My yiayia (grandma) turned 91 years old last month and was
born in 1922. There have been drastic changes in the world and how we live from
that time to now. My yiayia grew up on a farm in Michigan and her family of six
helped raise and produce the vegetables and fruits. That is much different than
how I grew up as a young girl. I grew up in a house in the northwest suburbs of
Chicago and had much less responsibility. The households were much different as
well. My parents got divorced at an early age and my yiayia mentioned that back
in her time divorce never crossed anyone’s mind. Now, it is rare to see married
couples making it without a divorce. My yiayia talked about how dating was much
different than today. She said she used to go dancing at the Aragon ballroom
and she can’t believe that people no longer go dancing. My yiayia and papou
(grandpa) were married at a young age and worked extremely hard for their
fortune. My yiayia said that if you worked hard you could make a great deal of
money and now it’s much different. My papou worked as a salesman at a Chevrolet
dealership and was one of the best. My yiayia was able to go on work trips with
my papou and travel around the world. They went to work events where the wives
were given costly gifts. This type of treatment in a work setting is very rare
now. You are lucky if you are receiving a paycheck.
I learned that my yiayia’s sister traveled to Greece and
caught a disease and died at the young age of 32. I knew her sister passed away
early on, but I did not know the cause. My yiayia also mentioned that she
enjoyed living in Chicago because many of her family friends lived in the
Chicago area and it allowed her to keep in touch with her Greek heritage, as
that was a very important aspect of her life. My yiayia married a Greek man and
still to this day surrounds herself with people of the same culture. She
attends church and enjoys the social aspect and continues to talk proudly of
her heritage.
The community that my yiayia grew up in was much more
closely knit than today. She surrounded herself by people that shared the same
culture and spoke Greek and continued to hold onto her cultural roots through
her life in the United States.
An very nicely written reflection Caroline! You’ve done a great job delineating the generational differences and how in each era people, such as your yiayia's lives, values and identities are intersectionally shaped by the cultural, political, regional, economic, technological and familial forces prevalent during the time that in turn shapes our communication structures.
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