05-01-2019, 04:29 PM
(05-01-2019, 12:41 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(05-01-2019, 11:22 AM)michael_k Wrote:(04-29-2019, 07:44 PM)Mikebert Wrote: For example, I compiled a composite of people observations of generational change to give these approximate dates for cultural/experiential generations.
1946-1962 Boom (Prophet)
1963-1980 GenX (Nomad)
1981-1994 Millennial (Rogue)
1995-XXXX GenZ (Civic?)
If we were to go back in time eighty or so years to the 1930s, when the Interbellum Generation/Early G.I.s (born between 1901-13) were equivalent in age to the Millennials of our current decade, is it possible that they would have seemed like a 'rogue' generation back then? I've heard there were comments in the day about the youth of the Roaring Twenties and how pathetic they were that seemed similar to the stuff said about Millennials during the 2010s.
It was the Lost Generation that seemingly had the mindless fun of the 1920s. Early-wave GIs apparently did little of the 'roar' in the Roaring twenties. I asked my late grandfather (1912-1999) what he thought of the Roaring Twenties. Sure, he was a farm kid -- but he seemed to have completely missed even knowledge that there was a 'roar'. He could tell me what the bootlegger highways were.
The first wave of the GI generation was too young to have lost much in the 1929 Crash as did the Lost, and harsh as the Depression was, it created some good habits that would pay off well in the postwar boom. First-wave GI adults were often in leadership positions at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, and if they got to the war and survived it, they could make rank quickly.
The first wave of GI were prepared for an entirely different world that vanished before their eyes. Imagine being born in 1907 and graduating from college in 1929. They were prepared for adulthood then the crash came on them and made all their preparation meaningless. People born before that were at least entrenched somewhere and people born after that had time to prepare for a depression mindset.