Tom Brokaw has written of the “Greatest Generation” and I certainly agree with his assessment.  My Father’s generation did things that forever changed the world.  They made the world a safer place and performed deeds that had not been done before, and to some extent, since.  I think the greatest thing they did was to produce us, the Privileged Generation. 

That may sound selfish but it isnt, for reasons which I will elaborate upon.

Men and women returned from WW II wanting a better life, a better education and a better world.  I was fortunate to be one of those who benefitted from this desire to make things better.  My grandfather made my dad quit school during his 9th grade year and go to work.  Because of that, my father did everything he had to do to make sure my sister and I had an education opportunity.  I was also given a work ethic, a religious foundation and most of all, a loving family.  Being one of many who were raised in a small west Texas town that nurtured all those opportunities.  Pecos has been many things.  It has been a place that was feared for its lawlessness.  It has been used to scare children into a less sinful life and it has been a place of ridicule for the actions of some of its citizens.  It is now a skelaton of itself as we knew it but it can still stir memories of better times.  And the hopes of better times returning.

Our home town was a place without locked doors.  There was no latchkey program because there were no locked homes unless the family was on vacation to Grand Canyon.  Neighbors knew who was out of town and who could and should be around the neighborhood.  You could tell who was where by simply looking at the cars parked outside.  The only home invasions was sand from the occasional sand storm.  No drive by shootings because everyone would have known who did the shooting withing 15 minutes.  County jail was no place to be.

All this has changed and we were unable for the most part to give our children the opportunities to live as we did.  Too damned bad, I say.  I have tried to tell my children and grandchildren how we were raised without cell phones, gameboys, x boxes and etc.  They look at me like I am from another planet.  I simply smile, look back at them and think.  If you only knew how privaleged we actually were.

Gary Homer Cowan