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The other 'one percenters' (and why you should maybe listen to them) – Daily Montanan [1]

['More From Author', 'September', 'Dave Lewis']

Date: 2023-09-09  

Only one per cent of the people born in the world between 1930 and 1946 are still alive. Google it.

Sobering statistic for someone born in 1942 as I was.

My parents were apartment hunting, Dec. 7, 1941, and heard on the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. They decided to get married a couple of days later after the United States declared war on Japan. I was born 10 months later.

My father assumed he would be drafted but he was a foreman at a mine that produced a strategic metal needed for the war effort and he was not taken to serve in the war. It was a strange set of circumstances otherwise I would not have been born for a few years because they wanted to save up money before they had a family. Depression-era young people were very cautious. My wife was born a few years later because her parents were older and had a surprise baby. But we are both one per centers.

It is a sobering thought. We are fortunately in good health, and after COVID-19, doing just fine. We are busy with family and still active. One thing I have noticed is that we are both more and more ouspoken. The filters burn out at our age and we speak our minds, particularly me, more than is probably wise. But we both feel we have something to offer. Our extended family certainly wish we would not offer so much advice, but what else do we have? Years of experience and a history of good and bad decisions have left us with a lot to say. They are forced to listen because we are family, but I certainly notice that other young people have absolutely no interest in hearing what old white-haired people have to offer.

Karen spent her working career in the school system. She has been retired for some time but hardly a month goes by without some young adult coming up to her in a store or on the street and saying “Mrs. Lewis you taught me to read or spell some difficult word.” What a legacy she leaves in this community.

I worked for nearly 50 years in state government and the Legislature. My remaining contribution is to write a few columns of observations on politics. The editor of the Daily Montanan is generous enough to publish some, but not all, of what I bombard him with on a weekly basis.

We feel gifted to be part of the remaining one per cent of our generation and pray every day that the future is good for our family and the rest of the current generations.

We have seen a lot, not all good. Prayer is all we have to offer.

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