I think about this generation to generation stuff a lot. A lot.
My grandmother, of blessed memory, was part of the Greatest Generation. My mother must be about your age--part of the Silent Generation. I am solidly Generation Jones. My kids are Millennials. Their kids are Gen Z and Gen Alpha. There is a picture of all of five of the generations--it didn't last long; my grandmother died at almost 98, about eight months after my granddaughter was born. That sense of awe of being a grandmother with a grandmother was an amazing feeling.
More than that is the connections from generation to generation, each respecting and learning from the other. And sharing.
One of my favorite memories is of my trumpet-playing daughter playing one of Duke Ellington's songs, then listening as my grandmother told her about dancing to his band with my grandfather just after they were married.
The vertical dimension of generation is only one connection, of course. My family has that East European Jewish immigrant experience; my daughter works with immigrants today. She looks at our family's responses to the world and sees the commonality between the immigrant experiences.
Anyway--thank you for this. It was a wonderful way to start my morning and to contemplate these important connections. (And, yes, I agree about the political dimension as well!)
Ah, thank you for your insight, Patricia. If we're lucky we'll have the benefit of multi-generations and the stories they have to tell. They form us in ways we may never recognize, but we feel their stories and they become a part of us. And when we carry them on, we build a country as diverse as we always hoped we would be.
Thank you for such a generations spanning essay! My father is 99 and our family has someone in each of these generations plus a future one. You catalyzed my thinking about generations as played out in China (where my father was born) and my mother (HK born)!
I love these lines:
“As long as I’m here I’ll be a part of this, evolving as needed, just as everyone else.”
“It’ll be my time as long as I live. It’ll be your time and theirs. Every generation lives in a world far different from the ones before them.”
My sister and I talk about this a lot. You are either evolving or you are dying. Each individual diciphers it for themself. Yes, we use others input, but sooner or later we all realize this state. Many buck like stallions, or slink into a dark sewer, or become a lamb, but we all respond/react. There is simply no way one can float, enjoy, and stay stagnant for long or suffering will soon follow.
Let's get to work saving democracy and elect the first woman president!
Thank you Joe Biden, you are great and made this possible. What a president!💗
Those lines stood out to me, too, Sharon. My mom took her final bow at 94. It was time, but a few years earlier I was sure she'd make it to 100. I hope you and your dad get there together, but oh, what a life he's already lived!
Good one! My brother was born in 1950; I was born in early 1953, but I feel little to no connection to the "boomer" category. I grew up in the Civil Rights Era, hearing my educator parents remembering the Depression and WWII, seeing them rejoice with the expansion of rights for Black Americans, and, more recently, watching them worry about the reactionary impulses of the so-called "conservatives." They got really fired up when someone wrote a letter to the local paper denying the Holocaust. That's when my dad joined the school board. They worked a booth at the farmers' days fair to register voters.
They marched and stood in protest of the Iraq war.
Meanwhile, my brother's number came up in the draft, and, if he had passed the physical (he didn't), he would have moved to Canada. His life was not easy, but he did pay attention to the political winds and pegged the great conspiracies of the far right way before anyone else in my acquaintance. Way before anyone but "crazies" were saying it.
I'm thrilled we have the option of voting for someone like Kamala Harris and whoever her VP choice is!! I sure hope she wins!
“As long as I’m here I’ll be a part of this, evolving as needed, just as everyone else. It’ll be my time as long as I live. It’ll be your time and theirs.”
It has never not been “my time.” Influence waxes and wanes; however, the imprint we have pressed into society - for better or worse - is profound.
At age 72, I’ll be out canvassing for a House candidate today.
Thank you so much for your words! I was still in high school when JFK assassinated, so that makes me a Boomer. I also feel I must give space and trust/support the young people of today. I am often reminded of the words of civil rights leader Ella Baker put into a memorable song by Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock who passed away recently:
“…The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on
Is when the reins are in the hands of the young who dare to run against the storm
Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me
I need to be just one in the number as we stand against tyranny
Refrain
We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
I'm Gen X which, at times, feels like a silent generation in a different way (people often forget us). But we claim Kamala Harris! Thank you so much, Ramona, for not only offering your memories of intergenerational living but having a space here where so many do the same thing. I truly enjoyed reading everyone's memories.
