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HISTORICAL ADVENTURES: REAL LIFE vs MY LIFE

November 24, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Last night we reviewed historical adventures at my local five star with friends Some of us had a hand in it, one of us made things up. Guess who is who? Even I got confused, so much so that I have to get things straightened out. How does a baby boomer blogger do that? By […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: adventure, adventures, Albany, America, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, cluster bombs, education, family, historical adventures, history, Iraq War, North Bend Oregon, paper, screen, spy, spy story, story, travel, Vietnam War, writer, writing, WWII

LIFE LESSONS START EARLY FOR OLD MEN

November 19, 2025 by David Gillaspie

As a middle child myself for fourteen years, life lessons were important. We learned early to share with smaller kids, and not whine too much when older kids didn’t. Was there a learning curve? There’s always a learning curve when learning is involved. It’s not for everyone, to say the least, but . . .

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: aging, America, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, education, family, fitness, history, kids, learning, lesson, lessons, life, life lesson, life lessons, MARRIAGE, married, men, millennials, North Bend, old men, women, writer, writing

HOW TO STAY SHARP

November 14, 2025 by David Gillaspie

You stay sharp by asking questions, by hanging around people working on answers. But you know that. I know you know based on analytics, which says we can’t all be morons. Statistically speaking, of course. Take smoking cigarettes for example.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, analytics, asking questions, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, hanging around, leadership, leading, leading cause, morons, writer, writing

SEPARATION DAY, EVERY VETERAN’S DAY

November 12, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Separation day is the day you become a veteran. You get your papers and hit the road. My veteran road began in New Jersey, Fort Dix to be specific, which has a new role to play. The Army road began in Fort Ord, which also has a new role. From one September to another two […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, Baby Boomer blogger, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, boomers, Death, destruction, Elvis, historical video, leadership, leadership training, learning, MARRIAGE, married, military, North Bend, older, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, separation day, story, u.s. Army, veteran's day, Vietnam, war, war zones, writer, writing

FANCY PARTY, OR JUST ANOTHER DAY?

November 5, 2025 by David Gillaspie

I’ve been to a fancy party. One. And it was fine. It was also enough. The purpose was to mingle museum staff with board members. The place was a twelve thousand square foot home in Portland’s West Hills. It was a beauty and worth dressing up for. I wore my nice jacket.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, blog, blogger, board members, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, education, fancy party, fancy people, fund raising, history, MARRIAGE, millennials, money, nice, Oregon, parties, Portland Oregon, rich, rich guy, rich people, stunning redheads, travel, writer, writing

ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE

November 1, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Part of the job in writing a blog like boomerpdx is reading The New Yorker. That’s where I found The Fifties by Monica Ferrell. She’s got a website loaded up with the works. The works?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, another place, another time, attentive, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, duty, education, frank o'hara, history, marathon man, Monica Ferrell, new yorker, Oregon, place, poem, poet, poetry, Portland, the fifties, the New Yorker, time, why you, write, writer, writing

LONELY PEOPLE: FROM HEMINGWAY TO AMERICA

October 27, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The answer: lonely people. The question: What does the band America have in common with Ernest Hemingway? Their bond comes from both ends of male adulthood, young man to old man. One sang about them, the other wrote about them. By now baby boomers are both.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: adulthood, aging, America, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Cat Stevens, Ernest Hemingway, family, future, GUITAR, history, loneliness, lonely, lonely people, mistake, neil young, old man, relationship, travel, writer, writing, wrong thinking

READING LESSON: WHO? WHAT? WHERE?

October 19, 2025 by David Gillaspie

A reading lesson is more than the title for a blog post, more than a list of books, but it’s not more than you need. If you didn’t know, now you know. I need a lesson, you need a lesson, we all need a lesson. After a writing lesson, I’m here to help. All ready? […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, Baby Boomer blogger, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, boomerpdx reading, boomerpdx reading lesson, boomers, booze, choose carefully, education, great gatsby, Love, normality, Oregon, party life, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, predicable normality, predictable, reading, reading lesson, sex, writer, writing

THE OTHER PORTLAND OREGON

September 28, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The other Portland once had a reputation as a place for rich hippies to retire young and send their kids to Reed College. If that was the 70’s those kids might be fifty or sixty years old; thirty or forty if they started a family late, or decided to have more than one family. Since […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blighted area, boomers, commander in chief, education, Eisenhower, family, hippies, kids, learn, millennials, Oregon, Oregon duck football, Portland, Portland Oregon, president, Reed College, retire, rich hippies, south portland, teddy roosevelt, travel

DIFFERENT STORIES FOR DIFFERENT PEOPLE

August 14, 2025 by David Gillaspie

New stories, different stories, hold our interest. No one hangs with a snoozer story that repeats itself until a predictable ending. It needs cliff-hangers, narrow escapes, unimaginable risks to overcome. Most of all, it needs a hero, someone to cheer for, someone to welcome into our hearts. What does a hero need?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, attention, citizen, citizenship, democracy, different, different people, different stories, entertainment, following orders, freedom, hero, kidnapping, law, law abiding, law and order, laws, people, primetime, readers, readers' attention, registered voter, stories, submitted, tactics, television vision, Tom Hanks, truth, United States, villain, voter