In the Summer issue of the Viewpoint, I read with interest about the "Silent Generation." Since I am a active card-carrying member of that generation, I thought you might enjoy a few comments from one who grew up in the dates you described in your article.
In Gail Sheely's book, New Passages (New York: Random House, 1995), she sets the dates of the generation between 1930 and 1945. These comments include comments from a 50-year reunion speech by Dr. W. Walter Menninger, M.D., of the Menninger Clinic and a few thoughts of my own.
Members of the Silent Generation are those of us who were born between 1930 and 1945, although we share some of the aspects of the WWII Generation known as the Greatest Generation, as written about by Tom Brokhaw in his book by the same name. We were all Depression babies, growing up in a time of great financial stress for our parents and most families. This included the Dust Bowl and World War II.
I will always remember as a ten-year-old boy the Sunday morning when it was announced that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. I had no idea where in the world Pearl Harbor was and what it all meant.
We, of course, were not old enough for military service, so we spent our time doing whatever we could for the war effort. We quickly learned that ration stamps had become a part of our family life. We collected any kind of scrap metal, from tin cans to bed springs to turn in for recycling. We raised Victory Gardens and sometimes got to go along with our fathers as air raid wardens to check and see if people closed their window blinds so as not to let any light out. You said that we were influenced by McCarthyism to conform and show patriotism. We didn't conform; we stood up for what we believed. Gas rationing didn't bother us too much because we were not old enough to drive, except for the lucky farm kids who could drive tractors and trucks.
As the war ended, we entered high school. We saw a new prosperity along with long playing records, wire and tape recorders, and, in the early 1950's, television. Sheely describes our generation as being good kids during our teen years. We had the lowest rates of crime,
suicide, illegitimate births, and teen unemployment. Our teenage years were made up of adjusting to life with family members returning from service in the military and some adjusting to the loss a family member that did not return.
As we graduated from high school, the Korean conflict started, and we were old enough to serve our country. Most of us are very proud of our military service. Our generation suffered over 50,000 dead and wounded in Korea. Not many people remember that.
Some of us became Nazarenes in the years of the 50's, 60's, and 70's when the church experience it largest percentage of growth in the United States. We served as youth presidents, church board members, Sunday school superintendents, and district lay leaders. One member, Jim Bond, was the president of Point Loma.
THE SILENT GENERATION IS NOT FINISHED YET. We did not come of age angry and rebellious. Instead, we developed a highly sensitive social conscience. Many of us look back at our service in the Peace Corps and later on, Work and Witness trips, as highlights of our lives. We have a tremendous capacity for study, questioning, and listening. Many have been engaged in good works, both before and since retirement, to make our world a better place. It is true that we have done these works "silently," as behooves our generation, but we have made a positive difference in this world, and we can all feel a great pride in our accomplishments.
To quote Dr. Mennenger, "Of course we are not finished. Our continuing social productivity benefits us as well as the world around us." Students of the aging process emphasize that one of the key elements of aging successfully is to continue to engage meaningfully in life, maintaining relationships with other people and performing productive activities that provide us a continuing "Reason for Being."
Thank you for requesting comments.
Best regards:
John Todd
Murrieta, California
I was intrigued with your article entitled “Who are the Millennials” in the September issue of Viewpoint. As one who was born in 1940 – thus a member of the “Silent Generation” – and one who spent an illuminating second year of college, 1959-1960, at Pasadena College (PC), I found Strauss and Howe’s definition of our generation disconcerting and shortsighted. As such, I take issue with their description of those of us born between 1925 and 1942 and offer the following for your consideration.
First I would suggest they take a closer look at some of those who would be included our “adaptive, conformist, and indecisive” generation such as authors Edward Albee and Allen Ginsberg, singer/song writers Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Paul McCartney to name five artists who have impacted both literature and the arts. Far from being adaptive, indecisive conformists, these five individuals confronted the status quo head on and laid the foundation for literature and music in the 60’s and 70’s, and in the case of Dylan and McCartney, are still impacting the way in which many see the world today.
On a personal level, following an illuminating year at PC, I continued working to finish my education and in 1966 was ordained as a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) minister and developed and innovative street ministry program in Haight Ashbury 1966-1969. At the same time, I pastored a church in Oakland ,California, as a member of SBC’s Home Missions Board.
From 1969-1972, I pastored a church in Bangor Maine, following which I became associate pastor of First Baptist Church San Antonio Texas (FBCSA) from 1972-1978, working with runaways and street people in that city. While there, I founded the Fourth Street Inn Ministries now in its 34th year of operation as part of FBCSA. From 1966 to its end, I took an active part in the anti-Vietnam War efforts, including a stint as vice president of the Maine branch of Clergy and Layman Against the War. In 1971, I authored A View from the Streets, published by Broadman Press Nashville, Tenn. It is an overview of the work I did in San Francisco and was undertaking in Bangor, Maine.
In 1979, I accepted a position in the U.S. House of Representatives as staff to Congressman Ronald V.Dellums (ret). For the next 15 years, I served as senior staff associate with responsibilities for fiscal affairs, health, and education. In 1991, I was honored by being chosen to serve as U.S. House of Representatives chaplin of the day under Speaker of the House Tom Foley.
Following my tenure in the U.S. House, I served for seven years as head of Government Relations for The George Washington University and have continued working as a government relations consultant. Along the way, I have earned a B.A. in philosophy and an M.A. and Ed. D. in education policy and philosophy.
I have said all that to say this: I don’t believe I am alone in what I have been doing with my life as one who is a part of the generation labeled “the Silent Generation.” And I truly believe an in-depth look into the lives and careers of the members of PC’s class of ’62 would reveal a remarkable number of individuals who have worked and are working in public and private service to improve the lives their fellow men and women.
In short, what I am suggesting with this little diatribe is that we were not nor have we been silent men and women but are individuals who heard “the Calling” and responded as “Called” by not conforming to the norm or moving adaptively and indecisively along with our supposed vacuous lives. And I challenge those labeled by Strauss and Howe as the Millennials to hear “the Calling” and be moved as “Called” to bring about those changes so desperately needed in the world in which we are living. And to remember that this is our Father’s world and as such, to always live lives that glory in this fact.
Sincerely, Rev. Ronald C. Willis Ed. D