It strikes me that most of you have had an exciting life politically. Some of you got to vote for JFK, probably LBJ (I'm currently reading a book on him and SO MUCH of what happened then resonates with what's happening today; history truly rhymes), and Carter. My first vote was for Mondale. I was glad Clinton won but didn't get excited until Obama. I was THRILLED to vote for Hillary but....yeah. I can't wait to vote for Kamala.
While Kamala is definitely energizing us (and it's so good to see), I worry that people are just looking at the federal level and believing that's all they have to do. I spent the last 7 years organizing in Texas (I know) and people are so incredibly ignorant about how democracy actually works. I truly believe that's part of the problem we're having now. People don't understand. Older generations seemed to get that they needed to participate locally, run for office, and hold elected officials to account. We must do the same now.
Here in Canada we are all watching and so excited to see Kamala come forward to share her amazing experience and knowledge with us all. We’re all in this together !!!!
I am 82 this last month and I can never remember which generation I’m suppose to be a part of. That’s likely because I went back to school at 48 to study my passion, Fine Art, and now have very young people from my classes as my friends, so I feel very much a part of their generation, dancing to Techno and part of their learning. I was “on the streets” protesting the Iraq war as thousands of Canadians did, and fighting for child care
and against the privatization of our universal free health care, and continuing my 30 years of protest of the climate warming.
So yes, Romona, as long as I’m alive I will be part of the legacy of the advances to make my children’s and my grands life better. I fight for them. God bless Joe and Kamala. What a beautiful team they are!!!!!
My first presidential vote was for Bill Clinton, my oldest child’s first my and my grandfather’s last (at 99) was for Hillary Clinton. My second child’s first presidential vote will be for Kamala Harris. All four of my grandparents taught me the importance of being active in democracy.
The combination of the broadness of your perspective and your embrace of evolution, both personal and communal, strike me as a richness we need. I am often struck by the hope I find when I interact with the youth, the generations who've come after me. I'm struck by a similar hope here. This essay is like a full-circle of the goodness we want to see in the world. Thank you, Ramona.
I think we sometimes put generations in pegs, forgetting that they interact every day of their lives with family, friends, acquaintances, workmates, classmates, etc., of every generation, and they're likely more influenced by them than they even realize.
They don't live in generational vacuums, all thinking alike or acting alike.
Inclusion is what binds us. We should take the time to celebrate it. 💙
Thank you Ramona for that list. I’m in the first boomer group, a 49er if you will in year and locale. I had a good friend from your group who passed on a few years ago who experienced his early years in the Japanese internment camps. He later served in the army possibly during the Korean conflict, that’s how quiet he was. I loved and admired that man.
George Takei, just turned 87, talks often about his family’s time in the internment camps when he was a boy. He talks honestly but with no real bitterness.
He too served in the Army in the 1950s. He is proud to be an American—and a Democrat. I adore that man and his outlook on life.
I’m reminded, as well, that inter-generational reverence exists. I saw it firsthand.
My dad asked me to take him to his 50th high school reunion. There, we met a lovely lady who, it was very evident, had long ago shared a meaningful relationship with my dad. The two were delighted to reconnect.
My father was a crusty curmudgeon who practiced law for 55 years. Like others of the Greatest Generation, he was commissioned an Ensign in the Navy and served on a destroyer escort which had its tail section blown off.
When he and his friend began speaking, she introduced him to her husband and, in the course of conversation, he admitted to being one of the ‘first wave’ to land on Normandy Beach in the Allied invasion.
I had no idea the reaction I witnessed in my father was even possible. Speechless reverence.
I say this as a point of reference because those in my generation at least have the stories… the second knowledge… of those who knew what to value - and had the courage to defend it.
