Archives for February 2026

Is there some award for reaching the 20^th anniversary of a blog? Is that a thing? If so, sign me up because BoomSpeak was launched around this time in 2006. What were you doing in 2006? What were any of us doing?

The term “weblog” was coined in 1997 and within two years shortened to just “blog.” Soon there was a spate of blogs being published and many new software platforms to help you publish your personal journal. Specialization brought new contributors in niches such as technology, travel, fashion, food, computing and many more. Many bloggers attempted to monetize their blog by selling ads but that required proof that your blog was reaching a huge audience.

Ad sales never took hold for BoomSpeak, not that we didn’t try (the dreaded Google Adsense). In retrospect, the blog remained pure by not having ads. From the start it was a place where boomer contributors could express their thoughts (and relevant fiction) about our shared experience of growing up as part of a generation of unprecedented scale. We used the tagline “Your whole life’s in front of you” because it tapped into the potential and optimism that our generation shared. We had – make that have – great potential still, even in hard times.

The arrival of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Podcasts, and TikTok has exploded the channels for content creators to share stories and perspectives. Despite that proliferation, there’s still a niche for the humble blog. You most likely have noticed the arrival of Substacks by well-known and not so well-known authors. For many of us who hang on to the humble blog, a Substack is long-form blogging by another name, and I’m okay with that. More than okay, because it’s opened the door for some great writing by talented people.

Boomers have taken a lot of hits in recent years and that’s to be expected because of the scale of our generation and the resulting influence we’ve had over politics, science, the arts and more. The bigger the target the more arrows you draw. Part of my mission as a BoomSpeak blogger is to put the emphasis on the shared experience of growing up as a boomer, and remembering the many altruistic contributions we made and continue to make.

If you are a boomer and have something to say about it (or read what others are saying), BoomSpeak continues to be the place to come. If you’ve never contributed, now might be a good time. If you’re a past contributor, it’s time to write for us again. We still have something to say and this blog is the place to say it.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. 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.

It was a gathering of us seniors, a travel club. Nice friendly folks, lots of gray hair having a holiday potluck and fun-gift exchange. On the way home, driving carefully due to the icy roads and decreased night vision, I recalled a parallel event when I was in the eighth grade. Joyce, a shy classmate, must have been pleased with a little attention I had sent her way because she invited me to a Christmas party at her house. It was a new experience for me. Some of my more-edgy classmates, a ‘going together’ group, got into spinning the bottle. Straight me sat outside the circle. Hey, I had played St. Francis of Assisi in our school play… ‘Where there is hate, let me sow love’. This was a whole nother play.

Seventy years later, at another Christmas party, all us participants had gray hair (dyed or not). There was a good potluck. Gift exchanges. Lots of friendliness and Christmas cheer. But it was so different from that other party. For one thing, most of us were paired. Had been for some time…settled, secure. No open-ended poking, probing for new horizons to explore. At our age, typically, there’s friendship and sweetness with group togetherness making for another form of Christmas party¬—good cheer and friendliness without the underlying buzz of adolescent excitement. After all, we’re on the other side of all that, I kept saying to myself until a lady (I forget her name) who had some kind of Christmas sparkles embedded in her auburn hair, out of the blue, smiled at me. Really sweet. It’s easy to forget how much of the old game endures, waiting to revive with a little timing and touch.

So, I smiled back. Looked at my ‘exchange gift’, a pair of potholders decorated with hand-embroidered reindeer ‘up on the rooftop’. She had an empty wine bottle filled with a string of Christmas tree lights…sparkling wine? Nonsense gifts. I raised my shoulders…huh! She smiled again and rolled her hands in an ‘exchange’ gesture. I shrugged and nodded…okay.

So, yeah, there’s a lot the same over a lifetime. These days I wouldn’t have been interested in randomly playing kissy face. I don’t think my wife would either…for me, that is. The general excitement in our group was much subdued. We’ve all been there…done that. It’s different now. Quieter, slowed, but with an abiding respect for the spirit of the season.

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/

When it comes to age milestones, baby boomers have racked up quite a few momentous ones. For the sake of historical reference, I am referring to the leading edge of boomers born in 46 thru 51. For those of us in that group, sixteen years old meant you could get a drivers license (in many states) and that was a big deal because it gave us almost unbridled mobility. Hell, we didn’t even have drivers’ education in those days, which meant lots of white-knuckle experiences for our parents. It did inspire a ton of popular songs about car culture (Little Old Lady from Pasadena, Mustang Sally, Dead Mans Curve, and Little Deuce Coupe to name only a few).

Twenty-one? A perilous time. There was a war on and we could be drafted even before we were eligible to vote. Looking back, it’s almost comical that we thought we would change our world, but with the sheer size of our cohort’s impact, we did change it. There are still arguments about whether the change was for better or worse.

