Joan’s Boomer Blog

I was a teenager in the 1960’s and still love listening to the music of the 1960’s. Petula Clark, Herman’s Hermits, Gary Lewis and the Playboys and the Dave Clark Five were some of my favorites back then. I even got to see Gary Lewis and the Playboys in person, wearing my white go go boots, of course!

The late 60’s were a good time to be a teen in a small town. We spent our weekends at the skating rink where they had a dance with a live band from 10pm to midnight. We cruised the strip when gas was still 25 cents a gallon and cigarettes were 25 cents a pack. Smoking was about the worst thing you could do to “rebel” and be cool.

There were a lot of good things about the 1960’s. Back then, we thought there was nothing much to do but looking back on it now, it seems like the last time when kids were allowed to be naive and innocent as they grew up.  Most mothers still stayed home with the kids, my mom made most of my clothes and I actually loved them! No name brands, no expensive toys like iPods and cell phones. We put a dime in our shoe every time we went out so we could always call home for Dad to come and pick us up if we got into trouble.

If you’re feeling nostalgic, you should check out the 1960’s hits on YouTube. Listening to that music takes me right back to those years, which seem to get better and better the older I get.

I loved this video, which covers music from 1965 to 1969, the exact years I was in high school. It shows random images from those years, like album covers, to go along with it.

Enjoy! YouTube also has music videos from other eras too so it’s easy to find your favorite.

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My Favorite Reading Among the Boomer Blogs

As a baby boomer myself and the owner of Tips For Your Boomer Years, I love a good boomer blog. I subscribed to Google alerts for “baby boomer” and get a listing of half dozen or so boomer blogs every week. Some are a wealth of great information on retirement, senior discounts, senior and boomer issues and more.

Here are some of my favorite among the popular boomer blogs:

Baby Boomer Insights by Marilynn Mobley. Lots of great articles of interest to boomers - aging, retirement, finding new careers and more.

Baby Boomer.com has a cute feature. You can click on the year you were born and find out what happened. When I was born in 1950, Hopalong Cassidy and antihistamines were newly popular, the movie All About Eve came out and Joseph McCarthy warned of communist infiltration of the State Department - plus there were more great tidbits. One article I liked was “Call us ‘Girls’ or ‘Women over 40′ (or 50), Just Don’t Call Us Seniors!

Boomer Living.com I used to have a blog called Easy Boomer Living and was threatened with a lawsuit by Boomer Living for stealing their name so I had to change my blog to Tips for Boomer Years. However, this boomer blog does have good info on careers, finances, travel, health and more for boomers.

Retrovision TV isn’t a blog in the strictest sense but a listing of classic TV and movies from the 1930’s forward. If you click on an episode listed, you can watch the episode, find links to others in the series, and then comment on it in blog form. If you love classic movies and TV, you have to check out Retrovision.

Time Goes By - Boomer blog with various authors. There are also links on the site to an extensive list of other boomer and elder issue blogs that you might want to explore.

A wonderful boomer blog recommended to me recently by a friend is MyBoomer2Boomer. On this blog boomer entrepreneurs support each other, telling you about boomer friendly businesses, job hunting info and more.

When you start searching boomer blogs, it’s terrific to see how many of us have turned to blogging as a creative expression. It’s great to see boomers and seniors embracing technology and offering up their thoughts, knowledge and experiences to benefit others.

Do you have a favorite boomer blog? If so, send me a link. I’d love to check it out.

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Take Me Back to the Fabulous Fifties

Fabulous Fifties

I grew up in the 1950’s and vividly remember the “fabulous fifties” - drive-in movies, blackjack gum and riding my bike downtown to get a cherry coke for a nickle. A friend sent me this video montage, Take Me Back to the Fifties, and it really did take me back to my childhood.

When we used to go to the dime store, where things really cost a dime, and agonize over which penny candy to get with our allowance, which was, I think a dime. Back when Ricky Nelson was my first crush and I couldn’t wait for Ozzie and Harriet to come on each week.

Visit Old Forty-Fives.com and find montages of growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s, plus Growing up in the Fifties, What we Drove in the 50’s and 60’s, Old Westerns, Do you Remember These, When Life Was Black and White and others that are well worth a trip down memory lane.

Life was simpler in the fabulous fifties - at least for kids. We lived on a farm in Oregon and we could disappear in the morning, going down to the creek near our house, up on the mountain behind our house or take a bike ride downtown. We showed up for lunch, then took off again and my mom never once thought someone would kidnap us. Party lines and one telephone meant we couldn’t talk long to our friends - we’d ride our bikes to visit them instead.

Nobody had much money, our mom made our clothes and canned our food and everybody we knew lived pretty much like us. Nobody’s mom worked and none of my friends parents were divorced. Nobody seemed to worry what kind of education we got and all our free time was “unscheduled.” I know my parents worried a lot about “making ends meet” but living on a farm, we always had good healthy food to eat and healthy air to breathe.

