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The Lucky Few: Between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boom
Born during the Great Depression and World War Two (1929–1945) an entire generation has slipped between the cracks of history. These Lucky Few became the first American generation smaller than the one before them, and the luckiest generation of Americans ever. As children they experienced the most stable intact parental families in the nation’s history. Lucky Few women married earlier than any other generation of the century and helped give birth to the Baby Boom, yet also gained in education compared to earlier generations. Lucky Few men made the greatest gains of the century in schooling, earned veterans benefits like the Greatest Generation but served mostly in peacetime with only a fraction of the casualties, came closest to full employment, and spearheaded the trend toward earlier retirement. Even in retirement/old age the Lucky Few remain in the right place at the right time. Here is their story, and the story of how they have affected other recent generations of Americans before and since.
- GenresNonfiction
236 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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October 4, 2014
Two years ago from the moment I sit and write this review, my father had one week left to live. We didn't know it would be one week. We certainly knew he would be gone by the end of summer. My mother followed him in death on the 19th of July. These losses irrevocably changed my life and gave me a new identity -- that of a griever. I am many things. I am a wife and mother. I am an employee and colleague. I am a friend and neighbor. I am fortunate to have a full and vibrant cast of characters who remain in my life. I am a book worm, a joker, an eccentric...I have hobbies and even a couple of passions. But, underlying all of this is the enormous hole where the people who created me and then nurtured me through the formative years of my life used to be. They left me together, which was fitting for a couple who had been inseparable in life. But the situation overwhelmed me and it has coloured every facet of my life since.
Lately, I have found some comfort, however, as I contemplate the life span of my parents. Dad always told me that, by accident of birth, he was one of the most fortunate people to have ever been born. His start in life was rough, but things improved as he grew older and he was able to make the almost astronomical leap from inner city poverty to prosperity in a burgeoning middle class. My mom felt that her life was similar. Although her family owned land and was more prosperous than my father's immigrant family, she spent her life on a farm where work hours were long and arduous and material comforts were simple and even Spartan. She grew up using an out house and helping my grandma wash clothes in a hand wringer style washer and hanging clothing up to dry on the line. My parents met in college, where they both found themselves, quite amazingly, after both spent a year after high school working and saving some money.
Before he died my dad told me that he had a good life and that nobody could have asked for a better run. I have tried to comfort myself by considering the relative good fortune of my parents and their entire generation. And I began to wonder if anyone had written a history of this oft overlooked generation of people who were sandwiched between two 'glamour generations' -- 'The Greatest Generation' (the young people who fought and helped to win WWII) and the "Baby Boomers" (their children who became the darlings of marketers everywhere and who have been catered to ever since due to their vast numbers.)
My parents belonged to the "Silent Generation" or, as this book calls them, "The Lucky Few". Demographers and social historians never seemed to pay too much attention to these people in their childhood, rising adulthood, middle age or senior years. I have wondered if they will get any more attention as they die. From my search of the literature, it appears that they still do not garner much interest. Perhaps this is why the generation who raised me always impressed me with their humility. The limelight is never something my parents or their peers seemed to seek in large numbers. They went through life with nary a thought of managing 'their brand'. They were 'cool' for about five minutes. And then James Dean died. Soon after the Boomers were rendering them irrelevant with the mantra: "Never trust anyone over 30." (Jack Weinberg dropped that phrase in 1964 one month after my dad turned 3o. Ironically, my dad would have been on board with most of the Free Speech Movement's platform. And he would have been understanding about an off the cuff statement being used out of context. However the damage was done and his peer group was rendered fairly irrelevant before it had time to scratch the surface of adulthood.)
Yet my mom and dad and their cohort group enjoyed prosperous and stable lives outside of the spotlight. They married young and started families. The perpetrated the suburban sprawl but they did it for my generation, their children who were going to grow up with plenty to eat, a back yard to play in away from the polluted inner city, and a good education paid for by the Parental Savings and Loan. (If my parents were part of the luckiest generation in twentieth century history -- if not the luckiest generation in ANY century...then I also won the jack pot in having this group of people raise me and set me on my path in life.)
