JIGSAW GENS
Frugal Gatsbians — The Dust Bowl Microgeneration
As the youngest Hemingrebels and the oldest G.I.-Gens, this cusp steered us toward modern commercialization after having survived destitution
For what has seemed like an eternity, negative stigmas have been attached to human age. Elderly people are dismissed as stodgy or senile. Kids and teens are written off as reckless or delusional. And even middle-aged people get pegged as drab or arrogant.
The truth is: these personality traits and conditions exist in every age bracket.
They’ve been present at every point in history.
And each age cohort endures internal divisions when it comes to both ideology and behavior.
“Intergenerational literacy” is what can teach us about these differences. How did specific historical circumstances drive younger people, middle-aged people, and older people to react in such disparate ways? What impact did warfare or economic chaos have on people when they found themselves in distinct phases of life?
This is why I’ve been developing “Jigsaw Gens” — an anthology that glimpses at root causes of ageism across the centuries. With an emphasis on American history, it explores how generational priorities changed from one decade to the next.
A broad blueprint for tracking these “generations” is my collection of 27 cohorts that are roughly divided by birthyear:
Parliamentarians | Concentrics | Inflectors
Kingdomites | Cavaliers | Magnas
Glory Warriors | Lumineers | Enlightening Rods
Septennials | Liberty Lords | Goodpublicans
Madisonians | Unimpressionists | Transcendentals
Redeemers | Golden Renegades | Stowegressives
Missionaries | Hemingrebels | GI-Gens
Traditionalists | Baby Boomers | GenXers
Millennials | Zoomers | Alphas
However, there is a certain level of fluidity to these generational cohorts. Any divisions by one’s birthyear are merely an approximate guide. As one generation transitions into a subsequent generation, we should create “buffer zones” for defining those transitional periods. These calendar-centric cushions are also known as “microgenerations.”
If you fall along one of these “cusps,” you may relate to a mixture of life experiences endured by people who are slightly older than you — as well as those who are slightly younger than you. Some “cuspers” lean more heavily toward one of the two generations bordering their transitional zone.
By considering how differently cuspers confronted the world — compared to people who fell more centrally into “proper” generations — we can gain a better understanding of how and why American history itself has evolved.
Today, I’ll be discussing a microgeneration whose members were born during the early- to mid-“Nineteen-Aughts.” I call them the Frugal Gatsbians.
Who They Are
Frugal Gatsbians were born approximately between 1902 to 1906 — give or take a couple of years on either end. They represent the transitional period between when the youngest Hemingrebels (“The Lost Generation”) turned into the oldest GI-Gens (“The Greatest Generation”). This makes them the first American microgeneration born after the turn of the Twentieth Century.
They were the first cusp born into an America with a prolific array of sports (as the New Wordsmiths mainly played baseball, football, and golf in their youth). Most were too young to serve in World War I. However, by the time World War II had rolled around, they were in their late-thirties and early-forties — so those Frugal Gatsbians who were physically able served in combat (or commanding) roles as Americans joined the Allied forces against Nazism.
I have assigned the nickname of “the Dust Bowl Microgeneration” to the Frugal Gatsbians because they were young parents when the Depression-era “Dust Bowl” created crop failures during the 1930s. As teenagers, they survived the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic and soared into the Roaring Twenties. Sadly, they were the prime child-bearing cohort at the beginning of the Great Depression.
Frugal Gatsbians learned policymaking throughout World War II and the Cold War. They became (great-)grandparents during the tumult of 1960s counterculture, Nixon-era corruption, Carter-era stagflation, and Reagan-era austerity.
“Frugal Gatsbian” is a term significant as a mashup of Great Golden and Hemingrebel legacies. This microgeneration would teach their younger siblings and eldest children how to be frugal in the face of depression and warfare. But they would also boast fond memories of Great Gatsby-style decadence from their youth. Their microgeneration was nestled in-between the two longest-spanning American generations whose birthyears encompassed abnormally-long periods due to being casualties from both World Wars (Hemingrebels dying during World War I, and GI-Gens dying during World War II).
