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CHILDREN OF THE GREATEST GENERATION

Jim_S

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
(From an email received this morning)

CHILDREN OF THE GREATEST GENERATION

Born in the 1930s, 40's and eary 50s, we exist as a very special age group.

We are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900s.

We are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war which rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.

We are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.

We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans.

We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available.

We can remember milk being delivered to our house early in the morning and placed in the “milk box” on the porch.

We are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors whose sons died in the War.

We saw the 'boys' home from the war, build their little houses.

We are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, we imagined what we heard on the radio.

As we all like to brag, with no TV, we spent our childhood "playing outside”.

There was no little league.

There was no city playground for kids.

The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real understanding of what the world was like.

On Saturday afternoons, the movies, gave us newsreels sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.

Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party Lines) and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy).

Computers were called calculators, they were hand cranked; typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon.

The 'INTERNET’ and ‘GOOGLE’ were words that did not exist.

Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on our radio in the evening by Gabriel Heatter and later Paul Harvey.

As we grew up, the country was exploding with growth.

The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow.

VA loans fanned a housing boom.

Pent up demand coupled with new installment payment plans opened many factories for work.

New highways would bring jobs and mobility.

The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics.

The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands.

Our parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.

We weren't neglected, but we weren't today's all-consuming family focus.

They were glad we played by ourselves until the street lights came on.

They were busy discovering the post war world.

We entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where we were welcomed, enjoyed ourselves and felt secure in our future.

Although depression poverty was deeply remembered.

Polio was still a crippler.

We came of age in the 50s and 60s.

The Korean War was a dark passage in the early 50s and by mid-decade school children were ducking under desks for Air-Raid training.

Russia built the “Iron Curtain” and China became Red China ..

Eisenhower sent the first 'Army Advisers' to Vietnam.

Castro took over in Cuba and Khrushchev came to power.

We are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, “global warming”, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease.

Only our generation can remember both a time of great war, and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. lived through both.

We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better. not worse.

We are "The Last Ones"

More than 99 % of us are either retired or deceased, and we feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times"!
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I 'think' only those born in the 20's and 30's experienced this first half of your post. My parents and (I'll guess) a lot of our members parents were the ones part of all that. I heard of it but never lived it.

We are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war which rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.

We are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.

We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans.

We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available.

We can remember milk being delivered to our house early in the morning and placed in the “milk box” on the porch.

We are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors whose sons died in the War.

We saw the 'boys' home from the war, build their little houses.

We are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, we imagined what we heard on the radio.

As we all like to brag, with no TV, we spent our childhood "playing outside”.

There was no little league.

There was no city playground for kids.

The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real understanding of what the world was like.

On Saturday afternoons, the movies, gave us newsreels sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.
 

Jim_S

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
I 'think' only those born in the 20's and 30's experienced this first half of your post. My parents and (I'll guess) a lot of our members parents were the ones part of all that. I heard of it but never lived it.

I’m a 47 model.

The war I remember was in Korea. I wasn’t very old but I remember family members leaving and some not returning. I had some WWII ration books and posters my aunt gave me. Wish I remembered what happened to them.

There was a box on the back fence for milk. You put empties in it and full ones appeared the next morning.

Didn’t have television until mid 50’s. Spent a lot of time listening to radio. Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Dragnet, Gunsmoke. . . . The radio was a Zenith with short wave bands. I listened to all kinds of oversea stuff. It covered a couple of ham radio bands and thats how I got interested in ham radio, why I worked in a tv radio repair shop in high school, and why I made a career out of electronic communication.

We spent a LOT of time outside playing even after we got our first tv. It was a Hallicrafters with a small round picture tube. Cap pistols and bow and arrow sets with suction cups on the arrows.

Saturday morning at the movies were cartoons. I don’t remember newsreels in the morning. Could have been there and I ignored them :mrgreen:

Jim
 

mla2ofus

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
yeah, Jim, you and I are the same year model and I remember everything you referenced personally. But for two "police actions" it was an idyllic time to grow up in.
Mike
 

Danang Sailor

nullius in verba
GOLD Site Supporter
Another antique '47 model here. My Fifties were much the same as others have described but the Sixties were another story, colored by the Bay of Pigs, the Plain of Jars, the murders of the Kennedy brothers, and always, always Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

I obviously have no direct knowledge of WWII but from everything I have been told by those that did fight that last "good" war all but the very worst horrors - such as liberating the death camps - were better than an average day in 'Nam. The barbarism we faced every day was unspeakable, which is why we rarely talk about our time in country, even among ourselves. We did what was necessary to survive and to WIN and win we did, the lies of Walter Chronkite notwithstanding! We won the war over there but the politicians lost us the peace in Paris.

My personal timeline shows the Fifties as a time of wonder and, from time to time, actual joy. The Sixties are a scare on my soul, what's left of it, a wound that I still wrestle with daily. If it were not for Dragonfly Lady standing strong beside me, holding me up when needed (often) I really believe it would all have been over years ago.
 

jimbo

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I 'think' only those born in the 20's and 30's experienced this first half of your post. My parents and (I'll guess) a lot of our members parents were the ones part of all that. I heard of it but never lived it.

Born in '38, I remember them all.
 
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