Finally, I discovered this title, which seemed to be an entire book devoted to the subject of my parents generation. Finding the book in physical form proved to be quite challenging. It did not exist in any public library collection I could find. Even our amazingly deep Cleveland Public Library collection did not include this title. A few universities had this title in electronic format, but not for lending to non-students. I was getting stumped -- but also more determined than ever to get my hands on a copy!
I finally found some inexpensive used paperback copies on Amazon and decided to order it. I enjoy books about generational research and I own a few titles on this subject. So I decided this would be worthwhile.
The Lucky Few is a title which is not written so much for the general audience as it is for the academic audience. I could easily see this title being assigned in a college sociology class. (If, that is, any classes actually study this overlooked generation.) -- In this rather slender tome, Elwood Carlson dissects the Lucky Few statistically and basically shows all the ways their birth years placed them in the Cat Bird's Seat, so to speak. The reading is a bit dry, but the charts illustrate the author's points without too much stress on the lay reader. The book is not long, but it is packed with more information about my parents generation than I have seen anywhere else. And the author backs up my dad's take on his life span. Yes, these people seemed to always be in the right place at the right time in terms of history and economic cycles.
The Lucky few were not immediately earmarked for good fortune when they began arriving on the scene in the very late 1920s and through the 1930s and into the War Years. Prospects were bleak. Food and jobs were scarce. One side effect was that people, as a rule, began to have fewer children. Although my dad came from a family with three kids and my mom from a family with five, apparently their generation was much smaller than the ones on either side of them historically. (In this way, my own Generation X mirrors them. We are much smaller in number than either the Boomers or the Millennials.) And this small size would eventually be very fortuitous for the Silents/Lucky as they hit the job market.
Like my mom and dad, many of the Lucky Few hit better times financially after the War. And, like my parents, many of them managed to make it into and through college. Men in the Lucky Few generation made the single largest educational leap in American history and took themselves out of the mills and the mines and off the farms and into white collar professions. They enjoyed an extremely robust job market. (My parents both signed contracts and had teaching positions...conveniently located near one another...before they graduated and left their campus. No years of living in the parental basement and working at Starbucks for them!) Because they were able to land jobs immediately, they were also able to marry right out of college (or high school in the case of the Lucky Few who took the last steady and good paying manufacturing jobs in America.)
My parents generation was so prosperous and enjoyed such steadily climbing earning potential that the women didn't 'have to work'! Many of the Lucky Few women dropped out of college or else never utilized the degrees they earned. This may or may not be a 'desirable' path -- depending on outlook. However, it is astonishing for other generations to feel there is any 'choice' involved in working. Period.
Carlson goes on to talk about the other important weigh stations in life and how the Lucky Few were positioned to benefit in each case. I believe that I witnessed his thesis throughout my life as I saw my parents work responsibly and live frugally...but also reap impressive benefits from these good habits.
Those of us who are younger need only consider the following:
The Lucky Few were almost all able to find jobs quickly. These jobs were steady. You could take a job right out of school and retire from the same establishment forty years later without a day of unemployment in between. While working at this job, raises and promotions were not only attainable, they were generally the norm for effective employees. Women were able to further their education and intellectual goals. However, they enjoyed great latitude about employment status and flexibility in balancing parenting and job commitments. Many of my mom's friends never worked outside the home. Ever! Others easily found part time (or even full time jobs) in mid life when they wanted some extra money to pay for Gen X college tuition or for some 'extras'. Imagine being 4o years old today with a blank resume, and zero work experience anywhere! Now go find a job! (Yeah, Right. People with PhDs are unemployed.)
