March 22-24, 1996......Cover Story......By Andrea Stone......

Not Boomers, not Xers,

they are Tweeners

Trailing edge of boomers, those 31-36

are feeling 'cheated and shortchanged'

Technically they're baby boomers. But those born the first five years of the 1960s know who they really are. They're Tweeners.Now 31 to 36 years old, they have been lumped by a statistical fluke with the cloth-diapered post-World War II set, who are beginning to turn 50. These youngest boomers are a lost generation, stuck between Woodstock and Lollapalooza.

Howdy Doody was canceled before most were born. They didn't wear Davy Crockett coonskin hats. They don't remember JFK's assassination. The Vietnam War ended before they reached the draft age. AIDS abolished free love. Baby boomers were born from 1946 through 1964. But the spotlight has always been focused on older boomers, those 40 to 50 now. In the mid-'90s, they're starting to fret about retirement and aging. Tweeners, a few of whom even have parents who are boomers, just can't relate.

"Everybody talks about the '60s as if everybody was there," says Tamara Ruiz of Stafford, Va., whose October 1964 birth makes her one of the last baby boomers. "Sometimes I feel like saying to them "Well, a lot of people didn't experience it so just shut up!'" Ruiz is among dozens who regularly vent in the Tweener section of America Online's Baby Boomer Club. Terry Roy, 33, of Richmond, Calif., expressed a typical online complaint. "I've always kind of resented being called a boomer," Roy wrote. "I don't 'remember' the Beatles, never heard of Jimi Hendrix until... he was already dead."

Tweeners started school in the '60s, became teenagers in the '70s and left school in the '80s. By the time they reached adulthood, the idealism and optimism of their predecessors had been squelched by Watergate, the oil crisis, inflation and recession. They approached their future with cynicism and pessimism. "The trailing edge (of boomers) were the first to experience a lack of confidence," says market researcher Walker Smith of Yankelovich Partners. Unlike earlier boomers, who grew up in a 1950s America where anything seemed possible, later boomers found a world where "the sense of entitlement began to break down."

Despite such differences, the more than 20 million Tweeners aren't recognized as a separate generation. They are counted among the 75 million baby boomers. Yet many are closer in age to Generation Xers who were born from 1965 through 1976. But that designation doesn't feel right either. "Growing up I always felt I was the only person my age. They spoke in the media as if everyone was 15 years older than me," says Ruiz, who listened to Andy Gibb and Olivia Newton-John and resents older boomers who sneer at disco. "My age group got a little bit forgotten. I'm still considered a baby boomer... but I'm younger than Cindy Brady," Ruiz says, referring to the youngest daughter on TV's The Brady Bunch.

Like the oldest boomers, Tweeners "are a transitional group," Smith says. Those born it the late 1940's share a sense of duty and community with the G.I. generation. But, like other boomers, they also stress individuality. That combination of values leaves many older boomers torn about balancing family and career, even though their generation launched the women's movement.

Still Tweeners aren't comfortable with either group.

"We're in between Depends and buying your first car. Where do we fit in?" asks Laurie Frings, 33, of Menomonee Falls, Wis. "Flower power, the Vietnam era, the drug age - I don't identify with that. But we're not Generation Xers either. We float at the end of the baby boomer generation." The oldest boomers protested the Vietnam War and helped win civil rights for blacks, women and gays. The movement days were over by the time Tweeners were old enough to join.

"We were the first generation who said if we don't like the rules, we'll rewrite them," says Joe Moroski, 49, who as a senior at Kent State University "walked right into the middle" of a protest in which National Guardsmen shot and killed four students May 4, 1970. "For people who didn't live through the turmoil of the '60s, it's hard to appreciate it looking at it as an historical event." But Tamra Frederick, 35, didn't live through it. And that makes all the difference. "We couldn't identify with the rebels of the '60s," says the Greensburgh, Pa., homemaker, who feels a part of the '70s "Me" generation. "We didn't know what they were fighting against."

Michael Frisce knows. Though born in 1963, the Houston Tweener is "sick of hearing about how boomers changed things. They didn't change anything. All they did was tear down. They think nobody remembers. But growing your hair long, sleeping around, smoking a bunch of dope - what the hell good does that do for the country?" Tweeners didn't protest. They had other worries:

Median Income. In 1980, when the oldest boomers were 25 to 34, they earned $30,884. in today's dollars. A decade later, when the Tweeners were in that age bracket, they earned $23,652, or 23% less.

Home ownership. In 1982, when older boomers were in their early- to mid-30s, 57.1% owned homes. Among Tweeners the same age in 1995, 53.1% were home owners.

And though older boomers have been victims of corporate downsizing the past few years, they still come out ahead compared with Tweeners. "The older boomers were the first to get all the jobs. They had a fairly easy time getting into college, to buy cheap housing, to move up the corporate ladder. Things have always gone their way," says Cheryl Russell, editor of The Boomer Report. "The younger half has had to struggle with overcrowded everything. They're more worried about the future."

Tracy and Greg Johnson of Tampa are a good example of the split between Tweeners and older boomers. They define "the future" differently, partly because of their age difference. Greg, a sales representative who at forty is a middle boomer, wants to increase their savings for retirement. Tracy, 33, is more focused on paying for their son's braces and finding their daughter a new preschool. "My husband is putting away for retirement and I'm concerned about putting the kids through college," she says.

Tweeners Tamra and Micheal Frederick, both 35, also can't relate to older boomers. Michael says he's been denied numerous promotions at the natural gas company where he works. The couple, who have three children, have moved seven times in 14 years. They blame downsizing. "We feel like we've been cheated, shortchanged," Tamra says. No matter what Tweeners do, they "will always be in the background," says Michael Marsden, who teaches popular culture at Northern Michigan University. "They'll always be waiting for their turn."

Indeed, as older boomers reach their prime earning years, clogging management jobs and sitting on piles of home equity, Tweeners can only look on in envy.

"They're in a nightmare," says Steven Nelson, who at 46 is "mostly retired" from his St. Petersburg, Fla., chiropractic clinic. "When I was 18, it took one week's salary to pay the mortgage or rent. Now it takes two weeks'."

Nelson senses a difference between younger doctors and those his age. He says his peers are more interested in doing good and enjoying work. Tweeners "look you right in the eye and ask, 'How much can I make?'"

Yankelovich's Smith says Tweeners "are a lot like Xers in their attitudes about work. Boomers thought of work as self-fulfillment. The Xers' attitude is 'Just pay me.' (Tweeners) are willing to work at a boring job as long as the pay is good."

But such analysis leaves Tweener Roy cold.

"I'm irritated people are trying to put a label on me," she says. "Everybody's an individual."