gil, it did the same here in Australia. i'm only 40 but still remember meeting ladies who never married because there just weren't enough men left to go around.
mind you, i also remember my mothers reaction when i asked her, loudly, why the two old men we had just walked past had numbers tattoo on their arms.
it makes me sad, that to my younger children, it is all just stories they won't be able to put faces too.