Get a Handle

[Marcarl]

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, as it killed 300 million people during your lifetime.

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

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 and ... So far you are only asked to stay at home and sit on your couch.

So what will our world be like for the next 5 years????? Who knows,, time will tell, but if forebears dealt with their issues, we can deal with ours.

[Patch]

This reminds me of the Grandmother thread when Puc and I started debating religion...lol

(remember Dad?)

Anyways it was to ask the question of what stories were told to you by your Grandmother?

Mine told me a lot about her time and her husband away in both wars...

[SpencerPJ]

I had a grandpa born in 1896, he often told me interesting stories. My dad survived the Korean war, never shared many stories. My take, the two of them definitely taught me the concept of being thrifty. Meanwhile, I have a daughter who just graduated college, still living in her apt at college, very high gpa, job market sucks, and she is not practicing social distancing with her girlfriends. The world is certainly unique right now. It was 75 degrees today, I was grateful to take a 2 hr ride in the country on my old 83, felt real nice.

[JDaniel]

My grandmother was born in 1898 and my grandfather in 1899. Both of them lived into their 90s. Think of all the things they saw in their lifetime.

[CaseyJ955]

My grandmother was born in 1898 and my grandfather in 1899. Both of them lived into their 90s. Think of all the things they saw in their lifetime.

 

I've worked in geriatrics, it's been a remarkable source of wisdom and perspective. That generation lived through a massive depression, dirty boots-on-the-ground wars and countless other hardships. Now verbal triggers and microaggressions are enough to get folks worked up into a froth.

 

They sure don't make _________________ the way they used to!

[cowpuc]

:scared:WOWZY WOW WOW WOW,, great job on doing the research and putting that to writing Marcarl,, you done a good job IMHO!!!

 

As is "normal" for me,, I tend to look at things a little differently,, always have and probably always will:missingtooth:.. Believe it or not,, like most of you I had Grandparents too and one of them,, my Grandpa took a special liking to me as a youngen. He use to tell me stories of the old days and taught me stuff as a kid that I will never forget.. From those discussions and from some of my own lives journey,, although not as eliquent as Carls writings (no one puts words to use like Carl ), here are my thoughts on the subject:

 

Yeah,, those folks born in 1900 obviously did have it rougher than we do BUT,, here are some things that they got to behold that may,, or may not have,, been pretty interesting:

 

1. They got to experience the introduction of the motorcycle!!! Bill Harley and Art Davidson were over on the other side of Lake Michigan from me,, in @Flyinfool's home town,, having a riot in a little shed producing what would become the worlds most iconic motorcycle of all time!!

2. Great inventors like John Browning was alive and well and working steadfastly on weapons that would assist in the fight to keep our homeland free.. From his amazing mind came one of my all time favorite shooters - the 1911 45 acp!! An incredible piece of history to behold for the first time back then, as it is now, I am sure!! IMHO, probably just as important and as awesome as Sam Colts "Peace Maker" was to the 1800's!!

3. I am sure that the multitudes of folks born in 1900 who always wondered what was beyond the horizons of more than a few miles travel a day on foot or horseback were amazed and thankful to see Henry Ford make the automobile affordable for all families by his mass production ideas.. American ingenuity and capitalism was in full swing and on fertile ground thankfully as the world would find out when our country put the practices Henry broughtex to the forefront and was used to defeat both Communist and Socialist aggression one more time in the very near future.. God help us and what would this world be like now if people like Henry Ford had not been able realize the potential of his dreams!

4. Speaking of the sickness and death the people of those days had to face,, think also of the fulfillment of the saying "necessity is the mother of invention" of that day and age.. How once freedom from oppression is realised, even though hungry/tired and working thru tough times may be the testing of the day, the human mind has a way of declaring WE WILL SURVIVE! I am sure people like Jonas Salk felt that way as his long hours of hard work finally paid off and the vaccine for Polio was realised.. My own Grandfather told me how absolutely joy filled and thankful our country,, and the world for matter,, everyone was when this great American victory was hailed!!

 

I am old and my pointer finger is getting tired so I will end here.

[Sailor]

We went to England with our 16 year old niece. She asked what was special about an old building. It was just a building. She gained perspective when I told her people had been living in it for 600 years before Canada even became a country. Opened her eyes.

[Marcarl]

Ahh as it can be normal for me, I screwed up on writing that,, it was just a copy and paste from a post from another friend of mine.

I sure like your reply, Puc, yep, that's a good way and MY way to see things,,, count your blessings, name them one by one,,,,,,,,

Reason for sharing it though, is that a lot of folks think we are having it tough right now, and I won't belittle that in the least, but humans in this world have had some real tougher times in the past, and yet humanity made it through. For sure many died, others were left parentless and others didn't come out of things they way they went in. That has been the way of history throughout the ages, and I don't think that it will change much anytime soon. So what we have to endure presently is not all that much,, yet,, big thing is, are we all there to help each other out when needed. I hope we can be and are.

[Patch]

Was just sitting back enjoying the peace and quiet that seems all around me today.

Man is a strange creation.

Seems to me there are times we evolve rapidly, times when we just coast and times when we become destructive. The moments we live in and through are often filled with noise, kayos, confusion, doubt, violence, and plain old ugliness. But those moments when viewed through the eyes of history seem to educate those that dare to look back enhancing strengths.

That hidden seed that when faced with few alternatives some how forces us to dig a little deeper, join forces, pull together and make right the wrongs the best we can. It takes thought and coming together, just as import to understand the why's that bind or divide. Similar beliefs are not uncommon though often times lead to apposing outcomes so why?

And time has a way of smoothing the wrinkles out true but at what costs.

