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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

FAMILY PETS NURTURE LONG MARRIED COUPLES

September 8, 2025 by David Gillaspie

“Family pets are for kids to learn about caring for animals.” That makes sense to me. Feed the fish, walk the dog, pet the cat. Then everyone grows up and moves on. That’s when I had ‘the conversation’ about a new dog.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Children, couples, family, family pets, grooming appointment, husbands, kids, long married, married, married couples, nurture, Nurturing, Pets, sweet talking, the dog, toenails, Walking, wives

MY TOGETHERNESS: HOW IT STARTED, HOW IT’S GOING

September 1, 2025 by David Gillaspie

My togetherness started in my mom’s backyard with the girl in the blue summer dress, the one she wore when I first saw her. We seemed to get along okay in NW Portland, so I took a flier and had her meet the family. Everyone was in Eugene for my granddad’s visit from Texas. My […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: digestion, family, fun day, good day, granddad, how it started, how it's going, kids, Love, MARRIAGE, my togetherness, Naturopath, personality, sassiness, staying together, together, togetherness

INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY FADES WITH NEW TEAM

August 27, 2025 by David Gillaspie

I’m a fan of institutional memory, the part that solves nagging problems that don’t go away on their own. Unfortunately, the people who hold it can be a part of the problem. In small business, the new fixer comes in with knowledge gained in a good school, and experience from the last job they fixed, […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: big boss, businessman, family, generational upside, good school, great expectations, institutional memory, Ivy League MBA, mba resume, money making, nagging problems, personal, problems, small business, supply chain, workplace, wrong hire

CONTINUING LEGACY, CONTINUING STORY

August 6, 2025 by David Gillaspie

When a continuing legacy includes another brick in the wall, or sidewalk, it’s a reminder. Who does this? I do, as part of a group, a family group. What’s it a reminder for? The path ahead.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Army, brick in the wall, continuing legacy, continuing story, family, family group, farm raised, first house, Grandparents, history, LA, legacy, legacy brick, live chicken, memories, NYC, pfc gillaspie, philadelphia, reckless, regular army, shadow, shadow girl, story

LIFE CHOICE MAKES YOU GREAT

July 26, 2025 by David Gillaspie

One life choice can make all the difference. Things were tough on the Oregon Trail and people needed a break. The Donner Party started with a little known shortcut through the mountains. If you don’t know the story, click here. It turned out to be the wrong choice.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blogger, blogger life, boomerpdx, earth, education, explore, failure to communicate, family, following orders, france, German leadership, history, human awareness, life, life choice, living life, millennials, paris, shameful reminder, space, tank man, writer, writing, writing life, WWII, your life

MUTUAL INTEREST FOR THE LONG HAUL

July 24, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Start with mutual interest, something you both like. In the beginning every new discovery is a happy revelation. “You know how to cook? So do I.” “What’s this?” “Dinner.” “Oh.”

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomers, blogger, boomerpdx, common ground, discovery, family, happy revelation, learning, learning experience, long haul, MARRIAGE, millennials, mutual interest, online audience, online presence, Portland Oregon, special people, special time, story, thirteen years, what's what, wife, writing

PUBLIC PEOPLE IN PRIVATE PLACES

July 6, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Public people are just like the rest of us. They just find themselves in front of cameras more often than not. Now that everyone has a camera everyone’s a journalist, everyone’s a star. And everyone loses a little more of their private place.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: better day, camera, cosmetic surgery, downstream, family, friends, goals, journalist, new friends, old friends, private, private places, public, public people, star, upstream, vision, wrong direction

TOP DOG? OR LAST DOG

June 18, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Every dog I’ve had in my married life has been the top dog, starting with Lucky. We were talking about it when the kids were small. One of my wife’s friends heard about the talking and called to say she had one for us. The perfect dog.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: best friend, dog, family, good girl, kids, lucky, nurture, Nurturing, perfect dog, pet, promise, stray, top dog, wife

MARATHON FAMILY MATTERS

June 17, 2025 by David Gillaspie

This is my marathon family. We all lived in Seaside at the time. I couldn’t tell you any of their names because I don’t know them. But they’re still family, temporary family.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: aspirations, athletic ability, divorced, dreams, family, family life, goal, marathon, marathon family, marathon man, parents, permanent family, real family, relationship, runner, temporary family