I am regularly impressed with what that generation accomplished. I think part of it was that most of them had it really tough during the depression.
I am also impressed by our enemies of that era. They were no pansies either.
Yup. Both of my parents grew up in a very rural county here in Alabama. In fact that county remains very rural. The only towns in that county are small. There are no settlements that qualify as a “city.” My parents both grew up on farms in the 1920s and 30s. My dad and mom both said they never knew there was a depression because they didn’t have any money anyway. They grew, killed or caught everything they ate. They grew all the crops to feed their large families. My mom was the oldest of 8 and my dad was about in the middle of 10. They went to the store in a small town maybe twice a month. Dad said it took all day to ride by wagon to town and return, since it was so far away. They had animals for food, pigs, chickens, beef, and fished, and hunted all kinds of game animals. Dad said he would spend all day every day sometimes hunting game. They were able to eat and not starve or stand in some soup line like the cities. Folks out on the farms actually had it better than the city folks. There are not many of those life styles left in America today. Even today farmers have all sorts of machines to do the work. Not my dad. He plowed behind a couple of mules not ride a nice John Deere tractor. Because of growing up on a farm and having to eat what was on the table or go hungry, I never saw a food that I heard my father say he did not like. Whatever my mom put on the table every mean, he ate. He never turned his nose up at any food. I hate liver to this day, but my dad ate it. I have watched him go through a field and pick peppers. I watched him eat them right off the bush. Some of them hotter than the gates to hell, but he woofed em down. Never said they were too hot. I guess when you grow up like my parents did, you were lucky. You learned to do, not have it dooo-ed for you. My dad has been gone since 1975. I still miss him to this day. He was my best pal growing up. I was a “surprise” child. Came along 6 1/2 years after my sister in front of me. My big brother is 13 years older than me. I guess me coming along gave dad a new little boy to take hunting and fishing and to ball games.