New Seniors

I was barely five when World War II broke out. There is little I remember about the Great Depression other than was passed on to me. However, those nearly five years of war made a lasting impression on me. One that shaped my philosophy and outlook on life until this very day.

The first thing I recall is how everyone acted as if we were in this thing together and united in a way I have not seen since. Every family in America had someone in the service – a family member, the son of a friend, a neighbor, a young man from church. And, if they weren’t off to war, people held jobs in defense plants or other businesses supporting the war effort here or over there.

My Dad was too old for the initial draft, he was over 25. He worked the night shift at a ball bearing company. So I didn’t get to spend much time with him; but I was luckier than many of my friends whose father’s were away in the military, some of whom never came back. I remember the sacrifices, but people didn’t complain much because they believed it was their patriotic duty to help in any way they could.

There was gas rationing (stickers indicating how much and when you could purchase fuel for a car or truck). Meat, butter and eggs were restricted, too (many times I sat on the back porch steps and squeezed the gray-white packet of oleomargarine trying to disperse the yellow coloring capsule designed to make this horrible stuff look like butter even though it never tasted like butter, which is probably why I still don’t like margerine). Things like chocolate, nylon stocking and chewing gum were virtually unavailable on the home front. War Bond drives, air raid drills, paper and tin can collections, and victory gardens where all part of our lives back then.

I don’t recall hearing people grumble about being inconvenienced nor was there a sense of them being deprived. The country was fighting a common enemy and we were going to do whatever it took to defeat the enemy in Europe and in the Pacific as well, because the American way of life depended on it. We didn’t have a lot to lose financially after suffering through a decade of depression. No, we had something more to hold onto. It was the liberty our founding fathers fought for and the opportunities our ancestors traveled here to experience that caused our parents’ generation to unite — assuring us and future Americans the freedoms only this country has to offer.

Are we pre-boomers telling our children and their children and their children’s children about the principles this what this nation was founded upon and the sacrifices that have been made for them? And, isn’t it time we stop worrying about not having all the material things we’d like and count our collective and individual blessings? Unless we do, the future will not shine as bright as our past once did.

Don Potter: Editor-in-Chief

Don Potter, a veteran of the ad agency business, is a Philadelphia native currently living in Los Angeles. He is the author of an acclaimed marketing book, The 50+ Boomer: Your Key to 76 Million Consumers. In retirement, Potter has written two novels, hundreds of articles and is a frequent lecturer. A leading advocate for those 65+, he is a founder of NewSeniors.com.

You must be logged in to post a comment.