A recent advertisement for the Appalachian Summer Festival concert “Janis Ian and Karla Bonoff: Songs of a Generation” sparked my thoughts about our generation and music.  Although I certainly remember songs like “At Seventeen” by Janis Ian, I would also consider music by Journey and The Who as part of my own music mosaic.  In fact, if I was compiling a soundtrack to define myself, it would include music from Neil Diamond to Nelly, The Monkees to Maroon 5.

We’re a complex generation, one that has refused to allow age to define us, so why would music be any different?  Do you agree?  What would be in your Boomer music mosaic?

Flight of Honor

By Lou Mintzer

One hundred and eighteen very patriotic people went to Washington, D.C. on Saturday, April 10, 2010. They did not go to complain, they did not go to protest the current political situation. They went to be honored for their service to our country and to honor their friends and comrades from World War II. I know they enjoyed their trip and I am also sure most shed a tear or two before the day was over.

The Veterans flew on a chartered USAIR jet. They were accompanied by 49 Guardians, three EMTs, and a couple of doctors. Six Brazilian students, part of a Group Study Exchange, made the trip to witness how we honor our veterans. Every veteran received a badge, a hat and an American flag.

Saturday night, there was a big enthusiastic crowd at the Charlotte Douglas airport to greet them as they returned. People cheered, flags were waving, signs were held up. Family members, friends and supporters kissed and hugged the vets and thanked them for their service as they made their way through the terminal. Tears flowed past the smiles as wives, sons, daughters and grandchildren welcomed their heroes home. My favorite sign said, “Paw Paw, You Are Our Hero!”

Thursday morning, a few days before the flight, I stopped by Richard’s Coffee Shop and Military Museum in Mooresville. The coffee shop is a place where veterans of all ages stop by for coffee, cookies and a chance to talk with friends and other vets. The shop was full and the conversation was lively.

I talked with Len McCutcheon, Army 77^th Infantry and Richard Keenan, Army Air Corps. They went on the flight last year. Len said, “One of the greatest things was when the high school ROTC saluted us and then cheered for us.”

Keenan smiled and shared, “One of the greatest things I ever had was when the crowd cheered and greeted us and shook our hands and thanked us.”

I met George Kalmar and Robert Kabel in the coffee shop. They were both scheduled to make the trip on Saturday and boy, were they excited.

I saw George at the airport Saturday night. “I had a great time, I couldn’t believe how well we were treated,” George said. He continued, ”They told me they would pick me up at 5:30 in the morning so I had to go to bed at 7 because I am on dialysis while I sleep.” George served in the Army Infantry. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” he exclaimed with a big smile.

Mary Foreman, 88, from Mount Ulla, near Mooresville, was a Navy nurse at Pearl Harbor after it was attacked by the Japanese. She was all smiles as she was kissed, hugged and thanked as her wheelchair was rolled through the crowd.

Mrs. Foreman arrived in Hawaii late in 1943 after being recruited by the Navy and cared for the wounded soldiers in Quonset huts, (known as Hospital 128,) across from Hickam Field. She was in Hawaii until the war ended.

She came home and married Benjamin A. Foreman, an Air Force Pilot and Maintenance Officer. Her husband flew in the Berlin Airlift, served in Korea, Japan and Viet Nam. She even lived in Viet Nam with her four children until families were forced to leave. Benjamin retired as a colonel. Her son was a major in the Air Force and he married an Air Force colonel.

She told me, “There was a big reception at the Washington airport. They had a band and hundreds of people greeting us as we came off the plane. Everyone was wonderful.”

One of the highlights of her day, “My best thing was meeting Liddy Dole, she was so gracious. She greeted us at the North Carolina part of the memorial.”

(The Doles are very active and big supporters of the Flight of Honor. Robert is a veteran and was wounded in 1945.)

She continued, “We had lunch at a beautiful park along the Potomac, saw the capital buildings, went down Pennsylvania Avenue. I was really happy to see the Air Force Memorial. Washington was so busy and we were slow getting on and off the bus that I am sure we missed some things. The cherry blossoms were past their peak. But the trip was wonderful.” Mary was teamed up with Paul and George from Mooresville and their guardian was Jeanne Adams.

