Portland Archives • Page 3 of 73 • BOOMERPDX

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WE DON’T NEED NO EDUCATION, (FOR ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL)

March 8, 2026 by David Gillaspie

From twitterX: I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning. Doesn’t that […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: college, college degrees, education, family, higher education, history, ivory tower, learning, learning experience, Love, millennials, no education, Oregon, Portland, Portland Oregon, story, university, vision, western history, writer, writers, writing

OREGON LAVA CAST FOREST ADVENTURE? LET’S GO

February 19, 2026 by David Gillaspie

The Lava Cast Forest in Oregon is not for the weak of heart. I say this based on the traffic I encountered on the way in and on the way out. One car sat in the parking lot when we arrived, one car showed up as we left. Suspicious? Not much, but you never know.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Central Oregon, education, family, forest, lava, lava cast forest, learning, Oregon, Portland, Portland Oregon, snow, snow birds, snow disasters, snow trip, story, travel, wife, winter, writer, writing

DIVISION STREET, NOT DIVIDED PORTLAND

February 15, 2026 by David Gillaspie

Division Street is not some hotbed of urban problems with people taking sides. In the southeast 30’s it’s a home stretch for Portland people moving to Oregon. Even better, it’s been a neighborhood, a changing neighborhood, for people who put down roots decades ago.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: beer, beer city, big city, blogger, divided portland, division street, mid-century modern, North Bend Oregon, old portland, Oregon, Portland, Portland Oregon, urban problems

DREAM STREET: 82ND AVENUE PORTLAND OREGON

February 6, 2026 by David Gillaspie

Dream street? 82nd Avenue? Somebody wake me up? No, it’s not a dream, but a street of dreams. And those dreams came to life.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: 82nd Avenue, baby boomer, BOOMER, boomerpdx, boomers, dream street, foggy mountain breakdown, gray gables, husband, MARRIAGE, newly wed, Oregon, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, wedding plans, wife

WHAT I WANT AND WHAT I GET

January 17, 2026 by David Gillaspie

Did I want a big fluffy dog? Noooo. But here we are and she’s the best darn dog I’ve ever known, heard of, or seen. Better than Bullet and Rin Tin Tin? Waaaaay better. She’s my dog, and just what I want. But I didn’t know that before hand.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, education, history, king, learning, majestic mountain, my kingdom, Oregon, politics, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, programing, regular programing, story, what I want, WWII

SOLVING PROBLEMS ONE WAY, (and the other)

January 13, 2026 by David Gillaspie

I started solving problems early with a traffic court appearance. I was sixteen and charged with speeding. On a Honda 100 motorcycle. It wasn’t known for speed. What was the problem?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: acid, America, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, court appearance, decision making, drugs, education, family, kid problems, learning, millennials, narcotics, Oregon, Portland, Portland Oregon, problems, solutions, solving problems, traffic court, writer, writers, writing, young man

WORLD CLASS WINE WORKING OVERTIME

January 12, 2026 by David Gillaspie

This is a glass of wine, world class wine. Mmm, mmm. It originally comes from the Hawks View Winery in Sherwood, Oregon. Today it came from my basement, racked with the other wine in the house. If you’ve heard of Sherwood, it’s probably from reading about Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest. Is it world class? […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, American, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, discount wine, drink, drink wine, education, facebook, freedom, freedom ring, gin and tonic, hawks view winery, learning, map, Oregon, Oregon wine, police record, Portland, PORTLAND BABY BOOMERS, Portland Oregon, story, twitter, wine, wine spectator, world class, worlds class wine, writer, writing

GET TO THE WRITING POINT

December 26, 2025 by David Gillaspie

People who feel like their head might explode in the middle of the night because their brain won’t calm down need to get to the writing point. No writer has ever felt the internal pressure in their mind because they’ve already gone over things. Gone over, and over, and over, and over. Let me rewrite […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomer kids, boomerpdx, fiction, new yorker, non-writers, opinion, over and over, Portland, Portland Oregon, public education, revision, rewrite, sentence structure, shared history, story, surveillance, teachers, writer, writer's worth, writers, writing, writing point, written memory, WWII

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

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