The Greatest Generation

Been a rough couple weeks, dog passed, now Brother In Laws Father In Law passed last Wednesday. Set me to thinking and YES My head does hurt before ask.

My Dad was a alcoholic average 3- 1.75L bottles of whiskey A WEEK lived to be 84, my Grandmother at 100 had cholesterol over 400 yet was skinny as a rail, my Uncle(Dad's Brother) is 94 still kicking. The FIL of BIL was also 94 and all of these had the odd favor of growing up during the Greatest Generation. They also lived with DDT, Cistern Water runoff from downspouts most of the time, outhouses, garden foods covered in whatever bug pesticide of the day, leaded gasoline and many WASHED hands with, white gas lanterns not so much electric lights, Coal, Oil, Coal oil or Wood Heat and kitchen stoves, washed the houses every spring to get the winter heat grime off. They had Asbestos insulation and ducting, asbestos tiles, asbestos in ships on trains in brakes and clutches and YET or HOWEVER they survived the onslaught of all these and more into 80s or 90s some into 100s, why is it with new medicine we are losing ground?

Edited by DMiller - 24 Aug 2019 at 1:05pm

I believe it's because, on average, people are lazy as hell. It's been proven to me time and time again, if you keep moving you'll be in a lot better shape then if you stop. How many older folks do you know that get up and do something physical all day and there's nothing wrong with them? How many do you know that just sit and have everything wrong with them?

Tyler, you nailed it. When I was with the volunteer fire/rescue the ones we regularly picked up were the ones with the potato chip bag in one hand and the tv remote in the other and not all of them were elderly. The ones that worked all their lives and stayed active were reasonably healthy until the end. You can probably sweat out a lot of bad chemicals doing a hard day of work, especially in the heat. The county now has a specially modified med unit with a heavy duty stretcher, winch, and loading ramps. All right, I'll get off my soap box before someone kicks it out from under me.

I ain't say'in nuthin!

Dad lived till 93. 90% of the stuff he ate came from the garden, fruit trees in the orchard, corn fed beef and hogs. Mom is alive and kicking at 96. She did all of the canning of fruits and veg out of the garden. No preservatives of any kind. My old gal has heart problems starting last Jan. Now taking a lot of vitamins that she tested "short on" now doing better. Lot of the problems seem to come from the pre packaged junk we have been chowing on the past 35 years.

Edited by 200Tom1 - 26 Aug 2019 at 11:40pm

My dad worked hard all his life and died at 64 with diabetes that he would not take care of.  His idea of watching what he was eating was to eat something sour to counteract any sweets he ate.  Mom worked hard all her life too and died at the tender age of 103,  one day from her 104 birthday.  She was active and walked under her own power right up to her fatal day.  One time she broke her hip  so we give her a walker to help her and she would picked it up and carry it.  I am 76 and not on any medication,  I do experience bad pain from arthritis at times and have border line cholesterol.   If I would lose 35 pounds I would improve both conditions,  I am very fortunate and blessed.