Their Early Lives
Born into Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, Frugal Gatsbians grew up in a wonderous new world. The Wright Brothers were making airplanes hip and desirable. American baseball culture continued to surge with the Rose Bowl and the World Series. The Black-led Civil Rights Movement would have more seeds planted via the Niagara Falls Conference. Amidst all of this, Frugal Gatsbians were just little babes when the San Francisco Earthquake hit.
They learned to walk and talk as the U.S. improved its relations with Japan. Automobiles, race-car driving, worker safety, and greater public outrage against crime sprouted across a landscape that would mold the Twentieth Century’s ambiance. The NAACP gained a foothold in America’s political discourse.
In their years prior to puberty, Frugal Gatsbians learned from their parents (and from mass media) about the sinking of the Titanic, the end of the Philippine-American War, the opening of the Panama Canal, and the women’s suffrage movement. More directly, in their daily lives these kids saw the popularity of the Girl Scouts, the assembly line, Mother’s Day, long-distance telephone calls, and public divisions over America’s involvement in World War I.
By 1915, the sinking of the Lusitania would foreshadow all-out warfare on the European & Pacific Theaters in future decades…and The Birth of a Nation augured increasing brutality of Jim Crow.
When They Came-of-Age
As part of an upward trend, the average life expectancy of a Frugal Gatsbian child would involve living until around the age of 50. This average was probably balanced by overall rising lifespans versus the heavy death toll of American soldiers in both World Wars (who overwhelmingly belonged to the Hemingrebel and Great Golden generations — between which the Frugal Gatsbian microgeneration was sandwiched).
Frugal Gatsbians were teenagers when airmail, Hollywood movies, radio, the NFL, and Daylight Savings Time became mainstays of life. Maritime skippers were considered to be “rock stars.” Their other childhood heroes included Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Louise Brooks, and “Uncle Dave” Macon. Approaching young adulthood, The Great Gatsby, Steamboat Willie, The Big Parade, Amos ’n’ Andy, and The Jazz Singer were important cultural emblems for this cohort.
During World War I, Frugal Gatsbian kids had been no older than 16. This meant, for the most part, no one from their microgeneration was serving in “Great War” combat. Afterward, they approached legal adulthood as the Spanish Flu Epidemic spiked. Although the U.S. tried to adhere to President Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” and the Nine-Power Treaty (based on the deceased John Hay’s “Open Door” policy) during its Interbellum Period — Frugal Gatsbians would experience the Great Depression’s devastation as they began rearing children of their own.
At the same time, the Temperance Movement resulted in Prohibition (via the Eighteenth Amendment). 1917’s Espionage Act created barriers for free speech, and the First Red Scare (including the Palmer Raids) targeted socialists & communists. The Black Sox & Teapot Dome Scandals and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre highlighted a rotten core of corruption. William Jennings Bryan attacked John Thomas Scopes over theories of evolution. A “mini-depression” during the early-1920s served as a precursor to the Great Depression that would occur within a decade.
The Frugal Gatsbians’ adolescence and emerging adulthood saw battles over equality congealing. Amidst the Silent Sentinels’ demonstrations (culminating in the Nineteenth Amendment) — Jeannette Rankin, Edith Wilson, Nellie Tayloe Ross, and Amelia Earhart proved women’s competence in professional life. America’s Black population migrated northward; the Tulsa Race Massacre was one of the most egregious examples of racialized anti-Black violence. Even as Indigenous tribes (and U.S. Virgin Islanders) were granted American citizenship, Asians and Southern & Eastern Europeans were heavily subjected to immigration barriers.
How They Shaped The World
Nurturing their own children, Frugal Gatsbians faced the distinct challenge of raising kids and teens during the Great Depression and into the beginning of World War II. They were given relief by the New Deal (including an “Indian New Deal” for Tribal Nations in 1934). Notably, the Glass-Steagall Act, establishment of the SEC and Social Security, and the Works Progress Administration gave many Americans an initial sense of stability. Prohibition ended via the Twenty-First Amendment. Puritanical norms in mass media took hold based on the Hays Code and J. Edgar Hoover’s tutelage at the FBI. Protectionism and isolationism were fiercely debated with the enactment of measures such as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff and the Neutrality Acts.
