WWII Archives • Page 3 of 15 • BOOMERPDX

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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

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

HISTORICAL ADVENTURES: REAL LIFE vs MY LIFE

November 24, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Last night we reviewed historical adventures at my local five star with friends Some of us had a hand in it, one of us made things up. Guess who is who? Even I got confused, so much so that I have to get things straightened out. How does a baby boomer blogger do that? By […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: adventure, adventures, Albany, America, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, cluster bombs, education, family, historical adventures, history, Iraq War, North Bend Oregon, paper, screen, spy, spy story, story, travel, Vietnam War, writer, writing, WWII

WRITING DOWN MY BONES

November 21, 2025 by David Gillaspie

I bought the book ‘Writing Down The Bones’ a few times. There’s something about the title, but not enough for me to read it and save it, and I’m someone who still has books from my tenth birthday. When I find them all I’ll have my own Natalie Goldberg library. This is from her website:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Alice Monroe, Authority, axis powers, Baby Boomers, backbone, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, education, email, following order, giving orders, history, illegal orders, industrial writer, JD Salinger, my lai massacre, nature writer, North Bend Oregon, obedience, ocean writer, orders, Oregon, short stories, taking orders, text, war crimes, writer, writerly, writing, writing down, WWII

MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

September 29, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The new boss comes in to change things, to do what the old boss couldn’t do. Whether it’s changing the order of operations, the culture, or cutting expenses, it’s a job someone has to do. If you’ve worked in a place during the transition from the old ways to new, you know what happens: People […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: achievement, Authority, baby boomer, blog, blogger, boomerpdx, boss, build trust, buy in, challenge, education, emotional stability, history, innovation, kids, learning, loyalty, manipulate history, millennials, misinformation, museum, new boss, old boss, Oregon, Portland, Portland Oregon, retirement option, right message, suicide, travel, trust, unstable, writer, WWII

THE RIGHT WORDS HAVE POWER

September 19, 2025 by David Gillaspie

You know the right words when you hear them. “Everything will be okay.” “You’re doing fine.” “This is just how it’s supposed to work out.” “You’re the one for me.”

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: bad experience, blogger, boomerpdx, breath in, breath out, cheated, Children, friends, lets go, listening, MacArthur fellowship, macArthur foundation, memoir, millennial, millennial writer, Nobel Prize, old friends, pipe dream, power, right words, screenplay, self fulfillment, sleep, take a chance, the folly of loving life, vision, word, word hunt, words, write it, WWII

GOOD EXPECTATIONS, VARIED RESULTS

August 20, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Good expectations, not great, are the more reasonable expectations for most people. Even when you harbor feelings of greatness, who would you tell without sounding like a nut-job? Yes, I hear you with your, “But Muhammad Ali . . .” He was ‘The Greatest’ and proved it over an over, until he became what all […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: American civil war, American History, art, autobiography, big jobs, black market, cancer, Civil War, death camps, diverse interests, expectations, family historian, General Eisenhower, general grant, good expectations, good teachers, great expectations, history, history buff, history museum, I like Ike, jobs, literature, loss, memoir, monuments men, muhammad Ali, museum men, museum mistake, plunder, primary sources, racial, racial profiling, reasonable expectations, serious research, teachers, The Greatest, throat cancer, WWII

LIFE CHOICE MAKES YOU GREAT

July 26, 2025 by David Gillaspie

One life choice can make all the difference. Things were tough on the Oregon Trail and people needed a break. The Donner Party started with a little known shortcut through the mountains. If you don’t know the story, click here. It turned out to be the wrong choice.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blogger, blogger life, boomerpdx, earth, education, explore, failure to communicate, family, following orders, france, German leadership, history, human awareness, life, life choice, living life, millennials, paris, shameful reminder, space, tank man, writer, writing, writing life, WWII, your life

HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS FROM WWII

July 11, 2025 by David Gillaspie

I’m full of historical reflections because I read sources from history, also called history books. Those were the main readings for graduating with a history degree. It also helps to have spent two decades in historical agency work. The lasting lesson for me was seeing both sides of a story and how close things came […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: D-Day, Dunkirk, facing history, following orders, hiroshima, historical, historical accuracy, historical documentaries, history stuff, loyalty, Pearl Harbor, peer pressure, teamwork, Tokyo bay, war crimes, WWII

AGING TRAVEL WITH GRANDY

July 2, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Aging travel with 70 and 80 year olds is getting some attention. How hard it is, how easy it used to be, and how it feels losing the magic of new places. How do you manage it when you’re in your 60’s and your mother in law in her 80’s. The short version: if they […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: adventure, aging, aging travel, Arizona, Europe, grande, great britain, international travelers, kids, lifetime memory, travel, wife, WWII