I had so many discussions with my grandmother that my mother never had with her. The Silent Generation were humble in a way boomers aren’t. But you had to pry at them to get the nitty gritty stuff out. They didn’t like sharing the unpleasant. In that way they really sheltered their kids. They gave boomers so much while hiding them from their traumas. Ok it leaked out in “tough love” but they spared them from a lot of ugly they went through. They never wanted their kids to live that.

The Silent Generation wasn’t perfect but they carried on fighting for unions, broke knuckles on politicians and were the last bastions against fascism. I really think they thought if they didn’t put light on the shadows they would disappear, that their kids would be safe. But in doing so we lost something.