1954-1972

"That Everard had been recruited in New York, A.D. 1954, and Nomura in San Franscisco, 1972, ought to make scant difference. The upheavals of that generation were bubble pops against what had happened before and what would happen after. However, Nomura was fresh out of the Academy, a bare twenty-five years of lifespan behind him. Everard hadn't told how much his own farings through the world's duration added up to..." (Time Patrol, pp. 114-115).

Poul Anderson wrote this story, "Gibraltar Falls," a decade and a half after the original Guardians Of Time tetralogy so, of course, he reflected that passage of time in this paragraph, which is why "Gibraltar Falls" should follow "Delenda Est" in Time Patrol. (It was added in the middle of The Guardians of Time so that "Delenda Est" could remain the climax of that volume.)

Anderson is of course right that history overshadows the upheavals of any single generation and this comparison is a good way to make the point that history is continual change. There is one other moment when the series reflects on generational differences. Carl Farness tells Kwei-fei Mendoza that he and his wife grew up in the sixties but Mendoza, based in 2319, is unimpressed.