WE ARE THE 1%ers
 

99% of those born between 1930 and 1946 (worldwide) are now dead.
If you were born in this time span, you are one of the rare surviving one percenters of this special group.
Their ages range is between 77 and 93 years old, a 16-year age span.


INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE 1% ERS:

§ You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900's.
You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.

You are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.

You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into tin cans.

You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" on the porch.

Discipline was enforced by parents and teachers.

You are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, you “imagined” what you heard on the radio.

With no TV, you spent your childhood "playing outside".

There was no Little League.

There was no city playground for kids.

The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.

We got “black-and-white” TV in the late 40s that had 3 stations and no remote.

Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party lines), and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy).

Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked.

Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon.

'INTERNET' and 'GOOGLE' were words that did not exist.

Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on your radio in the evening (your dad would give you the comic pages when he read the news).

New highways would bring jobs and mobility. Most highways were 2 lanes (no interstates).

You went downtown to shop. You walked to school.

The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands.

Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into working hard to make a living for their families.

You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus.

They were glad you played by yourselves.

They were busy discovering the postwar world.

You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed yourselves.

You felt secure in your future, although the depression and poverty were deeply remembered.

Polio was still a crippler. Everyone knew someone who had it.

You came of age in the '50s and '60s.

You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland.

World War 2 was over, and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life.

Only your generation can remember a time after WW2 when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty.

You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better.

More than 99% of you are retired now, and you should feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!"

If you have already reached the age of 77 years old, you have outlived 99% of all the other people in the world who were born in this special 16 year time span. You are a 1% 'er"!

Thanks for an interesting read. My father was one of the 1%ers. When I was a kid growing up in CT we had a neighbor who was my grandparents age. My father had known her since he was a kid. He mowed her lawn, trimmed hedges, raked leaves in the fall and shoveled her driveway in the winter time. He didn't take money, that's what neighbor's did for each other back then. I do remember her getting a doll or stuffed animal for me on my birthday or Christmas sometimes. It must have been a time when people trusted each other more? Looked out for each other? Took responsibility for their actions.

The depression ended in 1939. Ration books were from 1942-1945. I'm a late-generation Boomer. When I worked for Marcus Dairy in 2010 they still offered home delivery in milk boxes outside the door. A guy I was seeing when I was in High School had polio as a child, one of his arms had no muscle-tone and he walked with a limp because of it. He was born in 1959. We had black and white TV in the 1960's and I still played outside. The ONLY people during the "1%" generation who walked to the store downtown, were people who lived near the downtown area. Yes, some cities had playgrounds. No idea where you got the idea that they didn't exist in the 1930's - the first municipal playground was built in 1907 in New York City.

Your entire post sounds like some silly internet glurge that you picked up on a meme on Facebook somewhere.

Interesting observation but I would question the statements. I was born in Sep 1944 and cannot really relate to anything much prior to the 1950's.

I don't recall the winds of war, ration books. When I was of age there was Little League, city parks were abundant. TV was not missed since it was actually new and anticipated. Wasn't concerned about Interstates until I drove, and they existed at that time.

I can recall living with people who experienced some of those things.

When I became a Boy Scout , my grandfather thought they were like a German Nazi Youth Corp.
I can remember Uncle walking to store with tin can to get milk.

Remember Slide Rule in college, Kool Aid, Spam, School buses, Crystal Radios etc.

Copy and paste? From where?

Not close to the age group, but our milk, butter cottage cheese was delivered in a cute little door in the laundry room in the 60s. We had parks and playgrounds.

Today I have a metal can from my great great, that I keep my bacon grease in.

On the bright side, after reading the above...I did learn a new word.

Great list! Thanks.

Items on the list would appear to be more or less true for us early Boomers as well, depending on geography. I was born and raised in far Northern Minnesota, and very well remember our telephone: wooden box on the wall, earpiece hanging from it. You spoke while standing up, holding the earpiece to your ear and speaking into a black trumpet-like thing sticking out the front. Eight-party line; our ring was two shorts. There were eavesdroppers who enjoyed listening in on conversations so we learned early on to keep conversations bland. Many other items on the list were true for us as well, with some even well into the future.

But it WAS a good time to grow up. We learned things like responsibility, thrift, work ethic, and other things that all too many millennials seem never to have learned.

