Coos Bay Archives • BOOMERPDX

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THE LONG ROAD OF FAMILY LIFE

December 21, 2024 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

The long road of family life in the good old days started with moms and dads in the lead. Whether they loved each other like soul mates, or hated each other like oceans do shorelines, they stayed married. I’m not looking at statistical data when I say they stayed married, it’s just that I don’t […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Coos Bay, Divorce, divorced parents, family, family life, long road, married, North Bend, old days, old rivals, Oregon, Oregon Trail, parents, rival, rivalries, rivalry, road visions, senior citizen, tualatin, visions, younger people

FALLING LEAVES OF AUTUMN

November 22, 2024 by David Gillaspie

Falling leaves are the rule of the season. The only place without a carpet of leaves is a parking garage. But that’s Oregon, famous for trees.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: beer, complaining, Coos Bay, falling, falling leaves, green, leaves, North Bend, Oregon, trees

LEAVING TOWN IN THE 70’S, A MICRO MEMOIR

April 19, 2024 by David Gillaspie

When you say you’re leaving town for good it doesn’t start with a packed bag. You need to let the landlord know, the boss know, your friends. The best town I ever left was the Brooklyn borough of New York City. See ya, suckers.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: brooklyn, change, Coos Bay, dorm life, every day, fashion, got dumped, leaving, leaving town, memoir, micro memoir, most days, moving, new you city, normal people, philadelphia, prettiest eyes, Wall Street, wardrobe, women, work buddies

REWRITING HISTORY: HOW HARD CAN IT BE

April 15, 2024 by David Gillaspie

People are rewriting history all of the time and don’t know it. If you repeat what you’ve heard to one person, and it turns out to be not accurate, what’s the big deal? Not so big for one person, but what if you repeat what you know to be false to millions of people? Do […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomers, blue dress, BOOMER, boomers, c-span, cancer, conservatives, Coos Bay, graduate, high school, hippie, history, job, legal weed, lessons, MARRIAGE, millennials, money, normal people, North Bend, poverty, premarital sex, profession, rewriting history, sex, stories, story, wife, writer, writing

CHEMO STORY FROM THE MEMOIR WIP

February 22, 2024 by David Gillaspie

One chemo story is not much different than another: Cancer diagnosis, testing, further testing, test some more, then sign up for the juice. Not much different until it’s you, and it’s your story. So why not write it? Here’s what it looks like:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blog, blogger, cancer, cancer chemo, chemo, chemo infusion, chemo story, Coos Bay, fitness, health, infusion clinic, memoir, new normal, North Bend, story, strong, warm blanket, write it, writer, writers, writing, your story

OREGON SPORTS ILLUSTRATED COVERS AND MORE

January 20, 2024 by David Gillaspie

Oregon sports didn’t begin with Steve Prefontaine, but he was the first Oregonian on the cover of Sports Illustrated. At least that’s what the smart-guy talent online say. Sports Illustrated and I were born the same year. With the end of the magazine this week everyone is sad. I’m sad even though my subscription lapsed […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Al Hirshberg, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Coos Bay, dan Jenkins, David Gillaspie, Ducks, football, front office sports, John Devaney, Justin herbert, Oregon, oregon sports, Oregon Sports News, sports illustrated covers, sports writers, Steve Prefontaine, the sports gallery, underdogs, voodoo duck, writer, writers, writing

BEACH TOWN? THERE’S ONLY ONE

January 11, 2024 by David Gillaspie

Beach town is where I grew up. We had beaches all over the place, surrounded by beaches. But it was a bay town, a town on Coos Bay. Just not Coos Bay.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: bastendorff beach, beach, beach town, blog, blogger, BOOMER, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, boomers, Cannon Beach, Coos Bay, David Gillaspie, education, family, fitness, horsefall beach, husband, husbands, MARRIAGE, my town, oregon beach, Oregon Beaches, Portland Oregon, sunset beach, travel, wife, wives, writer, writers, writing

SPORTS FAN REVIEW: IN THE BEGINNING

December 1, 2023 by David Gillaspie

Sports fan knows one thing: Rivalry. Without rivalry, sporting events resemble theater without the curtains. With rivalry we feel something deeper, way deeper, way down there. If you come from a certain time and place the only rivals that mattered were the Marshfield High School Pirates. But, everyone grows up. Right?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, blog, blogger, boomerpdx, Coos Bay, David Gillaspie, education, football, history, losing, marshfield, millennials, North Bend, practice, quit, quitter, ready wrestle, rivalry, SPORT, sports, sports fan, win, winner, winning, wrestle, writer, writers, writing

BETTER VIEW FOR BETTER TIMES

August 25, 2023 by David Gillaspie

This better view comes from Front Street in Coos Bay. Better than what? It’s a better view than the parking lot outside my motel door, but I’m not complaining. A ship, a bay, and a dream of discovery. What else would you want?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: better view, blogger, boomerpdx, Coos Bay, North Bend, north spit, observer, Oregon, view, water view

HOMEWARD BOUND FOR NORTH BEND TOWN

August 23, 2023 by David Gillaspie

Homeward bound will always be North Bend, Oregon. For me, maybe not you. What feels like a nice memory is more than that. Let’s go with a living testament to the hardworking people who still call it home. Hard working?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: bulldog, class of 1973, Coos Bay, family, fishermen, fishing, hard work, hardworking people, high school reunion, homeward bound, logging town, North Bend, North Bend Bulldogs, North Bend High School, Oregon, pumped up, seventies, work