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BE DIFFERENT, BUT HOW DIFFERENT

December 24, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Be different, be better, be something. Just not the old coot where every day is the ol’ same ol’. It’s not the same, day after day, and neither are you no matter how you try. Why not be stable and dependable? That’s different enough.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: agreeable, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, be dependable, be different, be stable, behavior, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, different, Divorce, drifter, family, fitness, gut, gut feeling, history, leeway, loyalty, normal, normal behavior, silver anniversary, unconcerned, wife, writer, writers, writing

HOW TO GROW A SENSE OF WONDER IN PORTLAND OREGON

December 22, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Most of the time a sense of wonder in Portland means a painful memory from the days of old, of Meier and Frank downtown and the Georgian Room for tea. The place had a special aura during the holidays. The painful part? It hasn’t been there for years, Meier and Frank and the Georgian Room, […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Christmas, december, education, football, georgian room, history, hustle, married, Meier and Frank, Oregon, Oregon Ducks, painful memory, Portland, Portland Oregon, sports, story, streets, travel, urban, urban canyons, writer, writers, writing

COLLEGE DIPLOMA, JUST ANOTHER PIECE OF PAPER?

December 19, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Every time I open the sleeve and look at my college diploma it takes me back to another time. What time is that? The mid-70’s? Nooooo. Early 80’s? Noooo. But I started freshman year in 1973.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: academics, advanced degree, AI, America, American, american nobility, appointed officials, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, bachelor's, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, college, college diploma, education, equality, facebook, fraternity, history, landed gentry, learning, liberty, magna carta, master's, nobility, pfc gillaspie, PhD, public policy, U.S. Constitution, writer, writers, writing, youtube

UNCHECKED SPEECH, GUARDED WORDS

December 18, 2025 by David Gillaspie

If you’ve heard unchecked speech, then you know guarded words when someone says them. One might be a raving crack-head angling for another piece of the rock. The other might be a priest in a confessional. Each has their place, sometimes more than one place. There’s only one problem: If they switch back and forth […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, art museum, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blog, blog post, blogger, boomerpdx, booze, despair, drinking, drunk, education, family, family tree, guarded words, history, history museum, homeless, I love you, learning, Love, married, MOVING ON, old guy, old man, Oregon, speech, story, street people, unchecked speech, weight of loss, writer, writers, writing

ADULTHOOD MISUNDERSTOOD, AND THEN … ?

December 17, 2025 by David Gillaspie

You’d think adulthood misunderstood would come from some kid with ideas on who they’d want to be. But, noooooo. It’s the adults. If it were a kid, they’d have time to figure things out after a misunderstanding. What if it’s a baby boomer? What’s their excuse?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: adult, adulthood, adulthood misunderstood, baby boomer, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, education, facebook, good manners, grown man, history, learning, MARRIAGE, misunderstood, podcast, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, priorities, rossi radio, story, time passes, writer, writers, writing

EMPATHY HAPPENS, EVENTUALLY

December 15, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The man in the tap house said, “Empathy happens,” and he reminded me of how important it is to stop in for a beer when the occasion calls. I’ve known him for years, just not the way my wife knows people. She’s knows people like no one I know, so she asks questions that she […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, Baby Boomer blogger, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, citizenship, education, empathy, empathy happens, family, good person, history, leadership, learning, Maslow's hierarchy, needs, Oregon Ducks, safety needs, writer, writers, writing

WE THE PEOPLE, NOT PEE-POLE

December 10, 2025 by David Gillaspie

‘We the People’ are the difference makers others count on. Maybe not you or me, but the folks out there agitating for change, for better outcomes for themselves and their loved ones. Loved ones? You know, the people you think of when you get a warm fuzzy feeling that things are going the right direction […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Constitution, education, freedom, history, ideologies, ideology, illegal order, justice, learning, liberty, magna carta, MARRIAGE, married, millennials, Oregon, pee, pee pole, Portland Oregon, story, things happen, Thomas Jefferson, travel, veterans, we the people, writer, writers, writing

FAMILY TREE BRANCH OF RICHARDSONS

December 7, 2025 by David Gillaspie

As people age up and out they look for meaning in different places. Where some look to DNA, others shake the family tree. That’s what my Grandma did years ago. This is what dropped out:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: admiral, admiral richardson, Army, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, club life, December 7, education, family tree, following orders, future, general, general richardson, history, illegal orders, learning, Navy, orders, Pearl Harbor, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Texas state historical association, WWII

GREAT WRITING: WHEN WORDS MATTER MORE

December 6, 2025 by David Gillaspie

From Google AI on current sentence construction: Basic Structure: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) Subject: Who/what the sentence is about (e.g., Matt). Verb: The action or state of being (e.g., eats). Object: Receives the action (e.g., pizza). Example: “Matt eats pizza.”

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, books, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Death, education, family, fitness, GenX, genZ, great writing, history, inspiration, learning, married, matter, millennials, music, North Bend, Oregon, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, reading, sentence, sentence structure, story, structure, travel, words, words matter, writer, writers, writing, writing books

NOBODY FROM NOWHERE? SO FAR SO GOOD

December 5, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Some people lament being a nobody from nowhere. Not me. I’ve heard enough big shots complaining about their loss of privacy to the point of living like a shut-in. “I used to be able to go out with no one noticing. Now every time I leave the house is a big event.” Who wants to […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, be there, blogger, boomer blogger, business, dressing room, education, history, margaritas, mexican food, museum, museum business, nobody, nobody from nowhere, normal, nowhere, Portland, Portland Oregon, stories, strip club, the masses, timelines, want more, writer, writing