WW2: my father grew up on a farm in Iowa where the Great Depression hit first. Still he managed to get a PhD in chemical engineering. He married my “blue blood” mother who did not really notice the Great Depression. She wanted stability and a nice family. The war came and he did not even get leave for 4 years. Prewar he joked and laughed. Post war he had silent PTSD. DURING THOSE 4 years my mother went home with my older brother and new born sister to small town in Pennsylvania made rich from oil. My brother was surrounded by a plethora of doting aunts and great aunts and one great uncle whose chair at the bank was purchased by his wife (she could not see herself as a teachers wife at an elite boarding school). When my military father came home to meet his 6 year old son: it was oil and water and never ever changed ! My father seemed too tough and my brother hated him to the end! My dad was a quiet but also from a hard-.working German farmer family. What I took away from all of that was that we now are aware of PTSD but it has ALWAYS ALWAYS been there with every war along with the horrible losses of life of young men and women and innocent civilians!
The current situation reminds me of Spike Lee’s film: Do The Right Thing: As the summer temperature rises the racial tensions rise resulting in deadly tragedy. With Climate Change and more severe and deadly hurricanes flooding drought famine:
You paint a very vivid picture Mary. One that i suspect was replicated in differing ways for many of the veterans returning home both sides of the Atlantic. I'm sad to hear of your dad's PTSD - misunderstood and unsupported, particularly in those days when 'men had to be men' and all that BS. Not to mention the hideous loss of life. And erosion of equality and civil rights...
And so it goes on. We, well those in power anyway, seem not to learn from the past...
Funny enough I need to lay off the dripping on toast Ruth!
This was a lovely post thank you.
🤣 it’s a bad habit indeed David…a favourite of my Grandmas too! Thank you 🙏🏼
WW2: my father grew up on a farm in Iowa where the Great Depression hit first. Still he managed to get a PhD in chemical engineering. He married my “blue blood” mother who did not really notice the Great Depression. She wanted stability and a nice family. The war came and he did not even get leave for 4 years. Prewar he joked and laughed. Post war he had silent PTSD. DURING THOSE 4 years my mother went home with my older brother and new born sister to small town in Pennsylvania made rich from oil. My brother was surrounded by a plethora of doting aunts and great aunts and one great uncle whose chair at the bank was purchased by his wife (she could not see herself as a teachers wife at an elite boarding school). When my military father came home to meet his 6 year old son: it was oil and water and never ever changed ! My father seemed too tough and my brother hated him to the end! My dad was a quiet but also from a hard-.working German farmer family. What I took away from all of that was that we now are aware of PTSD but it has ALWAYS ALWAYS been there with every war along with the horrible losses of life of young men and women and innocent civilians!
The current situation reminds me of Spike Lee’s film: Do The Right Thing: As the summer temperature rises the racial tensions rise resulting in deadly tragedy. With Climate Change and more severe and deadly hurricanes flooding drought famine:
Sudan
Pakistan and India
Russia and Ukraine
Huthty Rebels -Yemen -Hezbollah -Hamas -Israel -Palestinians
And then 200 years of slowly trying to actually achieve equality and civil rights down the Trumpian drain .
I feel so so sorry to Gen Z that all of this is dumped on them!
You paint a very vivid picture Mary. One that i suspect was replicated in differing ways for many of the veterans returning home both sides of the Atlantic. I'm sad to hear of your dad's PTSD - misunderstood and unsupported, particularly in those days when 'men had to be men' and all that BS. Not to mention the hideous loss of life. And erosion of equality and civil rights...
And so it goes on. We, well those in power anyway, seem not to learn from the past...
Gen Z certainly have a s**t show to sort out.
Thanks for writing Mary x