It’s a good bet that many of us have no idea as to the generations and the names they were given. So, let’s take a look going back to the beginning of the 20th Century thru 2024 with your year of birth and where you fit in:
• 1901-1927 The Greatest Generation
• 1928-1945 The Silent Generation
• 1946-1964 The Baby Boomers Generation
• 1965-1980 Gen X
• 1981-1996 The Millennials
• 1997-2012 Gen Z
• 2013-2024 Generation Alpha
The Octogenarian that I am makes me a member of The Silent Generation.
History says our generation compared to our predecessors of the “roaring twenties” who were rowdy and loud, are a silent bunch. In fact, the United State census of 2019 reported that 23 million of the Silent Generation were still with us 5 years ago and that included me. In fact, most of us are now 78 through 96 years of life.
Pull up a chair and allow me to push the button on my time machine which will take us back to visit the decade of the 1940’s and 50’s with the “Silents” and the Baby Boomers. It was a great time to grow up in America especially after WWII. By that time, it was 1945 and it was elementary school for me.
Just like today, kids grew up quickly as our country was changing almost day by day. During our era there was no such thing as the internet, I-Phones, computers with Facebook, X, or LinkedIn and certainly no Tic Tok! Organized Little League Baseball didn’t arrive until 1956, Junior League Football was yet to come, and most interaction between kids came from the school years and the boy and girl scouts. Of course, all the neighborhood kids meshed very well and became close friends while playing “hide and seek” or searching for pop bottles to sell back for 3 cents each. Most all of us had a bike and during the summer you would find us riding somewhere.
Of course, my fantasy was a Huffy Radio Bike on display at Jack’s Auto that I gazed at almost every day. When I wasn’t riding my $5 bike, you would find me with my 2nd greatest possession-my baseball bat hanging out in Central Park. There were no teams to play for so my bat and I headed to Central Park to ride the Indian mounds, see the huge pond and enjoy the playground.
However, we kids of the Silent Generation did have something that came to our rescue – it was the Movies.
Funny thing about growing up in the 40’s and 50’s kids would migrate to the local movie theaters especially on Saturdays for the matinee and be gone most of the day. There was no concern for children’s safety from parents, law enforcement or other entities as the communities were just fine overall. I remember going alone to one of four movies theaters back in Ashland beginning at age 9 in 1947. My grandmother would give me 25 cents which bought my 15 cent ticket and then I had a dime to spend buying 2 five cent candy bars. I was now set for a Saturday Matinee of cartoons, previews, a chapter of Superman, movie-tone news and a double feature.
Hundreds of kids would be gone several hours and we always somehow made it safely back home.
Somehow, I remember the exact years I watched great movies and even the theater I sat and watched. A few memories of the years and the movies in which likely you may remember:
1947- Brute Force and Miracle on 34th Street
1948- Key Largo, Easter Parade, I Remember Mama
1949- Battle Ground, The Stratton Story, Sands of Iwo Jima
1950- The Ten Commandments, Greatest Show on Earth, High Noon, Sunset Boulevard
1951- The Thing From Outer Space, The African Queen, A Streetcar Named Desire
1952- Ivanhoe, Road to Bali, Shane
1953- From Here to Eternity, The Robe.
Of course, the list could go on and on.
The movies were a part of our lives even when we grew up and took our date to a movie downtown.
By the late 40’s a new medium of entertainment came over the horizon, a thing we quickly came to know and love -TELEVISION. Our family didn’t have a TV for a few years, but many of us grew up watching shows on a round black and white tube at our friend’s home. Classics such as: Howdy Doody, Fury, Saturday Morning Big Top Circus, You Bet Your Life, and of course, those Boxing Friday Night Fights.
Before TV became an anchor in most every home in America in the late 40’s and early 50’s, there was always RADIO. The one great thing about Radio was that it stimulated our imagination. I remember sitting on the floor in front of our giant floor model Zenith Radio and listening to shows such as these: The Lone Ranger, FBI at Peace and War, Little Orphan Annie, Life with Luigi, Our Miss Brooks, Inner Sanctum and Stop the Music.
If you watched the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story” about a 9-year-old boy named “Ralphie” and his BB gun, you enjoyed up close – the Magic of Radio in 1940.
However, by the mid 1950’s radio entertained us through a little rascal called – a Transistor Radio. No longer were we tied to the floor in front of the huge floor model radio. We were now liberated and could listen anywhere, anytime.
1955 brought about a young kid named Elvis Presley and a hit song “Heartbreak Hotel” that changed radio and America forever.
Well, you know the rest.
A few years later one of those Silent Generation kids became “not so silent” when he became a DJ at WIRO in Ironton, Ohio. This is where he entertained the Baby Boomer kids and everyone else on “Sandman Serenade” every weekend. “Mike Todd” was that DJ; a Silent Generation kid that grew up in the 40’s and 50’s and still entertains today. I know, because I was that young man.
It’s time to push the button on our time machine and zoom forward 85 years to today – 2024.
Next time you get a chance dig out the vintage photos of you and the family. I promise you will be greatly entertained.
In fact, I would bet you will be buying some new frames for those great photos.
Hope you enjoyed our trip back in time – I did.
Mike Tussey has “retired” from a 60-plus-year career as a play-by-play announcer for over 2000 football, baseball, and basketball games, including most recently for ESPN+. His career also includes a stint in law enforcement, teaching and coaching, and writing books, including the “Touchdown Saints.” He grew up in Eastern Kentucky and now lives in Florence with his wife, Jo. He has opened another “Door of Opportunity” and is now a regular columnist for the NKyTribune.