4 ms·
Even a smaller generational gap here: my father was born in 1920, my uncle in 1918, at time of civil war in my country (Finland). The family was not the poorest
by ptaipale 8y ago
Even a smaller generational gap here: my father was born in 1920, my uncle in 1918, at time of civil war in my country (Finland). The family was not the poorest but getting food on the table was a concern. Boys went to work in the forest at the age of 12. Uncle went through prisoner of waonr camps in Russian in 1940, father spent 1941-1944 the front, looking for bread crumbs in the pockets of any Russian KIA he'd find.
I was born in 1960's and even though the world has changed hugely since that time (mostly for the better), I never worried about having enough food. I was frustrated by my parents' need for hoarding: no old piece of cloth or broken tool or piece of scrap metal was too worn out to throw away. But I notice I have mental trouble of throwing away scrap metal or old pieces of electronics myself.
- k__ 8y agoMy grandparents always forced us children to eat up. I had to sit hours on the table.
- ptaipale 8y agoThe joke's been around for a long time, I was not very old when first time hearing sarcastically "eat your plate empty, because if you don't, some kid in Biafra will starve".
- danielsmay1 8y agoYou are the only person besides my mother (born in the late 1950s in the Southern USA) that I've seen/heard mention Biafra. Her knowledge of Biafra was due to her being told a similar thing as a child, "eat everything on your plate because there are Biafrans starving."
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoBiafra only existed between 1967 and 1970, so it wasn’t from her childhood in the 50s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra
- ameister14 8y agocool, cool. If you were born in 1958, how old would you be in 1967?
- ptaipale 8y agoI was less than 4 years old when the Biafra war ended, but it lived in public consciousness here longer due to a church [1] being built at the time, and some students spraying big red letters BIAFRA to the rock wall to protest church construction when people were dying of famine over there. It's an iconic photograph of 1960's here. Not that it would have been very easy to relieve that famine with whatever amount of money, without military intervention. Biafra received also special attention from my country because they adopted "Finlandia" by Sibelius as national anthem of their short-lived nation (with different lyrics, but same theme about rising from oppression.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temppeliaukio_Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temppeliaukio_Church
- madeuptempacct 8y agoThis is just being rational - measure the time and cost of keeping something. Any time you keep anything, it collects dust, causes a mess, takes up space, and costs you time considering whether or not to toss it every time.