I am not a baby boomer. I was born in that demographical trough before the baby boomers. I missed the big population surge because my father was too old to be drafted during world war 2. Besides, He had a job with security implications. ...the then version of Homeland Security. He was exempt.
I walked to a neighborhood school . I walked home for lunch and back again in the afternoon. So did all the kids . There was no such thing as bussing. They never closed the school for snow days. We walked in blizzards because We were properly dressed in snow suits and walked on sidewalks, safe from vehicular traffic.
You guys, you baby boomers, overshadow my age group. There are relatively few of us. We are know as the "silent generation". When I meet someone from my group, I feel like I found a long lost friend. The other person feels the same way.
TV talks about society preparing for the influx of babyboomers into retirement....their need for medical care, nursing homes, retirement plans...and so forth. Well you guys, my generation did all that without government help, without a road map...like We did all our lives. Not complaining, just reporting proudly of our accomplishments.
We operate in silence and efficiently, without much help except our two hands and use of our brain. ..because that was expected of us, without encouragement, without emotional support. This point of view developed in us, a strong character focused on the goal no matter the hardships in the way. We persevere. We were taught to think ahead and to prepare for the next step. There was no impulse buying, no putting a purchase on a credit card.
Demographically, We are described as finishing what We start. We are obedient to authority. We tell the truth, even if that results in receiving a punishment for a transgression. (My mother praised me for always telling the truth. It took a while to learn to not always tell the truth outside the family...got a few licks for telling the truth in business.) In the business world, We do a good job. What I never mastered, was the art of being entertaining at the same time, to stay visible to the bosses. This failure cost me. That's another story.
We save our money, stay faithful to our spouse, drive safely. We believe in marriage and not having children before marriage. We were expected to reach beyond the accomplishments of our parents. We were expected to be better educated than our parents. We were. Mostly, We worked through college. Our parents did not give us a free college education. We did not get a free car from then, either.
We did not mutilate our bodies with tatoos or piercings. How can one improve on God's perfection?...that engineering marvel we call our bodies?
Because We learned to live simply during world war two, We are thrifty. During the war, We saved and recycled metal. Most of us are great recyclers to this day. Use once and throw out is foreign to our nature. Over packaged foods and goods are frustrating to us, members of the silent generation. It represents a big waste of raw materials and increased cost for the food or other purchased goods.
Purchasing clothes means looking for classics, not the latest style. I wear my classic clothes until they are faded, or until I put on weight so I can't wear them any more. I regretfully acknowledge that all of us change shape as We age. There is no sense in having a large wardrobe when the clothes can't be worn until worn out. Those clothes get recycled. Why would perfectly good clothes be thrown out? I spent a lot less on clothes than many of my neighbors. Because I am an art major, I make few mistakes in style, so my clothes look good on me. My clothes don't make me look younger, they just fit well. My closet is pared down.
One of the things I've had to adjust to is the demise of the dress , white gloves, hats, clip earrings, pastel spring coat. If they were still available in stores, I would not be able to purchase them because, now retired, I am mostly in jeans. I watched day time television one day to survey what the audience was wearing. The audience looked slovenly to me. They were wearing what I would wear in the privacy of my livingroom...not out in public. There was not one suit or dress in the entire audience. Ditto for the TV program that followed. Fashion has taken a downturn . We're slobs.
My time is spent getting dirty, down on my hands and knees in the garden. Inside, I am painting walls, washing dirt away ...off windows and floors. We're a "do it yourself generation". We work and sweat.
Can't do that in a pretty dress. Come to think of it, my mother and the women of her generation did...along with wearing corsets, even on hot summer days. Is fashion going forward, backward or downwards?
It was my intention to write about family vacation, but I got off on a tangent. Family vacations will wait for another day.