Revival of my Baby Boomer Blog

I thought I'd try to revive this blog. I originally created Baby Boomer Davy's Locker as a learning experiment after my corporate job of 22 years ended in 2008. As a creative person who found creativity basically shut down for most of those 22 years, when that job ended, I continued my persuit of what the Internet was doing, especially in the beginnings of social media and blogging. I began by setting up a blog, using blogger.com. To my amazement, I discovered I loved creative writing. I loved sharing stories of my view of the Baby Boomer Generation and the journey of my family.

During the time from 2008 through 2009, I was also exploring and wondering what I was going to do for a career and earning a living until my retirement years. My journey led me to realize that we Baby Boomers were probably not going to have what we saw our parents of the Greatest Generation enjoy as typical retirement. We were going to have to work longer but we also realized that working longer may be the key to living longer. Many of we Boomers saw our parents pass away not long after they stopped working those long hard work weeks of more than 40 hours. Stopping may not be a good thing. I spent the next year beginning the journey that would become what I do for my retirement years.

----- continued now on March 24, 2016 - I have successfully created a thriving small business, a music school named David's Music House in the Pittsburgh, PA area. Started on 10.10.10 - October, 10, 2010, I have now passed the 5 year anniversary, growing from 3 music teachers and 40 students to 17 music teachers and over 200 students. The school has become a staple of the community as area schools are sending students to us. This is a dream that started as a seed in my father's mind and heart and was born into me, through his support of my musical efforts. I feel and know that he is at my side, every day, enjoying what this dream has become. We are so much more than a place to learn how to learn about music. The mission is from my heart and mind to support the growth of kindness of the heart, in humbly, through the soulful connecting tool of music.

Look for more ongoing articles on this blog as I continue trying to show my mistakes and learning and growing of a Baby Boomer member, going through this thing we all call LIFE!

Peace & Love,

David

OK...so....I'm backkkk....again.

It has been May since I posted to this blog.  I have been overwhelmed with running my business, David's Music House, Inc. for the last two years and in these economic times, it has been a spectrum of highs and lows. This is the first business I have ever attempted and I knew it would have to be something that was connected to my passion and love of music, to get me through any difficulties. When a new business is started, it is often said that it will take 3 to even 5 years to see success. The idea is unique, the model is good and being tweaked and developed all the time but it is longevity and resources that are the critical piece. I continue, month to month, looking for ways to keep costs as low as possible while looking for new revenue sources and so far, I have been able to keep things going due to the support and help of a good many people!

In the meantime, I am going to try to amp up my posts on this blog. There's was just too much time spent on it and it has a good foundation to keep building upon to let it go of.  I began blogging to become knowledgeable about social media while discovering that I loved to write so I need to continue developing those skills.

The Baby Boomer Generation is not going away.... yet, that is. We are getting older, to be sure. I was just realizing that I am finding more people who I graduated with who are passing away! I can remember my parents and their friends talking about the fact that they felt that all they were doing is going to funerals of friends.

As I have stated in previous posts about my small business venture and it being something I, as many Boomers are doing, am doing to be my "extended pre-retirement working years". Boomers have been told by financial advisers for quite a few years now, that we will not be enjoying the same type of "retirement" as our parents did. We will be working past 62 or 65 and beyond. I began thinking about this about ten years ago and knew that I really wanted to do something that I was more passionate about, which is music.

With Boomers being the largest segment of the population, whatever they do....is indeed, a factor that has a domino effect on many aspects of the country, with the main one being financial. As we Boomers age, all the aspects of aging will effect everyone in this country. What remains to be seen is how will the younger generation feel, react and care for their parents as we age.  However Boomer children behave and react to their aging parents can not be blamed on how the Boomers raised their children anymore than the Boomers can blame on their parents, the Greatest Generation. We are each responsible for our own actions in our lives and responsible for the decisions we make.

It has been quite a while…

If any readers of this blog have seen my other articles about what I have been doing lately, you may realize why I haven’t been active for quite a while on this blog, especially if any of you own or have ever owned your own business. The saying, “if it were easy, everyone would do it” is as true as true can be!

The purpose of this article will be to speak to why I haven’t been writing for a while and to bring my passion of sharing issues and raising awareness of The Baby Boomer Generation.

The short story from 2008 is that my job of 22+ years was outsourced at the beginnings of our country’s second biggest depression. I was unemployed for two years, while trying to look for a job and also deciding what else I could do. In 2009, I began my journey to create my own business, beginning with a “How to start a small business” course at a local community college, talking to my local SCORE representative and many other business mentors I either knew or just reached out to. I opened my business, David’s Music House, Inc. on October, 10, 2010 (10.10.10) I have now been open for 18 months and it has indeed been a journey of highs and lows! What I have learned is exactly what I was told in the beginning by all my mentors….it would be hard, it would take 3 to 5 years to see success and you can only succeed IF you don’t quit. The key to not quitting is continuing growth and searching for solutions for the dollars to last until success. It is indeed a FACT, that no one can succeed by quitting.

