Last Saturday morning, and for no apparent reason, I could neither send nor receive E-mails. No problem for this Boomer-type computer whiz. I did what all good Geeks do. I turned the computer off and rebooted (that means turning it off and starting again for those out there who are not computer whizzes). Still, no E-mails. Hmmmm! Alright, now for the serious stuff. I “Force Quit” … [Read more...]

About 30 years ago, my wife Nancy and I along with our daughter Laura hopped in my Chevy Luv pickup truck and headed out to buy and chop down a Christmas tree. I had told Laura a story about a little girl who had found the perfect Christmas tree in a grove of pines and the little tree was truly happy to go home and be with her new family. So Laura wanted to do the same. At that time, Virginia … [Read more...]

A Boomer’s first love was likely his or her first car. It was one thing to drive the family sedan, but it was something else indeed to have your very own car. For most Boomers, that car was titled in the parents’ names, but if you had the keys, it was yours. My first car was a 1949 Pontiac two-door sedan. It was solid black with a little chrome here and there. I would not have been more pleased … [Read more...]

  In the fall of 1962, folk music reached its peak. Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio, Brothers Four, The Limeliters, The Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels, The Highwaymen, and Peter, Paul and Mary filled the airways with their folksy music and sold albums like they were going out of style. I was a freshman at UNC and by the time Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers came to … [Read more...]

Was it Col. Mustard with the lead pipe in the ballroom, or could it have been Mrs. White with the rope in the conservatory? If you haven’t a clue, then you likely aren’t a Boomer. On a winter day and with a rare school closing due to snow, Boomer kids raced up and down steep hills in our Flexible Flyers until exhausted, and then we gathered up a gang and went to someone’s home for hot chocolate … [Read more...]

If you live long enough, two things will happen. First, you’ll get arthritis as old joints begin to wear out. It’s like an automobile engine at 250,000 miles when it’s metal on metal, but in our case, it’s bone on bone. The second thing that will happen is that your hearing will also begin to diminish. Either that or it’s that other people all begin to mumble at exactly the same time. Ears have … [Read more...]

  We used to have tails, you know. Mankind, that is. They were attached to the boney knob right above our butts. But they were apparently allergic to something called evolution and they all fell off. The first known Darwinian example of tail loss is well documented on cave walls. A young boy comes home from dinosaur tracking school when his mother shrieks: “Son, where on earth is your … [Read more...]

  Music without words. Is that possible anymore? Today’s music consists mainly of light rock, heavy metal and rap. It would be hard to do rat-a-tat rap music without words like “Ho’s in the hood” or rock music without a pounding beat and an echo chamber for the soloist. But Boomers remember when there was great music, and no words whatsoever. We called them … [Read more...]

  It was television that triggered the explosion in sales of men’s fragrances. Before TV, there were a handful of scents on the market – Mennen, Pinaud Clubman, Williams After Shave and a couple of others. But in the late 50s and 60s, people – especially men people – would buy most anything that was advertised. And we Boomers bought a pile of fragrances. Let’s go back and see. Old … [Read more...]

We were sitting at a table at the Erringhaus Dorm cafeteria at UNC discussing our plans for the long-awaited Christmas break. I looked forward to being back home with my high school buddies – Bill Shaver, Mike Dawson and Dave Gladwell and sharing experiences from our first semester in college. At the cafeteria table, one of us had ordered a piece of ice box pie and a suite-mate, Dave Randleman, … [Read more...]