The oldest generation

If you live long enough, the oldest things in your life will, eventually, go from being merely old, to being historical. One day you'll be strolling through a museum and see some toy you played with as a child on display. Or maybe some guy on TV will declare your parents to be of "The Greatest Generation." Suddenly my parents have become museum pieces.
My dad wasn't all that keen on the past. What history did he have to remember? The Depression? The War? No, the past wasn't the place for him, or his ilk. Maybe that's why they embraced post-war modernity so much. They liked their modern ranchers, and big fin-laden cars that looked like rockets, precisely because they pointed to the future and away from history. I can't imagine him living in some retrocon Kinkade-box, getting all nostalgic over the good old days, fondly remembering his years as a dumb Polack, a migrant farm worker, and a killer of men. It just wasn't his thing, nor his generation's thing, not when they were in their prime.