As I continue to search for ways to search for ways to make my business grow, I am also quite aware that I am still moving on the path of extending work years, or delay of retirement. I planned my business to be one that I not only have a passion for but also would be able to continue working beyond what were once considered retirement years. Being a member of the Baby Boomer Generation brings me to think about these actions that I and all of us Boomers are currently going through.

Only time and history will tell the true story of what effect the Baby Boomer Generation has had on our civilization, but there is no doubt that the Boomers effect our country by their sheer numbers. This applies for what this largest segment of the population is going through as we approach the retirement years. Retirement has been re-defined by occurrences of the last decade. Healthcare and new medical advances are continually extending the lifespan. While is definitely a good thing, from the perspective of us Boomers, what we do and go through has a profound effect on the course of all others as well.

Baby Boomers have been caring and dealing with their aging parents while we hit our 4th and 5th decades of life and we well know and wonder how our children will deal with the same issues. Will they even be able to deal with the impact of Boomers aging? One thing is certain and that is that we Boomers should be doing as much as we can to lessen the impact of what our children have to deal with….such as homes not cared for, estates not properly and legally planned, how to make decisions without living wills and legal documents to guide them.

I went into this segway of Boomers aging as that is what I am currently thinking about…..what do I need to do to deal with aging? How can I make it easier for my children to deal with my aging? One thing my wife and I have done is to create all the legal documentation, such as wills, living wills that clearly state and therefore take the decision and issues out of the hands of our children. We are also downsizing our home to one that we can more easily care for, is less of a financial burden for us rather than continue living in a home too large to care for so that they someday have to deal with their homes as well as ours.

It is important for us Boomers to do the same things we have been doing for our children since they were born…and that is everything we can to make them better people, follow the golden rule, try to make the planet better for them by recycling and paying attention to supporting better ways of energy consumption and prepare and clean up our lives so that they don’t have to do it. We are always parents, as long as we are on this planet, even if we don’t have children….all who remain after the Boomer Generation is gone are all of our children and they will benefit or not based on our actions.

Boomer Business Brain Drain...

We all know and hear from all sources that starting your own business is hard. “If it was easy...everyone would do it!” We still never know how hot the stove is until we touch it. Yes, I have touched the stove and yes... it is very hot! I get it. I knew it was going to be and I also knew that due to choosing a business that was a core passion of mine, was THE thing that was going to give me the strength to get through the hard stuff.

There is another aspect to this journey and that is those “passing moments”! We cannot get so absorbed in fixing all of the issues we face in life that we go past these wonderful, blessed moments without enjoying them! For me, that means doing something that is logic brain free. In that, I mean anything that totally distracts my thinking from my daily thoughts of the business. Personally, this is usually some mindless entertainment on TV or at the movies. This merely serves as a “slap of cold water in my face” as it stops me from thinking about the hard stuff. I am then able to purposely focus my thinking on all of the blessings and positive things in my life.

Most of the time in our lives, we can choose how we feel...happy or sad. Sometimes, something as simple as purposely smiling, for no reason, to myself, will snap me out of feeling worried about something. It is an amazing thing...try it sometime! People and situations affect us every day of our lives, but it is how we choose to react to these situations that guides how we feel. This is more easily said than done, many times, but we can choose how we feel, eventually.

Some times, events occur that are more devastating and physically disastrous and none of us know how we will react in these situations, until we actually go through them. Usually time is the determining factor in how we end up feeling with these types of situations. Time allows or helps us eventually determine how we need to think about these more difficult decisions, but in the end, it again, is how we choose to react that determines our outcome.

So, as I know I will continue to face issues that I need to correct and deal with in my start up business, I will continue to give myself that slap in the face with cold water, force that smile, watch some TV Land reruns of the Dick Van Dike show, and remind myself....”enjoy this moment, look at a blue sky, some green trees, listen to some inspiring music, but realize all the many blessings I have....in this moment”!

Halloween 1938, Orson Welles radio broadcast "War of the Worlds" classic

Occurring before the Baby Boomer birth years, Orson Welles' grand hoax radio broadcast, "War of the Worlds" remains an all time Halloween classic. 
 
Orson Welles is an icon to boomers from many classic movies of our time, such as "Citizen Kane", which has been hailed as one of the best movies ever made.

On October 30, 1938, Welles, the host and creator of a drama based radio program called, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, broadcast a live dramatic adaptation of the H.G. Wells' novel, "The War of the Worlds", about the invasion of planet Earth by creatures from Mars. The event was taken seriously by thousands of people all over the country and caused a great deal of panic. Of course much of the panic was over-hyped, but as many may have not heard the introductions of the show, they thought it was real. The program did not have commercial interruptions, making it seem even more realistic. 

The next day, the New York Times article explained the radio broadcast as a hoax and it made Orson Welles famous.

You can listen to the actual radio broadcast via my fellow Associate Content writer friend, Michael Segers' article,

War of the Worlds: Free Old Time Radio for Halloween

 

  (Photo from The New York Times Source: microfilm archives of the New York Times © Wikimedia Commons)

Michael's article has some great information about archives of historic radio programs, so please read all of the article, but you can click here for the "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. (You can even right click on the program link to save the mp3 to your computer)

Although Baby Boomers were the television generation and radio drama began to fade in popularity, there is something about listening to stories on the radio, where the listener has to use their imagination, that makes it all the more dramatic and enjoyable.

