Baby Boomers' Parents

 

I've been thinking lately about the people who raised the Baby Boomer generation.

I was born in the first wave of the late 1940's.

My parents were born just before 1920 and lived through The Depression and The Second World War.

There would be Boomer babies born to people who themselves were born before 1910  and would have clear memories of The First World War, the Influenza Pandemic, The Depression and The Second World War.

Experiencing these huge events has to have made a deep impression on them and their view of the world.  These people had lived through perilous times and would have a clear sense of how fragile life is, and how easily things can be taken away from us, and both how cruel and how wonderful human beings can be.

There must have been studies done on how this affected their child rearing attitudes.  I need to try and find some.

Movie: Oklahoma! (1955)

 

I watched this film this week.  I don't know when I last saw it but it was decades ago.  I was engrossed, captivated, delighted to find that it is still wonderful to watch.  I couldn't help but notice the care and precision that went into every aspect.  The old Hollywood approach where everything had to be the best.  I don't think recent musicals come anywhere near this standard.

It was also interesting how subtly sexuality was handled.  Nothing blatant yet clearly there.  At the risk of sounding like an old prude I have to say it's hard not to think of the overt sexual scenes in current productions as being somehow more adolescent.

Paper Towels

 

I've noticed many times that people tend to grab one, two, three or more paper towels in a bunch when they need to use them.  Similarly with antiseptic wipes - two, not one.   I don't do this - I take one and use it and then take more only if one was not enough.

I think this may come from my childhood.  My parents grew up during The Depression.  My father on a farm where they were poor and survived because they could produce most, if not all, of their own food.  My mother's family was a little better off and her father had a job, but to keep things going my grandmother moved the kids to the basement and rented out the bedrooms to boarders, and in the summer she turned the back yard into a garden and sold any excess around the neighbourhood.

So I grew up in an environment of not wasting and not using more than you need.  

In the 1950's it was still a time when you changed into old clothes when you got home from work or school.  You also wore those old clothes until they were worn out.

My friends tend to be environmentally conscious people so it the inconsistency surprises me when they use more of something than they need.