GenZ

GenX: the last couponers?

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments

I remember my mother giving me a blue Velcro coupon organizer in my twenties (a little portable folder with dividers for keeping various types of paper coupons—food, toileteries, etc.) She would also cut out and give me coupons for various things she thought I used. It was very thoughtful.

I don’t know what happened to that organizer. At one point, I remember thinking coupons were such a hassle. Half the time, my coupons had expired by the time I got around to pulling one out. All that effort and kerfuffling at the register just to save 50 cents.

I think I had abandoned paper coupons by the time I had my own family at age 30. And I’m pretty sure my millennial/GenZ kids have never once cut out a paper coupon.

Now of course, we have endless customer loyalty programs and accompanying rewards points, electronic coupons, discount codes, promo codes, etc.

I honestly don’t know if my kids have the time and motivation to take advantage of those types of savings programs.

But I do! I will sit in my car and hit the plus sign next to every single savings offer before I go into a CVS, just in case I buy something that applies.

Beware the senior citizen with time on her hands!

According to CVS, I have saved over $3,500 since joining their free “ExtraCare” program in 2016.

The satisfaction of seeing the total bill tick down after hitting “redeem all coupons” at the soulless self-checkout reminds me of the feeling of getting a 100% on your weekly spelling quiz. There’s really no intelligence involved. It’s all preparation, and you were prepared.

Knee socks

~ MaryG ~ 14 Comments

Today’s realization from The Great Photo Digitization Project of 2025 (inspired by the tragic California wildfires) is that I was an extremely well-dressed child. (My own kids were nowhere near as well-dressed as my sister and I were.)

And this was before the era of “fast fashion,” so my mother made many of our dresses and outfits.

We always had matching accessories too. Note the headband in this shot:

With my baby cousin Steven and Aunt Betsy, 1971

In my old photo albums, one accessory is featured more than all the others and that is color-coordinated knee socks. I remember having a drawer full of them. Thinking back, they were pretty cool because they came in so many different colors and were way more comfortable than tights.

Knee socks and a matching purse for the first day of first grade
November 1972
Note the “milk box” near the front door (I am old)
Heading off to Town Day 1973

Facilitated by my mother and a Marshall’s opening up in my town in the late 70s (“Brand Names for Less”), I ended up being a major clothes horse right through high school. I embraced the Reagan era “preppy look” and had dozens of sweaters in every color of the rainbow. My closet looked like a Benetton store.

My high school preppy look

It wasn’t until I tried to fit all my clothes into a tiny freshman dorm closet that I realized how ridiculously many I had.

Winterlights

~ MaryG ~ 14 Comments
Stevens Coolidge House & Gardens in North Andover, Massachusetts
You gotta love a polar bear
I want to get some of these sphere lights for a tree near my driveway.
Shooting in 0.5x (ultra-wide lens) mode on iPhone gives a wider field of view but is available on the rear camera only, so you have to take a blind selfie (with the back of your phone facing you). It gives the photographer a very long arm.
It was in the low 20s last night on my son’s birthday, but we were dressed for it because we know how this works. It’s all about having the correct outerwear!
We added our wishes to a wishing tree. “Learn Italian without Trying” was my son’s.
Mine was the same as many others: 🌍☮️

All in all, a fun outing, but the lights were not quite as impressive as I’d hoped.

For some truly impressive winterlights, check out Brian’s post from Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.

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

The next generation

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What is your career plan?
View all responses

I’m retired (I think) and looking forward to becoming a grandmother and doing some meaningful volunteer work. So, I’m going use this prompt to provide an update on the next generation.

I’m extremely pleased to report that my son landed a job! He’s a senior in college and this is his first post-grad position. I’m super proud of him!