Give a listen to this classic radio show this Halloween with the family.

Baby Boomer Reinvention of Retirement

There is a beginning of another new way the Baby Boomer Generation is changing what “retirement” will mean in the future occurring. This is resulting out of two driving forces, of which one is how the past decades of greed of the rich and powerful have destroyed what used to be thought of as retirement. The other is once again, just a natural result of the sheer size of this generation of people who were born between 1946 and 1964. Retirement is defined as, “the period of one’s life after leaving one’s job and ceasing to work”. 


The generations previous to the Baby Boomers, “The Greatest Generation” was the first to actually do this. Previous to the industrial age, there really was no retirement, nor a need to do so, as the life expectancy was not long enough to know what that would have meant anyway. So, as the parents of the Boomers worked long hours of hard labor through their lives, they were able to save money to stop working the job they had for most of their lives and “enjoy” their elder years. The word, “enjoy” here is relative, as health issues, often brought on by a complete stopping of all activity and thought, deeply affected the amount of enjoyment realized by most. Now the Baby Boomers, who saw and just naturally thought this was what retirement meant and also knew that they would be forced to retire at a certain age, realized they must save for this part of their lives at some point. This is where the greed that took advantage of these life long savings comes to bear, followed by the realization that these life long savings were gone.

Once again, it’s time to be innovative and reinvent. Boomers are now changing what retirement means, which is to find what your best talents, put them to work, combined with your true passion and continue to work as long as your body and mind will allow. There is no need to quit working, in fact, stopping all work will remove one’s purpose and thus reason to live a longer and more purposeful life. My mother always said, “When you make yourself go to work, you stay healthy. When you take off is when you get sick”. How true that has become.


Since losing my corporate job of over 22 years in 2008, I have been searching for what I want to do when I grow up...or for the rest of my life. I knew it had to be something that I wanted to go do every day and that it had to have something to do with some of my best talents. My strongest passion has always been music, whether it was playing it or listening to it. Music is an expression of spirit and a language of the human species. It has much more of a profound affect on our lives than we can imagine, as much as the environment and planet we live on. It influences our behavior on a daily basis, even when we are not aware of it, through media and our surroundings.


Some of my other best passions involve behaviors between people. During those 22 corporate working years, I observed and learned how teams work together, how others manage or do not manage teams and how upper management disconnects from behaviors and talents of its core work force. There is a disconnect of how to get the best abilities from its corporate workers, so much so that a completely new industry grew out of the last 20 years. Many who were dissatisfied with the corporate environment found that they could go to these large businesses and provide some structure in how people behave with one another, with a method that corporate executives could buy into. Basically, this “Coaching” business was created out of the fact that the corporate business world totally lost its capability of how to understand how to treat people!


One of the fundamentals of human behavior is interacting with another person in a way that will allow cooperation with each other. When one chooses to work alone, that person quickly discovers the limits of their capabilities and realizes that they need someone else’s help to accomplish certain goals. The best way to enable this cooperation is to promote beneficial behavior among them, in other words, make a friend and they will help you. Large businesses became so deeply focused on the prime directive of profit and growth that they became dysfunctional in this key fundamental knowledge of how people work together as teams. This new Coaching industry was welcomed into the corporate world as a methodology of correcting this. (I find this completely amazing that large groups of people forget how to behave to others when they enter that corporate world, and become someone different than they are in their personal lives!)

This brings me back to another of my passions, and that is to make every member of a team or of any effort, feel that they are valued and have something to contribute to any goal. I knew that this is another passion that I must bring to my new business venture.


The third passion I have been developing over that last 20 years is innovative thinking. I found my corporate years very frustrating because, in spite of the fact that I worked in an area that was born from innovation, technology, my environment did not promote it. The corporate world has been throwing the word “innovation” around for the last 10 years, but most did not seem to really understand what it meant. The other aspect was really back to the lack of effort to find what employees do best, and matching their job with those abilities. One cannot assign a person to suddenly be “innovative”, as this is actually “creativity” and comes from a person who possesses a heightened ability of the part of the human brain that “creates”.


These passions, that have taken my last 50 years to develop and realize, will be absolutely key to the success of my own business. The ongoing need to focus my efforts on these key aspects must be centered as often as possible, as the day to day of business will tend to cloud this focus. This is where the love of what you are doing works for you. The enjoyment of doing something you love to do, always grounds you, to naturally make you do whatever it takes to keep that focus for success.


As the Boomers enter this latter phase of life and struggle through the transition of it, we may realize that the remedies for all the predicted health, social and ecological issues of the Baby Boomer Generation growing old, may just be the realization that we must continue to work forever for monetary reasons as well as providing the best “quality of life”.