I’d be the first to admit I love my computer with the Internet, connecting with old friends via Facebook, having my cellphone (now with text messaging because all our kids use it!), being able to DVR my favorite TV shows. Still, when I look at my young grandchildren, I feel sorry that they will never know the carefree freedom we had, learning to use their imaginations because that’s the only toys have, being on the run outdoors all day without anyone worrying about them.

I watch the grandchildren glued to videos, unable to go out their front door without supervision, going from activity to activity with no time to just lay out in the grass and watch the cloud shapes take form. I guess that’s why, when either of my 3 year old granddaughters comes to spend time with me, we always sit in the big swing out back and look at the trees and the birds and talk about things.

Just as my own parents were my link to the past which included World War II, the depression and life in the 30’s and 40’s, I guess I’ll be that link for my grandchildren to a simpler time to grow up-life in the Fifties.

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Joan’s Boomer Blog - Internet Radio Oldies

Oldies radio shows are disappearing from the airwaves but you can still find Internet radio oldies stations and listen free. Here two new online oldies radio stations I’ve recently discovered.

Alan’s Golden Oldies.

Alan Price is an experienced radio DJ and started his oldies website in 2005. His site streams oldies 24 hours a day and Alan also broadcasts live from 1 to 5 pm weekdays, bringing the audience classic tunes from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.

One thing I like about Alan’s choice of oldies is that there are many you don’t hear anywhere else these days.

Other oldies tidbits you can hear on Alan’s Golden Oldies include:

• Audio from old movie trailers at 330pm Monday through Friday
• Old radio shows like The Adventures of Superman, Amos and Andy or Gunsmoke.
• Promos from stars he’s interviewed over the years like Andy Williams
• Enjoy oldies on your cellphone or PDA

You can also visit Alan’s website to make a special oldies request and view his guest book. Alan’s guestbook includes photos of celebrities from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s with their autographs written to him. See Fabion, Dick Clark and Dick and Dee to name just a few.

I like to tune in to Alan’s Golden Oldies while I’m working. It makes terrific background music for writing a boomer blog!

Another new-to-me Internet radio oldies show is Beyond 50’s Radio, where host Daniel Davis offers interviews on topics of interest to baby boomers, plus a free Beyond 50’s newsletter which keeps you posted on upcoming programs of interest.

If you go to the website you can also listen to past episodes through the archives. Programs include diabetes and accelerated aging, Warren Buffet’s Successful Management Techniques, Map and Plan your Volunteer Vacation and other topics of interest to baby boomers.

More Links to Internet Radio Oldies

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Television 1980′2 - Enjoy Remington Steele Onine

I don’t consider television of the 1980’s to be true nostalgic TV since I was born in the 1950’s, but Remington Steele still enjoys a large following 30 years after it’s original broadcast from 1982-1987.

Remington Steele stared Pierce Brosnan as a rogish con man and Stephanie Zimbalist as a private detective. In the 1980’s I was in the Navy, stationed in Rota, Spain, and the only television we got to watch was Armed Forces TV. Remington Steele was one of the programs offered and I loved it back then. In fact, my daughter Laura, who was born in Spain, was named for the Stephanie Zimbalist character, Laura Holt.

I always thought Stephanie Zimbalist was cute and perky and I enjoyed the shows she was in at the time. I’m not sure now why I named my daughter Laura and not Stephanie but her name still brings up memories of sitting in our duty room at the Naval Hospital watching those Remington Steele episodes.

Recently, I started looking for places to see those nostalgic episodes again. They are still funny and offbeat, even today. I can even almost forgive Pierce Brosnan for his singing in Momma Mia when I see the dashing Remington Steele again.

If you’d like to watch Remington Steele videos online you can catch Seasons 1-5 at:

Hulu.com - Many people today are opting not to have cable or satelite TV and watching television, nostalgic and new at Hulu for free. Hulu offers 60 episodes of Remington Steele. Sign up is free.

Netflix offers Seasons 1-5 of Remington Steele which you can watch instantly on your computer. Netflix is a monthly subscription website but the lowest package starts at

t starred Stephanie Zimbalist as private detective Laura Holt and Pierce Brosnan as a roguish former white-collar thief and con man who assumed the fictitious Remington Steele identity. The show took an offbeat approach to the standard TV detective genre, with ironic plotting and elements of romantic comedy.

Keep up with the latest in nostalgic TV by getting a free email subscription to Retrovision TV

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Joan’s Boomer Blog - Your Know You’re Getting Old When……

There are some moments in life when the fact that you’re getting older kind of slaps you in the face (besides

Our daughter's first house

the times you look at that face in the mirror and suddenly notice a new sag or wrinkle!) For my husband and I, one of those senior moments came this past weekend when our youngest daughter purchased her first home and we helped her move in. When someone you thought of as your baby suddenly morphs into a homeowner, pride is mixed with the feeling of time passing quickly.

The second part of the getting older came from the physical helping with her move! After a weekend of cleaning, moving furniture and cleaning up a yard that hadn’t been cleaned up in over a year, we’re left feeling stiff, old and like we want to spend the day in bed with a bottle of Bio-Freeze.

