boomers playground | Search Results

Nov 01 2014

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Boomer’s Playground

“What can ever equal the memory of being young together?” ― Michael Stein, In the Age of Love

Perhaps it’s because it’s the day after Halloween and the sight of all those delighted kids in costumes, maybe it’s due to social media and the TBT (Throw Back Thursdays) photos on Facebook. It may also be prompted by friends and family who are amateur historians and family genealogists, or maybe it’s simply because I’m at the age and I’ve become that older person who likes to reminisce about the past. I remember the past as being a simpler time. As a memoir writer I can also edit my stories, edit my past, and remember the glory days. Some days it’s comforting to remember just the good times. Continue reading →

Tagged Baby Boomers, Family, Friends, Glory Days, Home, Memoir, Memories, Personal Narratives, Racine, Reminiscence, Sisters, Sixties, The fifties, Wisconsin

Apr 14 2024

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AI, “Be afraid, be very afraid.”

A Boomer’s Take on Artificial Intelligence

First, let me start by stating — like most of my generation — I’m a late adopter to technology. Instead of A.I. as a study aid, we had Cliff & Spark Notes. In place of social media, like Instagram and Tik Tok, we passed around notebooks in school so our friends could respond with some snarky comment or gossip. For most of us, we thought algorithms had something to do with algebra and slide rules and we wanted nothing to do with them. The tools we used most to communicate and create were in-person conversations with each other, word play, and childhood games. Continue reading →

Tagged AI, Artificial Intelligence, Books, Cinephile, Dystopian future, Existential Threat, Films, Late Adopter, Machine Learning, Science Fantasy, Science Fiction, Technology

Jul 14 2024

Posts

Goodbye to Our Childhood Home

You Can’t Go Home Again — Title of the novel by Thomas Wolfe

“In life, a person will come and go from many homes. We may leave a house, a town, a room, but that does not mean those places leave us. Once entered, we never entirely depart the homes we make for ourselves in the world.” — Ari Berk

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” — Maya Angelou

Grief and gratitude, letting go and holding on, and things change have been themes for me this past year (and longer).

Note: This reminiscence was written in response to the prompt, Home, for my Door County Write On LGBTQ+ Writers’ Group.

Continue reading →

Tagged Brother, Death, Family, Father, Gratitude, Grief, Holidays, Home, Loss, Love, Memoir, Memories, Mother, Racine, Sisters, Stories, Traditions

Oct 17 2021

Posts

Funny, Not Funny!

“When an idea first strikes you as funny, then you quickly realize its seriousness, and the funniness disappears, leaving you only with the feeling of how not funny it really is.” — Urban Dictionary

The past week there’s been a spotlight on Dave Chappelle’s new stand-up comedy performance, The Closer, streaming on Netflix. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I paid close attention to the early reviews and scathing criticism of his transphobic and misogynist material. At the suggestion of a friend whose humor I appreciate — which is often politically incorrect yet delivers a thought-provoking message — I decided to watch Chappelle’s The Closer. Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Apple Island, Artistic Freedom, Big Dyke, Cancel Culture, Comedy, Dave Chapelle, Freedom of Speech, Funny...Not Funny!, GALVAnize Pride, Improv, Lesbian, LGBTQ, Lysistrata, Madison, Misogyny, Netflix, Spoken Word Monologues, The Closer, Transphobia

Jul 31 2021

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Two Steps Back

“It is necessary sometimes to take one step backward to take two steps forward.” — Vladimir Lenin

“Captain, May I take two steps forward?” — Childhood backyard game

Yesterday, I traveled to Racine, Wisconsin to visit my 91-year-old father who gratefully remains independent, vaccinated, and healthy as he continues to live alone. Since I live 100 miles away, I can’t just drop-in for a quick visit and check-in on him. Prior to the pandemic, we scheduled a weekly phone date every Sunday, and I’d visit him in-person at least once a month The COVID-19 pandemic changed all that. Continue reading →

Tagged COVID-19, COVID-19 Journal Project, Death, Delta Variant, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Father, Friends, Home, Masks, Pandemic, The Loud Family, The New Normal, Two Steps Back, Vaccination

