The Presque Isle County Historical Museum has added a fifth volume to its popular Local History Book Series.  Before the Baby Boomers, written by Mark Thompson, the museum’s executive director and curator, focuses on the generation that preceded the “Baby Boomers.”              According to Thompson, pop-psychologists have labeled that as the “Silent Generation.”  “The label is attributed to a Time magazine article from 1951,” said Thompson.  The referenced article claimed that, “Youth today is waiting for the hand of fate to fall on its shoulders, meanwhile working fairly hard and saying almost nothing.”             Thompson questions the accuracy of the “silent” label, but admits that members of the generation are hard-working and don’t seem to complain much.  “Those traits probably result from the times these people grew up in,” he said.             “The oldest members of the so-called Silent Generation were children during the Great Depression that began in 1929.” Thompson continued.  “Those that were “lucky” enough to miss the depression were born during World War II.  Either way, members of the generation grew up during times of hardship, even danger.  Their lives were threatened by factors totally beyond their control—even beyond the control of their parents.  They were spectators, sitting on the sidelines of catastrophic world events that must have cast a pall over each day of their childhoods.             “No wonder they tended to be non-complaining and hard-working,” Thompson added.  “They were probably just happy to be alive, relatively safe, and to have jobs.  I doubt that there was any cohort of Americans who grew up in more troubled times than the Silent Generation.”             According to Thompson, Before the Baby Boomers tries to show what life was like in Rogers City during the years that members of the Silent Generation were growing up there.  “Life was very different then,” said Thompson, “and I try to capture that in the book.  While the book pays homage to people born between 1929 and 1945, I think that anyone who has lived in the community will find it interesting.  Things have changed very dramatically since members of the Silent Generation were born.”             The new book is 200 pages long and contains more than 200 photos.  “In addition to photos from the museum’s collections, many local people loaned us their personal photos for use in the book,” said Thompson.              The book will go on sale in the museum’s gift shop starting Friday, August 6.  An exhibit of photos from the book will also open at the museum that same day.  The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon until 4 p.m.  Admission is always free.