I’ve met several new old friends at the Old Folks Hotel. It turns out that although we were strangers five months ago, we have a whole lot in common. Edna, Perry, the other Bill, and I have had a bunch of birthdays and grew up in a time when farms and factories were a way of life in the south. Millennials wouldn’t know how to get up at 5am to milk the cows without a trip to Starbucks. Strike that. Millennials wouldn’t know how to get up at 5am. Period.
Speaking of Millennials, my daughter said the younger generation is now called Gen-Z. Millennials are technically those born 1981-1996. According to the internet which is attached at the hip to each one of this generation, Millennials lived through 9/11, remember when Amazon only sold books, and were the first generation to know a childhood both with and without cell phones. Google then goes on to say that this generation is known for being self-centered and entitled. Don’t get mad at me for assuming they don’t know how to get up at 5am, apparently google thinks it too. I do have a few points about this group, which happens to include 3 of my grandbrats: 1) they DO have parents who made them that way, and apparently, I’m the parent of those parents, so not sure what that means, 2) they are much more community-oriented and inclusive, well unless you voted for Trump. Then you will not be welcome on the East Coast, the West Coast, and any University that has ivy on its walls.
So Gen-Z is what we call the new group of young people. The rest of my grandbrats fall into this category, and one thing I know for sure about this generation is that they are constantly on the move. Not necessarily working, just moving. They FaceTime me at the Old Folks Hotel – yes I know how to FaceTime. My daughter grabs an IPAD, calls the number, and then puts the screen 4-inches from my face. Easy Peezy.
I never know which city my granddaughter is going to be in. My grandson has moved into more houses in the last FOUR years than I have in NINETY-FOUR. (Granted he hasn’t owned a single one of them.) My other granddaughter has traveled overseas 4 times. She is 21. Why are they moving around so much? I have a few guesses: 1) because their parents are paying for it, 2) because they are trying to run away from real life, 3) because they are trying to keep up with friends who show pictures on Facebook. My daughter said those were good guesses except for the Facebook thing; she said Gen X isn’t on Facebook, it’s TikTok. Speaking of TikToks of the clock, growing up on a farm, work hours were defined by sun-up and sun-down.. A few days ago, my new old friend Perry explained to my daughter that farm life in the 1940’s involved milking the cows twice a day, seven days a week. There were animals to feed and cows to milk who didn’t understand the concept of a weekend. A Road Trip didn’t mean a fun day down to Panama City it meant going to town to Danforth’s grocery to get necessary supplies. My new old friend Edna said her family ran one of those small-town groceries and the hours were just about as bad as farming.
My point is not that we got up at the crack of dawn, it’s that we HAD to in order to survive. It never occurred to us to travel to France just to take a picture with the Eiffel Tower while holding a latte. I’m not sure if it was a better way of life, but I have one question for these Gen X guys who protest in the streets and complain about Big Business….How’s that working out for you?