If you’re in my generation? You’ll get this post.

Every so often something goes around social media that resonates with me in this very different stage of life we call our senior years. Here’s one—origin unknown—and a few tweaks by me in parts plus my own commentary. When I look back over my life, this is some of how it was like for me and people like me. Here you go:

Many have passed away, and those who are still here are called the elderly.
(OMG–how did that happen? The ELDERLY??)
We were born in the 40s-50s-60s.
We grew up in the 50’s-60’s-70’s
We studied in the 60s-70s-80s.
We were together in the 70s-80s-90s.
We got married or not and discovered the world in the 70s-80s-90s.
Adventured nto the 80s – 90s
We settled into the 2000s.
We became wiser in 2010s. Maybe.
And  many of us? still going strong into the 2020s.

Turns out we went through EIGHT different decades…
TWO different centuries.
TWO different millennia.
We’ve gone from a telephone with operator for long distance calls and pay  phone booths to video calls worldwide.
From overhead projectors to slides to YouTube, vinyls to online music, handwritten letters to emails and of course, texts and Whats App.
Live games on the radio, then black and white TV and oh, wonder of wonders! color TV, then HD 3D TV with screens as big as our walls.
We went to the video store and now we’re watching Netflix, Hulu and Apple+TV.
We’ve known the first computers, punch cards and disks –oh those punch cards! and now we have gigabytes of data and what was once considered massive computing power on our small smartphones.
We wore shorts all through our childhood, then trousers or mini-skirts. Villager outfits and Oxfords, platform shoes and Nikes, jumpsuits and blue jeans.

We avoided childhood paralysis, meningitis, polio, tuberculosis, swine flu and for many, COVID-19–all thanks to vaccines.

We’ve roller skated, rode tricycles, moved on to bicycles and then maybe a moped. Our engines were gasoline or diesel and now we can drive hybrids or electric.
We played fun games as kids and with our little ones –checkers, marbles, and monopoly, now there’s candy crush on our smartphones
And we read… so many of us read so much. Real books, too. Now we have e-books or watch YouTubes or TikToks. Many who came after us don’t read at all.
And our schoolmates’ religion was never an issue.
We used to drink tap water (!) and lemonade in glass bottles, and the vegetables on our plate were sometimes resh–sometimes canned or frozen but always prepared by our moms or grandmoms–and today we get meals delivered.

The Vietnam War colored life for so very many of us. Changed it for those who served or had loved ones injured or killed.

Yes, we have been through a lot but looking back, it was a simpler life with a slower pace and because of that?  in many ways a more beautiful one.

My specific generation–we were born in a 1950s world,  had an analog childhood and digital adulthood. That’s pretty wild, when I think about it.

Were we naive? Sure, we were. But our hearts were in the right place.

Let’s not forget the scientific advances in our lifetimes. We witnessed the advent of molecular biology: DNA, RNA etc. When you consider everything that has come from it: gene therapy, gene fingerprints, and others the progress is considerable.

Watching some of that progress be destroyed in our senior years, just when we may need it most is heartbreaking. Especially when so many in our generation don’t get it.

What happened to us? I can’t help but wonder.

It’s true that we’ve seen it all. And some things I’d rather not have seen. The Vietnam War. The painful integration of our schools. The bigotry and hatred. All that stuff? Our generation thought it went away with civil rights legislation. But it didn’t. It was always there, waiting for someone evil to turn over the rock and expose it. Which has happened.

And it’s ugly. An ugly way to end our generation.

Arguably, my generation has literally lived and witnessed more than any other prior generation. We’ve had to adapt to gigantic change. I give us big credit for that.

When I post something about my generation the Boomer-haters always come out of their holes to make ugly comments. It’s an ugly world, and some of the younger generations just want someone to blame. My generation will do, they think. We’ve ruined the world for them, they think. Destroyed it.

But for me? I can’t agree. I lived it. I see the rich tapestry of our generation’s lives. All we’ve lived through. All we’ve hoped for and struggled for. I see the world we envisioned since we were old enough to think.

I can’t deny feeling ripped off that we’re forced to live this last part of our lives under a fascist wanna-be.

Still, I see what we hoped to achieve. What we thought we’d already made happen. Our hearts were always in the right place.

I’ve always respected the Greatest Generation (my parents’) for their hearts. Their neighborliness. What they went through: the Great Depression. World War II. It was a lot.

But as I’ve aged I’ve come to respect my generation as much.

We did our best.

And that’s all you can ask of anyone.