had noticed how various media folks, especially those generally outside the main shouting range of big-three major headlines, like, the folks in radio and or color-glossy print, would often have reason to journalize about boomers this, boomers that, and this chatter was almost always in reference to those born between a somewhat vague period of WWII shutdown phase and into the early fifties. I don't remember why I felt the way I did but distinctly remember a sense of gladness at not having been assigned to the tail-end of that perceived generation. But, by the time it got into the early 70s, I'd noticed there had been some slight, gradual, but discernable shifting of the subtle assertions media tends to make the way they are good at; just sort of giving voice to subtle, under-the-radar assertions, seemingly willy nilly for no other reason than because they seem to have self-appointed themselves license to assert willy nilly style whenever they choose.... kinda like the way subtle global warming assertions are being given media voice, at times somewhat subliminally, as though it is a foregone conclusion. Media-created public consciousness is like that; subtly repeat the mantra often enough and the message eventually becomes glued into the intellect of the mass audience whether or not the mass audience is aware of this. So, by the early 70s, I noticed the shift that brought subtle assertions that boomers in fact included those born through the late 50s.... that was a real bummer for me.... still not knowing why I felt that way, the previous sense of gladness sort of went up in a puff of hot media air just like that, by way of nothing more substantial than a bunch of widely scattered talking heads doing what they are generally paid well to do; utter into public consciousness assertions that they have creatively invented for the purpose of journalizing about.

That's been over 30 years now it was your post that sort of made me realize I'd sort of grown resigned to being one of them - boomers, belated bommer that I apparently was.

About the Jones theory, I guess maybe in some areas it was perhaps not as popular as needed for people - like around these parts, to even be aware that the theory was on the table :) Nowt that you've brought it into my awareness, I'm not sure how I feel about being a theoretical Jones baby.....hmmm, revisionist's late boomer baby, or Jones Theory baby?..... if there is an opt-out, I think I'll just sort of slink off into oblivion by alligning with generation NFS ;)

I have my own theory. During the era that existed just prior to, during and after the WWII, there were married couples who just happened to be of then-typical child-bearing age (not etched in stone, but informally, roughly 20 to 35 ) and, regardless of whatever influences they experienced from approaching war, happening war, or waning war, regardless of that they did what they had planned on doing when they settled down to marriage in the first place; have children simply because that was something that had been part of their plans. Part of the basis of this theory is that between the mid 30s and late 50s, there were many people bearing children such that the war, either end of it, was not a factor in their decision to bear children. Theoretically, there was probably not as many people doing the latter in part because they were inconvenienced by having been separated from their spouses, with thousands upon thousands of X on one side of an ocean - the war side, and their mating Y on the other wide of that ocean - the homefront side. Given the relatively older technology and older-fashioned morals and ways things were done back then, that separation mandated by war may have put a crimp on whatever child-bearing plans thousands upon thousands of X/Y pairs had prior to being separated. Part of this theory holds that once a nation calls back home some of those many thousands of young adults, a good many of them liked the idea so much that after a short while of adapting to it, they did what they had previously planned to do; have children. Within another few years, somebody got the novel idea to call that phenom 'baby boom', which is nice as far as that goes, but it could have just as easily been called the "spouses not separated or otherwise distracted due to war" phenom.