Audio-visual entities associated with American culture included The Star-Spangled Banner, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the Hoover Dam, Looney Tunes, Superman, the Billboard Hot 100, Alcoholics Anonymous, and The War of the Worlds. As the “Dust Bowl” lingered, people stood in awe at the discovery of Pluto, frozen vegetables, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1939 televised broadcast from the World’s Fair.
By the time FDR had been elected to an unprecedented third term (even surviving an assassination attempt by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933), Frugal Gatsbians had reared Depression Babies (the soon-to-be Traditionalist generation) amidst additional short-term crises: the Lindbergh kidnapping, the fatal John Dillinger manhunt, Huey Long’s assassination, 1936’s Tupelo-Gaines tornadoes, and the Hindenburg explosion.
Sinclair Lewis (of the Hemingrebels) warned the masses about the excesses of consumerism. Pearl Buck (also a Hemingrebel) wrote The Good Earth to humanize the people of China. Robert & Helen Lynd (Hemingrebels, as well) explored the concept of small-town values. Jesse Owens (a Great Golden) took a stand for racial justice (and against fascism).
As the United States entered the second World War against Axis Nations, the Selective Service Act normalized the presence of conscription within the lives of American men (and boys).
Entering their forties, Frugal Gatsbians lived in an America energized by Rosie the Riveter amidst rationing of gasoline & sugar. As FDR won yet a fourth term to the White House, Broadway success was born with the smash hit Oklahoma! Within five months of FDR’s death (due to a cerebral hemorrhage), Nazi Germany and Japan had both surrendered.
Fortysomethings of the 1940s witnessed the horrors of the Cocoanut Grove Fire and the Detroit Race Riot. Under Harry Truman’s presidency, radio and television prospered in a postwar environment: The Ed Sullivan Show, Broadway Open House, I Love Lucy, See It Now, and televised airings of the World Series. Benjamin Spock’s (himself a Frugal Gatsbian) child-care guides, U.F.O. theories in the Roswell crash’s aftermath, athletic superstardom for Jackie Robinson (a GI-Gen), the Polaroid camera, Charles M. Schulz’s (another GI-Gen) Peanuts comic strip, and The Catcher in the Rye (authored by J.D. Salinger, a younger GI-Gen) penetrated the social discourse.
Frugal Gatsbians faced a climate of dueling international and domestic tensions. The espionage of Alger Hiss, the outer-space odyssey of primate Albert II, a new breed of communism from Mao Zedong, testing of RDS-1 by the Soviets, and Germany’s sectarian fission would fuel U.S. policies of the 1950s. The razor-thin Truman/Dewey race of 1948 only emboldened supporters of McCarthyism — and, on the flip side, intensified anti-American nationalism (as shown through the Collazo/Torresola assassination attempt on Truman).
World War II dramatically changed America’s domestic landscape: anti-Asian racism (courtesy of Japanese-American internment camps), the Congress of Racial Equality, the G.I. Bill, participation in the United Nations & NATO, the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, the Marshall Plan, military desegregation, and Cold War fever after Truman dropped atomic bombs on Japan. On a global scale: the Nuremberg Trials rebuked Nazism, while the Philippines gained independence.
The last of the Stowegressives died out in the 1950s, following Truman’s failure to pass his proposed “Fair Deal.” Under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Korean War proceeded to stab a post-WWII chink in America’s armor.
Increasingly, Frugal Gatsbians grappled with their own mortality. Those who survived into their fifties watched the massive successes of The Today Show, The Tonight Show, McDonald’s, Disneyland, To Kill a Mockingbird, the polio vaccine, Bonanza, and the phenomenon known as Elvis Presley. Julius & Ethel Rosenberg were infamously executed for espionage. Big-screen superstar James Dean died in a traffic collision, while the Clear Lake Plane Crash (“the Day the Music Died”) claimed the lives of three rock n’ roll icons. Brown v. the Board of Education made strides toward racial equality, but Emmet Till would be brutally murdered by white supremacists only fifteen months later.
None of the U.S. Presidents came from the Frugal Gatsbian cohort — although it did generate one U.S. Supreme Court Justice (William J. Brennan). Some of this microgeneration’s most prominent lawmakers were Thomas Dewey, Mike Mansfield, Hiram Fong, and Strom Thurmond. Working for the government, Eliot Ness enforced Prohibition laws and Melvin Purvis made high-profile FBI arrests.
