baby boomer Archives • Page 11 of 59 • BOOMERPDX

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LONG BEACH FROM PORT TO FLEA MARKET

September 22, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The Long Beach Flea Market, or Antique Market, occupies twenty acres of Long Beach City College once a month. It’s a full house of everything you’d ever want to see, just maybe not all in your house. The exciting part, like shopping any flea market, is the big score. If it’s not something you’ve been […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: antique market, baby boomer, beanie babies, boomers, Chinese toys, collectible, collectibles, flea market, full house, Gen alpha, gen x, gen z, good luck, hot wheel, Long Beach, long beach city college, Los Angeles, ma and pa, mid century modern, millennials, Pokémon cards, san Pedro, shipping container

HISTORY MAJORS DECLINING? SO WHAT

September 15, 2025 by David Gillaspie

History majors in decline is the story. ‘So what,’ is the response. Is there a historical reason for this? There’s always a historical reason for everything. Here’s the ‘so what’ part for you:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: anger, baby boomer, blame, boomer brain, college, cultural, dropout, education, emotional response, extra money, family, family event, fools, fun, help, higher education, historical, history, history major, history majors, learning, male emotion, school, shared conclusion, strike out, time, touchstone . cultural touchstone

MATERIAL WORLD, AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT

September 3, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Mashing two words together to make ‘material world’ brings up a long list of ongoing problems, some more distressing than others. Scientific American shares this story from 2020: Human-Made Stuff Now Outweighs All Life on Earth Artificial objects have gone from just 3 percent of the world’s biomass in 1900 to on par with […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: art, art gallery, artist, artists, baby boomer, blogger, BOOMER, boomers, building, cement, concrete, creation, data, drawing, engineering, frank lloyd wright, gallery, glass, interpreter, material, material world, millennials, permanent, Picasso, steel, temporary, temporary forest, towers, world

TENSION AND RELEASE, THEN REPEAT

August 24, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Honest Abe knew all about tension and release. When things got a little too tight for the old rail splitter, he grabbed his other axe and let it out. Some say he was a rocker, some say a folk singer, but he was a blues man. Look at the way he’s working the fifth fret […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, baseball, baseball mitt, booze bay, childhood, cliff diver, cliff diving, college kids, Coos Bay, diving, emergency, health, health emergency, make decsions, men, merchant marines, no-tell motel, normal men, purchasing history, release, repeat, tension, tension and release, tension release

UNIFORMED SERVICE: THE SOFT TIMES

August 22, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The uniformed service is the backbone of every country that uses effective traffic control on their busy streets. It’s either the guy in a uniform pulling drivers over for traffic violations, for not following the rules of the road, or before traffic lights, a guy in a uniform directing traffic in the street like the […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: army shirt, army uniform, baby boomer, bank robber, bank robber beer, beer, BOOMER, code of silence, England, follow orders, following orders, history, legacy, Magic roundabout, man trust, mask, matching outfits, no mask, shame, shameful, soft times, traffic control, uniform, uniformed service, uniformed services, wanted poster

HUMAN PROJECT OF YOU

August 16, 2025 by David Gillaspie

A human project is easy to find. They’re all around because everyone is a project in some stage of completion. The secret? It’s never complete, but there are signs of progress.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, better performance, BOOMER, future, good times, grace, granddad, helpful, human, human project, husband, joyfully, kids, Kurt Vonnegut, memory, Moana, movie night, nice, normal, parents, remember, sharing, Social media, today is the day, wife, work in progress

MY PEOPLE, YOUR PEOPLE, OUR PEOPLE

August 12, 2025 by David Gillaspie

My people are good listeners, up to a point. Requesting something five time in a minute is close to that point. “Please do this. Have you done it. It’s all set up for you. Get started. You’d be done if you’s started sooner.” We also have patience. What about your people?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, believable people, blog, blog post, BOOMER, boomerpdx, existential dread, fair question, good listeners, millennials, my people, old man, our people, patience, those people, write, writer, writing, your people

COMMON GROUND? IT’S OVER THERE 👉

July 23, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Common ground is where you stand with your people, whoever and wherever they may be. It’s a place to relax and drop your guard. Say the wrong thing? Impossible. Wear the wrong clothes? Just don’t leave a stain on the furniture. You’ll know the place when you get there; and you know you’re not there […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, cheap, common ground, dreams, empty nest ghetto, empty next, fabulous houses, ghetto, hopes, party, responsible, retired, reunion, sacred ground

READING BOOKS CREATE NOVEL IDEAS

July 21, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Reading books are a lifeline to another time. Not everyone gets it; not everyone thinks they need a lifeline. I don’t start reading a book with that in mind, but when I finish a good one it feels like the writer tossed me a line. That’s the good news. I’m of the mind that berating […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, blogger, Blogging, blurbs, books, BOOMER, boomerpdx, character, compilation, country music, drugs, hard sell, Johnny Cash, lifeline, mysteries, new ideas, reading, reading books, rock and roll, sex, story, universal truths, writer, writers, young mom

GOOD FORTUNE: ACCIDENTAL OR PLANNED

July 13, 2025 by David Gillaspie

My happy good fortune could never be planned any more than a shark chooses their favorite remora. It’s all been a long string of happy coincidence. Just another fat baby boomer taking up space in comfort and luxury. That’s me. How about you, same thing? Probably not, but check with younger people to know for […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: accident, accidental, America, baby boomer, bad boyfriend, blog, blogger, blogger attention, BOOMER, boomer blogger, boomers, Constitution, fortune, good fortune, history, Jakes, law, misfortune, Oregon, planned, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, shared concern, staged, unmasking, veritable quandary