I do worry that, with citizenship no longer being taught in school, and no direct frame of reference to the commitment required to defend democracy, younger generations don’t possess the critical footing.
I was born in 1940 and the older I get the more it’s clear that everything is political, by which I mean rooted in systems that are larger than the individual. I owe it to our kids, grandkids,et al to be informed and politically engaged. “Silent generation” be damned. And I’ve stopped worrying about offending delicate sensibilities.
We surely do need the younger generations. My daughters are both millennials, and have very clear political views, are well informed and well educated. I was just a hippie girl, born in 1953.
Wonderful essay. I’m in the Silent Generation too, but not with as firm a footing as I was born on that cusp year, 1945. I identified with both the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers, as I went to school with both generations, but always seemed to be lumped with the Baby Boomers, and I didn’t identify with them as well. I came of age during the Vietnam War, and after growing up on a solid Democratic, pro-union, home, I became involved politically in college, but not to the degree I wish I would have because I was married in 1966.
I agree with you so much in this post because we can’t rest now. We must speak wisdom and hand the keys over with confidence to those young ones behind us. I am feeling more confident now that Kamala is at the helm, even though I was firmly behind Biden, because now I hope the young ones will get behind this quest for the White House by voting and becoming more politically active. I know my grandkids were resigned that voting was not going to count one way or the other before Kamala lit a fire for that generation. I am hopeful.
I so agree. I never felt like I fully identified with either generation. The Silent Generation was comforting and I understood completely where they were coming from and leaned that way, but I wanted more edge. The Baby Boomers seemed like they were indulged as they grew up, but I liked their freedom to be edgy. I just could not fully feel comfortable going there myself.
Yes. Let’s build…together!
I think about this generation to generation stuff a lot. A lot.
My grandmother, of blessed memory, was part of the Greatest Generation. My mother must be about your age--part of the Silent Generation. I am solidly Generation Jones. My kids are Millennials. Their kids are Gen Z and Gen Alpha. There is a picture of all of five of the generations--it didn't last long; my grandmother died at almost 98, about eight months after my granddaughter was born. That sense of awe of being a grandmother with a grandmother was an amazing feeling.
More than that is the connections from generation to generation, each respecting and learning from the other. And sharing.
One of my favorite memories is of my trumpet-playing daughter playing one of Duke Ellington's songs, then listening as my grandmother told her about dancing to his band with my grandfather just after they were married.
The vertical dimension of generation is only one connection, of course. My family has that East European Jewish immigrant experience; my daughter works with immigrants today. She looks at our family's responses to the world and sees the commonality between the immigrant experiences.
Anyway--thank you for this. It was a wonderful way to start my morning and to contemplate these important connections. (And, yes, I agree about the political dimension as well!)
Ah, thank you for your insight, Patricia. If we're lucky we'll have the benefit of multi-generations and the stories they have to tell. They form us in ways we may never recognize, but we feel their stories and they become a part of us. And when we carry them on, we build a country as diverse as we always hoped we would be.
I love how that works.
Thank you for such a generations spanning essay! My father is 99 and our family has someone in each of these generations plus a future one. You catalyzed my thinking about generations as played out in China (where my father was born) and my mother (HK born)!
I love these lines:
“As long as I’m here I’ll be a part of this, evolving as needed, just as everyone else.”
“It’ll be my time as long as I live. It’ll be your time and theirs. Every generation lives in a world far different from the ones before them.”
My sister and I talk about this a lot. You are either evolving or you are dying. Each individual diciphers it for themself. Yes, we use others input, but sooner or later we all realize this state. Many buck like stallions, or slink into a dark sewer, or become a lamb, but we all respond/react. There is simply no way one can float, enjoy, and stay stagnant for long or suffering will soon follow.
Let's get to work saving democracy and elect the first woman president!
Thank you Joe Biden, you are great and made this possible. What a president!💗
Yes indeed. Joe Biden,my hero
Those lines stood out to me, too, Sharon. My mom took her final bow at 94. It was time, but a few years earlier I was sure she'd make it to 100. I hope you and your dad get there together, but oh, what a life he's already lived!
Good one! My brother was born in 1950; I was born in early 1953, but I feel little to no connection to the "boomer" category. I grew up in the Civil Rights Era, hearing my educator parents remembering the Depression and WWII, seeing them rejoice with the expansion of rights for Black Americans, and, more recently, watching them worry about the reactionary impulses of the so-called "conservatives." They got really fired up when someone wrote a letter to the local paper denying the Holocaust. That's when my dad joined the school board. They worked a booth at the farmers' days fair to register voters.
They marched and stood in protest of the Iraq war.
Meanwhile, my brother's number came up in the draft, and, if he had passed the physical (he didn't), he would have moved to Canada. His life was not easy, but he did pay attention to the political winds and pegged the great conspiracies of the far right way before anyone else in my acquaintance. Way before anyone but "crazies" were saying it.
I'm thrilled we have the option of voting for someone like Kamala Harris and whoever her VP choice is!! I sure hope she wins!
Me too! We're breathing again.
“As long as I’m here I’ll be a part of this, evolving as needed, just as everyone else. It’ll be my time as long as I live. It’ll be your time and theirs.”
It has never not been “my time.” Influence waxes and wanes; however, the imprint we have pressed into society - for better or worse - is profound.
At age 72, I’ll be out canvassing for a House candidate today.
Grassroots. This will make all the difference.
Thank you so much for your words! I was still in high school when JFK assassinated, so that makes me a Boomer. I also feel I must give space and trust/support the young people of today. I am often reminded of the words of civil rights leader Ella Baker put into a memorable song by Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock who passed away recently:
“…The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on
Is when the reins are in the hands of the young who dare to run against the storm
Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me
I need to be just one in the number as we stand against tyranny
Refrain
We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
https://youtu.be/U6Uus--gFrc?si=AQK3Pc7Z2Lp8IHCf
That's beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing it. And for providing the words. RIP Dr. Reagon. 💙
Let’s GO!💥
I'm Gen X which, at times, feels like a silent generation in a different way (people often forget us). But we claim Kamala Harris! Thank you so much, Ramona, for not only offering your memories of intergenerational living but having a space here where so many do the same thing. I truly enjoyed reading everyone's memories.
It strikes me that most of you have had an exciting life politically. Some of you got to vote for JFK, probably LBJ (I'm currently reading a book on him and SO MUCH of what happened then resonates with what's happening today; history truly rhymes), and Carter. My first vote was for Mondale. I was glad Clinton won but didn't get excited until Obama. I was THRILLED to vote for Hillary but....yeah. I can't wait to vote for Kamala.
While Kamala is definitely energizing us (and it's so good to see), I worry that people are just looking at the federal level and believing that's all they have to do. I spent the last 7 years organizing in Texas (I know) and people are so incredibly ignorant about how democracy actually works. I truly believe that's part of the problem we're having now. People don't understand. Older generations seemed to get that they needed to participate locally, run for office, and hold elected officials to account. We must do the same now.
I'm hoping, too, that this energy reverberates in every town, every city, every county. We're going to need to do it all.
…and every country!!
Here in Canada we are all watching and so excited to see Kamala come forward to share her amazing experience and knowledge with us all. We’re all in this together !!!!
I am 82 this last month and I can never remember which generation I’m suppose to be a part of. That’s likely because I went back to school at 48 to study my passion, Fine Art, and now have very young people from my classes as my friends, so I feel very much a part of their generation, dancing to Techno and part of their learning. I was “on the streets” protesting the Iraq war as thousands of Canadians did, and fighting for child care
and against the privatization of our universal free health care, and continuing my 30 years of protest of the climate warming.
So yes, Romona, as long as I’m alive I will be part of the legacy of the advances to make my children’s and my grands life better. I fight for them. God bless Joe and Kamala. What a beautiful team they are!!!!!
Thank you!!
