Tag Archives: Sixties

Get Your Skates On!

“I want anyone who has ever said or felt that women are weak in any way to strap on a pair of skates and play two minutes of roller derby with them.”  — Emily Mills, “Hammer Abby,” Quad Squad, Mad Rollin’ Dolls

As a writer, I’m sometimes invited to participate in a collaborative project or respond to a writing prompt. The day before Mother’s Day, I had the pleasure of joining three writers for what was described as a “writing attack.” Each of us was to interpret the call-to-action in our own way. The assignment was for the blog, True Stories Well Told, managed by my reminiscence-writing coach and mentor, Sarah White, for her summer series, Season of Sports. Continue reading

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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

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Remember: Childhood July 4th Celebrations

Long ago, far away
Life was clear
Close your eyes*

Holidays are like mile markers on a journey. We are able to look back to see how far we’ve traveled and where we’ve been simply my reflecting on where we were a year ago on this day. If we look further back, we can return to holiday celebrations of our childhood which for some of us are pleasant memories of simpler times. The rituals and traditions associated with holidays can evoke body memories sparked by smells, sounds, sights, tastes, and touch. For the Fourth of July, it’s the smell of sulfur from lighting sparklers, the sounds and sight of fireworks exploding in brilliant color in the night sky, the taste of hot dogs, ice cream and soda pop and the drum beats of marching bands echoing and rumbling in one’s body. Continue reading

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Beach Boys, Beatles, Bob Dylan & the Byrds

Growing Up in the Early 1960s

“Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now”   Lyrics from My Back Pages by Bob Dylan

A number of recent events and anniversaries coalesced this month, prompting me to reminisce. My birthday is in January and like the month’s namesake Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions, I’ve been looking back at mine. Fifty years ago, as a baby boomer growing up in the early 1960’s, my life was about to change in ways I couldn’t imagine. Continue reading

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A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2013

“I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.” Francis Ford Coppola

“Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this.” Martin Scorsese

First, I’m a cinephile not a film critic. Yet, like a critic, I’m able to talk about films pretty intelligently; I see a lot of movies, I often write about them, make recommendations to friends and family and followers of my blog. I’m informed and I’ve studied the art of film-making, not from behind the camera or in the classroom, but in the audience where I believe it counts the most. Continue reading

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There Will Be Stories

Like most other families, when mine gets together there will be stories. Some stories are the ritual retelling of past shared memories, the mythology we’ve created and strive to preserve. Other stories are simply gossip, told family-style, which in ours means we are usually talking about the absent relative, so there’s additional incentive to attend family gatherings if you want to protect your reputation or tell your side of the story. Lastly, we tell stories to impart our values and create a family legacy for the next generation. Continue reading

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Sexagenarian Dating in the Midwest

“It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.”  Margaret Mead

Today’s post begins with a quote from Margaret Mead, the cultural anthropologist, writer and feminist. I offer this quote for a couple of reasons; first, Mead is a widely quoted and respected student of civilization, she was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. The citation read:

“Margaret Mead was both a student of civilization and an exemplar of it. To a public of millions, she brought the central insight of cultural anthropology: that varying cultural patterns express an underlying human unity. She mastered her discipline, but she also transcended it. Intrepid, independent, plain spoken, fearless, she remains a model for the young and a teacher from whom all may learn.”

The second reason I begin with Mead’s quote about aging is that I wanted this essay about dating in my sixties to have some academic weight. The idea that I was approaching this subject from the point of view of a cultural anthropologist made me smile as I write about my dating life, or current lack of one. Continue reading

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