CITY LIFE SHARING: PORTLAND OREGON

City life sharing means getting the family together one way or another for a public event.

In a hotel ballroom.

For the occasion I wore my ballroom camel hair coat handed down from my father in-law, my bolo tie from Grandpa Marshall, a Columbia vest, and my whitest white shirt over my extra-white t-shirt.

I was thinking ‘Ralph Lauren meets NE Portland.’

The destination:

 

This is the river side of Crown Plaza.

I asked about the view at the front desk.

“One end has a good view of downtown Portland, the other end we call the Bridge View. I like bridges.”

About $180 a night if I remember right. Get a ‘High Floor.’

There’s plenty of seating for busy Saturdays.

 

 

 

 

Gold Elevators To The High Floors

When I was twenty I lived in downtown Philadelphia, downtown meaning a couple of blocks from the biggest city hall in America, not a suburb, not the Main Line.

I used to walk around for fun and look into the big windows of restaurants and hotels for people who looked like people I knew.

They wouldn’t be the exact people because everyone I knew was three thousand miles away in Oregon, but every now and then I’d spot someone who looked familiar, like a movie star.

Everyone seemed in a joyful hurry, like the best day of their lives was about to start.

I’d walk by, pause, then continued wondering what that might feel like.

Well, readers, I don’t have to wonder any longer.

Yesterday was all joy and no hurry while kids and grandkids and moms and dads all sat at a round table reserved for ‘special guests.’

This baby boomer blogger was in high cotton and good company.

Someone in this picture was one of two guests of honor, also known as my wife.

She’s one of the graduates of NUNM.

Which one? I see her.

 

 

PS:

If you get an education with a professional degree and do good work with the learning, it’s not enough.

There’s continuing education, service to the profession, and practicing in a way to help everyone you see.

You do your best, keep a good attitude, and meet each of life’s hurdles with some spring in your step.

 

PSS:

One in this large group sprang toward me while I sprang toward them and this many years later two kids have sprang up, found their own springers, and now everyone’s hopping around.

If you have a once in a lifetime event, show up. You’ll be glad you did.

Things that are not once in a lifetime and therefore undeserving of the whole family tree as witness:

Dialing in your bonus points and pumping your own gas in Oregon.

Fixing a lawn mower when all you did was find and turn off the kill switch.

Writing over four thousand blog posts on the baby boomer blog called BoomerPdx without sounding like a sniveling whiner.

Here’s an exception: Vote.

Mark your ballot and deliver it into a ballot box and I’ll cheer you on like a kook.

When do we start?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch reflecting on my good day in my usual garb:

 

 

“If this wasn’t a great day, I don’t know what a great day is.”

(This was a great day and I’m a lucky dog.)