I certainly wouldn't joke about dying young, it's a horrible tragedy.
I was merely pointing out that for someone older than myself to place such emphasis on a common enough practice back then is unusual.
Perhaps the health issues were more loudly sung in other countries at an earlier time.
The past is said to be another country but other countries obviously are too.
Both make for a different mind set from whenever and wherever you find yourself.
In the future perhaps things that we see as normal activities or entitlements (and even rights of passage) will be looked on in horror while the people doing it will be doing similarly shocking things from the perspective of their offspring.