I was going to put this in the News Submission section and then thought better of it …
Matt Weiner often points out that while the show is set in the early- (now mid-) Sixties, it really shows how the generations blend, and that hardly anything is exclusively “period” except for some objects like new cars, new toys, etc. He says that the office, the Drapers’ home, etc. are really 50′s, since people don’t actually throw everything away each year and buy all new stuff. Instead, we replace things gradually. At any given moment, everything in our lives could be 5-10 years old.
This extends beyond objects to people and society – in fact the entire context of the series has that effect – and the writing constantly makes that argument. Case in point, the scene at Westchester Country Club in Maidenform. It’s Memorial Day 1962, and they stop the proceedings to applaud the WWI Spanish-American War veteran in the room. He’s old and frail, but he’s there, and it strikes the viewer that WWI such veterans of older wars were still dotted among the population in 1962 – probably quite promiently (2MM Americans served).
That is, until yesterday. Frank Buckles, “the last of the WWI doughboys” died this weekend.
Sought out for interviews in his final years, Mr. Buckles told of having witnessed a ceremony involving British veterans of the Crimean War, fought in the 1850s, when he was stationed in England before heading to France.
I’m sure stories like this were around in 1962 … the last soldier from the Civil War. The last Union fighter. The last Confederate. And 100 years from now, the last to fight in Afghanistan, the last to fight in Iraq.
Sadly, we cannot foresee when a soldier will be designated The Last to Fight.
Frank Buckles, Last World War I Doughboy, Is Dead at 110
8 Responses to “Frank Buckles, 1901-2011”
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Actually, I believe the old man in “Maidenform” was a veteran of the Spanish-American War (1898), which only reinforces the notion that the oldest generations of soldiers are forever fading away.
“I remember the first time I was a pallbearer. I’d seen dead bodies before. I must have been fifteen. My aunt. I remember thinking, ‘They’re letting me carry the box. They’re letting me be this close to it. They’re not hiding anything from me now.’ And then I looked over and I saw all the old people waiting together by the grave, and I remember thinking I . . . I just moved up a notch.”
Dev F – you may be right! Thanks!!
I have friends who are in their 60s, and their parents are dying. They’re starting to look around, and wonder “when did we become the older generation?”
Grandpa Gene’s generation is slowly fading away.
When I read about the death of Mr. Buckles, I thought of my maternal grandfather. He died in 1957, when I was 3.
I only have one distinct memory of him. I’m not sure how old he was when he died, but he served in France during World War 1.
My other grandfather died in 1958, so my memory of him is also pretty limited, but both of my grandmothers lived until the late 1980s. I was about 5 or 6 when my paternal great-grandmother died. She came to America from what wasn’t – then was – and now isn’t Czechoslovakia. I’m not even sure she ever learned much English (at least I don’t remember hearing her speak it).
My parents were born in 1923 and 1926. My father died in 1995 and my mother died in 1997.
I’ll turn 57 in June, which I can’t believe! My formative years were the 1960s, so I relate to Sally Draper, who I think was also born in 1954.
If/when Season 5 gets underway, I’m guessing that we’ll see Sally moving into that common generational mindset of “not trusting anybody over 30″ and there’ll be many changes/adventures in store for her.
My grandfather was a World War I veteran who was born in 1895 and died in 1962 when I was 10 so this article hit home. I also remember watching veterans of the Spanish American war marching for July 4th in Asbury Park in the 60′s and they were the dying breed at that time.
The last Union Army veteran of the American Civil War was Albert Woolson of Duluth Minnesota who died in 1956 at age of 107. Three Confederate veterans are believed to have lived into the early 1960′s. Their enlistments and service records, however, are in dispute. The Union Army records are official.
The Maidenform episode does have one minor flaw in it. The United States Army uniforms worn at the Westchester Country Club are not the Uniforms worn by commissioned officers of the United States Army in 1962. The United States Navy Uniforms worn are correct. Considering Mad Men’s characters clothing has been 99.9% correct, no big deal. The Uniforms are the US Army Uniforms of World War II and the Korean conflict.
Thank you for sharing this story. I missed the obituary in the paper but enjoyed reading it. My grandfather was a WWI vet who died when I was 11. I remember seeing WWI veterans riding in cars in the Memorial Day parade and we bought red paper poppies to put in our lapels. My father used to talk about seeing Civil War veterans in the parade when he was a boy.
When my father died, I felt the great sadness of losing him, but I also feel I have lost a connection to my family’s and my country’s history. He knew people born into slavery and people who fought for their freedom. Amazing.
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.