For some reason or other, we coin generational phrases to put people in their place. Or, is it to define subcultures of certain patterns of behaviour?

Mobileers were a community of early two-way radio users. According to Wikipedia, the Mobileers popularized the technology that birthed the mobile phone.

Permanent installations in vehicles gave way to the portable Bag Phones, equipped with a cigarette lighter plug. The heavy clunky pieces of equipment are totally unrecognizable to the dinky, less than pocket size mobiles most people sport today. But I am getting ahead of myself.

In the early 1960's there was a youth movement that evolved into the Hippies. Again according to Wikipedia, 'Hippies originally were Beatniks', or the black people. These people were black by nature, not by the colour of their skin. Even their clothes were black. They were losers. Their message was, "Danger is fun".

Hippies were a group of people who moved into the Haight-Ashbury San Francisco area. Psychedelic rock, the sexual revolution, cultural diversity and drugs like cannabis and LSD, in order to explore alternative states of consciousness, became the hallmark of the Hippies. Flower Power symbolized their cry of "Make love not war", as they handed out flowers to passersby.

They were the frontier group of the 'Wild West' of our modern culture. Their far reaching effects included health food, music festivals, through contemporary sexual concepts (free love) and the use of drugs.

Many were eco-friendly and the forerunners of the Greeny Movement. They were also pioneers of the cyberspace revolution.

Today every school kid has a mobile phone, though I often wonder who pays the bills. But when mobile phones were relatively unheard of, there rose a group of Male Yuppies - Young Urban Mobile Professionals.

They had a particular stance that went with the title, as did most subgroups. One hand raised to the ear; Their other hand protectively placed on their briefcase; Head cocked to one side; Eyes glazed over as they stared at the distant horizon; A noncommittal grimace on the face.

Of course they were seen to eat at all the Yuppy restaurants and naturally drove a Yuppy car. They symbolized the young affluent professionals of the day.

Evolution comes in many forms. However, I wonder if that is always the case. I personally believe they were the result of a group of very clever marketing gurus.

Either way, the Yuppy generation took over from the Baby Boomers - suburban, couple of kids, mortgage and the backbone of the community. That is after the Baby Boomers had dried out and come off the Grass, introduced through the Hippy stage.

Let's not knock the Baby Boomers though. The Baby Boomers produced many a Lord Mayor or politician.

Strictly speaking the Baby Boomers may have been too long a period to be classically described as a 'generation'. The baby boom lasted over a post-war period of 18 years.

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