They rocked out to the Beatles and Stones. They witnessed a president assassinated, helped launch the civil-rights movement and found themselves fighting in jungles thousands of miles from home.

Theirs is the generation that turned on, tuned in and dropped out, only to rise to the top of their professions during the 1980s when Wall Street told them greed was good. A decade later, they were the victims of corporate downsizing.
President Bush, Bill Clinton, Cher, Donald Trump and nearly 2.9 million of America's oldest baby boomers will turn 60 in 2006 at a rate of almost 8,000 a day.

One big question remains: What's next?

For many, retirement in five years is out of the question. Who wants to waste away in Margaritaville, to quote one of their more famous members?

The thought of taking it easy doesn't appeal to those who feel young in both body and mind. The reality, however, is that many of them can't afford retirement.

"I'd retire in a heartbeat if I was financially able," said Jerry Ewing, a computer specialist who moved to Orlando two years ago from Virginia. "I expect that I'll probably work till I die."

Ewing enlisted in the Army in 1967 and fought in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. After he left the service, he started working with computers in the early 1970s with EDS, the company founded by billionaire H. Ross Perot.

He tried to make it on his own in the 1980s with a computer consulting company, went broke and reinvented himself as the world was discovering the Internet. Now he works out of his home for one of the world's largest information-technology providers.

Like many of their peers, Ewing and his wife put money away for retirement but not nearly enough. Unlike their parents, who grew up during the Depression, the boomers, as a whole, have not saved enough for retirement.

Though they typically earn more than their parents did and have saved about the same, boomers can expect to live longer and carry greater debt than their parents.

"I saw my father die when he was 66, and my mother died when she was 66," Ewing said. "They barely tapped into their savings, and it was over.

"I didn't want to put off everything for the future -- I wanted to do some living now."

The leading edge of baby boomers -- those turning 60 in 2006 -- are just a fraction of the 78 million Americans born in the baby-boom generation -- between 1946 and 1964.

Demographers say it's important to remember that the older end of the group has a lot of collective experiences -- they were the first generation to have TVs in their homes, they were children when the interstate highway system was created and became adults as the country raced to the moon.

But demographers say it's wrong to stereotype them. They're conservative and liberal, wealthy and poor, college graduates and high-school dropouts. Many older baby boomers are grandparents, while many of the younger ones have children in diapers.

That they're starting to turn 60 will become more significant in coming years as greater numbers reach that mark, said Sarah Zapolsky, a senior research adviser with AARP.

"Turning 60 is generally a big mental milestone for many people," Zapolsky said. "Even if their retirement isn't imminent, it's a lot closer. They start to think about it."

Zapolsky, who studies baby boomers, said that although the people who brought the world flower power are aging, in many ways they're still hip.