Opinion: Earth’s favored children, part I

Pre-Boomers. Those of us who were born before the post-war explosion of births between 1946 and 1964 may be the last of Earth’s favored children. We experienced the best of what Mother Gaia had to offer. And what she offered was like an E-Ticket ride at Disneyland.

She didn’t give us video games, smartphones, or ADHD. She didn’t give us a choice of gender. But she gave us a freedom that today’s kids will never know. Except for “rich kids,” she didn’t give us very much in terms of material things, but she gave us sandlot baseball, played without adult supervision. We spent all day during summer and afternoons the rest of the year outdoors, breathing fresh air and solving our own problems.

Life was good, but perhaps that claim is just a fiction in our memories. Like our parents and virtually every adult in our world, we started smoking cigarettes at a young age. For both girls and boys, it was like a rite of passage. And, while many of us quit smoking, others paid the ultimate price. It seems that every utopia has at least one flaw. But, overall, Mother Gaia was good to us.