So, what made you...
By ElicBxn
@ElicBxn (63643)
United States
August 9, 2010 6:56pm CST
the way you are?
Are you a product of your times?
I know I am.
When I was a kid, and I was born less than a decade after the end of WWII, America was the hero (at least in the eyes of her citizens.)
There were still stories about finding Japanese soldiers on tiny islands that didn't know the war had ended.
Hitler and Communism were the bad guys.
People stood up and saluted the flag gratefully.
Indians were just beginning to be come the "Noble Savage" and "Native Americans" wasn't even a term that I can remember.
I remember my brother made me stand up and put my hand over my heart when the star spangled banner played on tv.
Who would know that less than 10 yrs later he was totally over all that and thinking that all that was nonsense? He was protesting Vietnam, he was doing drugs, he was rebelling...
So, looking back on your youth, are you a product of your generation/country?
I know the U.S. is far from perfect, but its doing its best in an imperfect world, as I'm sure your country/generation is too...
5 people like this
13 responses
@commanderxo (1494)
• Canada
16 Aug 10
Though I'm not a U.S. citizen...I can agree with you, for I too am a "baby-boomer".
I CAN remember the Viet Nam protest...all the protest songs on the radio...and the many draft dodgers seeking refuge here in Canada.
I guess you could say that makes me a "product" too, huh?
In any event, seems like not much has changed, what with the war and all.
I support ALL of the troops and what they're trying to do, but feel it's a lost cause. I think it's a war that really can't be won...at least not for now; perhaps someday when all will come to their senses. But who knows?
Aren't the "Millennium Kids" going through much the same thing?
Truly a product of THEIR generation.
cdrxo
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
16 Aug 10
yeah, but...
they are growing up with a phone stuck to the side of their heads...
who would'a dreamed in 1960 being able to walk down the street - or around the grocery store - while talking on a phone?
sure didn't see THAT in any of those SF books I was reading!
1 person likes this
@commanderxo (1494)
• Canada
17 Aug 10
Back atchya with that one!
...but hey, you DID watch Star Trek back then, didn't you?
Let's see?
Flip-type communication devices, library tape diskettes, on-screen communication, SPACE travel!...just to mention a few.
Whoda thunk it'd become reality ...in OUR life time?
cdrxo
1 person likes this
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
23 Aug 10
um..generation and environment,i guess.
i have to say i often compare what i had to what kids today have,and..
man,i better watch it,or i'm going to come out with "kids these days!"
i suppose on some level,yes i am jealous.we never had the tech they do,lucky schmucks.
i have to say i am surprised in the rudeness of people to other people now..
and the free giving up of privacy some do.that definetly has not changed for the better.
i suppose on some level,yes i am jealous.we never had the tech they do,lucky schmucks.
i have to say i am surprised in the rudeness of people to other people now..
and the free giving up of privacy some do.that definetly has not changed for the better.1 person likes this
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
23 Aug 10
oh god.thank you!
or the bus for that matter.
there was some lady on the bus the other day talking about her hemorrhoids..
i think everyone collectively looked at her like "eeew!"
more than we needed to know..
or the bus for that matter.
there was some lady on the bus the other day talking about her hemorrhoids..
i think everyone collectively looked at her like "eeew!"
more than we needed to know..
@moondancer (7431)
• United States
10 Aug 10
I could say it was my past and what I grew up with having to go through in my younger years. There's not much more things that make you feel as helpless as you do when things are not the way they should be and as a child you can not do anything about things. But you make a vow that your life will be totally different and better when you grow up.
That was me, it's what I thought. So because of my past I grew to be a strong willed and minded person that is very independent and made my life better.
I also went through most of the things you mentioned and then some. Which I's sure you did as well.
1 person likes this
@moondancer (7431)
• United States
10 Aug 10
I understand. When I had a room I stayed in it most of the time, to be out of site out of mind...but when I had no room then I would find a place to be alone. The woods near the house or some place.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
11 Aug 10
We're much the same, must be close in age, I'm 56. I'm horrified by the political correctness gone mad, by people not defending our country when someone criticizes it--it has its faults but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
My whole family has always been patriotic, I was the only one who strayed into the protesting, hippie-type stuff and that wasn't for long because I saw through it as any thinking person would. I was just tired of thinking for a little while!
My sons are in their 20's and they are much the same as me, with some differences. It's in how you are raised, I think, how the times affect you.
1 person likes this
@scififan43 (2434)
• United States
18 Aug 10
I was I would say that I grew up in the generation after yours. we still said the plage of alegance with under god in the phase. coummiumss was bad and the us did good in ww2 but vietnam was over and not realy talked about. but watergate hurt america but when the altolla alowed us dipimats to be held hostage in Iran, things changed and reagan was ellected and it felt good to be in america again. that much can say.
@GDTimothy (446)
• United States
10 Aug 10
Let's see now... Is who I am a result of nature, nurture, or some combination?
I vote for a combination of nature and nurture.
