1947: This is the historic year when the first Boomers were born. The reason there were so many of us was that our parents' generation, having endured the misery of the Depression and the horror of the war years, evidently spent much of 1946 in the sack.

1950: If you were to name the two most important personalities of 1950, in terms of their long-term impact on Boomers, those two names would have to be Richard Nixon and Howdy Doody, although no necessarily in that order.

1953: 27-year-old Hugh Hefner, courageously defying the repressed, restrictive "button-down" middle-class moral climate of the times, published the first issue of Playboy magazine, which dared to make the sophisticated intellectual statement: "Take a gander at these bazooms!

1958: I believe 1958 epitomized the 1950s because it was the Year of the Hugely Popular Truly Dumb Novelty Record. Among the big hits were "The Purple People Eater" and "The Witch Doctor." (Everybody join in: "Oo, ee, oo, ah, ah, ting, tang, walla walla bing bang." OK! Now everybody try to get that out of your head!)

1964: On the nutritional front, Kellogg's introduced the Pop-Tart, the first toaster-based snack pastry designed for consumer use by humans. As an American, I am of course proud to live in the nation that developed this product, although I feel obligated to point out that an improperly prepared Pop-Tart can cause certain unpleasant side effects such as burning down your house.

1969: There was one great moment of national unity in 1969: The night of July 20, when we all tuned in to watch astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking around on the freaking Moon.. It was an amazing thing to see; nearly 94 percent of the nation's households were watching on TV. This raises the question: What were the other 6 percent watching? Hee Haw?

1975-Present: And so by 1974 the times--at least the one Bob Dylan had been singin' about--had pretty much finished a-changin'. That's why I'm hereby declaring 1974 as the end of the Formative Boomer Years. As far as I'm concerned, most of the last couple of decades are just one big blur anyway; what, really, is the difference between, say 1985 and 1987? Of course one reason I say this is that I'm turning into an old person, and old people always think there was something special about the time of their youth.

1949: I'm sure I don't need to remind you what happened in 1949. I'm sure you know that 1949 will forever be remembered by grateful generations as "the year that Silly Putty was first marketed."

1952: This was the year that historians refer to as The Year of Bald Guys Running For President: Dwight Eisenhower vs. Adlai Stevenson.

1956: On the cultural front, 1956 was the year of the first Godzilla movie, which launched the golden age of Japanese monster movies. Sure, the plots were absurd and the acting was terrible, but there was no denying the fact that the special effects were also extremely bad.

1962: Marvel Comics introduced Spider Man and the Hulk--a new, younger, hipper breed of superheroes who were more like our generation, as opposed to Superman and Batman, who were definitely grown-ups. We Boomers could relate to these super heroes. We could picture Spider Man, on his day off, learning the Loco-Motion.

1968: McDonald's introduced the Big Mac, an advanced cholesterol-delivery system based on a complex formula that was years ahead of anything being developed by Soviet hamburger scientists.

1974: For most of the year, Watergate consumed the nation's attention. The scandal got so bad that even Dick Nixon seemed embarrassed by it. Facing impeachment, he resigned in August, thus ending what I consider to be the highest-quality presidential administration of my lifetime, as measured by entertainment value. Humor columnist everywhere went into mourning.