Recalling a Happy, American, Childhood
Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart This is a “grandpa story.” I want to tell you all about my childhood. I know that I was lucky to have grown up in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I truly feel sorry for today’s children who never knew what it was like to be a child in America after the end of WWII. I cannot relate to what it was like for a child under the age of 12 or 13 to be a child before WWII or in the 1970’s and beyond. I can tell you without reservation that no one in history had a greater childhood compared to my own, and I feel a deep sense of gratitude every time I think of my younger life. I had a serious health emergency at the age of five. It was only a few years ago when I understood what the root cause of that situation was. My father was physically and mentally abusive. He cursed my mother and physically assaulted her for as long as I can remember. I feared and hated him. One of the greatest days in my life was when he left us for the last time when I was 12 or 13. What I didn’t know then ...