But I don't consider myself to be mainly influenced by the times because the times are just a small part of the nurture aspect. While the times probably had some effect on certain elements of my attitudes, I'd like to think that I've moved on from simply being a product of the times by being a thinking person who thinks for himself now and doesn't place the burden on any one thing anymore.
As for the U.S., it could be better certainly! BUT, it could be far, far worse,... as, for example, so many of the countries that criticize it!
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
10 Aug 10
Oh, I do think that being a thinking person can help avoid many of the pitfalls of animals of lesser intelligence. However, you still have to realize that while you can learn to handle new things, you are still building on the ground work that you grew up with.
@GDTimothy (446)
• United States
10 Aug 10
Agreed. I just think I was more influenced by my family and immediate circle of friends, rather than those events going on in the greater world at large. And even so, since then I've had to, in effect, reinvent myself, which included rebuilding a major part of that "groundwork" since a lot of my "foundation" was structurally unsound, so to speak.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160949)
• United States
10 Aug 10
We are very close to the same age, and have the same memories. I grew up less than two miles from an Air Force Base.We have basically the same values. I want to observe that the best "good citizen" I know is a third grade teacher here in Kansas. Her dad saw his brother blown up by a land mine in Germany as the family was fleeing to a barn. Her dad is a kind, compassionate loyal American, and they both have exhibited to me how to be a great good citizen of the United States and how to appreciate what we have.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
10 Aug 10
I remember once meeting a man with a tattoo on his arm. I was too shy to ask him about it, but my sister asked dad later and he explained what it was. We were in New York City when we saw that - not something we saw in the wide open spaces of Texas back then.
@zed_k4 (17589)
• Singapore
10 Aug 10
Hmmm, I wonder the period of 1979-1980+++, how was the time like. I was born within that period.. ha, music from the 80's, that's all I can remember. How about important developments? Hmmmmmmm, I can't remember along the lines whether the late Princess D married during the 1980's or having her two boys..
1 person likes this
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
11 Aug 10
To paraphrase an old saying, America is the worst country in the world, except for all the others....
I got stupid for a while, too. Maybe there's still hope for your brother.
Maggiepie
"He who knows nothing is nearer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors." ~ Thomas Jefferson
1 person likes this
@bellis716 (4799)
• United States
10 Aug 10
I, too, am a product of the times. I was born shortly before WWII on an upland farm in Oklahoma. I learned young to be very conservative with all resources. I can hardly stand it when I see my husband wasting water. I remember too well all those buckets of water that I carried and the times that the well nearest the house went dry and water had to be carried from down below. Every fabric scrap was saved and reused in some manner. I remember hearing my father say that we had best eat whatever our mother put on the table, because, if we didn't, we'd get it again, prepared in a different manner, until we did eat it.
1 person likes this
@cerebellum (3863)
• United States
11 Aug 10
I guess I am a product of my generation. I was only 8 when JFK got shot and that is probably the first thing I remember. At least it is the first thing I remember clearly. Then RFK and MLK got shot. I remember hating that there was so much violence and hate in the world. I was really to young to protest but I hated the war in Vietnam! I was a little torn though because I wanted to think that anything my country and it's leaders did was for the best. I learned different after Nixon resigned.That all was so long ago, it seems like it was a different person. I am still a liberal, and I think that was the overall attitude back then. I still hate violence and racists! I think that may be more of a common sense attitude though.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
11 Aug 10
When I was a child it seemed Eisenhower was always president. I thought Vietnam was stupid, why fight a war you aren't planning on winning?
I guess LBJ had already enlightened me as to how politicians were no angels, after all, I am in Austin...
Even tho my dad NEVER said anything negative about any politician, I could tell he also knew he was going to have to work for whoever won, so he was enough of a politician himself to be nice to all of them. Fact is, the ONLY person I ever heard him say ANYTHING negative about was Madeline Murry O'Hara, he hated her.
@my4cats (101)
• United States
10 Aug 10
Hello, Elic... I think I am. I was born in 1972 and that same year, President of the Philippines proclaimed the Martial Law. I was so little that and I was not aware of what's going on around me. But when I went to elementary and high school, I began to learn everything about the history of my county. It is sad to know that my country is still struggling to get back how it was before the martial law.
Note: The martial law was over and Philippines is now a free country but I am still hoping the best for my countrymen.
1 person likes this
@lacieice (2060)
• United States
10 Aug 10
I am definitely a product of our times, and a little older than you, I think. I remember when ice cream cones...two scoops...were a nickle, and smokes were 25 cents a pack. Now that's really going back.
I also remember vividly the day JFK was shot. I was going to school in downtown Pittsburgh, and the whole city shut down. All the stores closed, and it was hard to find a bus to get home. Everyone was in shock that something like that could happen in our country.
We were taught to say "ma'am and sir", and to be quiet unless asked to contribute...not at all like today's youth. We had rules, and we darn well better have obeyed them...not like today's youth. From the number of gang related killings I hear about, the value of life has been lost. Respect has been lost. Where is all this going to lead?
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