What do Robin in NYC, Ann in St. Louis and Robert in Atlanta have in common? More than you might expect. since all three are boomers at a certain stage of life. Connecting on Facebook you can see commonality.
Robin recently retired buying a second home in Miami Beach. Ann downsized and moved to a senior living community. Robert is moving from his 3 level suburban home to a Del Webb active adult community. A more suitable residence in retirement is certainly a common theme these days with older boomers.
We have been downsizing. Robert posted on Facebook his baby pictures (above) from 67 years ago that he was disposing of. This brought a plethora of comments. Family members not wanting their relatives photos discarded. Robin like my wife Mary Ann is the keeper of one of her parents photos that were inherited. What to do with those? Scan and upload to the cloud? And how about your own photos from a long life? Well we don’t have children, so those big prints of my baby pictures that my mother thought were so good, are now in the recycle. Each person’s decision about what to do with family photographs and other keepsakes will be different, but we are all faced with the dilemma. Meanwhile shredding even business records brings back a flood of memories. Observations are made… look how cheap things were… how skinny we were.
By the way, it turns out all three of us have been or are bloggers. We like to tell stories from our lives, some from a long time ago, others from what is happening in our lives currently. These stories bring others to comment about how they remember too or this is what they are now doing also.
I know a lot of my friends are enjoying traveling quiet a bit. We are too. It is fun and interesting to hear about trips my friends are taking.
Ann says it seems we boomers have come full circle. I offer that we come into this world with nothing and we will leave with nothing. But I think Ann is talking about more than just that. We baby boomers seem to be connecting more these days.
Remember when we were growing up, in those new schools being build for us, going off to college, being drafted, etc. We were all going through something new together. Then life happened and we went our different ways. But now having the time and inclination to connect again, we see that we do have a lot in common, memories but new experiences too. Rick Bava brought a lot of this together in his new book “In Search of The Baby Boomer Generation” which you will both enjoy and it will enlighten you on trends in our boomer lives today as well.
Anyway, thanks to Robin and Ann for a lively chat on Facebook and inspiring this post.
Robert Fowler
Originally posted 2015-07-26 16:31:44.
Get your exercise at the park in a natural way by using the walking trails. Join a walking club or walk with a friend and the time will fly by. I am a member of the Park Place Pacers that walks every Tuesday and Thursday and sometimes more. Many parks have a recreation center with a gym. Swimming pools are common at parks. In the community building or in our case the active adult center, my wife takes yoga, I take Dancing with the Stars and there is Zumba and Silversneakers exercise classes too.
Play games at the park. There is all kinds of kid’s atheletic fields at the park and it is nice to stop for awhile to watch a 3 year old take his first turn at T-ball or the older kids playing baseball, soccer or lacrosse. Our park has two Bocce Ball courts and we have a regular baby boomer team that plays on Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. Playing Bocce is great for socialization and physical activity. Boomer games that can be played at a park include adult softball, shuffleboard, horseshoes, badminton, pickleball, tennis, volleyball, table tennis, bean bag toss or cornhole as it is sometimes called.
Enjoy the dog park Bring your dog to the park and spend some time together or just stop by and enjoy seeing the dogs running around chasing things and playing with other dogs.