My grandparents were part of the Greatest Generation. They were strong people who survived WWI and managed to raise their families during the great depression. My maternal grandfather was a coal miner who raised his big family on next to nothing. The Miller family was a good looking, stubborn lot – the boys rough and tumble and the girls pretty enough to model for pinups. They spent their childhood moving from Kentucky to Tennessee and back, working whatever mines were producing. My dad’s family came from a completely different world – his grandparents owned a restaurant in Louisville and his dad was painter and woodworker.

My parent’s were part of the Silent Generation. They were raised during the depression and lived during WWII. The Miller boys all went off to war, and thankfully all came home. My dad was a little too young for that war but was in the Korean War. Their generation was pretty stoic and not prone to showing much emotion. They went from rarely seeing cars to the cool 50’s styled cars. They also saw the beginning of big changes in technology.

I’m a Baby Boomer. We were, I think, one of the luckiest generations. We were able to roam our neighborhoods until the street lights came on, we grew up with the most amazing cars and music. We are a generation who have always lived with great change. We went from strict 50’s values though the wild peace and love 60’s and 70’s and back into more moderate lifestyles for our adulthood. We have gone from rotary phones to touch tones to these mind blowing computers we carry with us every day. We went from small black and white TVs to color and big screens that took an army to move into the house to in-home move movie theaters that a preschooler could probably carry. We went from no computers to mainframes that filled warehouses to smart phones. We saw man go into space for the first time and actually walk on the moon. Basically, everything we saw in cartoons like the Jetsons and shows like Star Trek have gone from imagination to reality. Well, we still can’t transport from one place to another or reach warp speed – it may not happen in my life time but it will happen.

My son was born at the beginning of the Millennial Generation. They were the last generation, in most places, who had the freedom in childhood to roam the neighborhoods with their friends. All the big changes in tech that boggles baby boomers minds, were their norms. While I think Boomers were the luckiest generation, I know some Millennials who think its them. I guess we were all fortunate in the time we were born.

I don’t think you should live in the past, but I do think you should know who and where you come from. I’m adding a Looking Back category to talk about some of my family. I wish I had spent more time talking to my parents and aunts and uncles about their lives. We were a pretty ordinary family but have some big stories. I think they need to bee written somewhere.