Another Baby Boomer Icon dies - Art Linkletter

 Art Linkletter was known to Baby Boomers mostly for his TV show, “Art Linkletter's House Party”, which was on CBS for 25 years. The most popular segment was “Kids say the darnedest things”, where Art interviewed children of all walks of life and was able to get the most unusual and funny answers from them. Art was an innovator in Television and started many of the ideas used throughout TV to this day.

Art lived to the age of 97 and died on May 26, 2010. He hoped to live to the age of 100 and was very healthy most of those 97 years. Here is a fantastic interview of Art by Growing Bolder Radio Program from 2006 and shows how incredibly quick minded and healthy he was even four years ago. Art was an incredibly talented and intelligent person of our times.

Check out this audio clip from the Growing Bolder Radio Program and be sure to check out all the other really interesting interviews from GrowingBolder.com. They have just announced that their television program, Growing Bolder TV, has gone national to PBS stations. Check their website out to see when they will be playing in your local PBS affiliate and if they are not, ask your PBS station to add them. Growing Bolder is all about aging, but illustrating how age is not a factor in how much and what people do to contribute to society. It’s not growing older it’s Growing Bolder! Check out their new website for all the latest information: http://boldermediagroup.com/gbtvshow/

One of the greatest actors ever, Jimmy Stewart, also an awesome poet

I found this great Baby Boomer site called Baby Boomer Baloney that brings out the importance of humor in our lives. Their message is "Have you laughed your buns off today?" Laughter is one of the greatest medicines. I love those times when the least littlest thing puts you into a state of laughter to the point of crying. Although it seems at the moment that you may lose consciousness at any moment, it is still good for you! 

On the other end of the spectrum, often times a tear in the eye, or even a good cry can do great good for the soul. 

There are some great videos clips on Baby Boomer Baloney, many of which are funny, but here is one moment many of you may remember from the King of Late Night talk shows, Johny Carson from the Tonight Show. 

One of our greatest actors ever, Jimmy Stewart reading a poem he wrote about the love of a dog. These kinds of moments make you stop in your tracks and think about these precious moments in our lives that are "special". 

Whether it be laughter or tears, emotions are important and need to be thought of and allowed expression. I have never believed in the notion of men not crying. Sometimes, when someone holds back tears in sad moments, it is often a message of strength for others, to show them someone is there for support of the others who are sad. It is not to be thought of as a message of not caring or that men shouldn't cry. There are many ways that people express sadness or joy. Never the less, it should not be forgotten that expression and release of emotions can be tremendous stress relievers and good for the physical and spiritual being. When you can, enjoy the expression of emotion.

Check out Baby Boomer Baloney for your "laugh your buns off today" moment!

What a year....1969 - Woodstock and Moon landing

1969 was a year of monumental events and a coming of age for the then young Baby Boomer generation. It was the year of my high school graduation and a beginning of entering the world as a musician. Music, politics and world events were shaping the Boomers and how they would want to change their world. It was the year of Woodstock and men walking on the moon.

These events told the Baby Boomer generation that they can do anything, and knowing they can make anything great happen is something that an adolescent turning into an adult already knows. This is an age when all generations begin to realize an awareness of what their parents did wrong and learn that they are now approaching an age when they will begin to make the decisions of the next coming decades. It's not a process of that much awareness, but more a knowing that "now, it's my turn".

The thing to remember for each new generation is that they will feel the same way. Every generation thinks "they will do it better" and when they reach the age of their fifth and sixth decade, their children will tell them "they did it wrong".

It IS....a circle of life!

Here is a list if events of the year from CNN:

1969: An eventful summer

Remember The Milkman?

If you’re a Baby Boomer, born between the years 1946 - 1964, you can remember a time when you put the empty glass milk bottles in the milk box on the front porch, perhaps with a piece of paper saying, two bottles of white, 1 chocolate and 1 cottage cheese. Then the next morning, the empties where gone and the items requested were in the milk box. It was so cool to a young child of the 1950’s to find some cold chocolate milk in the milk box. The milk box was a metal box that was insulated on the inside to keep the items inside cool until you brought them in the house. Being a child, I only remember getting the milk, not much about paying for it, but I believe you put the money in an envelope with the empties. It was likely the amount owed from that previous week.

I have always known that if anyone wanted to use a key marketing aspect that would appeal to today’s buyer, it would be to use any angle of the Baby Boomer’s youth. Boomers will line up to buy goods and services that remind them of their innocent youth of the 1950’s. Someone has finally taken the idea of the 1950’s milk man and is making it work today, in Manhattan, in New York City, of all places. The place doesn’t really matter. All that is really needed is a Boomer customer base. The company name is Manhattan Milk and the smiling milkmen are dressed like right out of the 1950’s and they know their customers by name. They deliver fresh, organic milk direct from the farm to your door.

Boomers eat this type of stuff up. Bring back drive ins and ice cream soda fountains, but they have to look sharp, new like they were just built in the 1950’s style of colors, neon and chrome. If it looks good and reminds Boomers of the innocent days, they will come.

