'Traditionalists' best this nation offered
By Jeff Ackerman, jeffa@theunion.com
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12:01 a.m. PT May 6, 2008
If I were to guess why this country may be "going to hell in a handbag," as some suggest, it's probably because we're losing a generation of tough, determined, by-the-bootstraps people.
"Traditionalists" is what demographers call them. They were born between 1900 and 1945 and have known very good and very bad times. They were raised to appreciate a hard-earned dollar, after suffering through a Depression that makes today's economic troubles seem trivial.
No credit cards for them. If they didn't have enough money to buy what they needed, they waited.
As a result, their children (referred to as Boomers) are reaping the rewards.
Much of today's wealth is a result of inheritance, as many Boomers spend what mom and dad left behind (such as real estate with lots of equity).
Traditionalists believed in leaving something to their children and their children's children. I'm afraid my generation will leave behind nothing but debt, if we continue to spend more than we earn. And we seem to be teaching our children the same bad habits.
I was reminded of our Traditionalists Friday night, when I stopped by the Lake Wildwood Clubhouse to say happy birthday to Beth Landis, who turned 85.
Her husband Dick - they've been married more than 65 years - is one of my favorite people. I got to know him through Rotary and even better through his book, "Making A Difference," whose chapters ring similar to the stories of other men and women of that Greatest Generation Ever.
The son of an Oklahoma barber, Dick grew up down the highway in Yuba City. When he was 13, he delivered newspapers for the Appeal Democrat, where, coincidentally, I'd land a job writing high school sports some 45 years later.
When he was 15, Dick got a job picking prunes and then went to work for Calpak (which carried the Del Monte label), picking peaches.
He would eventually become CEO and chairman of the board for Del Monte International, traveling the world and epitomizing the American Dream that is still within reach for those willing to dream big, work hard and persevere. Success rarely comes on a platter.
The book is also a story of giving back. That's what makes the Traditionalists so great. "We have tried to live by the Golden Rule," wrote Dick. "Giving comes back to you tenfold. You never lose by helping somebody." He quotes the 18th century English writer Samuel Johnson, who said, "The future is paid for by the present."
Dick and Beth have given more than 700 scholarships to their alma mater, the University of La Verne in Southern California, where Dick served as president (and interim chancellor) when the school was on the brink of financial ruin. There's a building with his name on it, a tribute far beyond his financial contributions. It's been a labor of love.
From a corporate office in San Francisco, he would head the Bay Area's United Way drive that garnered an unprecedented $22 million. He felt at the time that the goal wasn't high enough and that an area that large needed to step it up.
He was, of course, a decorated war veteran. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Dick and Beth were running an errand in Marysville and heard the news on the radio of his Plymouth.
"The news on the attack was a bone-chilling moment that did not lose its grip," he wrote. I suppose some of us recall a "bone-chilling" feeling on September 11, 2001. "Despite the fear that gripped our nation in those dark moments of December 1941, I knew the organizational power of our nation was so large and capable, it was unrivaled on Earth. We were the nation that created the great railroads, oil companies, steel companies. We had conducted President Franklin Roosevelt's enormous New Deal programs during the Depression. We built Hoover Dam. We had pioneered aviation and the radio. We were a nation possessed of phenomenally talented doers. We were a nation that created Henry Ford and other revolutionary captains of industry."
The Greatest Generation Ever was founded on faith. It's what sustained it and what will always sustain us when all the chips are on the line. And it ought to concern us that many have lost that faith today. I don't believe a faithless nation can endure long.
Having grown up around crop dusters, Dick knew immediately that he'd prefer to see the war from the air. He'd go on to fly P-38s and P-51s in the European Theater. "My longest day of combat came at the Battle of the Bulge," he recalled.
And so it was that this couple - whose storied lives have filled chapters - sat with friends and family on a twilight evening in Lake Wildwood in the twilight of their days. They and the dwindling numbers of other Traditionalists have given so much and when the last one finally leaves us, this nation will have lost the best it ever offered.
Jeff Ackerman is the publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 477-4299, jeffa@theunion.com, or 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley 95945.
