I’m going to a school reunion in Traralgon on the Labor Day weekend and the lead-up has made me somewhat nostalgic.

The event will commemorate 20 years since our class of ‘84 finished secondary school at Lourdes College.

I may reflect in this blog on various childhood recollections over the next couple of weeks. The purpose of this entry is to expound my theory that those of us born 1965-69 are a missing link in the sea of generational change.

Much is written about the Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y, however little thought is given to those of us born on the cusp of transition.

I believe that our half-decade is unique in social history for the last couple of hundred years.

Before setting forth I will give some definitions.

Baby Boomer: Anyone born in the post-war period from 1946 to 1964. My Internet research confirms this as the standard demographer’s definition.

Generation X: There is less agreement on a definition for this. I say it applies most appropriately to those born from 1970 to 1989 on the basis that Generation X represents the children of Baby Boomers.

Most of us born 1965-69 had parents who either lived through the Second World War or were born during it.

That’s a significant distinction. The Depression and WW2 were life-shaping events that cannot be denied for their social and historical importance.

Anyone touched by them in some way is sure to carry that mark for the rest of their lives.

In the case of Australia, the end of WW2 also heralded an influx of immigrants.

Take my own case: My father was born in 1935. He grew up in a remote farming district without electricity or easy access to secondary schools. My mother was born in the Netherlands in 1945.

The war, and hardship associated with it, was an overriding influence on their lives. They can’t be compared with the carefree Baby Boomers, who only knew of such things from their parents.

Baby Boomers were born into an era of peace and prosperity, with low interest rates and jobs for all.

By the time I was born in 1967 a war had started in Vietnam, the Cold War had intensified and the good times had a horizon.

Children born after 1969 are mostly the offspring of Baby Boomers. Their outlook is shaped by that of their parents.

So what distinguishes the half-decade of 1965-69 from the periods before and after?

I’ve already mentioned the escalating Cold War tension. To give it an Australian context I add the following.

Currency: Pounds, shillings and pence were replaced in 1966 and made obsolete in 1967. I remember sixpences and shillings turning up in change until the late 1970s.

Weights and measures: I think it was Gough Whitlam who fast-tracked the introduction of metric in Australia. He came to power in 1972; the year I started school. Most children aren’t taught measurements until grade three, by which time my group had been indoctrinated anecdotally with feet and inches, pounds and ounces.

Television: It was the mid 1970s before color TV was common in Australia. I well remember the struggle of watching Collingwood play North Melbourne in black and white.

Politics: Gough Whitlam (1972-1975) changed Australia forever. His brief leadership began the end of Australia’s constitutional monarchy and the trappings that go with it.

Technology: Computers didn’t become common until the late 1980s, bypassing those of us born during the 60s in terms of school instruction. We had lessons on computer programming in Year 11 (1983), which with hindsight were an absolute waste of time given we had no computers and the changes since then.

The period from 1965-69 is close in memory to the Second World War. Those of us born during that period grew up with people whose lives were touched directly by the war.

As a short-term Boy Scout in Traralgon I marched with Boer War veterans in the Anzac Day Parade. When I was growing up someone born in the 80s was born in the 1880s.

I don’t have a name for my cusp generation, except to call it that.

The children of Baby Boomers, or Generation X, are in my view more carefree, greater risk takers and more liberal.

I think we inherited our parents’ conservative attitude to risk, but with greater adaptability and a better capacity to cope with change.

This is a conflict that sometimes pulls us in different directions and competes for resolution.