learning Archives • Page 12 of 23 • BOOMERPDX

page contents Google

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

NO KITTY GENOVESE FOR YOU

December 13, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Would an Oregonian save Kitty Genovese? A few years back a little boy in Portland, Oregon was accidentally left on a train platform. He made it home safely with his dad. A young woman stayed with him until his father returned, just a bystander who saw what happened and took time to care. Those few minutes ended happily; it […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Cinema 21, genovese, kitty genovese, learning, MARRIAGE, NW Portland, Oregon, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, story, writer, writers, writing

MAKING CHANGE, EXACT CHANGE

December 12, 2025 by David Gillaspie

With regular money transactions heading toward ‘tap and go’, the people making change, giving exact change, are growing more rare. You’ll find them at the drive through window, picking through coins for just the right combination. “Here’s four quarters instead of a dollar,” they say. Or, “$6.50 for my grande latte half-caff with oat milk? […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, baby boomer, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, drive through, education, exact change, family, GUITAR, husband, learning, making change, MARRIAGE, mcdonalds, music, Oregon, patience, patient, Starbucks, story, time, wife, 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

WHEN ALCOHOL HITS DIFFERENT(LY)

December 8, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Alcohol hits everyone differently. Like any disruptive element, you need to find the boundaries. Saying “Let’s get a beer” to a pal who keeps going until you get a phone call from a thousand miles away should only happen once. They need to set their boundaries. But what about you?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: alcohol, alcohol hits, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomer boozer, booze, drinking booze, education, expensive gifts, fitness, gin and tonic, learning, life, lime, Love, MARRIAGE, older people, sad, urgent issue, vulnerable, wife, writer, writing, youth

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

VINTAGE LEADERSHIP FROM MID-CENTURY MODERN LEADERS

December 3, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Today would be a good day for vintage leadership from the 50’s and 60’s. The problem is that the reading I’ve done for the post comes across as a Nixon slam. Nixon was Vice President for Eisenhower in the 1950’s when everything was calm and serene, compared to the 1940’s. He was working during the […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, American exceptionalism, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, bay of pics, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Cuba, education, facebook, Guatemala, history, learning, mafia, millennials, Nixon, reputation, Russia, Social media, story, travel, twitter, writer, writers, writing