What a cool and very smart idea the guys who started Manhattan Milk had and it is working for them. To keep up with current times, they also play up the green and organic theme.

source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/manhattan-milk-milk-man-reintroduce-doorstep-delivery/story?id=10064427

TOM BROKAW REPORTS: BOOMER$ - March 4th, 2010

If you’ve read Tom Brokaw’s book, “The Greatest Generation” you know that he can present such a story as no one else can. In “The Greatest Generation," Brokaw pays tribute to this generation through the stories of many who were dealt the hand of living through some of the hardest economic times of the country, the Great Depression and World War II, the war of all wars of global impact. Through these times, countless stories of every day people doing whatever it took for family and country, gives pause to all of us to wonder if doing without even the basic necessities of life shapes the character of greatness.

On March 4th, Tom Brokaw will present his latest two hour documentary about the Baby Boomer generation.

"TOM BROKAW REPORTS: BOOMER$!" WILL PREMIERE ON MARCH 4TH ON CNBC"

The Baby Boom generation is the largest growth population of the United States and are the children of the Greatest Generation. Boomers have been both blamed and heralded for so much of what is good and bad of the country over the last five or six decades. Boomers rebelled, not only against their parents and the golden rules, but also against the government during the 1960’s and 70’s. There seemed to be an awakening of questioning what their parents did and said to them. The Greatest Generation seemed to follow the rules and not question authority, for the most part. 

We always need to remember that breaking away from parental supervision is a natural process of aging and of growing from a child into adulthood. Parents have children for many reasons, but nature ensures that as a child begins life, every need must be cared for by his or her parents. When anyone passes from adolescence to early adulthood, part of being able to prepare one’s self to handle situations of life is making one’s own decisions. Decisions that may be very different from how one’s parents may have thought . It is human to question and learn from past experiences...therefore, it is a natural course of life’s path for people to think for themselves.

The Greatest Generation, although seeming to follow and do what they had been told, had their own rebellions as well. Their music and lifestyle was considered evil and far to bold by their parents. They also had the "Roaring 20’s", the 1920’s, which were times of what was considered rebellious, with daring fashions and vicarious lifestyles.

The Boomer generation just appeared to carry this rebellion toward a larger degree, but anything that the largest portion of the population does, naturally has a larger apparent effect. The larger the action, the larger the re-action. 

An additional aspect that makes the Boomers' actions of greater consequence is that communication and technology advances made everyone in the country more aware of events when they happened. Television and radio made people aware of the country’s news almost instantaneously. During the Greatest Generation's youth, communities were more isolated and news took at least a day or days to reach many people.

The bottom line is that whatever the largest portion of the population does, will display and equally proportionate awareness. Additionally, much of the negative aspects of the Baby Boomer generation are being made by, you guessed it....their children. Just as the Boomers rebelled and thought they knew a better way than their parents, Boomer children are following nature's course and becoming aware of the world and how they will do it better....at least until their children become adults...

Good days...Bad days...this past year been learning one for Baby Boomers!

There are many Baby Boomers out there, going through similar phases of feelings, as we all move toward some of the same issues we are seeing our aging parents go through, if you are lucky enough to still have your parents alive. With the economic crisis of our country of the last year and the end of many Boomer, long time jobs and careers, we are facing some unique challenges. The fact that we are part of the largest age group going through these issues at the same time is part of the problem, although, we can find some comfort in the fact that we are not going through them alone. We are all in this together! We are having the same fears of what the future holds. We are going to have good days...and bad days as we go through this crazy thing called “LIFE”! We may be many, but we are not unique human beings. All humans naturally have a view of life through our own, personal colored lenses. It is human to think about life and things moving around us, just as the we think of the planets of our solar system revolving around Earth's sun, and the sun is the center of the universe. Well...it isn’t. It’s moving and it is not the center and either are we.

I sincerely believe that a great many of us, lost our jobs due to the fact that this past year has provided corporations the answer to how were they going to deal with all of us retiring at about the same time. Companies have been struggling with this question and trying to come up with methods to be prepared, for at least a decade. When the economy began its downturn, it provided them with the out they needed. There would be no better time to get rid of their older workers than now. Think about that. The biggest issue with losing everyone to retirement was the loss of all of that experience and knowledge at once, and how to capture and transfer this experience to new, younger workers. That fear went away because EVERY company was dealing with the same issue. There is no fear of competitors gaining the advantage of that experience when everyone had the same excuse to downsize their older workers. The economic crisis also alleviated the fears of age discrimination coming back at them because “it’s just the economy”.

Now, Boomers have had a year to try and figure out what they are going to do, especially the ones who were near retirement, but not quite there. They have been wondering around in a multi-directional state of either looking for a job similar to what they did before, and dealing with everyone else doing the same; looking for any job they can get, while dealing with everyone else doing the same; or taking a totally new direction.

Many have chosen to make this an opportunity to follow a new path or perhaps a lifelong dream that they have put on the back burner for most of their lives.

This brings me to why I’m writing this article. It has been a year and yes, it looks like the economy has stopped falling. I agree that, for many reasons, companies have chosen to look more positively to the future. Let’s face it.... They got rid of a hell of a lot of overhead!!! They should be better off without more than half of their previous workforce gone!

