Hey you...yeah the guy in the mandantory Hawaiian shirt...can't you read? NO HAVING FUN!
I did a really dumb thing the other day. I stepped out of the comfort of Blogger HQ to intervene in a situation and may have prevented a tragedy. Boomers I gotta tell you, I'll never do THAT again.
Here's the deal. I was slaving away in the blogosphere when our next-door neighbor called. She said that there were 3 kids swimming in the dirty, duck-poop water of one of our two neighborhood ponds.
"What do you think we should do?" she asked.
"I'll come over and check it out," I said, noting the tension in her voice.
It may look like the ol' swimmin' hole, but it ain't
I left the air conditioned comfort of the Bob Cave and walked across our driveway to her front yard. She was right. There were 3 kids - two girls and a boy - probably ages 6, 8 and 12, swimming in the mucky, brown (did I mention duck-poop-infused?) water. They were jumping from the bank on to the large slippery rock; and diving and swimming underwater in the 2-10 foot deep pond. Kids being, well...kids.
Yeah, I know, it's summer. It was hot (100+ degrees) so what's the big deal?
For starters, this pond ain't the ol' swimmin' hole. Sure, it LOOKS pretty, but it's one of two ponds that provide storm water drainage for our subdivision. It's home to large snapping turtles, poisonous water snakes, minnows and more geese and ducks than you can count. Dangerous? Not Great Barrier Reef dangerous. But, dangerous to 3 kids in a muck-filled pond without life jackets or adult supervision? Yeah, buddy.
Neighbor and I talked it over and decided I should ask the kids a couple of questions.
I didn't want to hassle 'em - just find out who they were, where their parents were...standard stuff. Two minutes and I'm back talking to my neighbor. The kids, figuring they've been busted, take off for home. Next thing I know, they're scrambling back through the 8' foot tall iron fence that rings our greenbelt and they're safely home. Game over.
Or so I thought.
This spring marked the 20th anniversary of the Emmy-award-winning The Golden Girls retirement from television. Although my mother still watches the reruns religiously, I have a hard time relating to that show.
I may be approaching Golden Girls status but we Boomers of today are VASTLY different from the way Dorothy, Blanche and others in their 50s and 60s were portrayed two decades ago. We're more in tune with Sheryl Crow, who just turned 50; Christie Brinkley, who's 58; Meryl Streep, 63, and Olivia Newton-John, also 63 and a favorite because everyone says I resemble her. (It never gets old!) Like them, we're in our prime.
We stay active, try to eat right (for the most part) and do our best to fool father time. That's especially important since the divorce rate among those 50 and older has nearly doubled since 1990, helping make men and women 55 and older the largest group of online daters in the U.S.
Whether you're looking for your soul mate or still married to him after 30+ years (guilty!), wouldn't it be nice to look as good you feel? Well, the folks at P&G Beauty are here to help us Boomer Babes do just that.
Spoiler alert: they're offering one lucky reader a chance to win a five-piece gift set sure to boost your beauty routine. More on this Boomer-licious giveaway later!
In the meantime, let's start by talking beauty with the experts from P&G Beauty. They've given us the scoop on how to handle some of our top concerns about aging teeth, skin and hair.
Olivia Newton-John
You could win a Boomer-licious gift set ($116 value) including five anti-aging pros sure to help you look as good as you feel:
The Olay Professional Pro-X Advanced Cleansing System
Click "Read More" for details on how to enter. Contest ends Aug. 9!
Charlotte and I have had plenty of experience with home improvement projects. Our most recent trip to remodel heaven landed us on HGTV.
Our eyes may be a mirror to our souls but they don't have to reveal our age! Why give in to dark circles (they're rampant in my family), bags and crow's feet when you can turn to terrific, at-home eye treatments like these for under $100?
Besides helping eyes look younger, they're a pleasure to wear under makeup and even when you head to bed. You only need a dab. They go on easy, absorb quickly and leave lasting moisture without any greasy feeling. Bonus!
Honey, why don't you just put your feet up and watch the kids. I'll be right back...
Whenever we get the chance, Charlotte and I take the Mobile Bay Ferry over to Dauphin Island and head over to lovely Bellingrath Gardens and our favorite lunch dive in Forrest Gump Country, Bayou La Batre, AL. It's goregous scenery and along the way we're treated to sights like this.
Bob and I are wild about fresh fruits and vegetables. So, most Fridays, you can find us at our neighborhood farmer's market.
Everyone in our house goes for green beans, especially when they're fresh from the garden.
Charlotte and I love spending time at the beach in the summer. It's a place where our second favorite activity is reading (Get your mind out of the gutter - Charlotte's favorite activity is walking the beach; mine is not walking the beach). We're always on the lookout for great books that'll take us somewhere, give us a different point of view or, in Charlotte's case, make her cry. Good times. Good times.
Oooooh that...!
One of the best things about growing up in a small Texas town is the food. Sure, southerners get a bad rap for deep-frying just about everything that doesn't move (and yes, we really do that). But jeez, sometimes you just CRAVE a side dish that's hot, brown and just a little bit crunchy - like cornbread.
Never heard of fried cornbread? Well, Hot Water Cornbread as it's called is a staple that's celebrated in my Granbury, Texas hometown. No place puts it on a higher pedestal than the cornbread cathedral, the Nutt House Hotel and Dining Room.
A few months ago, my Granbury Facebook friends unearthed this crazy, good recipe from the Nutt House (insert your own joke here). It's an easy dish to prepare and the result is cornbread with a delicate crunch and a soft, chewy inside that melts in your mouth.
No plain, Jane chicken for these Boomers. Bob and I are big on eating healthy and watching our weight but that doesn't have to mean boring meals.
Hey! At least my shirt's dry...
With Texas flirting with triple-digit temperatures, Bob and I are focused on keeping our cool. We're wearing shorts, eating salads and craving goodies that offer a little chill.
By Amy Wood, Psy.D.
Imagine you're sitting in a restaurant booth enjoying lunch with a close friend you haven't seen in a while. You're deep in conversation with this cherished person, feeling extremely grateful to have this precious time together to catch up. You lean in closer as your friend begins to update you on a pressing personal problem, and just then you hear someone in the booth behind you mention the name of a colleague.
Yesterday, I was cleaning out some files and ran across my old DRAFT CARD. Nothing establishes Baby Boomer street cred like one of those relics.
Since I'm in no danger of being featured on Hoarders (Charlotte may be a candidate), I'm always finding stuff I wasn't looking for when I'm throwing out stuff I don't need. I present the DRAFT CARD as EXHIBIT A. This thing was worn and fragile from being stored in my wallet longer than my first condom driver's license. I mean, c'mon, I know it wasn't the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it was a significant relic.
1974. It was the tail-end of the Vietnam war and I'd just turned 18 and had to register for the draft. I put it off as long as I could without serving time in Federal prison. When I couldn't delay it any longer, I registered at the Somervell
They had the Draft Board guy set up all by himself in a huge empty courtroom (think To Kill a Mockingbird).
When I opened the creaky doors to this high-ceilinged cavern, I felt like I was paying a visit to the GREAT and POWERFUL OZ. Boomers, it was. Just. That. Creepy.
I had every reason to be afraid. I checked all the boxes for an 18-year-old potential draftee:
Long Hair - CHECK
Lots o' Attitude - CHECK
Scared Shi*less - CHECK and DOUBLE CHECK
In the box that said "sex" I hadn't written, "Yes, please."