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EVERYBODY COMES FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE? GET OVER IT

January 4, 2026 by David Gillaspie

Q: Where are you from? A: All over the place. Q: Where did you grow up? A: It’s a long list.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, crime, crime family, do more, education, failure, family, feelings, fitness, fraud, history, kingpin, laundromat, learning, Love, personal essays, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, soliloquy, sonnet, story, Sunset Park Brooklyn, write something, writer, writers, writing

HOW TO WRITE, WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT

January 2, 2026 by David Gillaspie

How to write seems self-explanatory. Why bother is the real question. My Grandma on my Mom’s side passed this pearl of wisdom along: “Smart people talk about ideas, normal people talk about places, dumb people talk about other people.” With that mind, who are the big gossips in your group?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, autobiographical blogger, autobiography, biography, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, boomers, education, family, history, learning, millennials, Oregon Ducks, Portland Oregon, proust, sports, story, Thomas Wolfe, wife, write about, writer, writer heaven, writers, writing

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY DOES THE WORK OF TWO

December 30, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The entertainment industry is where you go with time to kill and you don’t workout. Pick up a book, a screen, go to a play. The last one, go to a play, is different because now you have to make plans for your anticipated spare time, which means scheduling, which is another word for work. […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, crime, education, entertainment industry, family, fate, government services, history, learning, leisure time, Love, MARRIAGE, married, millennials, Portland Oregon, prison, punishment, spare time, story, travel, watergate, wife, writer, writers, writing

CONSISTENCY OVER TIME FOR THE WIN

December 29, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Consistency over time is not over-rated. Not under-rated either; some people call it a life-style. Others call it a habit of boring people. Well, if the name fits . . .

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: atiyeh's, big joke, blogger, boomer blogger, boomers, consistency, couch, dead drunk, different scene, dog, education, family, guitars, history, improvement, kids, learning, Love, MARRIAGE, married, music, OVER TIME, rug, song, story, travel, under promise, vodka, wife, writer, writers, writing

COLD WAR HISTORY FOR BABY BOOMER BEGINNERS

December 27, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The Cold War? Even the name sounds dismissive. Are today’s students reading it and thinking, ‘No one got killed like a Hot War so what’s the big deal? Wasn’t it more peaceful after WWII?’ I know I did. But history isn’t about picking and choosing, hunting and pecking. It’s about the slow roll of time […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, American, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Cold War, David day, education, gulag, historical access, historical relevance, history, iron curtain, learning, library of congress, loyal, loyalty, relevance, Russia, Soviet Union, stalin, story, USA, war, 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

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