Interesting facts about 1% of you.

kburra

Senior Member
Location
GB
99% of people born between 1930 and 1946 (GLOBALLY) are now dead.

If you were born in this time span, your ages range between 77 and 93 years old (a 16-year age span) and you are one of the rare surviving one-percenters.

You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900s.

You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.

You are the last to remember ration books for everything from tea to sugar to shoes. You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into cans.

You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" at the front door. Discipline was enforced by parents and teachers. You are the last generation who spent childhood without television and instead, you “imagined” what you heard on the radio.

With no TV, you spent your childhood "playing outside". There was no city playground for kids. The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.

We got a “black-and-white” TV in the late 50s that had 3 stations and no remote.

Telephones (if you had one) were one to a house and hung on the wall in the kitchen (who cares about privacy). Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked. Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon. INTERNET and GOOGLE were words that did not exist.

Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and your dad would give you the comic pages after he read the news. The news was broadcast on your radio in the evening. The radio network gradually expanded from 3 stations to thousands.

New highways would bring jobs and mobility. Most highways were 2 lanes and there were no Motorways. You went downtown to shop. You walked to school.

Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into working hard to make a living for their families.

You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus. They were glad you played by yourselves. They were busy discovering the postwar world. You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed yourselves. You felt secure in your future, although the depression and poverty were deeply remembered.

Polio was still a crippler. Everyone knew someone who had it.

You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our country. World War 2 was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life. Only your generation can remember a time after WW2 when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better.

More than 99% of you are retired now, and you should feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!" If you have already reached the age of 77 years old, you have outlived 99% of all the other people on this planet. You are a 1% 'er!
 
A wonderful post. Everything mentioned was true and familiar. I'll be 90 in a couple of months (born in 1933) and my wife of 67 years is 87 (born in 1936). I guess we're at the high end of the 1%-ers, age wise.

One thing that wasn't mentioned was the stability of marriages, for better or worse. Back then there were (at least from my experience) far fewer second wives, third husbands, step children, folks living as partners. etc.. And I didn't say "all happy marriages". They were what they were, but society tended to frown on deviations from the standard "family". I only mention this as a change from the more regimented rules of our society back then. Again, I thoroughly enjoyed the memories brought forth in kburra's post.
 
99% of people born between 1930 and 1946 (GLOBALLY) are now dead.

If you were born in this time span, your ages range between 77 and 93 years old (a 16-year age span) and you are one of the rare surviving one-percenters. (y)

You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900s.

You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.

You are the last to remember ration books for everything from tea to sugar to shoes. You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into cans.

You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" at the front door. Discipline was enforced by parents and teachers. You are the last generation who spent childhood without television and instead, you “imagined” what you heard on the radio. (y)

With no TV, you spent your childhood "playing outside". There was no city playground for kids. The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like. (y)

We got a “black-and-white” TV in the late 50s that had 3 stations and no remote. (y)

Telephones (if you had one) were one to a house and hung on the wall in the kitchen (who cares about privacy). Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked. Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon. INTERNET and GOOGLE were words that did not exist. (y) Computers were people who did mathematical calculations. One of my uncles served in WWII as a computer.

Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and your dad would give you the comic pages after he read the news. The news was broadcast on your radio in the evening. The radio network gradually expanded from 3 stations to thousands. (y)

New highways would bring jobs and mobility. Most highways were 2 lanes and there were no Motorways. You went downtown to shop. You walked to school. (y)

Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into working hard to make a living for their families. (y)

You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus. They were glad you played by yourselves. They were busy discovering the postwar world. You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed yourselves. You felt secure in your future, although the depression and poverty were deeply remembered. (y)

Polio was still a crippler. Everyone knew someone who had it. (y)

You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our country. World War 2 was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life. Only your generation can remember a time after WW2 when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better. (y)

More than 99% of you are retired now, and you should feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!" If you have already reached the age of 77 years old, you have outlived 99% of all the other people on this planet. You are a 1% 'er! :unsure: :giggle:
 
A lot of that applies to people born later.. for example.. I was born in the 50's... we had... and sill have to a much lesser degree Milk doorstep deliveries... not only that I used to deliver milk to doorsteps myself as a kid ... 4m to 7am every morning except Sunday's age 12/13/14
Growing up in a local city where three family homes is common, I did the same thing clanging milk bottles up three flights of stairs, smelling breakfast being made. I knew what homes were having for breakfast just as I knew how many bottles of milk, eggs, or orange juice they needed. simpler times.

Being part of a 'percenter' doesn't matter......being able to wake up every day and move under my own power is my indication from God that he still has plans for me.
 
