歪歪漫画

I am not part of the greatest generation which was born between 1901 and 1924. I am not part of the baby boomer generation which was born between 1946 and 1964.

I recently learned that I am part of the silent generation, referred to as the 1% generation. This group was born between 1930 and 1946 and now ranges in age from 76 to 92.

I am a 1%鈥檈r. Finally, I know who I am. Why 1%? I will tell you later.

This generation remembers their parents talking about the great depression and remembers people who served or who were killed in World War II. Yes, I remember all of that.

I remember my parents and grandparents talking about ration books where people were given so many tickets a month to buy sugar, tires, gasoline, meat, coffee, butter, canned goods and even shoes.

If you are a 1%鈥檈r you remember people saving tin foil from gum wrappers and pouring fat from fried meat into tin cans. This fat was collected and converted into explosive ingredients to make bombs. Scrap metal was also used for making planes and ships.

About half of the families still had outhouses. Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs were put to good use in a variety of ways.

I can remember buying a 10-cent bottle of Coca-Cola and dumping a nickel package of salted peanuts into it to give it a bit more fizz.

If you are a 1%鈥檈r you remember milk being delivered to your house every morning. Some people had a milk box to put it in. Milk came in glass bottles that were reused.

Most small towns had a creamery and so you drank milk from local cows. Everyone shopped locally so everyone could stay in business.

Few things during the time of the 1%鈥檈r generation were thrown away. You might have one or two paper bags of garbage in a week. There were no plastic bags. Many people burned their garbage or put it in a compost pile.

We were the last generation who spent those early childhood years without television and had to use our imagination to visualize Superman and Gangbusters and other stories we heard on the radio.

I learned to read by reading the back side of a cereal box, which always had something of interest to kids.

We played outside in all kinds of weather because there was no TV to watch inside. There was also no little league. We organized our own teams and shared our gloves and bats.

The only playgrounds that existed were on the school grounds and they consisted of swings and teeter-totters. If you were lucky, there may have been a metal slide, which fried your behind in the summer because it got so hot.

There was just one telephone per house and if you lived in the country you shared a party line, which meant other people might listen in to what you were telling your girlfriend.

The telephone number in my home was 14. Someone calling you would give the number to the local telephone operator and she 鈥� always a woman 鈥� would connect you to your party. To make a long-distance call was expensive and this is why cards, postcards and letters sent to Uncle Jack and Aunt Ruth were very common.

My father worked in a bank so he had access to a calculator that was hand-cranked and very heavy. No one knew what a computer was and the word was not part of our vocabulary. Pocket calculators were still 10 to 15 years away.

Typewriters were common but few were in the home. In high school, we learned how to change the ribbon and used a special kind of eraser to take care of our mistakes.

Because the erasers wore a hole through the paper, you usually had to start over. 歪歪漫画 homework was handwritten.

All of the country roads were gravel and in the spring you had to be very careful to stay off of the muddy roads. If you got stuck, you hiked to the nearest farm and asked for help.

Families worked hard to make a living. They might even have some chickens and a cow in the backyard. Big gardens were common. Canning multitudes of vegetables and fruits in the fall was a ritual.

Most moms stayed home and took care of the kids. There were few divorces and single-parent families were uncommon. If you grew up in a small town, the entire community became your surrogate parents. A common refrain from your mother was, 鈥淕o outside and play and be home for supper.鈥�

Epidemics of measles and chicken pox were not uncommon in communities. There was medicine to take for these diseases but not for polio and every parent was frightened that their child might get it.

Although we had 鈥渄uck and cover鈥� drills in schools, the 1%鈥檈rs experienced a fairly safe childhood. There were no shootings or kidnappings.

Unfortunately, however, they would be the soldiers to provide the manpower for the dreaded Vietnam War of the late 60s and early 70s.

The 1%鈥檈rs remember a time when there was peace and security and everything pretty much remained the same. Pop was always a dime. Candy bars were always a nickel. Cigarettes were always around 25 cents a pack. A can of tomato soup was 10 cents on sale.

Kathy and I will both turn 80 this year and we will have outlived 99% of the people in the world. We are now 1%鈥檈rs.

When you speak to a 1%鈥檈r, one thing they will always say is that it truly was the best of times to grow up. I would agree.

Riddle: What always goes to sleep with shoes on? (Answer: A horse.) As a boy, I can remember being in bed at 9 p.m. every night. Stability is a good thing for young people.

I want to thank Ryce Miller Thrivent Insurance in Bemidji for being the 452nd business to support 100%.

John R. Eggers of Bemidji is a former university professor and area principal. He also is a writer and public speaker.