When the Lucky Few got home from work, there were no jangling smart phones or incessant pages and emails. The boss couldn't even FIND this generation after five-o-clock! They were in the cocktail lounge with Don Draper...or else tucked away in their cute suburban bungalows having a nice TV dinner in front of the new color TV. And they didn't even feel guilty about the TV dinner, despite the fact that mom was home all day ad could have cooked something!! Nope. Life was balanced. Their employers NEEDED them! They had leverage! Thus weekends, vacation time and holidays still existed. And adults were encouraged to take time for themselves without worrying.
As this generation went through their vital years, they saved money and entered the investor economy, which mainly treated them well. They are wrapping up their lives, as a rule, in vastly improved circumstances from those to which they were born. I guess we all have to go some time. And, perhaps, it helps to say goodbye to someone when you know that they have lead a life free of violence or want or even the 24 hour stress we all seem to feel these days.
Now that they are gone, the only way I can commune with my mom and dad is through memory and songs and movies or television shows of their era. I search for these cultural touchstones of their heyday quite often, charmed by the relative simplicity and also the optimism of the middle of the twentieth century. As I consider the lives lead in that era, I see that the optimism was backed up by a lot of data. 'How lucky can you get?' sang Dean Martin. "I've got the world on a string." sang Frank. And you know what? In many ways, they DID. And I am so glad. Although their generation was no more perfect than any other, nor was it any more flawed. And it was admirable in so many ways. My mom and dad's generation was the generation of Civil Rights. And, although nobody over 30 was trusted, John Lennon was a member of the Lucky Few. (Along with Elvis and Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan and so many other artists who inspired the social change which was attributed to the Baby Boomers.) Mainly, these were people I loved. These were my parents, most of my teachers and the adults in the neighborhood that kept the engine of society running when I was young.
"And when you hold me...how warm you are...be mine my darling...and spend your life with me in Shangri La" -- that was another one I remember hearing a lot when I was little and the old songs could still be heard on the radio. Shangri La was a popular tune in the 1960s. When I hear it I think of my mom and dad and how, for them, the song was true. Spend your life with me...in Shangri La. I think, for a few decades, these people did just that. It was the world they inherited and now we are living in a new one. My parents luck finally ran out two years ago. But for just that little while...the space of life...those were the days.
Lately, I have found some comfort, however, as I contemplate the life span of my parents. Dad always told me that, by accident of birth, he was one of the most fortunate people to have ever been born. His start in life was rough, but things improved as he grew older and he was able to make the almost astronomical leap from inner city poverty to prosperity in a burgeoning middle class. My mom felt that her life was similar. Although her family owned land and was more prosperous than my father's immigrant family, she spent her life on a farm where work hours were long and arduous and material comforts were simple and even Spartan. She grew up using an out house and helping my grandma wash clothes in a hand wringer style washer and hanging clothing up to dry on the line. My parents met in college, where they both found themselves, quite amazingly, after both spent a year after high school working and saving some money.
Before he died my dad told me that he had a good life and that nobody could have asked for a better run. I have tried to comfort myself by considering the relative good fortune of my parents and their entire generation. And I began to wonder if anyone had written a history of this oft overlooked generation of people who were sandwiched between two 'glamour generations' -- 'The Greatest Generation' (the young people who fought and helped to win WWII) and the "Baby Boomers" (their children who became the darlings of marketers everywhere and who have been catered to ever since due to their vast numbers.)
My parents belonged to the "Silent Generation" or, as this book calls them, "The Lucky Few". Demographers and social historians never seemed to pay too much attention to these people in their childhood, rising adulthood, middle age or senior years. I have wondered if they will get any more attention as they die. From my search of the literature, it appears that they still do not garner much interest. Perhaps this is why the generation who raised me always impressed me with their humility. The limelight is never something my parents or their peers seemed to seek in large numbers. They went through life with nary a thought of managing 'their brand'. They were 'cool' for about five minutes. And then James Dean died. Soon after the Boomers were rendering them irrelevant with the mantra: "Never trust anyone over 30." (Jack Weinberg dropped that phrase in 1964 one month after my dad turned 3o. Ironically, my dad would have been on board with most of the Free Speech Movement's platform. And he would have been understanding about an off the cuff statement being used out of context. However the damage was done and his peer group was rendered fairly irrelevant before it had time to scratch the surface of adulthood.)
