One wonders what kinds of memories our grandchildren are storing up these days. They multitask on their electronic devices, and maybe the world is a better place. It is hard to tell. We had to climb under our desks in practice air raids, a singularly futile exercise in the face of the threat of atomic devastation. Now, schools run drills on what to do if a gunman invades the building. Then, there were all the social ills we have today, but they were better hidden and less discussed—things like child abuse, rape, and crime. Then we had McCarthyism (not that we boys ever noticed) and now there's the tea party. And while it is a truism to complain that then baseball was a game and now it is "just" a business and stands under the shadow of the NFL, there is some truth to the truism. Those were the days when kids were thin, and we spent our hours outdoors. Obesity wasn't a word we ever heard of. But, it is a mixed bag, and in some ways the world is better today than it was then. The one major difference, I think, is that global warming, the greatest danger facing us all, was another thing no one ever heard of or worried about. It was before Rachael Carson wrote Silent Spring (1962) and changed our perception of the world around us forever.
Who knows if the world of our grandchildren is better than ours was. It is certainly different. Still, it was not such a bad thing, growing up in the "Age of Musial." As I say, his death brings back a flood of memories. Good ones. Amen.
