Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire CHILDREN OF THE TOUGH GENERATION

Born in the 1930s and early 40s, 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.



N ewspapers 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 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 which will probably never be repeated.

My mother was born in 1940. So she falls in that group.

1941 here.

Good to see you back, T.

Stick around.

Just passing through time to time, thanks.

You are sorely missed my friend.

Jim

I’m so happy to see you back here Terry! This place just ain’t the same without you.
7mm

I was 16 months old when the friggin Japs bombed Pearl Harbor! I remember 'all lights out and shades down'(Black Outs) for our pilots and navigators training at Selman Field in Monroe La. I was five when the Japs surrendered in '45 after they got their asses lit up by 'Lil Boy'! Mom was giving me a bath in the kitchen sink when we heard the siren go off in Rayville La. and men were out shooting their shotguns into the air in celebration thereof the war ending! And yes...I have the same type thinking that my Dad/Mom and grandparents had and thank God for that! I get so pissed off today at what I see that damn nigh wonder why some folks don't blow a gasket!

Love it Sharpsman.

Late 43 folks.

Nice post Terry—I’m the youngster here—born in ‘49

1951 born here. A few of those things applied to me.

I'll plug this in.

Me too.

Dad was born in 44.

Ma in 45.

I was born in 1938 in San Francisco. I well remember the war. I remember the air raid sirens going off, sometimes at two or three in the morning. I remember the shore batteries at Fort Funston going off. Was it a practice run or were the Japanese storming the beaches. Out house was just about a mile from the beach. One never knew. Fortunately they were all practice runs but we never knew for sure.

I also remember growing up free. Playing in the streets, roaming Golden gate Park from on long end to the other with my buddies was adventure in itself. I can remember going all over the city on my bike even trying to go up the really steep hills on one of those heavy one speed Schwins. Usually ended up walking it up the hill but made up for in on the way back down.

If what we have now is progress, then my heart bleeds for the kids that will grow up never knowing the good life we of out generation had the good fortune to experience. We were the lucky ones.

Paul B.

AMEN Brother, amen.

Depression born era
Ww2 born era

Voted for and elected camelot in 60 and great society in 64.
Nixon sweated on TV
Goldwater had jewish heritage.... even though Reagan based alot of his veiws on goldwaters 64 campaign.


Those 2 gens started the Liberal Socialist Democrat nanny state schit show of today...
Even though none alive today will admit how they voted.
Fugging pollyanna rose colored glasses on living in the past.....


OWN IT!!!!




Us boomers from 46 to 64 didnt lay the foundation of this schit.


LMFAO!!!!

All this labeling of generations is an ego-feeding divide-and-conquer strategy.

I still have my remaining ration coupons!