Perspective

[Chunky Stool]

My grandfather was born in 1900.
He was tough like a pine knot.
---
"For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were an American born in 1900.

When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins.
Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.
When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million.

At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish.

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this.

 

[cannabineer]

My grandfather was born in 1900.
He was tough like a pine knot.
---
"For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were an American born in 1900.

When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins.
Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.
When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million.

At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish.

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this.

I would have been three years old when the first airplane took off, and not yet seventy when Eagle became Tranquility Base.

I will admit that when I saw the thread title my mind went here.

 

[Singlemalt]

My grandfather was born in 1880, he died in 1978. I was his namesake and we spent a lot of my early childhood together. His son (my father) was a pilot which amazed him as powered flight wasn't invented til Gramps was an adult. I'm still not sure he truly believed we walked on the moon.He saw his first automobile when he went to the big city to immigrate to the US in 1910. I find it very cool that I talked with someone born 140 yrs ago lol

 

[dannyboy602]

Great thread Chunk...if the pandemic doesn't get any worse than what we've experienced so far I think I can safely say that for most people this was just a major inconvenience...for some a life changing experience and for some a painful way to die alone separated from their families.
But we're not out of the woods yet. This event may just be the catalyst for another even greater depression. I'm not smart enough to see the forest for the trees. Love from Arizona.

 

[lokie]

My grandfather was born in 1880, he died in 1978. I was his namesake and we spent a lot of my early childhood together. His son (my father) was a pilot which amazed him as powered flight wasn't invented til Gramps was an adult. I'm still not sure he truly believed we walked on the moon.He saw his first automobile when he went to the big city to immigrate to the US in 1910. I find it very cool that I talked with someone born 140 yrs ago lol

Don't know the birth dates involved but they were old folks.

I was fortunate to grow up knowing and visiting my mothers's grandparents.
All 4 of them. Her mom's mother and father and her dad's mother and father.

Great grandma H, my grand dad's mom, kept a spotless house and it always smelled of mothballs.
Great grandpa A, my grandmother's dad, chewed plug tobacco and used a brass spittoon . Regularly.

 

[randallb]

My grandfather was born in 1900.
He was tough like a pine knot.
---
"For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were an American born in 1900.

When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins.
Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.
When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million.

At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish.

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this.

No credits to the writer?

It leaves out being in your 20's for the roaring twenties. That was probably a blast!

 

[Bareback]

Dad’s dad was born 1892, died 1978 , was blind when I met him from cataracts I often think of how needlessly he spent that last decade or so being blind but deep in very rural Deep South treatment was not an option.