One of the big loses from the second wave… Post World War II history and knowledge. 👴👵

With the second wave of Coronavirus deaths expected to hit this fall, one of my concerns is with the enormous amount of history, wisdom and collective knowledge that will be forever lost as Coronavirus raveges through our communities. Demographics suggest that the autumn wave of death will be particularly felt in many rural communities and that many of the old woodsman and farmers will be lost in that wave of illness.

The history of the 1950s and 1960s in many ways is an important one – it saw dramatic changes to communities under urban renewal and sprawl. Motoring really grew at fevered peak in the years leading up to the 1973 oil crisis. Big changes and grow happened in that era, later decades seem much more insignificant.

This era was the peak of clever electro-mechanical engineering, automation by relay and cam rather than computer. Innovative ideas and automation were done with clever mechanics rather than computer power. Old ways of doing things largely forgotten except by the older generation.

It’s important to record and document as many of these old ways of doing things as possible. We should capture the wisdom of older generation, and the last remaining mountain men and farmers who remember the old way of doing things before its too late. Maybe this period doesn’t get the respect of the Civil War but it’s still important to preserve it before it buried and forever gone.