My parents were both born in the late 30s, so Silent Generation. They were super frugal, we didn’t have a lot of money, and having been raised by parents who had just went through the Great Depression, this made sense to me. I have 2 boomer siblings, and 1 sibling who was GenX like me. My parents were in their mid-late thirties when they had their two GenX kids and were always among the oldest parents at school functions.

My Dad made sure that I knew how to work on my own car, do minor household repairs and stuff like that. Us kids were always hanging with him in the garage to hand him tools or hold a light while he was under a vehicle or farm equipment fixing things. Some of my favorite memories as a kid are riding with him as he drove a tractor around the farm.

My mom always had copies of Mother Earth News laying around and we had a large organic garden before it was called “organic”. We spent summers canning all the food we grew from it. We had goats for milk, chickens for eggs and cows for meat. As kids we were totally expected to contribute to the work required to maintain this lifestyle for the family. Everything from helping with the hay in summer to chopping holes in the ice of a pond for the cattle to drink from in the winter. We also cut and chopped our own wood for the Ashley wood heater that was in the dining room.

Several of our neighbors were much older, one I considered as my adopted grandfather (my biological GP were either dead or lived far away). He had fought in WW1 and was just the sweetest old bachelor. One of my other neighbors still wore bonnets in the 70s! She would have been in her 70s-80s when I knew her. We were always helping these neighbors with their farms because they were either old bachelors or had children who lived elsewhere.

I guess I wrote all that to say that when I think of my parents generation, I think of self sufficiency. And helping neighbors or those less fortunate than us. I am so grateful for the lessons I learned from growing up in that way. My dad passed in 2020 from Covid right before vaccines became available. My mom is now living with my boomer sister and sadly is suffering from some dementia or other mental decline. I also think she has began to absorb some of the Fox News crap my sister surrounds herself with. My poor mom has always been a democrat, as was my dad, and now she will spout talking points that I know if she was in her right mind that she absolutely would be appalled. It hurts because now when I talk to my mom I have to keep things on the light superficial side and not discuss things that are important to me. Things we used to regularly discuss.

The Silent Generation wasn’t without their problems, but I think they tried to do better than what was done for them and in my case were open to being a part of an ever changing world.