OBSERVANCES
The Grim Reaper, having finished with the greatest generation, is now beginning to cut deeply into the Baby Boom Generation. Last week my wife went to the funeral of a close high school friend in Tyler and the following Tuesday attended the graveside service of the wife of a good friend from high school that lives out of state. Of our classes he was probably the best and the brightest of that era and losing a lifetime companion after 55 years will leave a big hole.
Now to the rest of us still standing, one big change I’ve noticed is the pessimism that has replaced the optimism we all started out with in the 60’s when our generation was going to change the world. The generation before had survived the depression, WWII, and the cold war of the 50’s when they built bomb shelters. They were so happy to have a normal life with adequate food, a modest place to live and enough gasoline without rationing to take some road trips.
But our generation wanted it all and as no one gets it all, we began to complain about why. I grew up with some two brothers that lived up the road and we would eat some at their house and their father would handle talk at the table. He had been a sergeant on Eisenhower’s staff in London, then moved with headquarters over to Europe after the invasion and went into the concentration camps. He saw the worst that humans could do to each other. When we got to talk, we were always complaining about how life wasn’t fair because we didn’t have stuff other kids did. After listening, Mr. Jack would contemptuously say, “what’s wrong with you boys is you want eggs in your beer”. Not knowing what he was talking about the conversation ended. Now when I see people facing the closing of the horizon and are angry, I know what Mr. Jack was talking about.
An old guy was explaining that he just got married to a woman the was not good looking, didn’t dress well and couldn’t cook. However, he explained that she could still see well enough to drive at night.