Apr 29 2020

2 Comments

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Back to Life

“It’s back to normal, but it’s a different normal. It’s not the same as it was before, but people are getting back to work. Life goes on. ― Eric Young

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” ― Maya Angelou

On May 1^st it’s back to life, a return to some degree of normal, however, it will certainly be different, a new normal. I return to work and begin a new job as an LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate. I’m grateful. Continue reading →

Tagged Back to Life, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Home, Memoir, Pandemic, Personal Narratives, Safer-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, The New Normal

Jul 07 2018

Posts

1968: Flashback & Fast Forward

“Memories are not the key to the past, but to the future.” — Corrie ten Boom

“Life is divided into three terms – that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future.” — William Wordsworth

It’s been a month since I wrote and posted an essay on Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! The present has been occupying my attention and engaging my time. In early June I intended to draft a reminiscence about 1968, the year I graduated from high school. In September I’ll attend a 50-year high school reunion in my hometown of Racine, Wisconsin. Oh, My! Continue reading →

Tagged 50-Year Class Reunion, Activism, Anti-War Movement, Blackout, Civil Rights, Fast Forward, Flashback, Friends, Future, High School Graduation, J. I. Case High School, Madison, Memories, Past, Present, Racine, Sixties, Viet Nam

Feb 25 2017

1 Comment

Posts

No More 9 to 5!

UPDATE 02/25/2020: Three years ago, I began working part-time for my employer for whom I had worked full-time as a manager for almost 10 years. I became an hourly employee and the trade-off was I was able to work 20 hours a week and have three-day weekends.

Now that this job is ending, due to a company reorg, I’m reconsidering returning to full-time employment if I can combine my professional and avocational experience. In this third chapter of my life, I’d like to do work that aligns with my passions and commitment to social justice. Following is the original post from February 25, 2017.

It’s still winter in Wisconsin. After a week of record-breaking temperatures of spring-like weather — a hopeful tease of things to come — then came the rain, sleet, ice pellets, followed by snow and howling winds. We’re reminded that winter remains for a few more weeks before spring arrives. Spring is a season of hope and new beginnings. So is my life today, as I cross the threshold of my third act. Cue up Dolly Parton, no more “9 to 5.” Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Activism, Change, College, Lesbian, LGBTQ, Madison, Marriage, Memoir, Politics, Racine, Recovery, Retirement, Sixties, Third Act, Wisconsin, Work, Writing

Feb 13 2016

5 Comments

Posts

Gool: What Is It, Where Is It, How to Create It

Sometimes a subject for an essay is a found gem discovered in a friend’s Facebook post. Thank you Mark, friend and fellow writer, for posing this question, Gool: What Is It, Where Is It, How to Create It. Here’s Mark’s (minimally-edited) Facebook post:

“Remember when we were kids in elementary school at recess time playing tag? We had gool…that one place we could go to where we couldn’t be touched and made “It.” You remember that too? Here’s my question…now that we’re adults, where the *#%@ is gool? Because the last few months, I feel like I’ve been in a game of tag and I’m running…trying not to be made “It.” And I’m out of breath…could someone point me in the right direction, please?” Continue reading →

Tagged "It", Children's Games, Gool, Safe, Tag, Tag You're It!

Oct 18 2015

1 Comment

Posts

Great Escapes: Coloring Inside the Lines

This past summer, adult coloring books were 6 of the top 20 bestsellers on Amazon, which inarguably makes it an emerging trend. From Huffpost, clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis and Souris Hong, author of bestselling adult coloring book Outside the Lines, “There is a long history of people coloring for mental health reasons,” Michaelis says. “Carl Jung used to try to get his patients to color in mandalas at the turn of the last century, as a way of getting people to focus and to allow the subconscious to let go. Now we know it has a lot of other stress-busting qualities as well.” Continue reading →

Tagged Adult Coloring, Childhood, Coping, Creative Potential, De-Stress, Dollhouse, Escape, Fantasy, Meditate, MoMA, Toys

Mixed Metaphors

Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! – A place where words, this writer, and readers play together.

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