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DAD VALUE: THE MISSING INGREDIENT IN FAMILY RECIPE

August 31, 2021 by

Dad value fluctuates day to day, but one thing is certain: Father’s make a difference. Disagree? Then ask someone you know without a dad, or never knew their dad. I read an article about being raised with love and how it makes a difference when you love someone raised on survival. Had we known then […]

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NEEDING MORE: HOW TO CONTROL THAT EMPTY FEELING

July 27, 2021 by

Needing more of something depends on age. Kids needing more kid stuff like their friends; young people need more experience than they’ve had time to acquire; old people need more time to figure out what they missed along the way. We’re needy from the start. Babies need more mom and dad time, grandparents need more […]

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FATHER’S DAY FROM OLD DAD TO NEW DAD ALL TOGETHER

June 18, 2021 by

Father’s Day comes every year, but that first one is something else. A new dad on his day lays the groundwork of tradition for every Father’s Day for the next fifty years. Will it be like a birthday? Christmas? Or eventually just another day on the calendar? The easy answer: It depends on the kids. […]

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MARKING TIME WITH A GANG OF MOMS AND KIDS

April 2, 2021 by

I was marking time just the other day with my young kids running around like we were having the best day in our lives. Then they were at the bus stop waiting for their first day of school. I must have blinked. One of the joys of being a parent is seeing kids through their […]

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OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER? A FAMILY TIMELINE

February 22, 2021 by

Old enough didn’t matter when I bought a switchblade knife in Mexico. I was a twelve year old with my parents on a family car trip. After driving across Texas we stopped in El Paso after the Carlsbad Caves, then a day trip across the border to Juárez. After proudly showing my mom my new […]

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BAD ADVICE FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO IGNORE

January 29, 2021 by

Bad advice usually isn’t life threatening, it just feels like it at first. When it comes from the right person, we follow the advice, good or bad. That habit comes from years of training at the school of ‘Do As I Say, Not As I Do.’ Some bad advice too many followed, are following, will […]

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GRECO ROMAN MEDAL WITH A HAPPY FAMILY

January 23, 2021 by

Greco Roman sounds so classic because that’s what it is, classic. It sounds old, like Greek City-State and Roman Empire old. Way the heck back there. In the sports world, Greco Roman is a particular style of wrestling, not an architectural element. It’s for athletes who don’t want to get tangled up in someone’s legs, […]

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WORDS: FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD? NO, NO IT’S NOT

January 15, 2021 by

Words change with age. For a few years I lived next to a quirky neighbor. Sound familiar? Most folks have either had one, or been one. I was already there when he moved in, a ripped muscle-man with a crewcut. ‘Great,’ I thought, I’ve got either a policeman neighbor, or a gym kook. Either way […]

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VIRTUAL VOLUNTEER MAKES AN OFFER TO REFUSE

October 12, 2020 by

What is a virtual volunteer? My wife and I were making quiche together. She seemed a little down. Earlier she’d asked me to bring the Halloween decorations tote downstairs. It struck me as an irony to decorate for a hands on holiday in the coronavirus era. I shared the feeling. No wonder she seemed a […]

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BOOMERPDX INTERVIEW: ONE VETERAN, ONE STUDENT, ONE PARENT

September 10, 2020 by

A faux-BoomerPDX interview works to paint a citizenship picture, a mosaic, by covering nervous subjects. For this edition it’s a veteran, a student, and a parent doing the work. And they have plenty to say. Take a read:

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