The 1 percent of people 76 years or older

[RED]

The 1% Age Group? i could not find a link for this so here tis.


This special group was born between 1930 & 1946 = 16 years.

In 2022, the age range is between 76 & 92.
Are you, or do you know, someone "still here??

Interesting Facts For You . . . .

You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900's.

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.

You are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, you ?imagined? what you heard on the radio.

With no TV until the late 1940s, you spent your childhood "playing outside."

The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.

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.

Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on your radio in the evening.

New highways would bring jobs and mobility.

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 and felt secure in your future although the depression poverty was deeply remembered.

Polio was still a crippler.

You came of age in the '50s and '60s.

You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland.

The second world war was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease.

Only your generation can remember both a time of great war and a time 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...

You are "The Last Ones."

More than 99% of you are retired, and you feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!"

[Allen]

Thanks for posting.

I was born in the early 50's and experienced a lot of that.

We had one telephone with a party line. We had one B&W TV that got 3 stations (barely) but no A/C, just a few fans that circulated hot air here in the deep South.

School buildings all looked similar with super high ceilings to help with the heat. Most of the boys back then played outside all day sometimes in the rain and often barefoot. Though I wasn't one of them, many boys would come to school barefoot as well.

It seemed like everyone was poor then, even the rich, because so many parents remembered what it was like during the depressin and the years following. People didn't spend money needlessly. Department stores were many miles away (and we liked it that they were) and mail order thru Sears, MW, JCP, Spiegel and others took 6-8 weeks once they received your snail mail check.

Interstate highways were few to none and we didn't need them. Most cars were standard shift and none that I remember had a/c so traveling with the family was an adventure and not always pleasant.

Just like the 40's technology was changing rapidly. There was a lot of patriotism then--the outcome of winning WW2 was still upon us and buying anything foreign made, especially from Germany or Japan was considered being a traitor to our country and our service men.

In small towns everyone knew everyone. There was a lot of Andy Griffith show atmosphere.

[Vern Humphrey]

I remember it all -- from bond drives (the Army enacted a battle in the local football stadium and there was always a bombardier-in-training living in the front bedroom with his wife) to horse-drawn milk delivery wagons.

[Major Tom]

I was born in 1945. I remember the early 50's when no one we knew had AC in their house, 1 telephone with party line, when someone in the neighborhood got a TV (black&white) all the neighbors would gather at their house on Saturday nights to watch it, us kids played outside (90% of the time) and usually played army combat, new cars would attract considerable attention at the Fall showing of new cars at dealerships, not many people bought new cars, coal heated 95% of houses. milk deliveries every morning with the insulated silver box by the back door, walking to school (only rural kids got bused in), every neighborhood had a mom & pop grocery store, neighbors knew each other and watched out for each other, the Korean War upset a lot of people negatively and was considered 'none of our business'. Gee, I miss the 'good 'ol days' !

[Allen]

new cars would attract considerable attention at the Fall showing of new cars at dealerships

Just to add: remember how new cars back then came covered with tarps on the transport trucks or rail cars? No one was suppose to see them till the dealerships announced they were for sale. The models changed every year so the anticipation was great to see what they would look like. Sometimes the changes were drastic, sometimes very minor. We never knew.

Now days noticable changes only occur every 10-15 years but it's somewhat win-win. The manufacturers save millions in engineering cost and the cars hold their value better. They aren't considered obsolete so quickly because they always look new.

The thrill of seeing new models come out now is about zero.

[blackhawknj]

IIRC one of the selling points for the Interstates was they were part of defense planning, to allow troops and materiel to be moved more rapidly.
Back then "adult" entertainment meant kids shouldn't see it because they wouldn't get it.
The tax bite was a lot lower, paychecks may have seemed smaller but those who earned them got to keep more of them.
Yes, that rather broad age cohort had it easy in many ways, experienced the Great Depression and WWII as children-and many people were little affected by both. Too young for Korea, too old for Vietnam, enjoyed so many of the country's good times and few of the bad.

