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OP, The generation you are talking about is quite small when you subtract the immigrants. They did not really do much in the way of changing our lives. They took care of themselves but that was about it. They did not start the major industries, that was the generation before them. They did not save the world, that was the generation after them. I really don't see where they did much of anything outside of their small circle of family.
I will always give credit to The Greatest Generation. When you compare the world they were born in to the world that they died in there is no comparison to any other generation.
Regrettably, the "Greatest Generation" also became a "statist" generation to a degree experienced by none before it.
It was, to some degree, inevitable; the evolution of large, centralized organizations, both public and private,and the concentration off power and authority that goes with them invariably leads to calls for greater "safeguards", which leads to the inevitable tying down of safety valves, greater "shocks" and the cycle feeds upon itself.
I can't offer an answer to this -- it's obvious that our nation's current polarization is allowing to drastically-different "solutions" to emerge. There may be a few practical ideas to borrow from both sides, part of the challenge thrown to the next, and successive generations, But I don't see further centralization of power as offering anything positive.
I've always thought calling any generation the "greatest generation" is arrogant. It implies that no previous generation was as good and no future generation will achieve as much. Looking at the great things done by different generations is fine, but since all generations have their problems, it doesn't seem right to label one the greatest.
I've always thought calling any generation the "greatest generation" is arrogant. It implies that no previous generation was as good and no future generation will achieve as much. Looking at the great things done by different generations is fine, but since all generations have their problems, it doesn't seem right to label one the greatest.
Hi
I was curious if you're from the South.I didn't want anyone to get too caught up in the phrase "Greatest Generation".
The thread is not about the WW2 Generation or which generation is the best. Its about the parents of the WW2 Generation (people born shortly before and shortly after 1900) and their largely forgotten efforts to keep the country going through hard times and how they passed the best of their qualities onto their children who fought WW2.
My grandparents (mothers parents) were from Upstate SC and were mill workers and then they bought a farm.In the first post of this thread I told a little bit about them and why I felt that people like them are unsung heroes.I am in no way demanding that they be called the "Greatest Generation" but what I am saying is that what they did(surviving the Depression and raising the children that would go on to fight WW2) was one of the greatest accomplishments in American History that was forgotten after WW2 and the prosperity that followed. And if you 're from the South I would think you might have some personal experience with people that lived during that time(parents , grandparents ect.).If you didn't get a chance to read the first post of the thread go back and read it and then tell me what you think.
Last edited by senecaman; 02-05-2015 at 11:03 PM..
OP, The generation you are talking about is quite small when you subtract the immigrants. They did not really do much in the way of changing our lives. They took care of themselves but that was about it. They did not start the major industries, that was the generation before them. They did not save the world, that was the generation after them. I really don't see where they did much of anything outside of their small circle of family.
I will always give credit to The Greatest Generation. When you compare the world they were born in to the world that they died in there is no comparison to any other generation.
Thinkalot thank you for your honest opinion. I do beg to differ a little though. Those people (born roughly around 1900) raised the children that fought WW2 and seem to have done a good job.And to raise those children men (maybe your father too) often worked very hard and dangerous jobs(coal mining,sharecropping, dam builders, dock workers ect) while there wives took care of the children at home , many times alone and waiting for the return of their husbands from a job that could sometimes be far off.These people got the nation through one of its worst times and kept the country together and along the way they raised the kids who would go off to "save the world".If that's not something important I don't know what is. Some of those people raised both my mother and my father ( My fathers' father was from Southern Italy and arrived at Ellis Island in 1920) and by doing that I know my life was made better. And far from being an "everyman for himself" experience the Depression made people realize how important extended family was and I believe it was a time that bonded people together through shared experience.My own mother and father from outward appearances would not seem to have much in common (my mother is Scotch-Irish from the hills of SC and my father is Italian from NY ) but they both lived through the Depression and the War as well.
Last edited by senecaman; 02-06-2015 at 12:10 AM..
I think the definition of "The Greatest Generation" depends entirely on one's viewpoint.
My parents were born in 1918 (father) and 1919 (mother) in rural Mississippi. My father was born & raised in a log cabin that had no electricity and no plumbing. It was heated by a fireplace, and the wood it used had to be cut, split and stacked. Their water came from a well -- one bucket at a time -- and there was an outhouse where one handled elimination needs. My mother's family fared little better, though they did have electricity.
