I am a boomer and every single thing you mentioned in your excellent essay is true. Right down to Grandma Zu reusing tin foil. I wonder what would happen if for 24 hours every 'smartphone on the planet turned itself off? Chaos? Perhaps some honest self-reflection? Well said my brother, well said.
At one point my brother and I bought my great grandmother's house, and there was an old International Harvester deep freezer out in the garage. There were things in it my great grandfather hunted before he had died and hotdogs older than I was. While that was a little extreme they never ran out of money or food either.
Life is not harder than it used to be, it is only more complex. It seems harder now because they had been through so much that they made the post war era look easy.
Agree that life is not harder now. Maybe it isn't even more complex, maybe we have made it so by having unrealistic expectations and by being isolated from each other. In every life, some rain must fall. Knowing how to suffer well, preferably in the company of others who also know how to suffer well or with the help of others who did suffer well, may be the key to persevering and prevailing.
So very fortunate that my children were very close to my parents who lived in the same neighborhood. When my mother passed, my son was holding her hand.
I raised my children Catholic and brought them with me when I was a pastoral minister to the sick and homebound.
I pray they will have those conversations with my grandchildren. I pray I live long enough to have some of those conversations with my grandchildren
Do you go to Stuart and John's for breakfast? I hear it's good eats.
Great post. At 62, technically I'm a boomer, but nothing of my life ever resembled a boomer life. And my parents were born the first year of boomers. Both my grandfather's died in 1954. Maternal gram died in 1977 at age 79 and paternal gram died in 2011 at age 91. So, I never met my grandfathers. Sadly. Only knew one gram until I was 14.
My dad could fix almost anything. I put it in his obituary. He would always say, "I took it apart, cleaned and it works" when asked what was wrong with it.
My great grandmother (paternal) was born in Ireland and traveled here, alone, at age 15 back in 1909. She used to drink tea, up to 7 or 8 cups a day.... one tea bag. Rinsed out paper towels and reused. Same with aluminum foil. Don't recall what she did with plastic wrap. I take after her.
It's the stories I want to hear. To glimpse the past. To capture it and hold it in my life to bring understanding and order in the chaos. If there was an opportunity to have a chance to speak with anyone dead or alive, it would be my gram who passed in '77. So many questions to ask. Stories to hear.
Oh, I love this. My mother and daddy were both boomer but he definitely had more traits of silent. He built our house in the 70’s and kept all our cars running; could fix anything in his workshop. My parents were precious and I miss him so; she’s not the same without him. They started dating at 14. They got to influence for good 14 grands.
I am a boomer and every single thing you mentioned in your excellent essay is true. Right down to Grandma Zu reusing tin foil. I wonder what would happen if for 24 hours every 'smartphone on the planet turned itself off? Chaos? Perhaps some honest self-reflection? Well said my brother, well said.
At one point my brother and I bought my great grandmother's house, and there was an old International Harvester deep freezer out in the garage. There were things in it my great grandfather hunted before he had died and hotdogs older than I was. While that was a little extreme they never ran out of money or food either.
"More than anything what those people knew how to do that most of us have forgotten is how to suffer well." That resonated with me.
Thank you for the beautiful description of the way of life in an earlier time.
Life is not harder than it used to be, it is only more complex. It seems harder now because they had been through so much that they made the post war era look easy.
Agree that life is not harder now. Maybe it isn't even more complex, maybe we have made it so by having unrealistic expectations and by being isolated from each other. In every life, some rain must fall. Knowing how to suffer well, preferably in the company of others who also know how to suffer well or with the help of others who did suffer well, may be the key to persevering and prevailing.
I am the silent generation. But I am not silent AT ALL.
Perhaps that's why I still bitch and moan
Can see all the errors being made and try to tell them.
NO ONE LISTENS
Write it, Elsie. Write it so they can see.
We miss my parents every day. . .
Try to have the conversations you wish you had with your parents with your children.
So very fortunate that my children were very close to my parents who lived in the same neighborhood. When my mother passed, my son was holding her hand.
I raised my children Catholic and brought them with me when I was a pastoral minister to the sick and homebound.
I pray they will have those conversations with my grandchildren. I pray I live long enough to have some of those conversations with my grandchildren
Do you go to Stuart and John's for breakfast? I hear it's good eats.
Great post. At 62, technically I'm a boomer, but nothing of my life ever resembled a boomer life. And my parents were born the first year of boomers. Both my grandfather's died in 1954. Maternal gram died in 1977 at age 79 and paternal gram died in 2011 at age 91. So, I never met my grandfathers. Sadly. Only knew one gram until I was 14.
My dad could fix almost anything. I put it in his obituary. He would always say, "I took it apart, cleaned and it works" when asked what was wrong with it.
My great grandmother (paternal) was born in Ireland and traveled here, alone, at age 15 back in 1909. She used to drink tea, up to 7 or 8 cups a day.... one tea bag. Rinsed out paper towels and reused. Same with aluminum foil. Don't recall what she did with plastic wrap. I take after her.
It's the stories I want to hear. To glimpse the past. To capture it and hold it in my life to bring understanding and order in the chaos. If there was an opportunity to have a chance to speak with anyone dead or alive, it would be my gram who passed in '77. So many questions to ask. Stories to hear.
Stories are what make us. Dontcha think?
I have never been there actually, it is about 35 minutes away, maybe when it reopens for the season.
And stories are how you keep someone alive after they die.
Oh, I love this. My mother and daddy were both boomer but he definitely had more traits of silent. He built our house in the 70’s and kept all our cars running; could fix anything in his workshop. My parents were precious and I miss him so; she’s not the same without him. They started dating at 14. They got to influence for good 14 grands.
My dad was also quite handy.