Over this year, personally speaking, I have chosen to make “what I do” for the rest of my life focused on creativity. My main focus has been music, as I have been a musician for over 40 years now and it is truly what I do best. I have also discovered that I enjoy writing. So far, I have really only been writing a journalistic style. I have yet to really work at a fictional or even non-fictional story style of writing. I have some ideas in the back of my mind that I make notations about. Perhaps they may turn into more of a story, but for now, I continue to write for a few on-line journal/news type websites. These give visibility and experience. They do not provide much income, unless they are your complete and full focus and you put so many articles out there that you only stop due to your fingers cramping up.

I have accomplished a few milestones in my path as a singer/song writer/recording artist, as I have released two albums, with some original material. The marketing and promotion of being an independent artist is also a full time effort to become very successful. It also requires some major investment of money, if you want some professional publishing help.

I have decided to investigate starting a small business, centered on music. This is something that I have had in the back of my mind as a “wouldn’t it be great to”, more than a reality, for many years. I have decided to take this out of the “wish” state to the “reality” state, full on. I am leaning all about starting a small business and I know that I have the key ingredient for success of this...that I have only discovered over this past year, and that is CONFIDENCE! I have been making statements for years that “this business would do better IF” and “that one will never make it BECAUSE”. Now, I am following the steps to make all of my life and music experience a reality.

So, I have taken a year to center my ambitions to focus on three areas. I feel that, in some ways, these can remain viable to continue, but there is not doubt that starting a business will consume my main focus for quite a while from this point. This will undoubtedly cause the other two to suffer, but I think they are still worthwhile, as they are fulfilling something in me. One of them, recording, will actually fit quite well into my business as I will be able to record in my own place, so, that’s a good thing. The writing is just something that I feel a reason to follow that I can’t quite explain other than, it feels right.

Lastly, as there are these three main focuses in my life right now....That involve the creative self.... There are just those BLANK days, when that part of the brain is being clouded or shut down, due to the “do this and do that” of our every day hectic lives. A large part of this is caused by the reality of also constantly being aware that I need to continue to look for real income and jobs. Job searching can be a full time efforts as well.  All of this has made me much busier than when I had my previous full time, corporate job, when I shut my creative brain down, mostly, paid the bills and took care of our family life.

I am having a week of those BLANK days this week. That has prodded me to write this article for my blog. I do find that sometimes just writing whatever comes out as I type, can be a therapy of sorts. It can bring you into the NOW and force your brain to stop it’s focus on the “what I need to do later or tomorrow”...those things that bring the clouds into your brain.

So this helped me today....regardless of any readers of this article, but I will post it, for as I said in the beginning, we Boomers are in this together and we can always look to each other for support and help.

Baby Boomer innovation continues to affect all things

Just because boomers are growing older doesn’t mean their affect on everything is diminishing. It’s not like the younger generations are going to have more impact, as their numbers just are not there. As boomer ideals and ideas changed culture from their previous generation as they became adults, so are they continuing to change what the words retirement, death and funeral mean.

There are many articles written about how the number of boomers will put unprecedented strains on our economy in the future, but one article from Reuters.com, the international multimedia news agency, is about how boomers will change how we have traditionally held funerals. In the article, Baby Boomers to inject new life into funeral industry, one boomer is planning her funeral pre-arrangement celebration. She does not want the typical somber and sad church funeral service. She is planning her favorite music to be played during event, as a celebration of her life.

Funeral companies have also felt the recession, as more and more people are requesting less expensive cremations. The funeral business should have no fears of a bleak future, as boomer numbers will more than compensate for this temporary loss of business. Just as Baby Boomers will find new meaning for the word funeral, with parties and life memory videos, etc., they will also become funeral business owners and will look at the future with that same innovation, if they are smart.

The video is from an innovative site called MemoryOf.com

an online memorial website.

Now we know what it's like

As the Baby Boomer generation grows older, we are steadily becoming aware of what life is about. We are learning what our parents, of the Greatest Generation, learned before us, and the generations before that. Due to the mere fact that we are the largest generation ever, the impact of growing older will be larger to the same degree. As Boomers have always over-thought everything, we knew about aging and have watched our parents go through it, and yet, we still tend to think as we have most of our lives...that "we" are unique. We really knew we are still human beings and therefore will experience life as it is, but in the back of our minds, we have always thought that we will find all the cures to all diseases and remain young and immortal, at least in earnest principal.

What we are learning as we see our cultural icons die, is that although our life expectancy is indeed longer than the previous generations, we can not live forever. We are feeling the reality of what our parents felt and are feeling as they have watched most of their friends pass away. It makes one wonder what it must feel like to be in your 7th and 8th decade of life. Does one wake up everyday thinking that this may be it? Perhaps as we grow older, we also find an awarness that dieing becomes less and less of a worry, and as if you can live into your 7th or 8th decade, you actually become comfortable with the fact that life may end any time.

What would it be like to live so long that everyone you know, perhaps even all of your own family, would die before you? Would this be something humans would actually desire? Humans need the bonds of love and friendship throughout their lives and to see that all disappear while you go on, alone, would be a hard thing to endure.

