Hard to imagine it was 100 years ago

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When I was a kid there were still WWI veterans everywhere and any number of them would be more than willing to bend your ear and share their stories. Now they've all gone on to join their fallen compatriots, and with them those stories. Time marches on without a care for any of us my friends, so you best wrest what you can from the hour glass before your own sands run out.

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We subscribed to LIFE magazine when I was a kid. I remember they ran a series for the 50th, I guess it started in 1964 when I was 12. American Heritage also came out with a big, illustrated book that I got for Christmas that year. And at that point, veterans of the Great War were in their 70s. Veterans of WWII today are older, or dead. The only two guys in my immediate family who fought in the war, both died, so there were no veterans I knew. My grandfathers had been too young, and too old for WWII.

It's weird that LIFE also ran a centennial series on the Civil War, when I was 10. That centennial of a war that occurred, at that point, a hundred years ago seemed so remote. And yet, here I am in my dotage celebrating the centennial of a war that I remember as a kid being not that remote at all.

When THE WORLD at WAR first ran on PBS in 1973, WWII had been over for 28 years. Now, when I watch episodes of The World at War, they are 45 years old, and their original airing is more remote than the war was when I first watched the series.

Time! Time! Time!

Well said Lou as I get closer to the end I marvel at how fast my life has gone. I almost morn the fact there is so much more to learn from the people I have known in my life.
John

I guess this makes me sound old, but I had an uncle that fought in WWI. I still remember the last time I saw him. He, my father and I all sat around his kitchen table discussing our various experiences. A WWI vet, WWII vet, and a Vietnam vet. That was in the late 1970's as I recall. My uncle was infantry. Somewhere I have a couple of old photos of him in France that he sent home. May he, my dad, and all the veterans who have gone before us rest in peace.

When the last veterans are gone, we lose the personal human connection to that period of time. It has already happened with the Great War, and will happen in a few years with the Second War.

When I was young, there were still people around who remembered the Great War. Now there are none. The Second War vets that I know are now getting very few in number and many of them are no longer fit enough to live on their own.

A few decades from the present day, and the events of both world wars will be nearly as remote and incomprehensible to most people as something which happened in the ancient or medieval world.

Tempus fugit!

This is why I am so greatful to have discovered this community. I have learned more (and be inspired to learn more) from the folks here than anywhere else I have been. I would love to be able to sit down with a soldier from the Great War and compare experiences.

Yeah, it was quite an eye-opener for me when I came across that interview with Tom Sopwith from 1984 recently, and realized I'd actually been alive at the same time as him - and for a number of years, too!
And World War I is such living history, still, with so much of what had been planted or culminated then still playing out in very real ways today. I was fortunate enough to grow up around many people and places where WWII had been a constant living memory - but I'm glad I've developed the same sense of immediacy with WWI over time as well. Really looking forward to being able to visit these battlefields soon and pay my respects.