Are you a one percenter?

[Allen]

John (JohnMOhio) thought this might interest me. I'm passing it on to you now.

Ironically I told my wife just the other day as we get monthly news of a friend or classmate passing away that over the next 20 years most everyone we know our age and older will be gone and most of that will occur within the next 15 years. We are both 71.

THE ONE PERCENTERS
99 % of those born between 1930 and 1946 (worldwide) are now dead. If you were born in this time span, you are one of the rare surviving 1%'ers of this special group.
Their ages range between 77 and 93 years old, a 16-year age span.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE 1% ERS:
You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900s.
You are the last generation, climbing out of the Depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.
You are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas, to sugar, to shoes, to stoves.
You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into tin cans.
You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" on the porch.
Discipline was enforced by parents and teachers.
You are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, you "imagined" what you heard on the radio.
With no TV, you spent your childhood playing outside.
There was no city playground for kids.
The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.
We got "black-and-white" TV in the late 40s that had three stations and no remote.
Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party lines), and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy).
Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked.
Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon
'INTERNET' and 'GOOGLE' were words that did not exist.
New highways would bring jobs and mobility. Most highways were 2 lanes.
You went downtown to shop. You walked to school.
The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands.
Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the Depression and the War, and they threw themselves into working hard to make a living for their families.
You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus.
They were glad you played by yourselves.
They were busy discovering the postwar world.
You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed yourselves.
You felt secure in your future, although the Depression and poverty were deeply remembered.
Polio was still a crippler. Everyone knew someone who had it.
You came of age in the '50s and '60s.
You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to Canada.
World War II was over, and the Cold War, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life.
Only your generation can remember a time after WW II when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty.
You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better.
More than 99% of you are retired now, and you should feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!"

If you have already reached the age of 77 years old, you have outlived 99% of all the other people in the world who were born in this special 16-year time span. You are a 1% 'er".

[Oyaji]

I just turned 75 the other day and I experienced and remember most of the above.

[JohnMOhio]

Oyaji, over the next 10 years you may not remember them. Did I ever tell you guys that I have a good memory but it's short? And yes, as of today I remember all but a couple of them at 83.

[PWC]

John, you are 3 yrs ahead of me...

Yes, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer.
I remember drinking cold water from a tin cup dipped into an enamel pail just filled by hand pumping from a well
I remember going to the outhouse with a flashlight on a cold winter night.
I remember using strike anywhere matches when I was 5 yrs old, and a sharp hatchet to split wood.
Glass Milk bottles with cardboard caps, and cream separated in the bottle neck
Wind up pocket watches
Running boards and fender skirts and curb feelers
Big Chief lined tablets and pencils 1/2" in diameter
Chalk boards with erasers that had to be clapped together to clean.
One size fits all skates that clamped on the leather soles of your shoes with a skate key.
Be home before the street lights came on.
Mumps, measles, chicken pox "parties" so you and all your friends would get them out of the way while you were young.
I remember friends with leg braces from polio.
I remember friends in a iron lung machine that breathed for them because of polio.
I remember lining up at school for a sugar cube with a pink drop of polio vaccine in the 3rd or 4tb grade.
Saying the pledge of allegiance in class, first thing, to a flag with 48 stars.
I remember when "under God" was added.

[JB White]

I’m an Ike era boomer. Don’t recall much about him but I do remember JFK.
Most of the things described I remember quite well. People didn’t need all the latest whiz bang gadgets that came out. We used things so long as they worked. If they broke they were fixed.

The only real difference from the above is we had TV. But it was still only on at certain times. Turning it on early so the tubes heated up to get a good picture. Then adjusting the antenna if we needed to change the channel.
Still had coal fired furnaces. The truck running a conveyor from the street. Through a basement window into the coal bin. The canvas and leather coal bags to carry coal upstairs for the stoves. And filling the steel scuttle next to it on the floor. And being scolded for making too much dust.

Gas lights on articulated arms that could be pushed back towards the wall when not in use. Turn up or turn down the lights vs switching them on and off. If the house was half wired, the wall switches were push button toggles that could zap you once they were worn.
Pull chain flush toilets. Little kids had to stand on the seat to reach the chain.

Being spanked in public. Teachers whacking kids with yard sticks or chalkboard pointers. Standing up in the back seat of the car to see where we were going. And many other things which were part of life that are crimes now.

[Mark in Ottawa]

I turned 80 two weeks ago and remember and experienced most of the items on the list. Alas we didn't have a TV in any colour because my mother was convinced that it would destroy our schooling and would turn us into illiterate idiots.

I also do remember the fear of polio and the jubilation when Dr Salk invented his vaccine. The school board arranged for all students to get vaccinated. They did not ask the parents for permission to do this. We all just lined up and got the shot. That was of special interest to our school because the laboratory across the road from the school was the place where they perfected the process for mass producing the vaccine (as we were told, again and again)

[Allen]

Alas we didn't have a TV in any colour because my mother was convinced that it would destroy our schooling and would turn us into illiterate idiots.

You had a very wise mother.

[JB White]

Color TV. Our first one was used and didn’t hold the color settings very well. Watch a lot of green shows.
My mothers warning was about sitting too close. “It’ll burn your eyes out!”

[PWC]

Wonder what "Mom" would say now about cell phones and social media?