What three events most shaped your life?

There are a couple of ways of looking at this: 1) what were the pivotal events in my life, and 2) what historical events had the greatest impact on my life.  I have already talked about the pivotal events of my life.  The top three would have to be: serving a mission, marrying your mother, and going back to school to become an educator.  The top historical events would be: The Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War.

My parents were both children during the Great Depression.  The learned how to get by on little or nothing.  Fix it, patch it, make it do, or do without.  They both understood the blessing of work.  The impact on me was that I learned the gospel of hard work, in the home, in the garden, at school, and on the job.  There were times as a young man that I felt that the purpose of work was to earn money so that I could have fun and recreation.  Now I understand that the happiest people find joy in serving others through their chosen profession.  This lesson was a direct result of the parenting I received by two who weathered the Great Depression.
   We didn't waste anything growing up.  We were expected to clean our plates.  In those days reference was made to the "starving children in China."  Things have changed.  I still have a problem not cleaning my plate.  Even at school lunch when the food isn't that good, I have a hard time scraping leftovers into the trash.
  I didn't experience the Depression myself, but I felt it.
 
   World War II
 
   When I was a boy I remember my drawings being very much filled with scenes from WWII: mostly airplanes with stars or swastikas on the sides and wings, or tanks, or ships.  The real impact of WWII on my life was growing up in the America which had rescued the world from Hitler.  American pride and nationalism was never greater.  It wasn't the kind of American nationalism that you see now with the slogan, "America First!"  It was a feeling that you could go anywhere in the world and people would treat you with respect and honor because of what America had done.  Now, perhaps that notion was a false one, but it felt that way.
   I grew up in an era of great prosperity brought about by two things: one was the work ethic of America coming out of the Depression and coming home from WWII, and the second was America's domination of world trade due to its positioning following the war.  This didn't mean that I grew up in affluence, but it meant that I grew up in an America where the ability to clime from poverty into affluence was real and easy to pursue--for many.

The Cold War

   The Cold War would impact my life in two ways: first, the Cold War generated the Space Race.  The year I was born the Russians put the first satellite into earth orbit--Sputnik.  That little spiked ball that circled earth giving of its beep, beep, beep radio signal scared America deeply.  That fear drove America into a furious program of science and math development that would eventually put Neil Armstrong on the Moon.  American education put strong emphasis on those subjects.  The cliche when I was young was that boys would grow up to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an Indian Chief.  Or an astronaut.  Sears was marketing John Glen action figures with a space capsule that could be purchased separately.  It's the one toy from you youth that I can remember really wanting, but never getting.  I wanted to be the first man on the moon, though I didn't really understand the path I would have to follow to be that.  In the summer of 1969 Neil Armstrong accomplished my life's goal.  I think I drifted aimlessly after that.  (Just kidding.)
   The Cold War also gave us nuclear testing.  In the years following WWII, America executed many above ground nuclear tests.  Most of these were carried out in Eastern Nevada.  The prevailing winds carry fallout eastward, or into Utah.  Most of that fallout settled in the Utah mountains, of which the Wasatch Front was eminent.  This meant that the water that irrigated the fields that grew the alfalfa that fed the cows from which I drank milk carried irradiated calcium which would end up in my bones.  The effect was so pronounced that people from Utah County to Saint George are often called "Downwinders."  Those from Nephi Utah and southward who were raised during that era and who since then have developed cancer receive an $50,000 downwinders check from the US Government.  I was raised just north of the line drawn by the government, so I get nothing.  I have no doubt that the line was drawn where it was because south of Utah County at the time was not very populated.  Utah County was a population center and the government's liability would have been much, much higher if they had paid out for those people.  I'm not going to say that I am angry or that I feel somehow cheated.  It is just an arbitrary line as far as I'm concerned.  And so far, Mother and I have sufficient for our needs, and that is enough for anyone.  But there is no doubt in my mind, or in the mind of my doctors that my cancer, and probably my mother's as well was caused by the fallout from those nuclear tests.  You can't play with that kind of power without consequence.
   Finally, the Cold War caused for me, much fascination with Russia.  This fascination was heightened by my belief that someday the doors of that country would be opened to missionary work.  When I found that there was a Russian class offered at Orem High I signed up for two years.  In those days it was required of young men to take a language aptitude test when submitting mission papers.  I don't know how I scored, but I'm certain that I scored well.  I know that the church was already preparing to send missionaries into Russia.  When I was about 15, I heard LeGrand Richards prophesy that the doors of Russia would soon open to missionary work.  So, when my paperwork came through with high language aptitude, and already some background in Russian, I was sent to the Finland, Helsinki mission, along with other Russian speaking missionaries, of which there weren't many, though I had a companion in the MTC who spoke Russian well enough that it messed with his attempts to learn Finnish.
 
   Those were the times out of which I grew.  America is a different place now.  Those things are still in our past, but they are far enough in our past that when the next depression hits, we will not know what to do.  Our lives are so automated, and internet dependent, that in a depression we would suffer greatly as a nation.  We are not ready to live the way we had to live to survive in the 1930's.  The vast bulk of our population is city bound, and would be in terrible want if the trucks stopped rolling groceries into the stores.  That day is coming.  I guess my proximity to the Depression in time makes me fear the day when it will come again.  I know that the current generation of Americans does not fear nuclear war enough.  It does not fear economic disaster enough, even though we narrowly escaped such in 2009.  We are not ready, and the death toll will be terrible--biblical in the next depression or the next world war.  The righteous will be in the hand of the Lord, so there is no need to be overly fearful.  But there is reason to repent and to prepare.