The college class of 2024 (high school class of 2020) has not had it easy. They had their senior prom, graduation, senior spring sports seasons, and numerous other rites of passage cancelled due to Covid. In addition, many of them (including my son) took their very first semester of college classes remotely from home. MAJOR bummer is an understatement! His second semester, though not remote, was not at all normal. Masks, testing, and Zoom classes from dorm rooms are not fun. My son got put in isolation for TEN DAYS over Easter because he was exposed to a bus driver who tested positive. (My son never did.)

Sophomore year was somewhat normal and thankfully he had a terrific semester abroad junior year. And now, the famous final scene…the last few weeks of college.

So here’s to these very resilient young people. GenZ is in the house and they are going to do things differently. We’re handing them a broken world, but I have faith that they will improve things in ways we can’t yet imagine.

Cheers 🍻 to my son and the Class of 2024 ❤️

My daughter

~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Who is the most confident person you know?
View all responses

My entrepreneurial daughter has a quiet confidence beyond her years. She’s not a loud extrovert (that’s more my lane), but she knows herself and what she wants, and focuses on it calmly and deliberately.

She’s in her late twenties and holds down a full-time (remote) job in the biotech industry and runs her own business.

After college, she took her passion for astrology and turned it into a legitimate, profitable business, including all the necessary paperwork like setting up an LLC. Her business is successful because of her hard work and creativity. I’m always impressed with the way she speaks so clearly and confidently in her videos.

If you’re into astrology, check her out on Instagram or TikTok (@lunarxluci).

She and her boyfriend were able to buy a house last year, because of their hard work and determination.

I take no credit. I’m not entrepreneurial. She really did it all on her own. I did read her a lot of books when she was little. She especially loved Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat was one of her all-time favorites. She called him “hat cat.”

Come to think of it, Cat in the Hat was a confident, creative, multitasker…maybe he had an influence?

In case you’re curious, I’m a Gemini ♊️ and she’s an Aquarius ♒️.

Her website: Lunarxluci.com

Gadgets (and a brief survey)

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What are three objects you couldn’t live without?
View all responses

I’m assuming nobody wants to hear about how dependent I am on my phone, car and TV. I’m thinking favorite gadgets might be more interesting?

Per Merriam-Webster, a gadget is “an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use, but often thought of as a novelty.”

Based on that definition, my top three gadgets du jour are:

My Ember smart mug, which is pictured here. It keeps my coffee warm for a very long time. No need to nuke it* over and over again.

My Oxo citrus squeezer, which is pictured here. I bought it at Whole Foods. It’s the perfect size for juicing limes, specifically.

My Pure Enrichment tabletop humidifier. I like it because it also has a calming blue light. I bought it for $35 at CVS two years ago, kept the receipt, and the company sent me a new one this year when the original developed a slight crack. I like a company that stands behind its products.

*Nuke it means “microwave it” in the above context. My GenZ son thinks that my husband and I made this up and that nobody else in the whole wide world says “nuke it.” If you would kindly let me know whether or not you say “nuke it” when you mean “put it in the microwave oven” and (if comfortable) your approximate age and home country, I would be very grateful. (The results may be used to convince my son that I am not weird.)

TYIA

From Billie Jean to Coco

~ MaryG ~ 3 Comments

Name the professional athletes you respect the most and why.

Although I haven’t watched much lately, tennis is the sport I’ve probably watched the most. I played on a few tennis teams in high school and was somewhat competitive for a couple of years. I can really appreciate how hard it is to hit a precise backhand and powerful serve.

As a kid, I liked watching Björn Borg (the big brooding Swede) and bratty John McEnroe. But it’s the American women who I’ve really come to appreciate. From Billie Jean King and Chrissie Evert to Venus and Serena Williams (the greatest ever), these women are groundbreakers, leaders, and role models.

And now Coco Gauff. If you didn’t see it, check out her trophy acceptance speech at last night’s US Open Women’s Singles championship. Wow, what grace and respect she showed to her family, supporters, event organizers, competitor, and predecessors in the sport. And she’s only 19! The moment when she thanks Billie Jean for fighting for equal prize money was the highlight for me.