Tough Times. Really? Compared to when?

The following is not my work, but I thought it worth passing on.

Maybe we don't have it that bad? It’s a mess out there now. Hard to discern between what’s a real threat and what is just simple panic and hysteria.

For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900.
On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years Yes, 50 million.

On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. And don’t try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war. Smallpox was epidemic until you were in your 40’s, and it killed 300 million people during your lifetime.

At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. From your birth, until you were 55, you dealt with the fear of polio epidemics each summer. You experience friends and family contracting polio and being paralyzed and/or dying.

At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of nuclear annihilation

On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, almost ended. When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How did they endure all of that?

When you were a kid in 1985 and didn’t think your 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. And how mean that kid in your class was. Yet they survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Refined and enlightening as time goes on. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Your parents and/or grandparents were called to endure all of the above – you are called to stay home and sit on your couch.

Are you working age, or are you retired?

I’m 65 and still working. Would love to be retired but that’s a whole other story

It does help put into perspective. We today are so soft compared to our ancestors, yet many think life is now somehow more "stressful".

Is anyone alive who was born in 1900?

quote:

Originally posted by Kuisis:

Is anyone alive who was born in 1900?

Probably not too many.

My wife's grandmother lived to be 102. She died just fourteen months short of leaving a footprint in each of three centuries.

Growing up I couldn't understand why my Grandmother (born in 1905) would save the eggs whites when a baking recipe call for yolks only and eat them the next day for breakfast with some other eggs added.

Because she had seen truly 'Hard Times' where there was minimal to no food during the Great Depression, WW2 - so the concept of 'wasting food' was unacceptable. Also definitely a 'clean your plate' type of person - not only for her, but everyone at the table.

She never spoke of such things to me (a child), they just did what they did.

quote:

Originally posted by Kuisis:
Is anyone alive who was born in 1900?

No. The oldest living person currently is 117 years old, born in 1903.

My grandfather, born in 1937, was one of twelve children. He slept in the smokehouse year around because there wasn’t room in the house. He shot squirrel every day so they could eat squirrel dumplings.

He quit school in 7th grade to start working because his family couldn’t support him. At age 13 he lied that he was 16 so he could get a drivers license to get a better job. At age 17 he joined the Navy.

Life today is easy. It progressively gets easier by generation.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Growing up I couldn't understand why my Grandmother (born in 1905) would save the eggs whites when a baking recipe call for yolks only and eat them the next day for breakfast with some other eggs added.

When my Great Aunt Sophie (my grandmother’s sister) died, they found stacks and balls and bundles of aluminum foil, paper, rubber bands, you name it, at her house in Philadelphia. She too had grown up during the Great Depression when people had NOTHING, and that instinct to “waste not, want not” stuck with her the rest of her life.

I remember my other great aunt on my father’s side telling us about going off to work in a factory at like age 14 during the Depression with mustard sandwiches for lunch. One slice of bread a spread of mustard and another slice of bread, and that was it.

My parents were both born in 1937. Dad was the 2nd of three kids, Mom was the eldest of three. So their parents, my grandparents, spent their formative years during the depression. After they both passed away, my parents got the task of going through all the estate stuff. In the process, Mom discovered that Grandma had a savings account that nobody knew about. She had opened it long ago and just kept putting all her spare money into it over the years. When she died there was over $20K in it. People who grew up in that era had/have a whole different mindset than us young squirts.

Many times I have compared my troubles with those who've truly suffered throughout history. Think of Vlad the Impaler's victims. Imagine that horror. There are countless ways others have suffered. Titanic victims, 9/11 victims, those fighting cancer; some of whom are among our number here, those who have lost children.......I can barely imagine the grief. Doing so creates perspective and ultimately gratitude for one's own blessings. Most of us truly have first world problems.