From time to time, I need to remind myself of what my expectations of blogging are. They are now, and always have been, to leave a piece of me behind, and not for anybody in particular, other than family. There are so many things that I wish I could discuss with my grandparents. I wonder what it was like to live before the airplane was invented. The automobile was new. No highway system, or airports. No radio, or television. No world wars. So many things that to only one generation earlier, were unheard of. Two generations later, my generation, and for all we knew, everything that was, always had been. Just that quickly, progress had been absorbed into society, and had become common. The whole thing leaves me to wonder what else had changed, and had gone unaddressed by my grandparent’s generation. And so I wonder, but what benefit would it be to me, or anyone really, to know of their worries, or amazement from so many changes, so quickly thrust upon them. I know beyond any doubt that the one fear they held, far above any other that society could hand them, was another Great Depression. This fear was so overpowering that they were able to pass it on to me. But what else concerned them? I don’t have an answer. What I do know is that we are on a road to somewhere. So, what is common to my grandchildren, that was unheard of in my lifetime? Things that I watched pass from unheard of, to ordinary?

My generation has also seen many changes. From the civil rights movement, to space travel, from putting a man on the moon, to the digital age. Computers, the internet, and so much more.

But not every change is good.

My grandparents also watched the decline of one political system and the rise of another. This new system would make promises to the poorest, at the expense of the wealthy, and in the end, deliver death and starvation. but how did they feel about it when it was new? It was called scientific socialism when it spread through Europe in the late 1800’s, and who doesn’t like the idea of getting something at the expense of someone else? It’s kind of like taking from the rich and giving it to the poor… but here’s the thing… the poor never gets it. And with every form of socialism in every country of any significant size, the money eventually runs out.

Once that happens, you have to produce a villain, or admit your system doesn’t work. Capitalism cycles through ups and down, with the rich always coming out on top. With socialism, you destroy everyone’s initiative, then blame that failure on whoever it is you want to get rid of. My grandfather hated FDR because he felt that he had brought socialism to America. I could not agree more. FDR did not end the great depression, WWII did. Those were my grandfather’s exact words to me. My other grandfather loved FDR. They were both good men, but they both can’t be right. Here is one thing that they both had in common however, they both believed in a day’s pay for a day’s work. That was part of who they were. You could become someone through hard work, and these men passed that on to me also. I suppose that is one thing that changed in my lifetime. People would not accept a handout, when I was young. It would insult them to imply that they needed one. Now it is expected. When I was young, doing without meant something completely different than it does now.

I want my grandchildren to know that many of the things that are common to them right now were unheard of when I was a young man. You have been engineered to accept these things, and not to do so would be very odd to you, unnatural I suppose, and I also want you to know that you are less free than your great-grandfathers were. America is a different place than it was a few generations ago. In the military, I spent two years in West Germany, and we were there as a deterrent to the Soviet Union, who had thousands of tanks, and nuclear weapons pointed at us, from East Germany. The Soviet Union, at their pinnacle of power, through socialism, had killed millions of their own people, and were in a cold war with America, but their form of government was about fifteen years from collapsing. That was how fragile a powerful government is. My fear is that our country will fall to the socialism we are currently up to our necks in. The rhetoric is the same now as it was over a hundred years ago. It really hasn’t changed much since its conception in the mid eighteen hundreds. Greedy rich are obligated to take their ill gotten wealth, and give it to those less fortunate. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now, and isn’t it funny how rich those folks are that are pointing out the other greedy rich? So I tell you as my grandparents told me… an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Anything else is coveting another’s property.

What little we knew about the world, we learned from newspapers, and the half hour evening news. We believed every word we read, and every word we heard. We had no technology, and three television stations, that depending on where you lived, could be so snowy you couldn’t make out the what was on. When I went to work for AT&T, people still had party lines for phone service. The lines were noisy and once again, depending where you lived, quite unreliable. The first cell phone that I personally saw somebody use was huge, and cost one dollar for each minute. I’m guessing that was around 1987. Ten years later, I had one that would fit in my pocket, and shared 250 minutes with my wife… who also had her own cell phone. I went to the Worlds Fair in Knoxville, in 1982. There were two things that I remember from that fair, that at the time seemed impossible. Both came true within twenty years. One exhibit showed a man by a lake, and the statement was made that in the near future, a phone number would be tied to a person and not a location. Please remember that at that time, your telephone was attached to the wall, or plugged into the wall, at a specific location. What they were proposing was revolutionary. Another exhibit showed an old farmhouse, with an odd thing attached to the roof. These folks were promising to bring cable tv to rural areas. I instantly recognize these satellite dishes, when they were introduced a decade later. Because of this technology, we’ve never had more or faster access to information.

But with all of the information that is at our fingertips, none of it can be trusted. We were much better off, living with less information.

People were able to, when I was a young adult, to be missing for hours. Nobody would have a clue where they were or what they were doing and were actually able to vanish into society, usually showing up around supper time. Then we would sit around the table and talk about stuff… because we hadn’t been texting all day long, so we really had things to talk about. Cell phones are mighty handy but I’ve got to say it… sometimes I wonder if they haven’t cost us more than we’ve gained. I’m sure by now all this sounds like crazy talk, and that’s alright, because like my generation, you have no idea of how it was before these things, and what is today, is your ordinary.

Every letter must end somewhere, even though I still have much to tell you. I don’t know how many notes like this I’ll end up doing, but time will tell. It always does, I suppose.

ws