Piper on Adolescence

John Piper gave a biography on his father Bill this afternoon (who died last year). He said the following about him and the age in which he was born:

“People grew up much faster those days. My father was married at 19 and establishing his family. At 20 I wasn’t even sure If I would ever be married. I couldn’t figure this out - why such a difference in generations? Then my wife reminded me that adolescence had not yet been created. Frank Sinatra was born 4 years before my father, and he was the first teenage idol. The word teenager did not even occur in the English language until 1941. The overlap between children and parents and what they enjoyed together was much greater than it is today.”