U.S.-based tensions with Central America and Latin America became inflamed in the wake of Operation PBSuccess and the Cuban Revolution. Alaska and Hawaii gained statehood. Sputnik and the U-2 Incident boosted an ongoing “space race” between the United States and the Soviet Union — in response to which, NASA was created, and Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 flight thrived. The Kennedy/Nixon race further divided Americans. In Southeast Asia, the Viet Cong rose to power. East Germany erected the Berlin Wall.
At the height of their legislative power, Frugal Gatsbians imposed quotas in immigration even while reviving the naturalization process for Asians. Operation Ajax set off tensions between the United States and Middle Eastern nations. President John F. Kennedy founded the Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress — but his failures at the Bay of Pigs soured an already-tenuous relationship between the U.S. and Cuba.
Moving into elder status as sixtysomethings, Frugal Gatsbians began writing their wills as Marilyn Monroe died — and assassinations were carried out against JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy Sr.
Spider-Man’s heroism and everyman relatability flourished as MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech turned the tide on racial consciousness. The Ghetto Riots overlapped with “Bloody Sunday” and the “Long Hot Summer of 1967.” Thurgood Marshall was the first Black person appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Muhmmad Ali stood up for his right to be a conscientious objector.
Three years after Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, she helped Shirley Chisholm, Muriel Fox, and Pauli Murray to form the National Organization For Women (NOW). These Great Goldens inspired future generations of women. Beatlemania rippled across the U.S.; by 1966, color had been fully implemented on primetime network television. One year later, the Super Bowl debuted and “the Summer of Love” dallied. Apollo 8 took flight…whereas the 1968 Democratic National Convention showed how liberals with prowar and antiwar differences were looking for a fight.
Bar none, the most momentous conflicts of the Frugal Gatsbians’ early elderhood were White people who resented the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — along with antiwar demonstrators protesting how President Lyndon B. Johnson had botched up the Vietnam War. But Americans also benefited from the JFK/LBJ-era Limited Test Ban Treaty, enactment of Medicaid & Medicare, 1965’s Higher Education Act, 1966’s National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, and 1968’s Fair Housing Act.
This juncture of American history also saw people of Latine descent increasingly recognized as a racial category distinct from White citizens. The conviction of Ernesto Miranda (a younger GI-Gen) led to the creation of Miranda rights. 1965’s Immigration and Nationality Act reshuffled U.S. immigration policy to be more inclusive of BIPOC folks while prioritizing skills and family reunification. Chicano students demanded social justice reform by staging the East L.A. Walkouts.
American music wouldn’t have its renaissance until the Traditionalists (“Depression Babies”) grew into their creative roles. But a number of Frugal Gatsbians blazed trails as singers and composers: Bing Crosby, Josephine Baker, Lawrence Welk, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Earl Hines, Richard Rodgers, Harold Arlen, Roy Acuff, and Tex Ritter.
They did, on the other hand, immensely help their Great Golden “little sibs” to revolutionize the profession of acting. Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, Bob Hope, Greta Garbo, Henry Fonda, Clara Bow, Stepin Fetchin, Anna May Wong, Iron Eyes Cody, Dolores del Rio, William Bendix, Janet Gaynor, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, and Margaret Hamilton were Frugal Gatsbians who all stepped into this role. And, amongst these performers, Arthur Godfrey became one of the first media personalities to merge his radio broadcasting career with regular TV appearances.
Science advanced under Frugal Gatsbian innovators such as J. Robert Oppenheimer (physics), Barbara McClintock (genetics), George Hitchings (chemotherapy), Grace Hopper (computer science), Charles R. Drew (hematology), William Warrick Cardozo (pediatrics), Albert Sabin (virology), Carl Rogers, and B.F. Skinner (the lattermost two specializing in psychology).
Frugal Gatsbians were responsible for inventions which included:
Charles Lindbergh’s perfusion pump.
An early flight simulator designed by Luther Simijan.
Peter Carl Goldmark’s photographic disc.
And, to enhance the business community, some of their cohort’s most lucrative contributors were:
Ray Croc’s stewardship of McDonald’s.
Billy Wilder and David O. Selznick becoming Hollywood’s earliest hyphenates.
