After the War  

 conclusion

     Without realizing how much our world was changing, we entered a world of plenty and opportunity. Well, not so much yours truly, but for many. We enjoyed ourselves and felt secure in our future, although depression and world war wasn't totally forgotten.

     Polio continued to cripple and take lives, including the brother of my cousin-by-marriage. Still, we were the last generation to have an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland. Okay. No threats until we learned that the Soviets could nuke someone too.

     The cold war, terrorism, global warming (renamed climate change) and economic insecurity had yet to cause unease.

     Only our generation can remember both a time of great war and a time of security, bright promise and plenty. 

     We grew up at the best possible time. Remember the TV comedy, Happy Days? 

     More than 99 percent of us are either retired or deceased. 

     We don't know if our generation unwittingly allowed the good times to morph into something different. We do think our military might and decades-long national security allowed some to turn inward...finding fault with everything we thought was true and right (not discrimination), but God, family and freedom.  

      Jimmy