Thirty. So momentous it spawned the TV show Thirtysomething. A show about life in Philadelphia for boomers turning 30 was fascinating enough to last for 4 seasons. For many boomers, 30 marked a moment of self-awareness…Hey, we’re actually grown-ups. It also marked the beginning of our inevitable dominance of culture and politics. It had to happen because there were just so many of us. (In 1964, Boomers represented 37% of the total U.S. populaton)

Fifty is our next biggest milestone and a wake-up call. Our bodies are no longer as limber as they once were. We’re the dominant influence in culture and politics (including a few boomer Presidents), and the groundswell of complaints about our generation began to grow louder and more persistent. These days you cannot avoid our bad press, as it has become clear to the generations that followed that we have messed up their world completely. You could argue that point but there’s just too many Gens with letters after the term who will push back on the argument.

And now – the Big 80. The oldest baby boomers will turn age 80 in 2026. We’re down to 20% of the total population and shrinking fast (in number and stature). From 79 million in 1964 to 67 million in 2024. Now we have to wonder if we are moving from milestone to millstone. Once we were celebrants and soon we may be seen as burdens (if we haven’t already made that transition).

I like to think that it’s a positive transition. We made it! Life expectancy in 1947 was 66. Now, it’s close to 79. If you really want to take the long and positive view, our next milestone may just be 100 and let’s hope we stick the landing.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. 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.

I went out the other day. To a restaurant. For real. We ate outside, but still. I decided that I would wear make-up and jewelry. I hadn’t looked at any of my jewelry since . . . well, you know.

I’m not talking about anything fancy or expensive. Just what we used to call costume jewelry. Do they still call it that? I chose three bracelets, two for one arm and only one for the other arm because there is already a watch there. And two rings. And two necklaces to wear together. It was so exciting to see all those old treasures again. They looked lovely in a way I didn’t remember. I wanted to wear even more. I put them all on. I looked ridiculous. I wore them anyway.

And make-up. You don’t need much when half your face is covered. And you need zero for Zoom calls because you won’t look good anyway, so why bother? At least I don’t ever look good on Zoom. I have these two little “beauty” marks on the side of my face. They are a recent acquisition, due, I suppose, to aging. I don’t like them. They are located under the mask. Whenever I put on make-up in pre-covid times I put a little dab of concealer over them. Just so they wouldn’t be so obvious. But there was no need to bother during isolation, and when I went out they were always covered by the mask. No need to bother then either. Close to a year into the pandemic I realized that the spots were noticeably lighter. It turns out I wasn’t covering them; I was staining them darker. Don’t tell me there’s nothing to be learned from this horrendous experience we’ve all been through.

In the years to come, there will be plenty of assessments of this time we’ve just passed through. People will write about how family relationships and friendships changed or didn’t change. What did the kids lose from a year without school? How many people are left with holes in their hearts because of lost loved ones? How should we fix the damage to our economy the pandemic caused? How can we take advantage of what we learned about the earth and the climate from the slowdown of human activity? And on and on. We have a long way to go in sorting this out. But for the moment, I am just happy to be able to say hello to my bracelets again and reassess my make-up routine.

(Best of Boomspeak, June 2021)

Norma Libman is a journalist and lecturer who has been collecting women’s stories for more than twenty years. You can read the first chapter of her award-winning book, Lonely River Village, at NormaLibman.com.

Conversation ain’t what It used to be!

It used to be that when you ventured out passers-by would wish you a Good Morning, enquire as to your wellbeing if you were acquainted. But now it’s like wading through a viscous stew of anonymity; or if you encounter someone you vaguely know the greeting here in this part of London/ Hertfordshire is ‘awite’ but never leaving a space for you to reply as they have already continued on their journey and God forbid if you are actually not ‘Wright’s and wish to enlarge upon this wishing possibly to seek a sympathetic ear even.

Then there is the veritable plague of mass-produced mobile phones which seem to single handedly eradicated the art of face-to-face conversation! It’s becoming increasingly rare to see people actually talking to a person next to them! Everyone seems to find it impossible to be present anywhere without their mobile phone being glued to one of their ears whilst indulging in an overload conversation in which they share personal details which really should be kept to themselves.

Then we have the people sporting earphones often so tiny they are virtually impossible to see, who are having conversations with ghosts, specters, themselves? It used to be that if someone was caught talking to themselves in the street then it would only be a matter of time before the men in the padded van and the white coats would appear to incarcerate them in a vast old building with bars at the Windows deeming them ‘ unfit for normal life’ and totally forgetting about them.

Then worst of all these things are the babies just learning the art of conversation a tabula rasa of possibility. Sounding out words, absorbing like a sponge the noises of nature, bird song, the wind, traffic and conversation? Their mother/father permanently on their mobile phone ignoring their first attempts at language, their eye contact, their pleasure at their first attempts to communicate!

It makes you wonder what the future might hold though, doesn’t it, when people have lost the power of conversation, what will we have left?

Tricia Lloyd Walker lives somewhere near London.