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TRY ME? EVERY FATHER’S HOPE

September 25, 2025 by David Gillaspie

“I’ve got three boys,” a former football star said. “I’ve got to stay in shape because they’re going to try me.” Try me? Do we all know what that means? Probably not if you didn’t try your Dad. But you did. Right? You did? How did that work out for you? How does it ever […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomerpdx, boomers, boxing gloves, dream, family, father, fighting, fitness, football, high school wrestlers, history, MARRIAGE, momma, mother, Oregon, Portland, Portland Oregon, skills, sports, story, strangers, tech talk, try, try me, try them, uppercut, wife, wrestler, wrestling, writer

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

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

MARRIED WEED COUPLE LOSING GRIP

August 13, 2025 by David Gillaspie

What happens when a weed couple changes their stance? When one of them decides to light up and the other doesn’t? If they are baby boomers, you’d expect them to do something baby boomer-ish, like write a letter to Dear Abby? No way. They’d sit down, after fifty years of marriage, and figure it out. […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: addicted, Baby Boomers, bong, bong rip, boomer problem, boomers, burn and learn, cannabis, dear abby, dear wife, direct action, Divorce, dope, drug addict, drugs, husband, lighten up, marijuana, MARRIAGE, married, nar-anon, observation, Oregon, oregon weed, Portland, pothead, rock and roll, sex, sex life, smoker, smoking, smoking marijuana, video games, volatile mix, wake and bake, weed, weed couple, wife

HOW TO SURPRISE YOURSELF

July 18, 2025 by David Gillaspie

How often do you surprise yourself? A: More often? B: Less often? This isn’t a survey or a poll so relax. However . . .

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomers, beauty, boomers, bulldog beauties, community, Coos Bay, coos bay beauties, coos river beauties, culture, dignity, experience, familiarity, golden ticket, grace, hometown, how to, Joel Mansfield, manners, married, material culture, need, small town, surprise, surprise yourself

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

WRITTEN RULES TO FOLLOW

July 12, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Written rules started early for baby boomers. “Do this, not that, and do it better than you did last time. I’ll write it down so you don’t forget.” From yard work to school work, to spending time with friends, there were rules. Ignore the rules and you might be the kid standing in the corner […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Army, Baby Boomers, boomers, condition report, following orders, law, magna carta, Meaning, NPR, Oregon, oregon guys, Portland, reading, reading people, rules, rules of conduct, words, write, write it, writing, written, written rules

DRAWING A LINE IN WATER

June 6, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Drawing a line in the sand is different than drawing a line in the dirt. Sand is related to the beach, dirt is everywhere. One line lasts until the next tide, the other until the next rain. As you can see both are affected by water. But why draw a line in the first place?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: boomer blogger, boomers, D-Day, dieppe bay, drawing a line, eavesdropper, education, friend, friendship, hippies, historical work, history class, history major, history writing, kids, listening, Love, MARRIAGE, millennials, opting in, opting out, rebellion, Slapton sands, story, summer, talking, writer, writers, writing, WWII

POWER RULES WRITTEN TO FOLLOW

June 2, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Power rules come in a variety of formats including written, verbal, and example. The written ones seem to carry the most importance since we’ll never know the verbal or actions of history. Unless it’s written down. Once direct orders are written down, the next bit of documentation is the recollection of events, the after-action report […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, baby boomer, better stories, books, BOOMER, boomerpdx, boomers, documentation, education, family, first historian, germany, history, history books, history writers, informed decision, japanese, kryptonite, power, power distribution, power rules, rules, stories, story, trauma, unconditional surrender, war, wife, write, writer, writing, written, written down, WWII

CARE MORE THAN WHAT?

May 31, 2025 by David Gillaspie

“Care more about what you can change,” is the mantra I like. There’s something on your shoe? Clean it off. Your house plant is drooping? Water it. The basics are still basics.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomers, basics, blog, boomerpdx, boomers, care, care more, caring, consequences, difference, education, goodwill, kids, Love, make a difference, modern times, smile, unintended consequences, uplifting message, wife, writer, writing