Musings: 'Greatest Generation' takes on new meaning
Unemployed people wait for food at a municipal lodging house on East 25th Street in Manhattan around 1931. Credit: AP
As I reflect upon the “Greatest Generation,” my parents’ generation, my respect and admiration for them has never been deeper.
Growing up during the Great Depression, they were uncertain when the next meal would be served and whether the rent could be paid. They had a front-row seat to the rise of totalitarianism that cost the lives of millions throughout the world, and a war that cost millions of more lives in an effort to end it. Many of them participated in that war, witnessing horrors beyond imagination.
As adults, they resolved themselves to build a better life for their families in a new era of relative peace and prosperity. They were filled with hope and expectation for their progeny, who came to be known as “baby boomers.” Some, though, proved to be a source of disappointment.
Not burdened by the misfortune of the 1930s and ’40s, many young people of the ’60s choose a different path, a crusade against social injustice and authority. They grew long hair, dressed slovenly and showed little interest in gainful employment as they railed against the government, the police and the military, all agencies that the older generation held in reverence and made great sacrifices to preserve.
With the passage of time, the children who knew Franklin D. Roosevelt as their only president prospered, aged and, for the most part, basked in the successes and achievements of their children and grandchildren.
Unfortunately, the strife and dissonance in our country today are dampening the prospect for a bright future. The present always ignites a yearning for the past as we grow older, a time that is usually remembered in a favorable light when current events are shrouded in darkness.
I am reminded of the shock and disbelief my father experienced when he first saw Janis Joplin sing “Piece of My Heart” while she downed a bottle of Southern Comfort. This was not Rosemary Clooney or the Andrews Sisters. I didn’t understand his confusion then, but I do now.
— Ed Weinert, Melville
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