GenX

Fascinating or Fraud? – Part I

~ MaryG ~ 18 Comments

We met a woman on the porch of The Red Lion Inn.

“How’s the chicken pot pie?”

“It’s good!” she said.

I detected a British accent, but she said she was from Miami. Polite smiles. Back to our menus.

Later, while we were discussing the meaning of “agender” vs “non-binary” with some delightfully open GenZs, she jumped back in.

Here’s what we learned:

She’s building a solar farm business in western Massachusetts for which she had to undertake complex government permitting and state house lobbying.

She owns a home in Miami, but had been raised in the UK where she went to “college.” (Oxford was mentioned.)

She lived in western Massachusetts for many years, had two daughters, but then moved to Belgium with her German engineer husband (no longer in the picture) who was a high-level executive with General Electric.

She had a home in Newport, Rhode Island for many years.

She was a realtor and avid home renovator.

She just returned from a trip to Northern Italy where she met George Clooney’s driver.

One of the daughters left marketing and opened a successful antique store in northeastern Massachusetts. The other daughter lives in Austin, Texas, where she’s considering moving to from Miami.

She is a fan/follower of a certain self-help guru which led her to her passion for neuroencoding.

She is a grandmother.

She is a professional life coach.

At this point, I needed to vape a little weed…I mean, it was a lot.

Now, slightly high, I listened to more things being relayed.

She’s a BIG sports fan, especially basketball and football, and her Miami condo overlooks the Miami Heat home arena.

At one point, she purchased and successfully overhauled some sort of professional American football club.

In the past, she worked at the Miami port herding passengers onto various cruise ships, including swinger cruises for which “codes of conduct” contracts were required from passengers.

And this is the one that finally put me over the edge into doubting everything:

She founded and runs of charity dedicated to improving the lives of pediatric cancer patients.

I mean, very admirable, but how on earth does she find time! Does this woman ever just watch TV?

I made a joke about her having a multiple personality disorder. She did not seem offended. We said goodnight, after getting her name so we could connect online.

Related post:

From Stockbridge to Boston

Woodstock

~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments

As an elder GenXer (born in 1965), I can tell you that there is no greater jealousy-inducing Baby Boomer/Aging Hippie memory than Woodstock. 55 years ago this week, 400,000 young people descended on Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York for an epic four-day concert, party, and camp out.

I’m sure there were people who brought four-year-olds to Woodstock, but my parents sure as hell were not the type. I have some older cousins who I remember talking about Woodstock, but their parents were not the type to allow that either.

Anyway, I’m a sucker for Woodstock stories and documentaries, so I enjoyed looking through these 32 photos from The Atlantic (first published five years ago on the 50th anniversary).

I think my favorites are the skinny dippers and the night shot that shows just how vast of an event it was.

I hope you can access them through this link: amp.theatlantic.com/amp/photo/596107/

Which ones are your favorites?

Did you or anyone you know go to Woodstock?

Thankful Thursday

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

I’ve never done a “Thankful Thursday” post before, but here goes.

I’m thankful for a solid house that does not leak. With hurricane season upon us, I’m reminded of past interior flooding — both in the home I grew up in and in the first house we bought after our daughter was born (a 150+ year old antique with a leaky fieldstone basement). I know there are worse things than standing ankle-knee deep in dirty brown water in your own basement, but I’m very thankful I haven’t had to do that in the past twenty years.

It is my understanding that Hurricane Ernesto has knocked out power for half of Puerto Rico (which still has not fully recovered from the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017) and is gaining strength as it heads towards Bermuda. And hurricane season has only just begun…

Beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico in August 2016, the year before Category Five Hurricane Maria

From Stockbridge to Boston

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments

All James Taylor fans know this verse from Sweet Baby James:

Now, the first of December was covered with snow
So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frostin’
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go

Last night after my amazing Tanglewood experience, we stayed overnight at the historic (and possibly haunted) Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which was built in 1773.

That’s right. The Red Lion Inn is three years older than the United States. It was built the same year colonists were starting to get super annoyed with King George and dumped a bunch of tea in Boston Harbor.*

The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts is one of the oldest hotels in the USA. It started as a tavern in 1773.
We had dinner on the famous front porch of The Red Lion Inn last night and met some very interesting people, including two non-binary GenZ artists and a woman our age who is launching a solar farm business.
Interior view of the Red Lion tavern
Our room at The Red Lion Inn had to be locked and unlocked with an actual key 🔑
The Lost Lamb is a wonderful French patisserie in tiny, quaint downtown Stockbridge. I got both a chocolate croissant and a plain croissant with my café au lait.
A pretty stained glass window in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (est. 1834), which is directly across the street from Red Lion.

