education Archives • BOOMERPDX

page contents Google

LIFE CYCLE: TOMATO KING 2026

July 21, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

The life cycle of tomatoes starts with an idea: ‘Let’s do something with the space we’ve got.’ When the space includes a side yard with lots of sun? Plant that tomato.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, celebration, education, facebook, family, farmers, growing season, heirloom tomatoes, history, king, learning, life cycle, Love, MARRIAGE, married, millennials, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Social media, story, tomato, tomato king, travel, twitter, writer, writers, writing

SOCCER, FOOTBALL, AMERICAN WORLD CUP, FINALLY

July 20, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

The American World Cup showed city after city jumping for their teams. Not so much the American team in the finals and semi-finals, but the good teams. Why not American soccer? What’s gone wrong to prevent the home team from becoming regulars in the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, and the Final Four? Maybe it’s […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, baseball, basketball, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, education, family, football, game, history, learning, millennials, Portland Oregon, referee, rules, soccer, Social media, sports, story, travel, umpire, world cup, writer, writers, writing

THE ‘HISTORY ANGLE’ TO CONFUSE CITIZENS: IT DIDN’T HAPPEN

July 18, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

The ‘history angle’ is not so much a disguise as an omission, of leaving things out. Traffic on boomerpdx started coming in large numbers from China and Hong Kong, so I thought of ways to include them. Write historical posts about the events banned in their country and address historical omissions gaining ground in America? […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Amazon, America, amnesty international, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, china, death sentence, education, historical omissions, history, history angle, ken burns, learning, lifetime, Love, married, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, social media facdbook, starvation, USSR, writer, writers, writing, youtube

BUILDING HISTORICAL HEALTH WITH AN ‘EXPERIENCE’

July 16, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

The good doctor says ‘historical health’ is important for local and national well-being. The downside: you may discover things are not as you think they are. The upside: you may discover you’re better than you think. I call it Win-Win. Why?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, boomers, education, feeling better, historical experience, historical method, historical process, historical relevance, history, history bug, learning, loneliness, Love, MARRIAGE, millennials, North Bend, oregonians, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, practical purposes, reedsport, story, the vault, travel, wife, writer, writers, writing

DON’T TALK BACK TO WHO?

July 15, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

When someone says, “Don’t talk back to me,” what’s your first impulse? Give them some back talk, or shut up. You already know what they want. What about you?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: back talk, big reveal, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, boomers, education, history, learning, life's goal, Love, MARRIAGE, millennials, old enough, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, respectful, story, talk, talk back, travel, wife, writer, writers, writing

BOOMERPDX BLOG APPRECIATION SUNDAY

July 12, 2026 by David Gillaspie 2 Comments

On this blog appreciation Sunday I high five Thomas Wolfe for good luck. Again. The wife and I found him at home in Asheville, North Carolina. We parked the car, got something out of the trunk, and spent a few hours in the museum and the Old Kentucky Home around the block. We came back […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: attention, attention economy, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, blog appreciation, boomer blogger, boomerpdx appreciation, contributors, Death, dull, education, learning, Oregon, readers, rewriting, Social media, subscribers, Thomas Wolfe, writer, writers, writing

BOOK POWER TO BRAIN POWER

July 11, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

We were talking about books the other day, talking about book power, in our little salon. You know it’s a salon when the other people have thousands of books in their home after a downsize. How do you downsize a book collection? Don’t ask me, I just make another bookcase, but there comes a time.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: book, book decoration, books, books by the foot, boomer blogger, cook books, deep reading, education, history, history books, learning, library, Love, Oregon, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, reading, research, Salon, scholarship, smithsonian, Social media, story, travel, travel books, writer, writers, writing

PORTLAND RECHARGE PRIMER

July 10, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Walk down Broadway and you can feel the Portland pulse, the Portland recharge, which is no surprise when you see the volcano map. But, more than that, the city feels primed for a renaissance, a Portland Renaissance. And that means an Oregon Renaissancea? . . . new growth of activity or interest in something, […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, BOOMER, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, education, imagination, learning, Love, millennials, mind boggling, Oregon, oregon renaissance, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, portland doors, Portland Oregon, portland recharge, Portland Renaissance, story, travel, wife, writer, writers, writing

JOIN OREGON HISTORY FOR THE PEOPLE

July 9, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Oregon history is full of familiar names and places we remember from Mrs. Kraus’ third grade class. Statues around the state show them as they were. Their exploits are logged in libraries and museums. The Oregon Historical Society at 1200 SW Park, Portland Oregon is both museum and library. That’s a 2 for 1 if […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, education, historical society, learning, libraries, MARRIAGE, memories, millennials, museums, Oregon, oregon historical society, Oregon History, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, travel, wife, writer, writers, writing

NAME RECOGNITION IN AMERICA EXPLAINED, TO BE OR NOT

July 8, 2026 by David Gillaspie Leave a Comment

Two nights ago I watched Hamnet from the blue velvet couch. It’s about Shakespeare, which isn’t a spoiler. At least it shouldn’t be. With one of the more helpful movie openings, it explained that Hamnet and Hamet are the same name. The same. So I was set. Hamnet it is?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: belgium, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, college, denmark, education, family, feeling, Florsheim shoes, france, german, hippies, learning, Love, millennials, music, Oregon, paella, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, problems, Shakespeare, social change, Social media, Spain, spanish rice, story, travel, twitter, Vietnam War, wife, writer, writers, writing