Yet my mom and dad and their cohort group enjoyed prosperous and stable lives outside of the spotlight. They married young and started families. The perpetrated the suburban sprawl but they did it for my generation, their children who were going to grow up with plenty to eat, a back yard to play in away from the polluted inner city, and a good education paid for by the Parental Savings and Loan. (If my parents were part of the luckiest generation in twentieth century history -- if not the luckiest generation in ANY century...then I also won the jack pot in having this group of people raise me and set me on my path in life.)
Finally, I discovered this title, which seemed to be an entire book devoted to the subject of my parents generation. Finding the book in physical form proved to be quite challenging. It did not exist in any public library collection I could find. Even our amazingly deep Cleveland Public Library collection did not include this title. A few universities had this title in electronic format, but not for lending to non-students. I was getting stumped -- but also more determined than ever to get my hands on a copy!
I finally found some inexpensive used paperback copies on Amazon and decided to order it. I enjoy books about generational research and I own a few titles on this subject. So I decided this would be worthwhile.
The Lucky Few is a title which is not written so much for the general audience as it is for the academic audience. I could easily see this title being assigned in a college sociology class. (If, that is, any classes actually study this overlooked generation.) -- In this rather slender tome, Elwood Carlson dissects the Lucky Few statistically and basically shows all the ways their birth years placed them in the Cat Bird's Seat, so to speak. The reading is a bit dry, but the charts illustrate the author's points without too much stress on the lay reader. The book is not long, but it is packed with more information about my parents generation than I have seen anywhere else. And the author backs up my dad's take on his life span. Yes, these people seemed to always be in the right place at the right time in terms of history and economic cycles.
The Lucky few were not immediately earmarked for good fortune when they began arriving on the scene in the very late 1920s and through the 1930s and into the War Years. Prospects were bleak. Food and jobs were scarce. One side effect was that people, as a rule, began to have fewer children. Although my dad came from a family with three kids and my mom from a family with five, apparently their generation was much smaller than the ones on either side of them historically. (In this way, my own Generation X mirrors them. We are much smaller in number than either the Boomers or the Millennials.) And this small size would eventually be very fortuitous for the Silents/Lucky as they hit the job market.
Like my mom and dad, many of the Lucky Few hit better times financially after the War. And, like my parents, many of them managed to make it into and through college. Men in the Lucky Few generation made the single largest educational leap in American history and took themselves out of the mills and the mines and off the farms and into white collar professions. They enjoyed an extremely robust job market. (My parents both signed contracts and had teaching positions...conveniently located near one another...before they graduated and left their campus. No years of living in the parental basement and working at Starbucks for them!) Because they were able to land jobs immediately, they were also able to marry right out of college (or high school in the case of the Lucky Few who took the last steady and good paying manufacturing jobs in America.)
My parents generation was so prosperous and enjoyed such steadily climbing earning potential that the women didn't 'have to work'! Many of the Lucky Few women dropped out of college or else never utilized the degrees they earned. This may or may not be a 'desirable' path -- depending on outlook. However, it is astonishing for other generations to feel there is any 'choice' involved in working. Period.
Carlson goes on to talk about the other important weigh stations in life and how the Lucky Few were positioned to benefit in each case. I believe that I witnessed his thesis throughout my life as I saw my parents work responsibly and live frugally...but also reap impressive benefits from these good habits.
Those of us who are younger need only consider the following:
The Lucky Few were almost all able to find jobs quickly. These jobs were steady. You could take a job right out of school and retire from the same establishment forty years later without a day of unemployment in between. While working at this job, raises and promotions were not only attainable, they were generally the norm for effective employees. Women were able to further their education and intellectual goals. However, they enjoyed great latitude about employment status and flexibility in balancing parenting and job commitments. Many of my mom's friends never worked outside the home. Ever! Others easily found part time (or even full time jobs) in mid life when they wanted some extra money to pay for Gen X college tuition or for some 'extras'. Imagine being 4o years old today with a blank resume, and zero work experience anywhere! Now go find a job! (Yeah, Right. People with PhDs are unemployed.)