My first presidential vote was for Bill Clinton, my oldest child’s first my and my grandfather’s last (at 99) was for Hillary Clinton. My second child’s first presidential vote will be for Kamala Harris. All four of my grandparents taught me the importance of being active in democracy.
The combination of the broadness of your perspective and your embrace of evolution, both personal and communal, strike me as a richness we need. I am often struck by the hope I find when I interact with the youth, the generations who've come after me. I'm struck by a similar hope here. This essay is like a full-circle of the goodness we want to see in the world. Thank you, Ramona.
I think we sometimes put generations in pegs, forgetting that they interact every day of their lives with family, friends, acquaintances, workmates, classmates, etc., of every generation, and they're likely more influenced by them than they even realize.
They don't live in generational vacuums, all thinking alike or acting alike.
Inclusion is what binds us. We should take the time to celebrate it. 💙
Yes!!!!
Thank you Ramona for that list. I’m in the first boomer group, a 49er if you will in year and locale. I had a good friend from your group who passed on a few years ago who experienced his early years in the Japanese internment camps. He later served in the army possibly during the Korean conflict, that’s how quiet he was. I loved and admired that man.
George Takei, just turned 87, talks often about his family’s time in the internment camps when he was a boy. He talks honestly but with no real bitterness.
He too served in the Army in the 1950s. He is proud to be an American—and a Democrat. I adore that man and his outlook on life.
I’m reminded, as well, that inter-generational reverence exists. I saw it firsthand.
My dad asked me to take him to his 50th high school reunion. There, we met a lovely lady who, it was very evident, had long ago shared a meaningful relationship with my dad. The two were delighted to reconnect.
My father was a crusty curmudgeon who practiced law for 55 years. Like others of the Greatest Generation, he was commissioned an Ensign in the Navy and served on a destroyer escort which had its tail section blown off.
When he and his friend began speaking, she introduced him to her husband and, in the course of conversation, he admitted to being one of the ‘first wave’ to land on Normandy Beach in the Allied invasion.
I had no idea the reaction I witnessed in my father was even possible. Speechless reverence.
I say this as a point of reference because those in my generation at least have the stories… the second knowledge… of those who knew what to value - and had the courage to defend it.
I do worry that, with citizenship no longer being taught in school, and no direct frame of reference to the commitment required to defend democracy, younger generations don’t possess the critical footing.
God forbid the threat takes life.
Thanks, as always, for your wonderful essay.
I was born in 1940 and the older I get the more it’s clear that everything is political, by which I mean rooted in systems that are larger than the individual. I owe it to our kids, grandkids,et al to be informed and politically engaged. “Silent generation” be damned. And I’ve stopped worrying about offending delicate sensibilities.
We surely do need the younger generations. My daughters are both millennials, and have very clear political views, are well informed and well educated. I was just a hippie girl, born in 1953.
Bless Jimmy Carter.
Wonderful essay. I’m in the Silent Generation too, but not with as firm a footing as I was born on that cusp year, 1945. I identified with both the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers, as I went to school with both generations, but always seemed to be lumped with the Baby Boomers, and I didn’t identify with them as well. I came of age during the Vietnam War, and after growing up on a solid Democratic, pro-union, home, I became involved politically in college, but not to the degree I wish I would have because I was married in 1966.
I agree with you so much in this post because we can’t rest now. We must speak wisdom and hand the keys over with confidence to those young ones behind us. I am feeling more confident now that Kamala is at the helm, even though I was firmly behind Biden, because now I hope the young ones will get behind this quest for the White House by voting and becoming more politically active. I know my grandkids were resigned that voting was not going to count one way or the other before Kamala lit a fire for that generation. I am hopeful.
It’s even more different being a cusp baby- I was born in 64
I so agree. I never felt like I fully identified with either generation. The Silent Generation was comforting and I understood completely where they were coming from and leaned that way, but I wanted more edge. The Baby Boomers seemed like they were indulged as they grew up, but I liked their freedom to be edgy. I just could not fully feel comfortable going there myself.