After a swim in the outdoor pool at Red Lion, we stopped for a delicious lunch at the Starving Artist Café in nearby Lee. We chatted with a woman from nearby Pittsfield, where I was born and spent the first three years of my life. Back then, everyone in Pittsfield (including my dad) worked for General Electric.

I don’t know why I hadn’t been back to this area in decades, but I will not wait so long to return. After lunch, we put on some James Taylor in the car and hopped on the turnpike back to Boston. The traffic gods were with me and I got home before 4pm.

A mural in downtown Lee

*The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by American colonists against British taxation policies. It occurred on December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts. Colonists, frustrated by the Tea Act—which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonies, effectively lowering the cost but undercutting colonial merchants—disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded British ships. They proceeded to dump 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. This act of defiance became a pivotal event leading up to the American Revolution.

Related post:

Bucket list progress: Tanglewood

Stained Glass Window

Bucket List Progress: Tanglewood

~ MaryG ~ 8 Comments

Tanglewood Music Center, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is an iconic location in New England. Over the years, I’ve heard many musically-inclined people describe it as their “happy place.” Located in the picturesque Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. Tanglewood hosts a variety of concerts, performances, and events featuring world-class musicians and artists. The grounds also include beautiful gardens, walking paths, and vast picnic areas. Purchasing “lawn seats” for a symphonic performance at Tanglewood and picnicking on the grounds has long been on my bucket list. (Tanglewood picnics have a legacy all their own.) Well, yesterday I checked this one off in absolutely spectacular weather.

The first half of the program included a modern piece by a living composer, Anna Clyne, who was there to introduce her work, as well as two gorgeous Mozart arias sung by an ethereal young soprano—Elena Villalón. The second half of the program was Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. The entire program was conducted by James Gaffigan—a young (cute) GenX American.

Besides the fact that we absolutely lucked out with one of the most stellar days of the summer (sunny, not too hot, low humidity), the sumptuous 4-course picnic lunch (provided by gourmet chefs from my church) made yesterday an over-the-top delight. My lifelong friend Gail and I didn’t have to bring a thing other than our lawn chairs. (The picnic lunch was something I won in a church auction last year.)

Holy wow! From the majestic setting, to the history of the hallowed grounds traversed by the greatest American musicians of the 20th century—from Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland to John Williams and Renée Fleming—I truly felt the Tanglewood magic.

The orchestra setting up on the stage in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood
Gail and I with a bust of Aaron Copland (1900-1990), the composer of Appalachian Spring
Huge trees provide shade for picnickers at Tanglewood
The fourth course of our picnic lunch: peach and raspberry parfaits

Related post:

From Stockbridge to Boston

Anticipation

~ MaryG ~ 15 Comments

Something’s coming

And it’s soooooooooooo exciting.

A name has been chosen, but not released. We know it’s two syllables and a bit “old fashioned” but it’s not a family name. Hmmmm….Hazel? (Nope) Alice? (Stop guessing)

A nurse asked…and was told! (she liked it). And it’s already on a baby hat!

When your baby is expecting a baby

Freedom

~ MaryG ~ 16 Comments

What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world?

OK, one reason I like my blog is that I feel free to say what I want, including about politics.

In the old days (before Trump), I thought Facebook and other emerging social media was fun. Find old friends and classmates, reminisce, post pics, share news, chat about nonsense, etc.

Then everything went to hell and I had real and permanent falling outs (fallings out?) with the Trumpers in my sphere, as did millions of others.

I’m still on Facebook, but I try not to post too many political things, with abortion access being an exception. (I will not shut my trap about that one until it’s no longer an issue or I’m dead.)

People who read and comment on my blog (and vice versa) are 99% online friends only. I will likely never meet them in real life. But there’s a freedom in that. They’re choosing to read my thoughts, and I theirs.

With 89 days left until we (hopefully) send Donald Trump packin’ for good, my Facebook and Instagram friends (all people I know or have known in real life) have my blog to thank for my relative level of self-control.

So, I can say this on my blog: I am loving the energy right now. From Kamala entering a packed and cheering rally to Beyoncé’s “Freedom” to the Tim Walz dad jokes. It’s soooo good. This is the kind of optimistic, joyful, caring country I want my granddaughter (coming soon) to grow up in.

Big Dad Energy on Threads