BoomSpeak

  • ESSAY
  • FICTION
  • TRAVEL
  • ARTS
  • About Us

Archives for February 2023

Ha, Ha, You’re So Old

February 17, 2023 By admin

50s cigarette adYou’ve seen the lists on Facebook or some other online time-sucks. They are designed to tap into your nostalgia for the way things were when we were growing up. Live telephone operators, doctors selling cigarettes on TV, cursive writing, looking up things in an encyclopedia, milk delivery, phonebooks, payphones, drive-in movies, tie-dyed shirts, lava lamps and bell bottom jeans. The lists go on and on.

The compilers of these lists are people who are extremely nostalgic for the way things used to be and they want to entertain us with those memory associations. Or maybe they want to drag us back to those good old days because, well, why not?

Wait just a minute. Doctors telling us that cigarettes are OK and have great flavor? That was the good old days? Barbie dolls set a good example for adolescent girls? Riding motorcycles without helmets was safe? Trying to get decent TV reception with rabbit ears on top of the set? Penny candy that rotted your teeth? Chemistry sets that could blow us up along with the house? Cereals loaded with sugar? Candy cigarettes that we could suck on until we were ready for the real killers? Eating Swanson dinners that lacked any real nutrition (and now we know the Tucker Carlson connection)? BB guns that could take out an eye? Really. Sunbathing without sunscreen – holy melanoma! Lead paint everywhere at home and asbestos covered pipes in schools? No seatbelts or car seats for infants?

Are boomers being encouraged to fondly remember things that in retrospect should have scared the hell out of us if we really thought about it. Just revisionist thinking you might be saying. Granted, we survived, but maybe we should be a little bit more realistic about our nostalgia. Remember the benign but thank your lucky stars the other stuff didn’t maim or kill you.

My favorite mostly safe childhood activity? Attaching baseball cards to our bicycle spokes with clothes pins so that our bikes sounded like powerful sports cars when we peddled as fast as our little legs would go. Innocuous? We thought so. Still have all my fingers.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

 

Filed Under: ESSAY

Return to India

February 17, 2023 By admin

Hooghly River in KolkataThe pandemic of 2020 put a halt to our frequent family visits to India until 2023 when my husband and I ventured out to his family’s home in Kolkata. Emirates Airlines made it happen on the very same day that Southwest couldn’t. Masked and seated in an unusually roomy row, we felt good about things. It is a long journey and I can’t help but think about the not so distant future when a flight of this proportion may be just too much for an aging body. But not this flight. We arrived very late in the evening in Kolkata, met with perhaps the same chaos that Southwest passengers faced—only we were told there were no taxis! The driver we hired in advance informed us that his car broke down and he was busy fixing it. So we waited and fix it he did!

A very happy reunion ensued as my husband, myself and his 92 year old mother exchanged huge smiles and hugs all around. She has always been such an accepting and appreciative mother-in-law, even if I disappointed her by living on the other side of her world as a non-Indian, unfamiliar with the duties of a daughter-in-law — even more demanding than those of a daughter! Though she never shows it, I feel I may have let her down.

No sooner than when we got there, we were off to Chennai for my husband’s Sapphire Jubilee as a member of the batch of 1976 at IIT Madrass. An impressive turnout, as husbands and their wives committed to the three-day reunion, ready to party and sing! We enjoyed the adequate, even quaint, accommodations of the Taramani Guest House on campus where, for the next two days, we gathered over breakfast, lunch and dinner, birdwalks, lectures, and a tour of the impressive research center generously funded by the alumni. We were entertained by local musicians playing Hindi and Tamil soundtracks of the ‘70s on the roof top, accompanied by a glorious sunset, over dinner sharing a hearty display of single malt scotches that lined the bar.

The energetic party moved next day by non-airconditioned buses (this is southern India) to the exotic and lovely Raddison resort nestled in the sands of the Bay of Bengal, in Mahabalipuram. We continued our lively celebration of friendship through games, dinner, more drinks, and karaoke, with the beach as our backdrop as they sang along to the searing heart wrenching Bollywood love songs of their childhood!

Julie Gillern loves to travel now that she is retired from shaping the minds of her students.

Filed Under: TRAVEL

Downed Powerline

February 17, 2023 By admin

high voltage wiresHe studied her across the table as she read the menu. He knew what he wanted. His favorite, the spaghetti carbonara. She finally looked up, head canted, her sidelong glance asking, ‘What?’ to his intense stare. He shrugged. What could he say? They had just spent forty minutes at the bar waiting for the table. Like old times, she had her usual Negroni. Talk was easy. It had been thirty years since they had last connected. Much to fill in. At this point they were actually free between divorce for her and widowhood for him. The waiter took her order: saltimbocca, salad, Chianti.

She held his eye and her tongue over a slow sip of ice water. It was his turn, this time to ask out loud, “What?”

She simply looked down.

They both felt it. Or rather didn’t feel it…the buzz. There was no tingle as they tried to pick up the fallen powerline of their past. Does hot leak out, he wondered? He could still see the girl in the woman he used to know when she giggled then spanned thumb and forefinger to the corners of her mouth. Familiar. But different now, her hand gaunt and heavy-veined.

Mirroring his scrutiny, she measured him as well. He could feel her tally his lank gray hair, pouched eyes drooping over scored laugh lines, middle finger pushing glasses up.

Was this too heavy a lift? Trying to revive feelings from half a lifetime ago? Sure, there could be fond recollections, like looking through a forgotten box of photographs. Their snatched time together. But just now, it felt like spinning the rasp on a cigarette lighter—waiting, hoping for a spark to catch, to burst into flame. Their flame.

They worked on their meals. Toasted each other. He forced an old joke. She shook her head, smiled indulgently. Finishing their tiramisu and espresso, he tried to imagine them snogging, maybe more. The image wouldn’t focus. The honey didn’t rise. Maybe he…they, were past it. Or maybe it was just her. Maybe with some other woman…starting fresh, not trying to stoke cold ashes…

“I’m not that throbbing hunk anymore,” just popped out.

She nodded. “As if…”

Under a tight grin, he handed the credit card to the waiter. He always liked her snarky side.

“My turn next time,” she said.

“’Kay,” he said.

Retired trainer, and writing instructor, Joe Novara lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Writings include novels, short stories, a memoir and various poems, plays, anthologies and articles. Read more at https://freefloatingstories.wordpress.com/

Filed Under: ESSAY

Recent Posts

  • Berra of Good News
  • Gym Rat??
  • Morning Wishes
  • A.I. Overload
  • Bridge Lesson

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016

Older Archives

ESSAYS
FICTION
ARTS
TRAVEL
Pre-2014

Keep up with BoomSpeak!

Sign up for BoomSpeak Email blasts!

Select list(s) to subscribe to


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: DesignConcept, 1395 Barranca De Oro, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, http://www.boomspeak.com. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
boom_blog-icon        facebkicon_boomspk        dc06_favicon

Copyright ©2016 · DesignConcept