Boomer Randomness

Following that long-standing tradition pioneered by Willard Scott, the Today Show regularly salutes people who are celebrating their 100th birthday and beyond. Their name, city and picture appear on a Smucker’s jar label graphic and the show host often quotes the celebrant’s aging wisdom.  Although I have more than thirty years to go, I plan to make it on the jar. I’m already planning my 100th birthday party. My guest list includes some people of my age who might not make it that long, as well as friends and family who are a couple of decades younger than me.  Some of the people who make it on the Smucker’s jar claim the predictable reasons for their longevity: eat well, exercise, don’t smoke or drink.  Others make more creative, fun claims: A nightly martini for fifty years.  Eat chocolate every day.  Laugh a lot.  Always eat desert first.  I have plenty of reason to believe I’ll make it to 100. My mother and her three siblings were born...

Backing up a bit from my last post, Pennie is the other friend who died this year. We were friends for over 35 years.  We used to meet for dinner or lunch several times a year and spend hours laughing, whining, creating crazy business ideas and solving the world’s problems.  She got married and moved to  Colorado more than twenty years ago. We kept in touch and I enjoyed reading about the life adventures she shared with her husband and the new entrepreneurial and artistic ventures she started.  I wanted to see her again and to meet her husband. I kept putting off potential trips to Colorado because there would always be time. She’d always be there, right? Then last fall she and hubby decided to retire to Florida. A surprise and not a surprise. Ok, another place to visit her.  One day last month I stumbled on a new post on her Facebook page. A photo of Pennie and a cat and the dates 1952-2019. At first quick glance, I thought her cat died. Then I look...

For the second time this year, someone close to me has died. Nancy has been my accountant for 35 years. She was younger than me. Although we were not close friends, we did see each other almost every year for three decades and we shared all the various phases of our lives over that time.  I met Nancy in 1984. Her husband was a coworker and introduced us when he learned I was looking for someone to do my taxes.  I saw her just last summer and another of her clients who I know just saw her last week. We all knew she was somewhat depressed after the loss of her husband a few years ago, but nobody saw any other health issues.  At the time I am writing this, no cause of death has been made public.  Two people I’ve known for 35 years, both seemingly in good health, both younger than me, gone within two months of each other.  One day they’re here, the next day they’re just gone.  It is such an empty feeling.  Have you been through this? Baby b...

I recently visited New Orleans on a long, warm February weekend, partly to escape 15-degree weather in Maryland, where I live, and partly to visit family. New Orleans is my hometown and most of my family still lives there. Being the planner that I am, I added an extra vacation day. There is never enough time to get all of my personal crap done on weekends, so a Wednesday at home seemed like a good idea. Another reason for a work-free Wednesday is what I call "retirement practice". Although I’ll always work, I do hope to retire from full time work in a few years and I think, being a planner, it makes sense to visualize what the work-free days would be like. Today is that Wednesday. I’m not the kind of person who wants to sit around and watch tv all day in retirement. I don’t want to spend every day chasing the neighborhood bar happy hours, sitting on the patio watching the cars drive by or sun bathing at my apartment pool. Ok, I DO want to do those things, but not eve...

Do you remember the significance of these three dates? December 7th, November 22nd and September 11th. Each of those dates are significant dates in American history. Each marks a day that impacts everyone today but also is more associated with a specific generation. December 7, 1941 is the date of the surprise attack by the Japanese Navy Air Service on the American military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which directly led to the entry of the United States into World War II. That is 77 years ago next month. News of the attack is a memorable event for the many parents of boomers who often could recall where they were when they heard news of the attack. Do people who were alive that day make note of it on the anniversary each year?  Is that date any less significant if few people remember without a reminder?  November 22, 1963 is the day then President John Kennedy was assassinated in a celebratory motorcade in Dallas. That day is forever etched in the minds of many bo...

Several times during the past few months I’ve read about or encountered people who died too young.  An event promoter I knew in Maryland who had survived colon cancer died from complications related to diabetes and heart issues last month. Age 53.  A partly retired New Hampshire newscaster I met once when he lived in Virginia survived several health issues but had a heart attack while driving home from work and died either from that or the resulting car crash last week. Age 62.  I’m currently reading Michelle Obama’s new book. Her father lived with Multiple Sclerosis for around twenty years. In the 1980s he eventually had other issues possibly related to the MS and died. Age 55.  A few chapters earlier in the book, Michelle talked about a very good friend who exemplified ‘carpe diem’. She seemed to know she’d die young and wanted to experience as much life as she could while she could. She died at age 26.  All this reminded me that a former girlfrien...

Paradise is a word associated with a pleasant location. Maybe someone arrived decades ago in such a location out west, took in the peaceful surroundings, breathed in clean crisp air while viewing picturesque mountain scenery and referred to that setting as paradise. That scenario is one of several legends relating to the naming of Paradise, California. Most of the 26,000-plus residents probably felt they truly lived in paradise, a noun defined by my dictionary app as “a place of extreme beauty, delight and happiness.”  Paradise also means “heaven.” A few weeks ago, however, the town of Paradise became hell as one of several California fires roared through town forcing the entire population to evacuate the inferno. The fire eventually destroyed the entire town. All of it. Think about this: 14,000 homes burned to the grown. Fourteen thousand!  It’s hard to picture that many homes. Even harder to visualize all of them gone. Crumbled brick, twisted metal pipes, mounds of as...