Age Cohort

For the Age Cohort assignment I decided to interview my neighbor Jamie Newell. She is 57 and born in 1955. She came over to our house for our annual Labor Day barbeque. This was the perfect time to ask her the questions from this. Attached to this paper are the answers to the questions I asked her. She didn’t remember what happened the year she was born because she was only one years old. So I did some research and found that the biggest thing that happened is the Rosa Parks incident with the bus seat. As to question three, I’m sure there are some similar answers to anyone else from this age range. But she did mention some non-normative life events such as how the Vietnam War took her boyfriend. Another non-normative life event which was rather interesting was and she still remembers vividly, she was in the shower and heard the phone ring and knew for sure her grandfather had died and this was the call. It turns out that she was correct and is still haunted by it today.
As to the five questions she answered ill start with talking about number one. She was very stern on how important it is to a child. She also added how she is totally ok with gay marriage but does think it is important that one of the couple represents a male and one represents a female. For the second question, she answered by saying that if a women can afford it, then by all means should stay home. She did and doesn’t have any regrets. She thinks it helps immensely in the development of a child. She thinks the bonding time is important she is just sad that for many it’s economically unfeasible. I think this answer leans toward normative age-graded influence because of how every mom goes through that age of having a kid and knows what it’s like. For the third question she thinks it definitely is beneficial for the children to learn how it is to be in social interaction before the schooling years. I would say this answer is similar to the last one with the normative age-graded influence. For the fourth question she is disgusted with kids these days. She thinks that is not the age to develop your sexual relationships with anyone. I would say this answer is normative age-graded as well but for a different reason as the other two. I think it is that because she was that age as well and I am guessing she was not, and most other people weren’t, sexually active at that age. She doesn’t like how kids at that age today are and needs to wait until they have better handle on who they are and their own value. As for the last question she thinks it’s utterly unfair to think that anyone can’t be equal to someone else. It’s not her business what’s going on behind closed doors and it’s unfair that they can’t enjoy the same perks of marriage that anyone else can. I think she had a little bit of normative history-graded influence in this response. I say this because of the liberal rights movements of women, then blacks, and now gays. She’s experienced 2 and is currently experiencing a third and thinks that they should be as equal as blacks or women or anyone else for that matter.