Still and all, besides feeling we’ll like we’ll never move again without pain in forgotten muscles and joints, there is such a feeling of gratification to see our youngest in this new light. Our youngest daughter has always had her life together, unlike her parents who were children of the 60’s where peace and love solved all problems and we never thought of investing our money for retirement, but the the role of “homeowner” is reserved for true adults. We’re just not yet used to seeing her that way.

Our daughter, Laura, was Valedictorian of her high school class, went to college to study architecture and played softball at a Division one school for 4 years. Now that she’s employed with an architecture firm, she’s decided she wants to also buy houses to rent out and her first purchase was a home of her own.

Prices are great right now in Texas for buying homes and the homebuyer’s tax credit is also a bonus.

Laura is also six years younger than her next oldest sister, while the first three daughters are closer in age. All three of them have married and have small children, two of them are consumed right now with newborn daughters.

Laura has always trailed her sisters in everything. When they were in high school having boyfriends and going to dances, she was in elementary and middle school - a world away. When they were getting married and having kids, she was in college, consumed with books and softball. While her sisters talked about child rearing problems and getting along with husbands, Laura lived her own life in a different realm.

Now that Laura too is a homeowner, it’s cute to suddenly see the conversations turning to where to get the best prices on furniture, how to do home repairs and which Internet provider is she going to use.

When I told my own mother that Laura was buying a house, she said “All by herself?!” When Laura met her new neighbor, a lady in her 60’s, her first question was “Do you have any kids?” It makes you see how far women have come since my own growing up in the 50’s. Young women aren’t waiting for marriage for their “real life” to begin. They are stepping out, buying homes, investing, having careers.

So-even though this past weekend gave me a real “I’m getting older” moment, it’s worth it to see this great time in my daughter’s life. Buying this house launched her into the adult world of giving up all her weekends to yard work-lol.

Getting older can be tough on baby boomers but watching the youngsters going through all the things we once went through also makes us appreciate this time of our lives, when all the ups and downs and drama of life is mostly behind us and hopefully we can think “I’m kind of glad I’m the age I am now!”

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Who is John Galt? Get Your T Shirt & Bumper Sticker Today

Who is John Galt? This is the opening line of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged and throughout the book, this question is asked and that question is being asked again today when we could use a  John Galt. I read Atlas Shrugged many years ago and over those years, it has popped into my head hundreds of times. What’s funny is that I’ve begun seeing “Who is John Galt?” bumper stickers and t shirts popping up too.

Written in 1957, Atlas Shrugged asks the question “What if all the creative minds went on strike?” As socialism and socialistic ideas destroyed people and society, it stole people’s will to take care of themselves and turned them into users, always demanding more from those providing it. The individual capitalist, the businessman is used to support the rotten system but reviled and hated at the same time.  John Galt steps in and persuades the thinkers, the businessmen and the doers to just leave and let the system fall so they can step back in and rebuild it.

Ayn Rand grew up in Russia during the Revolution and saw the rise of Communism there. Her books, like Atlas Shrugged, the Fountainhead and We the Living, all grew out of her experiences and her belief in Capitolism. If you haven’t read Atlas Shrugged, I’d highly recommend it. See if you can find parallels to our life today.

The first time I saw a “Who is John Galt” bumper sticker, I couldn’t help thinking how relevant that question is today. My next thought was “I want a John Galt bumper sticker AND a John Galt t shirt.” Strangely enough, a good friend of mine sent me a link to the John Galt Gift Store.

This website offers John Galt t shirts, John Galt bumper stickers and anything John Galt, as well as memorabilia for other Ayn Rand books such as the Fountainhead and We the Living. You can get a Reardon Steel t shirt or a Howard Roark t shirt.

Reading all the quotes on the t shirts and bumper stickers, brought back memories of what I liked about Ayn Rand’s books. My daughter is an architect so she’s getting a Howard Roark t shirt that says, “The question is not who is going to let me, but who is going to stop me.”

If you remember John Galt, check out the John Galt Gift Store.

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I used to love the Donna Reed show. Shelly Fabres was about 4 years older than I was and I wanted to be just like her. When she sang Johnny Angel, it was one of my favorite episodes. Since it’s the holiday season and nostalgic TV shows are on every list, I wanted to give you this link to The Donna Reed Christmas Show from 1960. You can watch this episode free on Retrovision.tv.

In this episode, Donna is tired of her family caring more for presents than the spirit of Christmas. We like to think things were different in “the old days” but were they really? I remember a similar old TV show from Father Knows Best in the 1950’s which dealt with the same Christmas theme.

Another nostalgic Christmas episode from an old TV show now on Retrovision is the Bewitched episode “A Vision of Sugar Plums” from 1962. This was the show’s first Christmas episode and stars Billy Mummy, along with Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York.

I love watching these old Christmas episodes at this time of year and make it one of my holiday traditions.

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