As I watched the families welcome their heroes, I had a lump in my throat and I missed my father, he died when I was 11. He was a veteran but never got into battle. He lost his hands in a training exercise explosion stateside. He never thought he got to do his part, but I think he did.

The main objective of the Flight of Honor was to give veterans an opportunity to visit the World War II Memorial that was built for them, to honor the 16 million people who served in the armed forces, the more than 400,000 who died, and those who supported the war from home. The monument was dedicated in May of 2004. Over 4 million people visit the memorial every year.

This trip was made possible by the Rotary District 7680. Karen Shore, the President and CEO of the Mooresville South Iredell Chamber is the Governor of District 7680. Shore was at the airport holding the Rotary banner and greeting the veterans. Shore said, “The families are amazed that when the vets return, they are talking and sharing as never before.”  We salute our heroes!

Be sure to check out even more photos of this Flight of Honor event at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Baby-Boomer-News

The unemployment situation is only one contributing factor, as the author points out, and it’s a risk that some can find hard to take. But after reading the examples of baby boomers who have blazed the trail to business ownership, it’s clear that not only can the risk be worth it financially, it can also be fulfilling.

Many of us have had dreams of taking our passions and turning it into a business, but until the current economical crisis began, we really didn’t consider it to be a real option.  After all, most of us were firmly entrenched in steady jobs working for someone else and doing quite well.  We never dreamed the day would come when our jobs would be in jeopardy, or worse, gone.

But with true baby boomer ingenuity many of us (me included) have decided that waiting for the recession to end and jobs to return just wasn’t an option. So we’ve taken the plunge and become entrepreneurs.
And why not?  With all of that experience working for others, we bring a myriad of talents, skills and experience to the table. Amazingly we’ve found that even years of being involved with the PTA and other volunteer activities are helping us to strike off on our own and follow a dream.

Rather than being a detriment, our age is a benefit and many of us are taking advantage of it.

If you’re one of the growing number of Boomerpreneurs we want to hear about you and your business. Consider it a chance to spread the word about your business.
Leave a comment on this post, or write about your entrepreneur adventure in the Boomer Voices section here at your Boomer Community.

Well, of course, there’s the animated cartoon “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, I’ve been watching that since I was a child and I always seem to find a way to watch it every year, usually with one or both of my children. Is there anyone out there that wasn’t scared by the Abominable Snow Monster when they were small?

Another animated classic that makes its way onto my television every year is the original “Grinch that Stole Christmas” not the live action re-make, the original complete with the creepy green Grinch and the Who’s down in Whoville singing “Welcome Christmas”.

When you talk about the non-animated Christmas favorites, “A Christmas Story” has to be at the very top. Now that TNT plays the classic for 24 hours starting Christmas Eve, we always wait until then to watch. Who can’t relate to “You’ll shoot your eye out kid.”?

That’s followed closely by “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. Is there anyone that doesn’t love Clarence the angel getting his wings?

What about you?  What holiday movies and shows make your yearly ‘must see’ list?

Share them with us either in the comments section or via the Boomer Voices section of the blog

Online and mobile technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other.

In fact this blog is considered a form of social media, since it allows for sharing of information and the ability for you, the readers, to interact and add your own information and opinions.
For those of you that think all of the technological mumbo jumbo is best left to the ‘young folk’, think again.  In February and March of 2009, our age group was the fastest growing demographic on Facebook. Apparently, unlike our predecessors, we’re a generation who’s willing to not only face the computer age, but to embrace it.

But why join a social networking site like Facebook or Twitter?

One of the biggest reason Baby Boomers give for joining Facebook is to reconnect with people.  High school classmates, former co-workers, and family members can all congregate on the site.  It’s like a virtual class or family reunion.  With the ability to share pictures, we can see just how well the star football player and head cheerleader have done for themselves and stay in touch with children and grandchildren no matter where they may live.

