Things have been worse

The kids of today have been told they are the first generation to have things worse than their parents. That is “the common wisdom.” I heard it and read about it, took it to be true and in some ways it is true. But as you will see from my father’s and grandfather’s stories below, their early years were not better than their parents or anyone I know or have known and not all the youth of today have things worse than their parents generation. I never expected any inheritance or financial gain from my parents and never received any. Things are in decline, but they are declining from a much higher level than ever before in the past. I tip my hat to anyone whose story can top these two below.

My grandfather was an infant left on the doorstep of a convent in 1894 New York. When he was old enough to do labor, he was shipped on a train from New York to northern Missouri to work on a farm, without his consent. He and other orphans were picked over along the way to help as labor on farms. He lived through the depression, trying to support a wife and three children. He risked arrest and imprisonment during the prohibition years running bootleg liquor on the streets of Saint Louis to scratch out a living to support his family.

My father’s father left him and his mother when he was a child. As a child, his mother made sausages that my dad sold on the street to support them. When he was 18 he worked for the civilian conservation corps to support his mother. The pay was $30 a month and $25 of that was sent to his mother. He left that after 2 years and was quickly drafted into World War Two and after training was sent to Germany with an artillery outfit until the war ended. He bought a house for my mother, himself and me after the war and as a bonus, he got my maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother who lived with us until they died. The worst part of that was my maternal grandmother despised my father and would not even recognize his presence in his own home. He dealt with the situation, he endured.

I think we need more of that today because it will take a long time to turn things around. The great recession we have endured is still not over.