[QUOTE=DONS999;2243430]99% of those born between 1930 and 1946 (worldwide) are now dead.
If you were born in this time span, you are one of the rare surviving one percenters of this special group.
Their ages range is between 77 and 93 years old, a 16-year age span.
/QUOTE]

Very interesting. However, according to the census bureau, 6.7% of the population is over 75. So maybe we are the "6%ers"

75+ 22,182,000 6.7%
85+ 5,976,000 1.8%

Dad is 90 and still kicking. Every evening we talk about how good things were in this great country growing up in a country store!

I was lucky to enjoy this early life. Country store living. Farm life with no central heat/air, bathroom, tv or radio.

I had a minor in psychology. One of the things I remember is we go through some tough normal life phases. First say 15 ish what will I do with my life. At 65 ish what have I done with my life.

I've not made 77 yet but close. We all know people our age who have passed. We recently did a new Will now Florida law compatible. You are forced to face your life to is temporary.

We tend to think people were better in the OLD DAYS. I read a lot of history. I am regularly shocked at the fact that people have always had the same weaknesses. I have an in depth book about the Wright brothers. First powered flight flight was 1903. Many of their letters etc have been preserved. They complained about reporters writing about things they did not understand without asking. They complained about reporters copying misinformation from other reporters and claiming it as their own work. Powered flight was a world competition. There were huge prizes offered. They also complained about national bias in the press.

Another book about Cummings diesel. Around 1918, gasoline engines were rare and diesels were almost unknown. Cummings got a contract with Sears for small diesel engines. To meet projected demand they had to expand. They spent a fortune like any other start up company money they could not afford to loose. It was a disaster for the company. A mail order company
Sears, sort of Amazon, sold product with the right to return. The customer would not only get their money back but the shipping. People WERE honest in the old days? What they discovered was that people were buying the engines using them for the 90 days. Allowing neighbors to use them and then returning them for full credit including shipping.

Point-people were not any better in the good old days.

In terms of people we tend to blame others. There is that song,Why can't they be like we were. Reality I was not at all perfect. Millennials and fault. Good or bad it is our fault WE BROUGHT THEM INTO THE WORLD and they were born innocent.

I remember a talk that my parents had with each one of us when we reached an age where we'd be looking for work (summer work, about age 14 or so). It went something like this: "No matter who you work for, remember that you agreed to work for the wage that they are paying, and no matter what that wage is, you do the best job you're capable of". Wisdom born of the depression, I think, but still; one of the most valuable pieces of parental advice that I've ever received, and one that has served me well throughout life.

Today it seems that there are many folks, in my experience mainly under (say) 35, who flat-out refuse to work at a job that they consider beneath them. If they have alternatives to that particular type of work that do not take advantage of others, then I have no problem with it. But many of them don't. One young guy that I know personally, a law school graduate age about 24, flatly refuses to do any job that he considers menial, preferring instead to live with (and sponge off) his grandparents. It has been that way for three years so far. He lives in a town that has numerous job openings in the $12-$15 per hour range, but he won't even consider them. So grandma and grandpa support, feed--and of course--enable him. Unconscionable. But even more unconscionable are those young folks who use Joe Taxpayer as a substitute for enabling grandparents. I know several who think nothing of sitting at home and collecting either extended unemployment or welfare benefits to finance their indolent life style. I cannot help but think that had that been anyone of my age group, the parental advice that would have been dispensed would have been "don't let the door hit you in the a__ on your way out!"

I don't disagree about whose fault it is, but that is irrelevant at this time. Figuring out the causes of this problem doesn't fix it. The best thing we as a society could do at this point is to force the issue: if you're able to work, then work. No job is too menial if the alternative is taking advantage of others--be those "others" friends, family, or Joe Taxpayer.

Unfortunately, our society doesn't seem to have the will for that.

Worldwide
 

[QUOTE=golfing eagles;2243505]

I don’t know about an interlude with no threats to the homeland. Remember how the US and the USSR were building nuclear tipped misses throughout the 50’s and 60’s? Not exactly a peaceful feeling.

I used a slide rule up until grad school. I was shocked to learn that every student coming into the freshman chemistry class (for which I was a TA) had a calculator. If the power ran out, they had no idea of how to use a slide rule.