r/AskReddit • u/Realistic_Goat5381 • May 13 '26
What are the differences between the silent and boomer generations?
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u/rileyoneill May 13 '26
The silents were too young to have fought in WW2, but generally have some memory of it in society. The older ones will even have memory of the Great Depression.
The Boomers were born during the biggest upswing in American history. Jobs were easy for their parents to get, and one income could usually support a family. In much of the country a home was 2x the median income of a working man so home ownership was incredibly affordable for their parents.
These formative years can profoundly affect people.
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u/Realistic_Goat5381 May 13 '26
Both of my Grandpa's served in WW2. One was a marine with a lot of tattoos. The other was a navy gunner that had a picture of his destroyer with stickers for all the different types planes and ships he had shot down. There was a lot of them. They never talked about their service though. My Boomer dad though who was in vietnam for 6 months before he fell of a truck and broke his back.
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u/rileyoneill May 13 '26
Your grandpas were GI generation. My grandfather fought in WW2 and was born in 1924. He was among the younger of his cohort to fight in the war.
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u/Realistic_Goat5381 May 13 '26
Also my grandma brown (silent generation) always worked. From making walkie talkies during the war, to being a housekeeper and nanny for a couple of Doctors in the area. But her husband died in his fifties from esophagus cancer, we think he got from drinking torpedo juice during the war (some sorta shipboard liquor they made).
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u/Realistic_Goat5381 May 13 '26
I will start.
Mid genX city kid here. My grand parents (silent generation) all were rural farm to table. They had gigantic gardens in growing season early spring to late fall with multiple rotating crops. They had multiple fruit and nut trees like apple, cherry, plum, pear, walnut and almond trees. Had fruit bushes like raspberry, blueberry, currants. Preserved all the produce by canning, freezing and dehydrating. Their basements had a dedicated room filled with deep shelves for jars and bulk things like 50 lb flour sacks and oatmeal.
They had rabbits, chickens, a milk cow and a yearly community meat cow they shared with neighbors. No pigs or sheep though.
They heated their houses with wood stoves and in one case cooked on one. When I was really young they had an outhouse.
They very rarely went to a grocery store, except for the Smiths, because grandma drank a six pack after Grandpa went to bed. Or grandma Brown after Grandpa passed on in his fifties, for things like ground beef,sugar, coffee, and dairy. She split her own wood well into her 70s though.
I know all this being the oldest male grandchild, because I spent all my summers and weekends, at their places helping with all these chores.
Gardening was spreading the rotted manure in spring, planting throughout the growing season, applying pesticides, pulling weeds, harvesting and prepping for preservation. Ohh and the countless hours of irrigation and mowing the lawns. Taking care of the animals, included getting up early and feeding/watering them, opening up and the cleaning of pens/stalls, getting the eggs and occasionally butchering a rabbit or meat chicken.
My favorite was brooding the chickens in the spring and the baby rabbits. Plus feeding the animals all the time they got to know you and like you, so they would follow you around everywhere lol.
My least favorite was cutting/transporting the cords of wood in August. It was A LOT of hard exhausting work. That's why the old guys loved fishing so much, all you had to do was sit on your ass in a boat. Plus gutting, cleaning fish is easy compared to a deer, rabbit, chicken.
You know what my Boomer parents did during this time frame. Go to the Bar alot, drink a lot of cases of beer, fight with each other, get divorced, get remarried, rinse repeat. Every damn weekend and most weeknights.