 

I remember some very dark days, I was for all intensive purposes between some wear and nowhere: and, someone said to me "you are exactly where you are suppose to be, at this time in your life".

Tho I was completely stunned at the time in hearing those words, that person was right!

 

These days I take comfort in Newton's 3rd Law, though, not written for personal balance I have accepted that he and his gifts were given or meant to be applied in times, where light is a hard thing to find.

It has become my fallback rule, just believing that there is a natural Law that says things will balance, a correction is always going come, works for me

 

The spooky part though is knowing history tends to repeat its mistakes when vigilance sleeps...

We must first remember to think before we cheer agreeing to preaching from slick fork tongues.

It is an opinion of what I have encountered most when reading history, they follow the wrong leaders and stop thinking for themselves; moving as a collective yet not fully understanding why.

 

Hope this sharing wasn't too deep... Better days just around the next bend in the road.

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by Patch

[Patch]

much,, yet,, big thing is, are we all there to help each other out when needed. I hope we can be and are.

 

 

How about we sweeten the words a bid Carl

 

[Patch]

If I may on more for the seed and that next bend in the road:

 

[Sailor]

Thanks marcal. I reposted it to most of my friends with the additional comment that I thank goodness our parents and grandparents were so tough. They went through all that and kept on going. We are being asked to sit home and watch tv, how hard is that? And yet some complain. I realize the economy is tanking but it has done so before and was rebuilt. I,for one, intend to live up to the legacy handed to us by our parents and grandparents.

[XV1100SE]

For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900.

 

Now we know ! You WERE born in 1900 !

[larrydr]

I had a grandpa born in 1896, he often told me interesting stories. My dad survived the Korean war, never shared many stories. My take, the two of them definitely taught me the concept of being thrifty. Meanwhile, I have a daughter who just graduated college, still living in her apt at college, very high gpa, job market sucks, and she is not practicing social distancing with her girlfriends. The world is certainly unique right now. It was 75 degrees today, I was grateful to take a 2 hr ride in the country on my old 83, felt real nice.

 

( larrydr , I like to apply the Common Sense rule )

 

I am 73 , born in 1946 and have 3 grand kids ...I grew up on a farm in Southern Manitoba , Canada ...I as think back of the stories I heard form my grand parents and what I have seen happen in my life time ..I want the say that the world as we know it has come to a place in time some times out of control ... I have been riding a 1995 XV1100 Virago since 2006 , have recently sold it and purchased a 1983 XVZ1200 Venture ...Looking forward to a new style of riding because the Venture does not respond like the XV1100. I have been riding motorcycle of road since 1958 and on the road since 1964 ...I have been riding a touring bike before , but put this me 5 feet 6 inches tall on a Venture ...Makes me realize that I have re-think all my riding skills .

[Sailor]

I was born in the little village of Galahad Alberta in 1944. Dirt street and board sidewalk. Saturday night they would pin a bed sheet up on the back wall of the store and show a movie. Fortunately my parents moved to Saanichton BC where I grew up. Three room shack with a wood stove, a water pump in the front yard and an outhouse in the backyard. It was great.

[Guest divey]

I was born in the little village of Galahad Alberta in 1944. Dirt street and board sidewalk. Saturday night they would pin a bed sheet up on the back wall of the store and show a movie. Fortunately my parents moved to Saanichton BC where I grew up. Three room shack with a wood stove, a water pump in the front yard and an outhouse in the backyard. It was great.

Have to admit I had to check Google Maps to find Galahad. Hadn’t heard of it before and I’m a born and raised Albertan.

[XV1100SE]

Have to admit I had to check Google Maps to find Galahad. Hadn’t heard of it before and I’m a born and raised Albertan.

 

My Dad was from Buchanan Saskatchewan. Grew up on a farm outside of town but I had Uncles and Aunts in the area too.

[Sailor]

Last time I came through customs in Victoria the agent tried to find it on his computer, he couldn't.

Years ago my car broke down in Vancouver on a sunday afternoon. I had to be at work at 0600 the next morning. Nothing was open back then but I heard someone banging away down a back alley. I found a guy working on his car. I asked for help and he refused. I just kept talking and it turned out he was from Galahad and knew all my relatives. Car got fixed. Here on Saltspring it turns out the president of the local rod and gun was married to a girl from Galahad. Ya just can't get away from home.

[Guest divey]

Last time I came through customs in Victoria the agent tried to find it on his computer, he couldn't.

Years ago my car broke down in Vancouver on a sunday afternoon. I had to be at work at 0600 the next morning. Nothing was open back then but I heard someone banging away down a back alley. I found a guy working on his car. I asked for help and he refused. I just kept talking and it turned out he was from Galahad and knew all my relatives. Car got fixed. Here on Saltspring it turns out the president of the local rod and gun was married to a girl from Galahad. Ya just can't get away from home.

Turns out I have relatives (through marriage) from Alliance/Forrestberg. Small world.

[Guest divey]

My Dad was from Buchanan Saskatchewan. Grew up on a farm outside of town but I had Uncles and Aunts in the area too.

Hope your Dad is okay and making it through these times Don. Sure enjoyed talking with him a couple years ago.

[XV1100SE]

Hope your Dad is okay and making it through these times Don. Sure enjoyed talking with him a couple years ago.

 

My Dad turned 98 in March ....still lives in his own house, does his own cooking, cleaning, lawn. Mentally and physically still very good. Gave us a scare a couple years ago when he was walking 5km to his bank and fell and hit his head. Had a bleeder in his head and had us all worried but pulled thru and was back to normal in no time.

 

Thanks for the comment divey !

[Sailor]

My friend ( Sam Bawlf) here on Saltspring had a grandfather who founded the town of Bawlf Alberta. Just north of where we came from.