During the Pax Americana of the 1990s, most older Americans had absolutely nothing in common with their children and grandchildren. Beyond family ties, there was little that one generation could understand of the other.

For good or bad, thanks to recent world events, that’s no longer the case.

Potential destruction is one common bond. Older Americans pushed back the Third Reich. Middle-aged Americans dealt coldly with the Russian Bear. Unlike their elders, 1990s teens had no clue what it meant to fear anything. The Russians were a joke, with Boris Yeltsin their drunken, half-sane leader, and Al Qaeda was a combination of letters that might float to the top in a bowl of Alphabet Soup.

Now, the innocence of youth is no more. American teenagers fear dirty bombs planted by fanatic individuals. They imagine what could happen if terrorist groups acquired a nuclear weapon. The threats they feel are the same their parents and grandparents felt years ago, albeit from different sources.

Another tie that binds the generations is the anti-war protests. Middle-aged Americans had their Vietnam War protests. The youth now know what it’s like to take part in Iraq War protests, or see demonstrations on the news. During the George W. Bush presidency, the protests were more civil than the Vietnam era, but no less impacting.

In 2008, younger and older Americans gained an even better appreciation of each other’s psyches.

We had the gas crisis last year. Gasoline skyrocketed just as it did in 1973. As a result, the youth of America now know what the 1973 crisis felt like for their elders. We all rationed. We drove less. We complained. And just like 1973, the price eventually subsided, but not before heralding a new era of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

For leadership in government, we’re going back to the future as well. The older generation venerated John F. Kennedy and his Camelot ways. President Barack Obama is now the new JFK. The younger generation of Americans who missed the hype and hope encircling JFK need not imagine what those times were like.

Likewise, channeling another president, some regard Obama as the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Many Americans alive today can remember FDR’s New Deal. They’ll speak of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which built roads and completed numerous civil engineering projects. Obama’s version, New Deal 2.0, is getting ready to go online. Soon, those younger Americans who have only read about such massive spending initiatives in history books, will get to see another New Deal up close and in person, perhaps as they pass a road construction crew this coming summer.

And perhaps the strangest repeat of them all is something none of us ever thought could happen again, the collapse of banking, stock markets and the world’s economy in general. The second Great Depression hopefully won’t be nearly as tragic and raw as the 1930s version, but the youth are getting a good firsthand taste of what their grandparents and great-grandparents experienced. They’ve seen their parents lose their jobs. They’ve seen the stock market tank. Large and respected financial institutions have folded. People have lost their life savings. Suicides have occurred. Our 2009 is eerily similar to 1929.

You have to look very hard into the economic picture, but perhaps the only good this current ill wind has brought is a common bond between those who lived history and those who have read about it. Yes, thanks to recent world events, gone are the days when generations were unable to understand each other.

Now, the Children of the Depression, the Greatest Generation, Gen Xers, and whatever the newest generation is called all have plenty to talk about. Gone are the head-in-the-sand 1990s. All ages of Americans are – for good or bad – bound by that most universal of experiences: Struggle.

John Balentine, of Windham, is a former editor of the Lakes Region Weekly.