Tag Archives: baby boomers

September 5, 2008 · 5:46 pm

Hair. 40 years later.

I will be shamelessly self-promoting my new photo blog, leaving the zip code, here from now on. You won’t be disappointed, I promise. Let’s see if some of you will take the ‘submit’ challenge.

Last night, thanks to Dr. Jimmy the quintessential NY connection man, I was fortunate to see a performance of Hair in Central Park. (I love that they call it “The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical”)

A truly magical New York moment. The weather was perfect, the crowd was thrilled to be there and the performers were spectacular. We appreciated it all the more as we had been rained out a few weeks ago. Kind of like getting a cool hair(re)do.

40 years later we are struggling with many of the same issues:

• A senseless war (thank goodness without a draft)

• Generational misunderstandings (if I read one more friggin’ blog post where parents complain about their teenagers I will scream. Get a grip out there for G-d sakes. You sound worse than you thought your parents did.)

• Dissatisfaction with ‘the man’ (whoever he/she is at the moment)

• Young people trying to find themselves. (baby boomers, hippies, punkers, gen x, y and z – no joke, they had to stop naming them because they hit the end of the alphabet. how about gen AA – like theatre seats)

Now here are some interesting observations that ran through my very noisy head during the show:

1. Hippies begat capitalists

2. Better yet, hippies BECAME capitalists!

3. Clothing: for young women – almost the same! Walk into Urban Outfitters, you can see my entire 9th grade wardrobe. Moms, fyi, if you wore it the first time around chances are you should leave it on the racks for your daughters. Go classic, much more becoming.

4. I am pretty sure I must have owned the soundtrack to this show because somehow I knew the words to almost every song, even the obscure ones! (…I met a boy named Frank Mills, on September the 12th right here, in front of the Waverly, but unfortunately, I lost his address…)

5. And last, but not least, I rekindled my undying love for the City of New York, where you can walk into Central Park on a Thursday night at the tail end of the summer and be reminded about how good it is to be alive. (ok, so maybe I drank the NY Cool-aid last night, give me a break. I had a hard week).

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June 11, 2008 · 8:41 pm

The Sandwich Generation (hold the mayo)

Nice term, right? Wikipedia uses this definition: The Sandwich Generation are a generation of people who care for their aging parents while supporting their own children. Ahh, another baby boomer phenomenon! (nice pic, don’t you think. can someone name that meat for me, please?)

While I am happy to say I am not caring for my parents, I have certainly been helping to navigate their healthcare issues for the past few years. More from a support, research and admin point of view, as I am lucky to have very competent, educated parents. But the simultaneous pressures of aging parents and growing children has become a national dilemma that those of us who are lucky to still have parents at this age face day to day.

As you can tell by now, I like to find the humor in any situation to help me get through it. I have certainly been challenged over the past few years. Hmmm… which story to tell? How about this one:

My dad, the bionic man who is the healthiest sick guy I know, was going in to have his pacemaker upgraded. We liked to think of it as Harvey 2.0. My brother came up to lend support and stay with my mom. Upon arrival at the hospital, my mom is in tears. I figure she is worried. “Oh no”, my brother says over his shoulder while guiding her through the parking lot, “Dad just closed her fingers in the car door.” You MUST be kidding! But, alas, it gets worse. He turns around again to say “And she slipped in the shower and I have not yet assessed her injuries”. My first reaction was, “I left you with them for 24 hours and this is what you come up with?” Luckily he, too has a sense of humor.

Fast forward to the end of the day. We now have mom in the ER, she has broken her rib, hand was just bruised but they admit her to find out why she is falling. Dad? He is in recovery. Bro and I are huddled by the vending machines in the only cell phone zone in the friggin’ place and I watch him point and say, “There goes dad!” I turn to see my father in his gown (butt covered, thank goodness) with an IV poll searching for my mom in the ER. (where’s poppa?) Of course, while I am on a ridiculous business call (…yes, of course I heard your details of revision 19 of the brochure we are doing. no i am not distracted).

Did I mention my kids were home, dinner was not on the horizon for anyone and the poor dog is crossing her legs? And that by the end of the 5-day visit my brother was calling the local liquor store by its first name?

Sandwich indeed! (BTW mayo gives me indigestion)

For those of you who have your own brand of this story (and sadly this is just one of mine), I feel your pain. But we all have to realize how fortunate we are. Hard to understand this sometimes, but we truly ARE the lucky ones. Yes, there are hard times. But my kids, at 15 and 19 actually have all 4 grandparents.

And that my friends is a gift.

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