The Passing of the Greatest

I have written previously about what has made America the greatest nation to ever exist on this planet. I have avoided writing about our Greatest Generation until now because there has been a lot of discussion about them over the last few years. I want to address the life and times of our Greatest Generation and, more importantly, their legacy.

At the turn of the 20th century, Americans could not drive automobiles, fly in airplanes or use indoor plumbing. Electric power was not available neither was natural gas nor kerosine. People heated their homes with wood burnt in their fireplaces. Industry was still in its infancy. If you wanted to send a message to a friend who lived more than a days travel away, you had to send a telegram. Telephones were only just beginning to be used. If you went to town, then you had two options: walk or ride... a horse.

Born into this time, the Greatest Generation would face starvation in the Dust Bowl days, financial ruin and massive unemployment during the Great Depression and they faced destruction in two world wars. I often wonder how people today would have fared in those times.

The generation that made America great deserves not only the recognition for its achievements but a well-earned "thank you" for their perseverance thru all of the turmoil they faced in their lifetimes. Thank You!

I knew my great grandmother who was born in 1895. Before her passing in 1992, she would tell me stories about how things were when she was growing up and how things had changed... some for the better and some not.

In her time, families were large. She was one of eleven children. It was practical to have a large family when you lived on and worked a farm, as most Americans did back then. Of her ten siblings, two died before reaching their teenage years and two more passed away before their thirties. Disease and early deaths took their toll on families back then.

School was a treat, a time to be away from the hard labor of working the ground and/or raising animals. School also presented an opportunity for children to socialize. Some children would even find an opportunity to leave the farms behind in pursuit of professions in cities far from their homes.

It may be hard to imagine that anyone living in 1992 without a drivers license or a car but that was my great grandmother. The exact opposite was my grandfather. He was driving at age 11 and owned his own automobile at age 13. Both of them were part of the Greatest Generation but contributed to it in different ways.

My grandfather was hellbent on getting somewhere in life. He worked in the families corner store and helped to raise the crops that they sold. But his fate would take many turns despite his insistence on moving forward.

During the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, my grandfather continued to work the land and helped to support his family but when World War II broke out, he knew where he was needed. Like millions of young Americans, he left his family and headed to boot camp. My grandfather was a patternmaker in the Navy and spent his entire enlistment stationed in San Diego. He and his crew worked to clean out and repair ships that were damaged in combat. I guess this may seem like a fairly easy tour of duty and he would probably agree if he were asked. But what he doesn't talk about are those times when ships came into port that were badly damaged and needed to be "cleaned" before they were repaired. He never talked much about the grisly task of removing body parts and scouring the inner hulls those ships to wash away the blood, guts and other remains left their by young men such as himself. I'm sure he found some way to reconcile this task in his mind but I'm more certain that this chapter of his life only strengthened his resolve to make something of his life. He never took anything for granted.

Writing and thinking about it now gives me chills. All I can say is that my grandfather was most likely a better man than I am or may ever become. Thank you, again.

After his years in the service, he returned to his small hometown and expanded his family's business. Rennovation after rennovation, the family farm market became a soda fountain and bus depot, a restaurant and, finally, a general store. It had come almost full circle, yet, it was more than it ever had been previously. Then, it happened.

My grandfather became ill. I'm the prime of his life he was stricken with cancer, Hodgkins Disease. The Veterans Administration determined that he mostly likely was exposed to a pathogen during his time in the Navy. Never one to rest, my grandfather looked at the disease more as an afterthought, just something else to overcome. The VA treated him as best as they could and he even volunteered for a new kind of treatment, cobalt radiation treatment. You may know it by its more common usage, chemotherapy. He was always a pioneer of sorts.

As the years wore on the lymphoma began to encroach more and more into his life but he resisted the limitations. After one treatment of radiation his hair teeth fell out. After another, the muscles in his neck stopped working completely. He was left with no other choice but to have a tube inserted in his stomach so that he could "eat". The man went thru hell and never complained. There's something about people from that generation. Their "can do" attitude and their will to carry on should serve as inspiration for us all. However, I think it has all been forgotten.

Now, most of them are gone. If realizing this doesn't sadden you, then you have no heart, no common sense and no right to claim any of the blessing our Greatest Generation have bestowed upon us. I think this is where a lot of our problems manifest themselves. Far to many people take their freedoms for granted. Most of us don't know what its like to work the land and even those that do have modern equipment to aid them. We don't know hunger, disease or uncertainty like our Greatest Generation faced. Obviously, their hardships made them stronger. By the same rights, our blessings have made us weaker. I guess it was to be expected on some level but I don't think that our greatest Generation would agree with how we go about exploiting our freedoms to our every advantage. We take to much for granted and, truthfully, none of it is. Millions have sacrificed.