[Speed Gibson,
Sunday May 29, 2005 at 11:40pm]
The Greatest Generation
With the passing of my mother earlier this year, my siblings and I decided to attend my late father's class reunion in her stead. This is held in a church basement for a town no longer on most maps of southern Iowa.
What a treat it was to spend time with 50 or so members of what Tom Brokaw so rightly called America's Greatest Generation. It was as close to time travel as I've experienced. Their town casts a tiny shadow now, but with just a pinch of imagination, standing there in the twilight, I could visualize much of what my father told me of life there 65 years ago.
On Memorial Day, we honor those who served creating and preserving this country. But the intellect, instinct, commitment and courage required to produce men and women like this flow from places like this.
What a treat it was to spend time with 50 or so members of what Tom Brokaw so rightly called America's Greatest Generation. It was as close to time travel as I've experienced. Their town casts a tiny shadow now, but with just a pinch of imagination, standing there in the twilight, I could visualize much of what my father told me of life there 65 years ago.
On Memorial Day, we honor those who served creating and preserving this country. But the intellect, instinct, commitment and courage required to produce men and women like this flow from places like this.