I was barely five when World War II broke out. There's little I keep in mind about the Nice Depression alternative than was passed on to me. However, those nearly five years of war made a lasting impression on me. One that formed my philosophy and outlook on life until this terribly day.
The first thing I recall is how everybody acted as if we were during this issue together and united in a approach I've got not seen since. Every family in America had somebody in the service - a family member, the son of a follower, a neighbor, a young man from church. And, if they weren't off to war, individuals held jobs in defense plants or other businesses supporting the war effort here or over there.
My Dad was too old for the initial draft, he was over 25. He worked the night shift at a ball bearing company. So I didn't get to pay a lot of time with him; but I was luckier than several of my friends whose father's were away in the military, some of whom never came back. I remember the sacrifices, but people did not complain abundant because they believed it had been their patriotic duty to help in any method they could.
There was gas rationing (stickers indicating how much and when you could purchase fuel for a automobile or truck). Meat, butter and eggs were restricted, too (several times I sat on the back porch steps and squeezed the grey-white packet of oleomargarine attempting to disperse the yellow coloring capsule designed to make this horrible stuff look like butter although it never tasted like butter, which is in all probability why I still do not like margarine). Things like chocolate, nylon stocking and chewing gum were just about unavailable on the home front. War Bond drives, air raid drills, paper and tin will collections, and victory gardens where all half of our lives back then.
I don't recall hearing people grumble regarding being inconvenienced nor was there a way of them being deprived. The country was fighting a typical enemy and we have a tendency to were going to try to to no matter it took to defeat the enemy in Europe and within the Pacific still, as a result of the American way of life depended on it. We tend to didn't have a lot to lose financially after suffering through a decade of depression. No, we tend to had one thing additional to carry onto. It absolutely was the freedom our founding fathers fought for and the opportunities our ancestors traveled here to expertise that caused our parents' generation to unite -- assuring us and future Americans the freedoms solely this country must offer.
Are we have a tendency to pre-boomers telling our youngsters and their children and their children's youngsters about the principles this what this nation was founded upon and the sacrifices that have been made for them? And, isn't it time we tend to stop worrying about not having all the material things we might like and count our collective and individual blessings? Unless we do, the longer term will not shine as bright as our past once did.
Don Potter, a Philadelphia native, was born in 1936 and is a 50 year veteran of the advertising agency business. Currently living in Los Angeles, he has written two novels in retirement, frequently writes on promoting problems, and includes a blog dedicated to pre-boomers (those born between 1930 and 1945).
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