When the Lucky Few got home from work, there were no jangling smart phones or incessant pages and emails. The boss couldn't even FIND this generation after five-o-clock! They were in the cocktail lounge with Don Draper...or else tucked away in their cute suburban bungalows having a nice TV dinner in front of the new color TV. And they didn't even feel guilty about the TV dinner, despite the fact that mom was home all day ad could have cooked something!! Nope. Life was balanced. Their employers NEEDED them! They had leverage! Thus weekends, vacation time and holidays still existed. And adults were encouraged to take time for themselves without worrying.
As this generation went through their vital years, they saved money and entered the investor economy, which mainly treated them well. They are wrapping up their lives, as a rule, in vastly improved circumstances from those to which they were born. I guess we all have to go some time. And, perhaps, it helps to say goodbye to someone when you know that they have lead a life free of violence or want or even the 24 hour stress we all seem to feel these days.
Now that they are gone, the only way I can commune with my mom and dad is through memory and songs and movies or television shows of their era. I search for these cultural touchstones of their heyday quite often, charmed by the relative simplicity and also the optimism of the middle of the twentieth century. As I consider the lives lead in that era, I see that the optimism was backed up by a lot of data. 'How lucky can you get?' sang Dean Martin. "I've got the world on a string." sang Frank. And you know what? In many ways, they DID. And I am so glad. Although their generation was no more perfect than any other, nor was it any more flawed. And it was admirable in so many ways. My mom and dad's generation was the generation of Civil Rights. And, although nobody over 30 was trusted, John Lennon was a member of the Lucky Few. (Along with Elvis and Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan and so many other artists who inspired the social change which was attributed to the Baby Boomers.) Mainly, these were people I loved. These were my parents, most of my teachers and the adults in the neighborhood that kept the engine of society running when I was young.
"And when you hold me...how warm you are...be mine my darling...and spend your life with me in Shangri La" -- that was another one I remember hearing a lot when I was little and the old songs could still be heard on the radio. Shangri La was a popular tune in the 1960s. When I hear it I think of my mom and dad and how, for them, the song was true. Spend your life with me...in Shangri La. I think, for a few decades, these people did just that. It was the world they inherited and now we are living in a new one. My parents luck finally ran out two years ago. But for just that little while...the space of life...those were the days.
August 28, 2022
Interesting but very heavy on statistics and graphs.
The specific anecdotes were engaging and enjoyable but the book is a text book and reads like an extended scientific journal or dissertation. The Lucky Few ) born between 1930-1946 ) refers to the generation that primarily parented the middle to later born Baby Boomers. This group is smaller than surrounding generations but incredibly impactful. A generation whose childhood and youth were influenced by The Great Depression and WW2 and reached their adulthood during the cold war prosperity of the 50/60s. This is the group that the older boomers predominantly rebelled against. They were the “establishment. “
Both my parents were of this generation and their rise in economic status through military service and nursing school gave me a much better life than they started with themselves. I am eternally thankful for those Lucky Two for their sacrifices and guidance.
The specific anecdotes were engaging and enjoyable but the book is a text book and reads like an extended scientific journal or dissertation. The Lucky Few ) born between 1930-1946 ) refers to the generation that primarily parented the middle to later born Baby Boomers. This group is smaller than surrounding generations but incredibly impactful. A generation whose childhood and youth were influenced by The Great Depression and WW2 and reached their adulthood during the cold war prosperity of the 50/60s. This is the group that the older boomers predominantly rebelled against. They were the “establishment. “
Both my parents were of this generation and their rise in economic status through military service and nursing school gave me a much better life than they started with themselves. I am eternally thankful for those Lucky Two for their sacrifices and guidance.
Read
May 1, 2011Very much impressed.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews