They used to block off whole streets with barricades, so we baby-boomer kids could sled without worrying about traffic. That’s how the new suburb of Prairie Village was when I was growing up in the 1950s.

We ruled.

Now that we boomers are entering our mature years, we still will have quite an impact in Johnson County, only it will be quite different.

There now are about 60,000 residents in Johnson County who are 60 or over. In the next couple of decades, it is projected that number will double to 125,000.

Johnson County is not alone in the world of suburbia. A recent headline in The Washington Post said, “If baby boomers stay in suburbia, analysts predict cultural shift.”

(Baby boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964.)

The Post went on to say, “The nation’s suburbs are home to a rapidly growing number of older people who are changing the image and priorities of suburbia.”

According to national surveys, demographers and planners predict that most of the baby boomers will not move to retirement areas, but will stay put in suburbia.

We’d better get ready for this onslaught. But, as of now, we are heading in the wrong direction.

According to Dan Goodman, director of the Johnson County Area Agency on Aging, funding services for those 60 and over are “drying up.”

State funding, in particular, is being slashed.

Goodman says his 2012 budget will be funded at 2007 dollars, even though the county is rapidly aging.

The mission statement of Goodman’s agency is clear enough: “To advocate and assist older adults in maintaining their independence and dignity through community-based services.”

That sounds good, but if there is inadequate funding and the population is aging, there will be a large gap between the mission and the implementation.

Of course, as we boomers age, we will become a senior political force to be reckoned with. And we may just simply demand — and, therefore, get — adequate funding for our needs.

Over the next decade or two, we boomers may be walking slowly, instead of sledding. But watch out, because we will still rule.