John D. Rockefeller III’s philanthropy on behalf of education and historical sites.
Hollywood productions and aerospace endeavors spearheaded by Howard Hughes.
Bugsy Siegel’s mobster activities.
Among the most famous Frugal Gatsbian writers: John Steinbeck, Clare Boothe Luce, Ogden Nash, Ayn Rand, Countee Cullen, Jovita González, Arna Bontemps, and Lillian Hellman. Women and BIPOC journalists from this cohort followed the Hemingrebels’ example of globalizing news headlines: Marvel Cooke, Alice Allison Dunnigan, James Sakamoto, Ted Poston, Ollie Wright, and John Preston Davis gained standout prestige.
Frugal Gatsbian artists ranged from Ansel Adams to George Nakashima to Theodor Seuss to Victor Gruen to Isamu Noguchi. The cohort generated effective activists in Ella Baker, Karl Yoneda, William H. Hastie, Virginia Foster Durr, Philip Vera Cruz, and W. Dorr Legg.
In addition to baseball (Satchel Paige, Moe Berg, Lou Gehrig), Frugal Gatsbian athletes rose in a wider diversity of sports than ever before — golf (Gene Sarazen, Glenna Collett-Vare), boxing (James “Cinderella Man” Braddock), tennis (Helen Wills Moody), and swimming (Ethelda Bleibrey).
Those who survived the 1960s may have wanted to believe America’s turmoil would subside. Alas, they would have been woefully wrong.
Their Golden Years
Once the 1970s arrived, Frugal Gatsbians prepared for retirement. The United States was still being shaken to its core: the Stonewall Riots, the Kent State Shootings, and continued unrest over the Vietnam War. Rockers such as Jim Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison overdosed on drugs. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Woodstock promoted peace. Roe v. Wade represented bodily sovereignty. President Richard Nixon leveraged diplomacy by normalizing U.S./Chinese relations. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment gave eighteen-year-olds the right to vote. And, as the Vietnam War ended — a federal investigation into Nixon’s Watergate Scandal commenced.
Watergate wasn’t the only crisis during this decade: the Arab Oil Embargo, 1974’s “Super Tornadoes,” and two separate assassination attempts (by “Squeaky” Fromme and Sara Jane Moore) on President Gerald Ford also plagued news headlines. U.S./Soviet relations slowly improved in the aftermath of The Helsinki Accords and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). By the time America’s Bicentennial had come and gone, a small number of Americans were using VCRs, video game consoles, and home computers. Elvis Presley’s death saddened the nation.
Frugal Gatsbians continued to pass away as the Carter years transitioned into the Reagan years. After two decades of chaos, the American psyche was still getting pummeled with anxiety: Harvey Milk’s assassination, Three-Mile Island, the Iran Hostage Crisis, the eruption of Mount St. Helens, Mark David Chapman murdering John Lennon, and John Hinckley’s failed assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
While Reagan had both staunch supporters and angry opponents, his policies undoubtedly altered America’s landscape: mass incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders, demands for deficit reduction, the Iran-Contra Affair undermining public trust, debates over law-abiding gun ownership, and lowering the federal income-tax rates. Bernie Goetz was indicted. The Challenger exploded. Young parents began to obsess about AIDS, child abductions, and pedophilia.
The longest-surviving Frugal Gatsbians perished as the Berlin Wall fell, the Gulf War ensued, the World Wide Web surfaced, the U.S.S.R. dissolved, and the L.A. Riots flared. David Koresh, Tonya Harding, Lorena Bobbit, Eric Rudolph, Timothy McVeigh, and O.J. Simpson were pariahs of the 1990s.
As the last microgeneration to be fully deceased (as of the date of this writing), most Frugal Gatsbians wouldn’t live to see the political fallout from the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal.
In that sense…they were the lucky ones.
Here are 10 prominent Americans from the Frugal Gatsbian cohort:
Members of the previous microgenerations were named…
Colonial Zygotes | Turnip Squeezers | Starving Timers
Long Climbers | Rumpus Rebels | Emerald Knights
Royal Raiders | Pre-Continentals | Bottled Beacons
Primordial Founders | Aucto-Septennials | Public Liberators
Cradled Explorers | Liberty Babes | Defiant Giants
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