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throwaway_ghast t1_j9rx53e wrote

Decent chance they met with future WWII veterans that may still be around today. When you think about it, this country really isn't that old.

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Category3Water t1_j9rz0vh wrote

My great great grandfather served in the confederacy as a teenager. My grandfather‘s grandfather. My grandfather served in WWII and only died within the last decade. That makes the past seem close. Theres a greater truth in that I grew up in an area that was majority black and so most of the kids my age had grandfathers that served in WWII as well, but didn’t get a GI Bill. And their grandfather’s grandfather had a lot riding on the outcome of the civil war as well. Maybe more. This country isn’t that old.

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fulthrottlejazzhands t1_j9twiel wrote

My great great grandfather was a Chaplin in the Civil War (got him literally straight off the boat at Ellis Island). His son was a doughboy in WW1. His son, my grandad fought in Italy, Normany, and the Bulge. My dad was a chopper pilot in Vietnam, in the shit, as it were.

I fought bravely and with distinction in the War Against Al-Qatala on PS4.

Edit: on a serious note, I was lucky enough to know my great grandfather whose father, in turn, was in the Civil War - - and I'm not that old.

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HighHcQc t1_j9trha6 wrote

If you are over 25 there is a good chance that you knew someone who knew someone from the 1800's.

My grandfather was born in 1937, his own grandfather was born in 1876 and lived until the 1960's...

Crazy to think about.

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Andy_Liberty_1911 t1_j9ty30j wrote

My grandfather was born in 1911 and I knew him a little when I was young. Not quite your statistic but close!

Also apparently my dad had an aunt who thought Porfirio Diaz was “very handsome in uniform”. Pretty insane someone in my family met the Mexican dictator like that.

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20BensonLikeAGoodLad t1_j9uqln1 wrote

I have a neighbour who was born on the 1st of July 1916, the day the battle of the Somme started. He is still alive at the age of 106. If someone were to live to 106 in 1916, they would have been born in 1810.

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ascoult t1_j9ulb3w wrote

I think you may need to adjust your '25 years', people born in 1998 probably did not meet anyone from the 1800s.

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HighHcQc t1_j9uo8ba wrote

My younger brother was born that year and knew my grandfather. He is the reason why I chose this number. Also, I didn't say that anyone over 25 met someone from the 1800's. But that anyone over 25 met someone who met someone from then.

I never met anyone from the 1800's.

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