Homage to the Silent Generation

September 2, 2023 Pat Moriarty

“We were that generation called ‘silent,’ but we were silent neither, as some thought, because we shared the period’s official optimism nor, as others thought, because we feared its official repression. We were silent because the exhilaration of social action seemed to many of us just one more way of escaping the personal, of masking for a while that dread of the meaningless which was man’s fate.” ~ Joan Didion

On September 11, my mother-in-law, Doris Hahn, turns 92.

I’ve been reflecting back on the events of her long and fruitful life and it led me to ponder all that has happened in her generation.

They have been called, in America, the Silent Generation — those born between 1928 and 1945.

It is a generation that’s easy to overlook in part because their numbers were small. Many who might have had more children had fewer because of hard economic times and the world war.

But in truth there was nothing silent about this generation.

They were the ones who led us into a new age and would set the table on which later generations would feast.

We owe this generation our profoundest gratitude for all they’ve given us, and to those who still walk amongst us, the recognition of now being older than 99% of the world’s population.

They are the GREAT ONE PERCENT and they’ve grown old with quiet dignity.

These one percent share this list of characteristics of their generation (a list pertaining to American experience, not necessarily that of other countries):

They came of age in the ’50s and ’60s.
They were the smallest group of children born since the early 1900’s.
They lived with the depression as a contemporaneous memory.
They remember when much clothing was hand-made and hand-me-downs were the norm,
They remember World War II and those who fought it.
They were the last to remember ration books for everything.
They remember when backyards were turned into victory gardens.
They were the last to save tin foil and to pour fried meat fat into tin cans.
They remember when milk was delivered to your house.
They remember when discipline was enforced by parents and teachers.
They were the last generation who spent childhood without television.
They remember imagining what you heard on the radio.
They spent their childhoods “playing outside.”
They remember when TV was only black and white with 3 stations.
They had one telephone in their house (if at all) and often a party line.
They had typewriters that were driven by pounding fingers.
They read newspapers and magazines actually written for adults.
They listened to news broadcasts on a radio in the evening.
They had highways that were 2 lanes (no interstates).
They went downtown to shop.
They walked to school.
They were were raised when family was not the all-consuming focus.
They entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity.
They felt secure in their own future.
They lived when children were still crippled by polio.
They were raised in a world before terrorism and global warming.
They were raised when many would say it was the best of times.

So in closing I’d like to thank all the members of the Silent Generation for a job well done. We’d be wise to pay closer attention to all they’ve taught us.

And I offer a particular thank you to my mother-in-law, a charter member of this generation and one of its most splendid representatives.

Happy Birthday, Doris!

Just a thought…

Pat

Special thanks to two of my favorite one percenters, Lynn Miley and Joe Thomas.