The Book

Yet another book to add to your collection? We know, we know! It honestly didn’t start out that way, but one little idea sort of steamrolled and before we knew it, 63 pages were born! As you may notice within the pages of this book, your Boomers and Hens like to talk. A lot! Perhaps you’d be interested in how this faction of your fan club began, what sorts of folks have joined up, and a little bit about our history as Boomers and Hens. Well, grab a snack and a beverage, settle in and enjoy. (Or, if you’d prefer – just skip this part and go right to the pictures!)

Who, or what, exactly are the Boomers and Hens?

Technically, the Boomers were born between 1946 – 1964. There are several varieties of Hens in the group: Mother Hens (who are old enough to be your mom); Grandma Hens (who, well…are old enough to be your grandma); and Sister Hens (who are older than the teenybopper fans, but not old enough to fit into the other categories). I hear the Sisters also like to hang out with us because we’re fun! I think it’s just because we’ve had a little more practice at being fans of “idols” than they have. How many of these former Idols do you recognize? (There may be a quiz at the end!)

Old days - in my mind and in my heart to stay
Old days - darkened dreams of good times gone away

Old days - days of love and feeling fancy free

Old days - days of magic still so close to me

(--Old Days – Chicago)

Long before there was the internet, vcr’s, and MP3 players, there were 45’s and LP’s (BONUS: Songs on both sides!). Boxes of them. All of us in our group, at one time or another, blew our allowance on the latest release from our idols. There was no such thing as online fan clubs, and there wasn’t any way that a great gathering of fans could get together to “gush” over a particular lyric, piano solo or photo insert. Instead, we hoped to find one or two friends who thought, as we did, that the moon rose and set over our favourite performers. From Tiger Beat Magazine to The Ed Sullivan Show; from Top 40 AM radio to Saturday matinees; from black-light posters to fan clubs advertised in the back of comic books: that’s how we celebrated our favourites. We’d send handwritten fan letters to far away addresses, make juicy-fruit gum wrapper belts to send to our idols, and make collages of photos with white glue and construction paper for our bedroom walls and binders. Ones lucky enough to have their favourites (David Cassidy, Donny Osmond) on a tv show had to beg and plead to be allowed to watch the one family television set for that half hour, and if we missed it? We were out of luck. Downloading of episodes or trading of tapes were definitely not part of our world.

We always will have a special place in our hearts for our first idols, but as we grew up, the times and our tastes changed. We moved on from Puppy Love and I Think I Love You to Stairway to Heaven and Dream On; from Blue Suede Shoes to Blue Oyster Cult. Bush parties and road trips with 8-track tapes and cassettes blasting from car stereos. Rock concerts and all-nighters. First serious loves and first serious break-ups. Summer vacations and dusk-to-dawn drive-in movies. The feeling of freedom, being young and having the whole world in front of us. Finally learning all the words to Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Carry On Wayward Son. The songs of that time bring back so many good memories for us all. Which brings us to the Summer of 2004 and Canadian Idol.

Born to be Wild. House of the Rising Sun. Paint it Black. The songs of our youth, sung to perfection. Who was this Kalan Porter – the young man with the powerful voice, doing justice to “our” music? One by one, we searched out web sites and message boards to find out. And find each other. So began the Boomers and Hens.

Our first stop was the official CTV message boards, with separate threads for the Boomers and Hens. We had found a home – a place where older fans like ourselves could gather to discuss the latest performances on the show, as well as reminisce about our younger days. When BMG launched your official site, we started a combined thread where the Boomers and Hens could continue our ‘gushing’ and our blossoming friendships. Finally, when your friends and family revamped your fan site, our reputation apparently preceded us and we were given not only a thread all our own, but an entire section of the message board. We had arrived!

Promotional projects were launched, media appearance spotting became a fine art, much laughter ensued, and long-lasting friendships were formed. Marathon sessions occurred while posters attempted to ‘graduate’ to the next posting level. At one point, someone suggested it would be fun to print off a few pages of one of the daily threads to give to you – just to give you an idea of what we do all day as we visit our home away from home; to ‘introduce’ you to some of your older fans. Those few pages turned into this book.

So many Boomers and Hens gave their time, their creativity and their love in the making of this book. In particular I’d like to give credit to French Accent, for the fabulous cover art; to Regina for her incredible talent in creating the graduation pages; to Leonardsram for her exhaustive efforts in promotion; to Over26 and friends for the Sassisms; to CdnGrlzKikAss for the gorgeous “You Know You’re Getting Older When” compilation pages; to Leah and her merry band of pals for the Action Figures; to albertaidol and evasmum for their collection of our favourite quotes; to Capricorn for the glossary; to Jaisy for the banners, and Joan for her hen artwork. There are, of course, many more B&Hers who have contributed and need to be mentioned: Eris, LD4KP, marlynx2, Mojo, freakyme, stagemanager, if40, Kalan4Prez, vicfan, boomerGirl, Synaesthete (the creator of the B&H logo), oldgal, youngat54, oldiebutgoodie, KayVanFan, Casey, Sheila, Sassy, Arrandu. I could go on and on, but to save space these are but a few of the loyal fans who have become part of your Boomer and Hen family.

We encourage and remind each other to vote for and request your songs on radio stations across the country; find innovative ways to promote you to those outside our borders (one of our posters made CD’s of your Idol performances to be given to friends and contacts in other countries and others have sent video tapes of Idol shows to friends in the US); and scan the internet, newspapers, television and radio for any news about upcoming appearances and spread the word to the rest of the B&H’ers.

We were brought together one magical summer because of a television show, and one young man who stole our hearts. Kalan, you’ve touched something in all of us. We admire your talent, we find solace in your music, and we feel blessed to be a part of your career from the beginning. We have become a little family of our own, and we hope that one day you will have the time to drop in for a visit and meet all of us! Certainly we are a little bit crazy, but we are loyal fans of yours and will remain so for years to come.

We hope you enjoy this small tribute from your Boomers and Hens. We had a great deal of fun coming up with ideas, and it was put together with a lot of love. It’s a small representation of what we are all about, and what it is we do all day when we’re visiting the forum on your official fan site. If it can bring you a laugh, or a bit of comfort knowing that we are out there supporting you always, we’ll have fulfilled our wish.

Thank you for bringing us all together, for giving us an excuse to relive our youth, and for giving us a place to call home. Please come by and visit us when you get the chance. We’ll serve snacks!

With great fondness and best wishes,

Toque/Reuben (Heather)

Kalanadian #196

Fan Club Member #24

(on behalf of the Boomers and Hens)

Photos:

Top row (l-r): Elvis, Bob Dylan, James Darren, Ricky Nelson, Bobby Sherman, Willie Aames

Bottom row (l-r): David Cassidy (twice, just because we lurve him!), Donny Osmond, New Kids on the Block, Scott Baio