A Word Edgewise by Mary Joe Clendenin

Last Updated 01/20/06

For more literature go to Clendenin Books
Email: mjclen@our-town.com

We Have Been Called "The Greatest Generation"

These men and women came of age in the Great Depression, when economic despair hovered over the land like a plague. They had watched their parents lose their businesses, their farms, their jobs, their hopes. T hey had learned to accept a future that played out one day at a time…

         They answered the call to help save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled, instruments of conquest in the hands of fascist maniacs. (Quoted from THE GREATEST GENERATION, by Tom Brokaw.)

          Recently, at Ray Wright’s funeral I heard Rodger Weems quote this or another passage from the book because Ray, of this generation and had been in the service during World War II. It made me begin to think of all the men of the county who did serve. To name a few that I recall, of hundreds that answered the call:

          Ray Clendenin served in the infantry and then in the Air Force in England, where he learned about buzz bombs, air strikes, and the pain of buddies who didn’t come back from raids over Germany. He was an airplane mechanic on the U. S. bombers. Samuel Ham saw islands of the Pacific that were not peaceful vacation spots. So did Bill Hailey, Roy Carpenter, J. C. Hubbard, David Luttrell, Wendell Scott. Huey Goodman helped build a pipeline across the jungles of Burma. Erma Mae Holcomb and Penny Henson saw foreign service. That was the year that “good-byes” at high school graduation were often permanent “good-byes,” 1942. So many more were in the military—but that’s not all the story. It dawned on me that I, too, was of that generation, though the great sits rather precariously on me. I began to wonder what about the rest of us was unusual. A few things came to mind.

          We all did what seemed necessary at the time. Everyone contributed. Farmers grew food and fiber, but they also grew some different things. Fields of caster beans colored the landscape, the oil of which went to the war effort. Soy beans, also for the oil. We learned to make do, substitute, or do without. We learned to make cakes with Karo instead of sugar, to use ration stamps sparingly, to be stingy with gasoline, to enjoy a cup of coffee, because the coffee beans were scarce. We gathered up scrap metal to recycle in the manufactory of ammunition.

“Rosie the Riveter,” advertisements that appeared at the movies and in

 the papers led women, as well as men, to work in the aircraft factories. Many left the farm for Fort Worth and California and other places to work in needed industry jobs---and never returned to settle in Erath County. Wages, when compared to depression times, were great, but  people who had lived through the lean years knew the value of money. Extra dollars went for War Bonds and later for investments in homes when the men returned. Personally, I had been accepted for nurses training in Fort Worth when members of the Lone Oak school board come to me and said they could find no one to teach. No question at that time about sending students to Stephenville or Dublin. No buses. No gasoline. So, with emergency certification I began teaching. One of the big lessons our generation learned was appreciation for the things we had. The ones who went to other countries for service got a deeper understanding of the freedoms we enjoy here. The ones who stayed home appreciated radios with news, tractors to plow the fields, V letters from the loved ones away. (V(victory) letters were written on a thin paper that folded to become the envelope. They weighed less and took uniform space, and space on planes was crucial at the time.)

No one bought new cars or trucks during those war years. All the companies were busy producing war machines. New tires? No way. After that November 11, and when all who had survived war duties returned home, celebrations were short.

When the war was over, the men and women who had been involved, in uniform and in civilian capacities, joined in joyous and short-lived celebrations, then immediately began the task of rebuilding their lives and the world they wanted. They were mature beyond their years, tempered by what they had been through, disciplined by their military training and sacrifices.(Brokaw)

                    Maybe the present generation, and those in between, can learn something about coping with adversity from our generation. Again an infamous invasion has brought us together. Hopefully, we can again face the future with strength and pride. Surely the younger people need us to set examples of refusing to live in fear, but to conduct our lives with dignity. The enemy, or enemies, whoever they are, will find that we face each day with hope and determination to keep America and the American way of life functioning. We will, again, do what needs to be done to preserve our country.

          For this generation the book is almost complete. The last chapter is being written. Daily, thousands are writing “the end.” The records are incomplete but soon finished. 

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