For other Boomer icons who died this year, see:

Baby Boomers - This has been a week of awareness of our mortality

Ellie Greenwich wrote huge hit songs. Did you ever hear of her?

The Summer of the Celebrity Deaths? 

Chilly Billy Cardilly - Pittsburgh WPXI's Chiller Theater Host

Remember when we Boomers were young and wanted to stay up as late as we could on a Saturday night, if we were allowed to stay up, and watch the only program that was still on in those days. Baby Boomers can remember the days of 3 or 4 channels on TV, the 3 networks and PBS and on a good night of clear weather, you may have been able to get a fuzzy picture of a UHF channel with that extra loop UHF antenna.

Usually it was so snowy of a picture that you couldn't tell what was on anyway, but it was very cool trying. So as TV programs would end their programing about midnight or 1AM, when it came to the weekend and the school week was over, if you were a person who loved to stay up, as I did, and lived in the Pittsburgh, PA viewing area, you watched WPXI, Channel 11's Chiller Theater hosted by Bill Cardille. 

The Chiller Theater, late night concept actually began in New York City in 1961, but Pittsburgh's Channel 11, then named WIIC call letters began it's Chiller Theater in 1963 and was hosted by Bill Cardille, Originally from Sharon, Pennsylvania, Cardille was long a fixture on the former WIIC Channel 11, the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh, and was the first voice heard when the station went on the air on September 1, 1957.

Any Pittsburgh area Boomer knows and loved Chilly Billy, as he became known as, and loved to watch those horror movies all night, or as long as they could stay awake. I always loved to watch the horror classics such as Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman with

Boris Karloff                                Bela Lugosi                       Lon Chaney Jr. 

There were many terrible horror movies during those years also, that still have some cherished memories to many. There were all the Japanese Godzilla type movies that were translated into English, with no syncronization with mouth moving what-so-ever. They were terrible back then, but are still part of the memories of those days. Many was the time that I would watch whatever movie was on because I just wanted to stay up as late as I could anyway.

So here is to one of our, and personally my, heros of my youth, Bill Cardille, for giving so many of us great entertainment and memories!

You can find out more about Bill Cardille, who is celebrating 52 years of broadcasting in Pittsburgh, PA at his website: http://www.chillertheatermemories.com/TheLab.html

Thanks Chilly Billy!!!!

New Baby Boomers series on the History Channel

The History Channel is presenting a new series of programs sponsored by AARP about the Baby Boomers and some of the key historic events that occurred during the span of Baby Boomer years.

Stated by the program description, “Our Generation is the new History Channel series that takes you on a journey to visit the places, the people and events that have shaped the largest and most vocal generation in American history: The Baby Boomers.” Some of the key events range from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the Moon Landing.

There is quite a bit of Boomer bashing going on throughout the social media, but it can not be denied, whether you look at the generation of the largest amount of babies born after World War II, they made a definite impact on the world. They brought the age of civil rights, began questioning and protesting against the establishment and government and began the current movement of speaking out against the powerful and thinking about insuring that humans must begin to take care of the planet we live on and how we save it for our future children and generations to come.

Check out the History Channel description and program schedule of Our Generation.

Baby Boomers were told we could never retire

Baby Boomers were supposed to keep working and never retire, but now we are being forced into a uniquely different kind of retirement. We thought we were going to have to work until we dropped dead, but as companies such as General Motors are giving buyouts and separation packages to thousands, we all wonder how long will this all last and who will be the ones at the lake, fishing.

So, just over a year ago, thousands of Baby Boomers were at their jobs that they probably had for many years and were going to retirement planning seminars and being told to not expect to retire when they expected, but that they would most likely have to work well into their 60’s and even 70’s or longer. They were starting to adjust their retirement savings and think of what types of career they could keep doing, while knowing that the company they worked for would not keep them that much longer. Many were looking into career changes that would be more rewarding to them personally.

That was just over one year ago. How much things can change in a year is an understatement! Before we were being told that we would probably have to over work to keep our standard of living that we wanted and now those thousands of jobs just disappeared, just as half of all the retirement funds. The scenario may be actually similar in that Boomers will have to continue to work many more years than they had thought, but now that would be just to keep their homes!

We are all going through a huge learning curve right now. We are beginning to learn, the hard way, that we don’t need to spend money that we don’t have...because we actually don’t have it! It is a good lesson and probably the only way all of us would ever actually begin to live more modestly would be by going through some desperate times.

No one really knows where all of this is going but one thing for sure is that we are all in this together and we all will be learning what is going to happen next.....together.

Career changes after job loss - renewed encouragement to follow your dreams

There is a website community called GrowingBolder.com that has a mission of raising awareness of the value of not growing older, but "growing". Our society has looked at getting older as a time when things stop and careers stop. Never more than now does this attitude cry for change! With nearly 80 million Baby Boomers approaching the age of 60, and the current economical meltdown causing record breaking job loss, there are just far too many people facing this exact decision. The jobs that we all had may not be there, even as the economy begins to rebound. This will be a time of changing careers to many of us.