[dogtag]

The war years were fabulous for a kid like me.
At night I would lay on top of the bed waiting for the inevitable air raid siren.
At the sound I would grab the Cat and we'd go to the concrete shelter.
In the morning I'd go out collecting bomb bits but mostly shrapnel from our own guns.
One time I came home proudly holding a real prize which my Dad promptly grabbed and
dumped into a bucket of water. It was an unexploded incendiary. It was a beauty - body
was about ten inches or so long, around three inches diameter topped with a pretty fin.
Never saw it again as my Dad was a part time Warden. They would come by at night
shouting "Put that bloody light out" at offenders. One time a German bomber crash landed
in Hyde Park (Dornier). When it was disarmed kids were allowed to play on it.
A house about a hundred yards from us was bombed and a London Bus fell in the hole.
My Mother would send me shopping - there was the butcher, the Greengrocer and the
Fishmonger. You didn't serve yourself, got served and one time the Greengrocer tried
to palm me off with squishy Tomatoes. I was a pretty savvy shopper by this time and
he didn't get away with that.
In the Blitz I'd watch the German bombers caught in the searchlights.
I remember the popular slogans at the time ; "Is your journey really necessary" and
"Waste not, want not" (picture of tap with drip).
Good memories RED. Makes me feel my age.

[Allen]

"The war years were fabulous for a kid like me."

I'd say fabulous that you and your family lived through it. Not fabulous as in enjoyment but as a kid you may not have sensed the total danger.

My wife's mother and her mother's sister were children at the time while the allies were bombing Germany. They were German citizens. Remember, not all Germans supported Hitler or the war but couldn't speak out against him because you never knew who would rat you out and have you killed like Soros did. They stayed in a basement when the bombs fell. Between the raids they would climb out of a window and quickly pick pears from a nearby tree then run back to the shelter/basement. That was sometimes the extent of their food for days.

Sometimes it's amazing what people can endure.

[dogtag]

I knew the danger all right. When a buzz bomb (V1) came by you could
hear the pulsing sound (it was a ram jet). When the sound stopped you
counted to ten at which time it went Bang. The V2s just went Bang with
no warning.

[Allen]

I remember hearing on the History Channel or someplace that when the V1's were being released the BBC would announce that they were overshooting/flying beyond and not doing any damage. They knew the Germans were listening in for damage reports so they would know where they were hitting. They reduced the amount of fuel for them to hit London and other targets before they got wise and realized they were then undershooting.

[dogtag]

I lived in London and those V1s were coming over every night.
If the engine sound stopped above you you were safe
If it was nearby when it stopped, you weren't.
They had enough fuel to get over London.
V1s were known as Buzz Bombs or Doodlebugs.

Fighter Pilots used to tip the wing and send it crashing into a safe area
before it got over London. Mostly into the sea.
Tricky as wings were quite short.

[lyman]

I lived in London and those V1s were coming over every night.
If the engine sound stopped above you you were safe
If it was nearby when it stopped, you weren't.
They had enough fuel to get over London.
V1s were known as Buzz Bombs or Doodlebugs.

Fighter Pilots used to tip the wing and send it crashing into a safe area
before it got over London. Mostly into the sea.
Tricky as wings were quite short.

which part of London, if you don't mind me asking,

I visited years ago, and hope to visit again in the next few years,

loved the place, we stayed in a hotel near Buckingham Palace (St James Gate? )
lovely pub on the corner at Victoria , The Albert, and several more in walking distance



I have read a few tales of the Spitfire pilots catching, and tipping the V1's , dangerous stuff and took a good pilot

[rayg]

I was born in 1939 and old enough to remember the mock air raids in Chicago were the planes dropped paper bombs made out of shredded newspapers, I liked the colored comic newspaper ones.

[barretcreek]

Worked with a German guy who grew up in Moosberg. He remembers the day Patton came through, parents told the kids to stay away but they went to watch anyhow. Soldiers tossed candy at them.

[dogtag]

which part of London, if you don't mind me asking,

I visited years ago, and hope to visit again in the next few years,

loved the place, we stayed in a hotel near Buckingham Palace (St James Gate? )
lovely pub on the corner at Victoria , The Albert, and several more in walking distance



I have read a few tales of the Spitfire pilots catching, and tipping the V1's , dangerous stuff and took a good pilot

Paddington. I recall going to Paddington Station (Terminal actually) to meet my
Brother and two Sisters coming home after the war. They had been 'evacuated'
and lived with a family in Cornwall for all those years.
I've often wondered since how those families must have felt having to send the
kids home after having them for over four years.
That evacuation of millions of kids must have taken more planning than D Day.
after those years