As for Twitter, at first it may seem pretty pointless, but watch what happens when breaking news takes place.  Twitter has the story before the news channels do.

For example, when the USAir flight 1549 made its emergency landing in the Hudson River, the first reports and pictures were received by users of Twitter.  Those of us following along as the ‘tweets’ (the 140 word or less messages are called) came through from eye witnesses as all the people aboard were rescued.

And it’s not just the big stories. When I-40 was under construction this summer near my home, I got frequent updates as to the traffic congestion via Twitter, delivered straight to my cell phone.  This allowed me to choose an alternate route home and miss out on the frustration of being caught in traffic.
I’ve also made ‘Twitter friends’, other Twitter users in my local area whom I’ve gotten to meet with. Definitely a bonus for me, since I’m a newbie to the area.

And new uses for Twitter are coming to the forefront all the time, take for example @BoomerAuthority. @BoomerAuthority is  a free service on Twitter that advocates a change from one-way communication to one of listening and two-way conversation. Through Twitter, Boomer Authority connects you to qualified professionals who will first listen and then help you with your question.

So how about you? Are you a Social Media Boomer? Yes? No? Tell me why or why not by leaving a comment.

We’ve experienced the first man on the moon, Woodstock, female supreme court judges, the first black American president,personal computers, and so many technological advances I couldn’t begin to name them.  We’ve seen things come and go like 8 track tapes and BetaMax videos and we’ve ushered in things that were only imagined in science fiction novels.

So it shouldn’t surprise us that, as a generation, Baby Boomers face aging differently than any generation before us as well.

Thanks to advances in medicine, we’re more aware of the importance of nutrition and exercise in keeping ourselves healthy as we get older.  We also know that it’s important to exercise our minds as well as our bodies and video game manufacturer’s are now offering us games that will help keep our minds sharp too. Some of us have embraced things like plumping injections and plastic surgery to match our appearance with our youthful outlook.

But perhaps one of the most important differences in our generation is our understanding that we can age, without necessarily getting old.

We’re not afraid to learn new things and take on new experiences because we don’t let the number of candles on our most recent birthday cake dictate what we can and can’t do.  No longer do we see age as a hindrance to following our dreams.

Whether it’s learning to fly an airplane or paint a landscape, we tend to embrace lifelong learning and seek to truly experience life, not just live it.

Baby Boomer News is the magazine that will help us explore, learn and experience life to the fullest.  Be sure to head on over to the website and poke around. Click on the links; check out what the site and the magazine has to offer.  I think you’ll agree that it is as unique as our generation tends to be.

The woman in front of me smiled slightly, her eyes sparkling as she looked at me and said, “I loved him when I was a teenager.”

I smiled back,” Me too”, I admitted.

And suddenly an instant kinship was born with a perfect stranger. We giggled like school girls recounting our infatuation for a former teen heartthrob turned middle aged producer.  Then the cashier rang up my new friend’s sale and she was gone.

But the warm, fuzzy feeling of connection lingers with me even now, weeks later.

There’s just something about making connections with someone who shares your experiences that makes you feel good inside.

I want to welcome you to My Boomer Community, and the official blog for the new magazine, Baby Boomer News.

It’s a magazine for us, the Baby Boomer Generation, that will not only allow us to fondly reminisce about things like teen idols, television shows and fads (remember Pet Rocks?), but it will also address those things that are important in our lives now.

Many of us have struck out independently and started our own businesses. Our concerns range from our financial futures to caring for our children as well as our aging parents.  We’re trying to stay active and healthy and we enjoy things like travelling, eating out and getting involved in our communities.

Baby Boomers are looking to ‘go green’ and understand the need to preserve our local and global ecology. We’re a generation aware of how our actions will affect the generations to come.  We’re reading our news online instead from the paper over morning coffee and we’re more likely to be carrying a Blackberry and laptop than a briefcase these days.

And now we have a place to connect with one another about all of these things; a connection that won’t end when a cashier finishes the sale.

I encourage you to visit the Baby Boomer News website and look around, kick off your shoes and stay awhile.