deejayway wrote:
My grandfather was born around 1900. . . So by the time he was in his forties, he, like millions of his contemporaries, had lived through two world wars.

Yes. And with a world-wide economic collapse between the wars.

My father was born in 1917. He grew up during The Great Depression and, as a very young man, served for over three years in the U.S. Navy during WWII in the South Pacific. All his life he was very matter-of-fact about the circumstances of his life, like it was no big deal - everybody else was suffering too.

For decades to come, those people of the early 20th Century will continue to be, indeed, The Greatest Generation.