So now, more than ever before, we need to rediscover ourselves and have faith that we can do this! The site GrowingBolder.com is a great example of this philosophy. There is video after video of people over the age of 40 and 50 that are setting the bar for all of us. They are challenging all of us, not just the Boomers, but those in their 20's and 30's to become more aware that taking care of themselves at a younger age just makes growing Bolder that much easier and productive.

The video is about 15 minutes long, but interesting enough and again, very inspiring! If you are wondering or self-doubting yourself right now, the video will re-new your faith and confidence to follow your dreams!

Enjoy!


One on One With GB Founder Marc Middleton

Boomster.com - Wealth of information for Baby Boomers

Photo from Boomster.com

In their own statement: "Boomster.com is an information and social network website for dynamic and experienced baby boomers interested in pursuing a full life. Through original articles, videos, and live interviews, boomster provides the latest information on careers and businesses, travel, volunteering, and a wide range of interests from wines to fly fishing to politics. Most importantly, it is a venue where members can meet like-minded people with whom they are able to explore ideas, exchange advice, and develop relationships and friendships."

The site is well organized and visibly pleasing to peak your curiosity and inspire you to find interests and career information that will align your passions with pursuits that will enhance your personal and professional goals.

A website of this type is exactly what Boomers need during the uncertain times that have been suddenly trust upon them, when they were beginning to think of how retirement would look.

Actually, the current economic crisis should be looked at as an opportunity and a wake up call to everyone. Now is the time for us to realize that we have been living our lives in a bit of a cloud of buying on credit and expecting a check to continuously slide into our bank accounts. The Baby Boomer generation has lived through some trying times to be sure, with social injustices, political greed and war, but we have not had to face the hardships that "The Greatest Generation" did during the "Great Depression". There was no unemployment compensation or government help. When the jobs were gone, so were the basic necessities of life, such as food and shelter. This is not to minimize the hardships that thousands are going through right now as so many are losing their homes.

Boomster offers a great deal of help and social connections with others all going through the same issues of life. Check Boomster out, join and begin to do some research on how to spend the future persuing your true passions.

If you would like to take a tour of Boomster before joining, click here.

NORAD TRACKS SANTA 2008

NORAD TRACKS SANTA 2008

Still remember the tremendous excitement you felt??? If I sit down and put my mind into being a child of the 1950's and still under the age of 10, I can still feel the exact excitement in me that I felt then! There was absolutely no other feeling like it and to be sure, those of us in the United States in those times of 1950's and 60's were truly blessed to have been born in this country and to have had parents who gave us that special, magical feeling of waiting each day and counting down the minutes for Santa to arrive! I can still feel my heart racing as I was put into my bed on Christmas Eve because Santa would be there soon. I KNEW that there was NO WAY I would be able to fall asleep...but somehow...before I knew it, I did... and the next moment it was Christmas morning and as soon as my eyes opened, I shot out of bed and downstairs and was amazed beyond words that I can find here and now..to describe what it was like to see the presents and warmth, love and wonderment presented to me when I went downstairs! We weren't a family of money but it didn't show and it didn't matter. There were plenty of presents and any particular wishes I had for certain items vanished after I started opening whatever I received. Christmas wrapping was flying and toys were making beeps and motor sounds. I was oblivious to anyone else waking and coming downstairs and opening their presents. I was in my own world of sheer toydome ecstasy!!!

As most Baby Boomers, I did my best to give my children some of that same magic for their Christmas life long memories. These are memories that spring emotions that can not be taken away and that we will never lose. All we need do is take a few moments when we perhaps spy an old ornament on our Christmas tree that we have held onto since our youth. I have some of these ornaments that must be nearly 70 years old as they belonged to my parents when they were young. Each one of these ornaments contains special memories that can start your own "YouTube" video moments within your own mind of someone's smile or a laugh that occurred in your parents house when you were little, perhaps while hanging that ornament on the tree.

There are so many reasons why this time of year raises our emotions to extremes. This can also bring many sad memories for any of us who have lost precious loved ones, especialy if more recently. There are no comforting words for those who may have recently lost someone during this time of the year with the exception that only time can heal these pains...and they do heal, eventually and the wonderful memories of our loved ones remain and you relive them each year you put up that tree again or remember those magical moments waiting for Santa when you were young and innocent and happiness was more instantaneous.

So whether you still have young children or grand children or you just want to relive being little again...check out a few Santa sites and see where Santa is being tracked during the "special night"!

Let me just make a note here that this is a special memory of love and family of mine that I feel confident can be shared amoung so many of us Baby Boomers and is by no means any reflection on any religious beliefs. There are many ways of celebrating this time of the year and although Christmas is a traditional Christian holiday, what this article is about is youthful memories of family and love and happiness that many of us can all share and feel and these emotions are blessings that have no religious or cultural bounds but are human blessings of tolerance and understanding and above all...LOVE!

Happy Holidays to all and may we all learn to make tomorrow and next year one of Peace and Love and Understanding of ALL others!!!