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OLD PORTLAND, YOUNG PARENTS

Make that old Portland, youngish parents.
Or not so old Portland, and not so young parents.
We weren’t teenagers, but if you ever want to feel like one push a stroller around downtown.
With two kids it’s like a double punishment, like sent to your room AND missing dinner.
What else?
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LET THEM, LET YOU, OR LET ME?

The Let Them Theory book has a lot of lets in the letters.
My favorites are the parts that address my problems, which come with a writing habit from what I can tell.
Will I discover why I’m not a better writer?
Learn what I should have done by now, or find a lingering message to get over myself already?
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NORTH BEND HEROES START HERE

 Calling North Bend a small town is a disservice to real small towns everywhere.
Driving south on 101 and crossing the North Bend Bridge takes you under this sign.
If you’re not paying close attention and keep going the same direction, the entire area of the largest metro complex on the Oregon coast feels like it’s all North Bend, especially if you miss the little coos bay sign.
How can the biggest city on the coast be a small town?
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READING HISTORY LIKE IT MEANS SOMETHING?

Reading history is the same as reading a story, but it comes with a bonus:
You can check the validity of the history story, check the sources, visit the places history happened and is still happening.
When old people check sources it’s because they have nothing else to do?
Baby boomers visit historical sites not to learn anything new, but to confirm their already established believes?
If this sounds like a load of crap, you are correct.
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THE LONG VIEW

As most people eighteen and over know, there is a future and they will be in it.
The big question is where?
At least it should be a big question unless you come from ‘down in the valley where mister when you’re young, they bring you up do to like your daddy done.’
Those guys never had to figure things out too much, like where will they be five years from now, and five years after that.
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toughen up

CANCER TECHNOLOGY TO THE RESCUE

How far has cancer technology come? The machine in the picture delivers radiation therapy, radio therapy, prescribed by radiation oncologists. It looks like it belongs on the wing of a jet. Standing about six feet tall, five feet deep, it hooks into the patient related gear in the treatment room. I used to show up […]

CANCER IN THE CANCER CLOSET: GROWING TREND

  “The first time we got cancer we told everybody. We gathered the team and cheered.” It’s a good idea to rally the troops, focus the force. Then cancer-time sets in. One day. The next. Weeks. Months. “How do you feel?” “Are you feeling better?” “You must be exhausted. Are you exhausted?” You don’t want […]

REGRETS FROM THE DEATHBED

Bronnie Ware Listens To The Dying On Their Deathbed. The writer worked with dying patients who told their story. She listed the top five in her book. If you’ve been with others on their deathbed, do any of them ring true to you? The baby boomer demographic may have the same responses to imminent death, […]

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boomer years

Millennial History Break: WWII-era

    It’s been a long time since history delivered WWII. A long time to learn what happened, too.   But not all are interested in the lessons of WWII, particularly the death camps where those deemed undesirable by the German authorities were warehoused until further notice.   Further notice was death for six million […]

FATHERS DAY, LIKE A BIRTHDAY BUT NOT A WEEK LONG

Ten years later our sister showed up for family pictures. Until then it was all boys. Fathers of an all boy family have problems with their Boys Club. If the boys grow up to be bad men, it’s on the them. Good men? Lucky they had such a good mom. Does that sound right? A […]

AL CAPONE: THE END OF BOOMER STORIES LIKE THIS

As Told To BoomerPDX. “…My Grandpa was a baker in Chicago, you know, bread and cakes and pastries. “One of his customers had him drive to Cicero to deliver cakes. “The customer was Al Capone. My uncles told me about it at Grandpa’s funeral. “He’d take the cakes in and the gangsters would hand them […]

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buckle up

POLICE STOP TRAFFIC TICKET SAFETY DRILL

A traffic officer pulled me over coming down the ramp to the straight stretch to the Portland (PDX) airport. Of course I didn’t think it was fair, just an opportunistic wrong place, wrong time deal. And I was ten mph over the limit. In the van were my two kids, wife, and a French exchange student late […]

BROADWAY ROSE MAMMA MIA: I WENT AGAIN AND LIKED IT MORE IF THAT’S POSSIBLE

    The first time I saw Mamma Mia: The Play, Kevin Pritchard still worked for the Portland Trail Blazer. It was about six years back when Portland had a guy who built the Blazers by ‘Pritch Slapping’ the NBA before he got fired for too much ‘Pritch Slapping.’   Mamma Mia: Touring Broadway Show […]

PORTLAND MOVEABLE FEAST: COMMUNITY

    “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” Would Hemingway say the same about a Portland moveable feast? He would if he booked Eastburn for dinner. Try […]

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