They were 11 and 10 years of age, respectively, when the Great Depression struck. But, as the group Alabama said in their hit Song of the South, "we were so poor that we couldn't tell."
My father, with a 10th-grade education, enlisted in the Army in 1939, mostly because that was the only real work he could get. He served throughout WWII, went ashore in Europe in 1944, and served there until V-E Day. They shipped his unit back to the States to re-train and re-equip for deployment to the Pacific Theatre, but V-J Day made it unnecessary. He had so many points that he was discharged the day after V-J Day, and came back to Mississippi.
My mother, a high school graduate and a soldier's wife, landed a job in the Pentagon during the war. It was still under construction, BTW. She too came back to Mississippi after V-J Day to be with her husband, my father.
Fast-forward -- I am obviously their son. I now live in Southern California, with "more degrees than a thermometer" and a regular six-figure retirement income. My baby sister and her husband are also retired, back in Alabama, and also with a regular six-figure income.
From "we were so poor that we couldn't tell" to where my sister and I are now, in less than seventy years. And my parents are the ones who pulled it off.
AFAIC, they will always be part of The Greatest Generation. But that's just my viewpoint.
I think the definition of "The Greatest Generation" depends entirely on one's viewpoint.
My parents were born in 1918 (father) and 1919 (mother) in rural Mississippi. My father was born & raised in a log cabin that had no electricity and no plumbing. It was heated by a fireplace, and the wood it used had to be cut, split and stacked. Their water came from a well -- one bucket at a time -- and there was an outhouse where one handled elimination needs. My mother's family fared little better, though they did have electricity.
They were 11 and 10 years of age, respectively, when the Great Depression struck. But, as the group Alabama said in their hit Song of the South, "we were so poor that we couldn't tell."
My father, with a 10th-grade education, enlisted in the Army in 1939, mostly because that was the only real work he could get. He served throughout WWII, went ashore in Europe in 1944, and served there until V-E Day. They shipped his unit back to the States to re-train and re-equip for deployment to the Pacific Theatre, but V-J Day made it unnecessary. He had so many points that he was discharged the day after V-J Day, and came back to Mississippi.
My mother, a high school graduate and a soldier's wife, landed a job in the Pentagon during the war. It was still under construction, BTW. She too came back to Mississippi after V-J Day to be with her husband, my father.
Fast-forward -- I am obviously their son. I now live in Southern California, with "more degrees than a thermometer" and a regular six-figure retirement income. My baby sister and her husband are also retired, back in Alabama, and also with a regular six-figure income.
From "we were so poor that we couldn't tell" to where my sister and I are now, in less than seventy years. And my parents are the ones who pulled it off.
AFAIC, they will always be part of The Greatest Generation. But that's just my viewpoint.
,
My mother's parents were born around 1900 in Upstate SC so my grandfather was too young for WW1 and past draft age for WW2 (his oldest son was in the Navy helping out with the landings at Normandy) but you get the gist of what I mean about people like them(that getting through the Depression and still successfully raising the children that would fight WW2 was as monumental a task as any in American history)? As I stated earlier and I bet being from Mississippi you're aware that the Depression started down on the farm in the South long before 1929 because of the disastrous decline in cotton prices that lasted from the early 20s till the start of WW2.So people in the South had to get through a much longer period of economic hardship than most of the country(not to take anything away from the Okies and the most amazing thing about the Dustbowl was that most people stayed on their farms in OK).
Last edited by senecaman; 02-06-2015 at 12:42 PM..
If such a thing as greatest generations is a valid concept, then wouldn't the first greatest generation be composed of the people who won our independence and produced the Constitution?
If such a thing as greatest generations is a valid concept, then wouldn't the first greatest generation be composed of the people who won our independence and produced the Constitution?
LOL I would agree with that wholeheartedly but please read more of my posts in the thread to understand my point. I didn't mean for it to be which generation was the best. If I should have given the thread a different title so as to avoid confusion my apologies. Below is the idea I was trying to convey.
The thread is not about the WW2 Generation or which generation is the best. Its about the parents of the WW2 Generation (people born shortly before and shortly after 1900) and their largely forgotten efforts to keep the country going through hard times and how they passed the best of their qualities onto their children who fought WW2.
I am going to take a chance and post this thread again under a different title.The title has made everyone focus on who is the "Greatest Generation" or if any generation deserved that designation. That was my fault for not thinking through the title enough.
Last edited by senecaman; 02-07-2015 at 01:17 PM..
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