The Passing of Icons
DH | Jun 26, 2009 | Comments 3
All at once, the ranks of baby boomers are thinner. And the ranks of boomer icons: Farrah Fawcett, a leading-edge boomer, and Michael Jackson, on the other end of our generation. My friend Mike Petrie writes this tribute about the passing of icons.
Two more Baby Boomer icons are gone: Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Both passed away on June 25th and whether you were a fan or not, the world seems a bit more empty to this Boomer. If you are one of those who limits Boomer icons to Beatles, Stones, and peace symbols, that only means you are at the upper end of our mega Boomer generation. Both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson were Baby Boomers themselves. And both were Boomer icons as well.
My wife, who is at the VERY youngest end of Boomerdom, had a Michael Jackson poster on her wall as a teen. Being a bit older, I had the famous 1970s poster of Farrah in the red one-piece bathing suit on my wall. Over twelve million of those Farrah posters were sold (mostly to males, I presume), so I was not alone. As Jill Munroe in the television series “Charlie’s Angels,” Farrah was THE beautiful, sexy, blond-haired girl to which all other girls of the era were compared. Girls, of course, knew this and emulated Farrah. Seems every girl I knew back then had a Farrah hairdo.
Michael Jackson, long before his fall from grace with legal and financial problems, and before he started getting downright weird, was truly the King of Pop. His Thriller album sold more than any other record in history, including anything by the Stones or Beatles.
When the icons of a generation pass away, whether it be George Harrison, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Jim Morrison, or whomever, bits and pieces of the generation they represent go with them. So it is with real sadness that I feel the vestiges of our generation slipping by. Farewell to Farrah, she is truly an angel now; not just playing one on TV. Farewell to Michael Jackson. Maybe he is now moonwalking in heaven. And, onward fellow Baby Boomers … taking one day at a time, wondering which of our beloved icons, reminders of our lost youth, might be next to remind us of our own mortality. But fret not. In the end, ya gotta admit … being a Boomer has been a really fun ride, hasn’t it? And there’s more road ahead of us.
Filed Under: Featured • Guest Blogger
The deaths of Michael and Farrah makes us realize that we, too, will go donw that same path one day, however, with little or no fanfare.
In my early theatre days, I was doing an Off Broadway play in the same complex (Westside Arts Theatre) Farrah was performing “Extremities” in. We got the opportunity to spend a brief period of time with her after our respective performances one evening. Charming, kind and very smart.
She was, and remains, a constant reminder of days long since past…but days never forgotten.
We are all very sad at the passing of such an icon.