Baby-boomers: Do you remember family stories that your parents and aunts and uncles told you?
December 17, 2016
Were you born between 1946 and 1964? If so, then you're a baby-boomer. I was born in the first class of boomers in the year after my dad came home from World War II where he served in the South Pacific.
I was raised by my mom during a period in this country when social services were non-existent and where many still had vivid memories of the Great Depression and WWII. Growing up I was always hearing stories from my mom and her siblings about what they experienced during this period.
Life for my mom and her 11 siblings on a farm in the Thumb of Michigan was a saga that was made for either television or John Steinbeck. When I was a young child I heard the stories all the time. During that time, I'd dutifully listen and not pay attention to details. If it happened now, I'd have an iPhone camera and shoot constant video. I come from people who were driven to survive and thrive. Life for them was never uneventful or easy.
How about you? Have you had a similar experience? Do you remember any of the old stories? Do you have kids or grandkids who might love to hear those stories someday?
Now that I'm a little past 70-years-old, I find many of those stories getting really fuzzy. The details are either lost or they're uncertain. I feel like my grandkids have been cheated out of knowing the people who partially made them who they are.
What important memories do you still have? Are you writing them down?