Yes, there is a generation between the one-percenters and the 50-60s here.

I remember most of the things in that list but I don't remember the war since I was born close to the end of it.

I do remember seeing my ration book as my mother kept it to show to me when I was old enough to understand and a lot of stories about how life was for us.

Actually, I remember milk being delivered to the box on my porch as recently as last month until a thief stole everything from it and I canceled delivery. I will likely start up again when the weather changes and hope the thief's pattern has changed.

I think I was 9 when we got TV. A city 20 miles from us had it before but they finally got stronger transmitters that would reach that far, so my parents bought an antenna and a TV and I loved the after school program for kids. I had to hurry to get my chores done so I could watch it.

I remember when we got a telephone and it was a party line. I wasn't allowed to use it without supervision.

A boy I had played with at a younger age was still in my class at school. He got polio and survived. He wore braces on his legs after that. I got sick about that time and my parents panicked. The doctor came to the house at night to examine me and I had some kind of bug but not polio thankfully. Children were locked down that summer. Public swimming pools were closed. I missed the trips to the city for groceries. We usually ate at a restaurant and went to the city park on those trips. So, Covid wasn't my first lockdown.

I do remember the Korean War mainly because my brother who was 12 yrs. older than me enlisted in the Air Force at that time. He looked so handsome in his dress uniform.

I must get moving. Have a great day! :)
 
OK..I was born in the 50's... but we didn't get TV until I was 6 or 7 years old... we had milk deliveries.. , I know what a Ration book looks like because things were still rationed in this country for 10 years after the war finished, so most people's parents till had Ration book when we were born...
@Myrtle mentioned Polio, there were 2 children in my school who had been disabled by polio and wore leg irons.. equally it was quite common to see someone wear a 6 inch built up shoes on one leg.. ...some of the dirtier children in our school would arrive with their faces covered in Gentian Violet.... we never see that now..

I never saw inside a restaurant until I was an adult.. we just didn't get taken to any...ever... we never even had a take away...

We played outside as kids, without any adult supervision.. I was abducted from the street, and later found abandoned at midnight in the middle of the city centre road, ..yet my parents didn't stop making us play out from Dawn to dusk without supervision..

We didn't have a phone until I was 14 and then it was a Party line...

We ate very little food.. because my parents didn't earn enough to provide for all their children.. we went to school with holes in our shoes.. soaking feet in winter, coats which had all the wadding torn out.... Charity Shop?.. there was no such thing when I grew up.. there was no opportunity to even get second hand clothing.. we were seriously neglected children... our father insisted that as he lived through the war on tiny Rations then that's what was good enough for his kids...


Holidays ?... never had a holiday..what was that ?.. that was for rich folks...
 
99% of people born between 1930 and 1946 (GLOBALLY) are now dead.

If you were born in this time span, your ages range between 77 and 93 years old (a 16-year age span) and you are one of the rare surviving one-percenters.

You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900s.

You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.

You are the last to remember ration books for everything from tea to sugar to shoes. You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into cans.

You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" at the front door. Discipline was enforced by parents and teachers. You are the last generation who spent childhood without television and instead, you “imagined” what you heard on the radio.

With no TV, you spent your childhood "playing outside". There was no city playground for kids. The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.

We got a “black-and-white” TV in the late 50s that had 3 stations and no remote.

Telephones (if you had one) were one to a house and hung on the wall in the kitchen (who cares about privacy). Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked. Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon. INTERNET and GOOGLE were words that did not exist.

Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and your dad would give you the comic pages after he read the news. The news was broadcast on your radio in the evening. The radio network gradually expanded from 3 stations to thousands.

New highways would bring jobs and mobility. Most highways were 2 lanes and there were no Motorways. You went downtown to shop. You walked to school.

Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into working hard to make a living for their families.

You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus. They were glad you played by yourselves. They were busy discovering the postwar world. You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed yourselves. You felt secure in your future, although the depression and poverty were deeply remembered.

Polio was still a crippler. Everyone knew someone who had it.

You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our country. World War 2 was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life. Only your generation can remember a time after WW2 when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better.

More than 99% of you are retired now, and you should feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!" If you have already reached the age of 77 years old, you have outlived 99% of all the other people on this planet. You are a 1% 'er!
Your article gave me goosebumps, @kburra!
 
My sister born '45 just died; dementia or alzheimer's or both. My sister is dead. Has a bad ring to it; do not ask for whom the bell tolls.........it tolls for thee.
My sister, born in 1934 died less than a year ago. She also had dementia but had a rare day of clarity the last time we spoke. She was the best. I am the youngest of 14 cousins and the only one left standing. Well, sitting mostly.
 
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