“Come in, number 7, your time’s up!” yells Ringo Starr during his extended scene in A Hard Day’s Night. He’s along the river and is teasing (or “taking the mickey” out of) the folks who rent out boats.

It has recently hit me that the Silent Generation is really aging. That’s the generation that got sandwiched between the GI Generation (with all its glory) and the Baby Boomers (with their numbers and culture-shifting power). I’ve lost several Silent Generation folks that I love in recent times. And several others that I know and love are failing (I hate that term) in various ways. It feels like their days are starting to be numbered, and that’s what made me think of the “your time’s up” quotation – though it’s not funny in this context.

It hits me hard that this generation is largely living in its final decade or so. Partly, as a member of Generation X, I relate to the Silent Generation. We were born into a similar generational situation, sandwiched between the Baby Boomers and the huge (and culture-shifting) Millennials. Small, slightly cynical, power-challenged generations, unite!

But also, the Silent Generation is largely the generation that raised me. The Baby Boomers were like the cool “big kids”, kind of like big sisters/big brothers/older siblings. But my father was, and my mother is, a member of the Silent Generation. Most of my school teachers and many of my troop leaders and music teachers and coaches were members of the Silent Generation.

I am “precious-ing” them (to turn the adjective into a verb, forgive me). I can never repay all that the Silent Generation has given me, and my generation. I am grateful.