David Henderson

It’s not surprising that as we boomers get older, we get reflective. Are we kidding ourselves that somehow, we’re younger than our parents were at this age? BoomerCafé co-founder and publisher David Henderson doesn’t think so. But what he sees in his own life is, we only stay young by going in different directions than our parents did. Retirement, he finds, is an outdated concept.

One thing I hate is to find myself repeating — or to hear someone else repeating — is some slogan or phrase we’ve heard on TV or in a movie. You know, things like, “Make my day,” or the sarcastic use and tone of the word, “Whatever.” We’ve all done it but I think it shows a certain lack of independent thought, and I kick myself mentally when I fall into the trap.

That said, there is some reality, I believe, behind the concept for some TV commercial where we see, say, Dennis Hopper — looking good at age 72 by way of cosmetic surgery, no doubt — hawking some company’s product by saying something like, “50 is the new 40.” I might still have no idea what the company or service is, but I am struck by the meaning of the phrase.

Continued

Popularity: 17% [?]

Juliet Stevenson is one of Britain’s most popular and prolific actors, starring in films, television productions and on the stage. One of her best-known films was “Truly, Madly, Deeply,” a motion picture that helped to define the baby boomer generation in the same way as “The Big Chill.” On the debut of her latest film, the romantic comedy “A Previous Engagement,” she spoke from England with BoomerCafé publisher David Henderson about her work, life, balancing career with raising two children and challenges at this point in her middle-aged life.

[Listen to the interview with Juliet Stevenson online - click here]

David: Juliet, how are you handling middle-age? You are phenomenally talented. I’ve noticed that you are very busy and have done something like 20 films in the last eight years. How do you do it?

Juliet: Have I? I haven’t counted. Yes, I have worked a lot. I spend my whole life juggling … my children and my work and my partner, Hugh (Brody), and other things besides. I just consider myself like anybody else who is doing that … and most women I know are doing that. I think it is kind of crazy and there are times when I think that I’ve bitten off a little more than I can chew.
Continued

Popularity: 49% [?]

Hey, we may have two or three generations younger than us, but we can still get it on with new-fangled technology, can’t we? Of course we can, but as BoomerCafé co-founder David Henderson writes, maybe we don’t always want to.

Our generation may be getting a few gray hairs but that hasn’t slowed us from embracing new technology, like the switch in photography from film to digital. I only have one friend who is still using film. Everyone else has switched to digital.

I love digital photography, and a couple of things started me thinking recently about getting a new digital camera.

First, was the pain I endured lugging around my Nikon D70s SLR during a hiking vacation in the Swiss Alps last summer. The Nikon can capture outstanding images but feels like a brick on a strap that’s slung over your shoulder. Who needs that weight during a long hike? Give me something lightweight that takes superb photos.

Continued

Popularity: 55% [?]

Sure, today’s younger generations have a few advantages we didn’t have when we were their age, but as BoomerCafé co-founder and communications professional David Henderson writes, that doesn’t always make it a better world.

When I was a kid growing up in the Washington, D.C. area, American Airlines had one of the most romantic images in the sky, with its shiny silver planes. My family didn’t travel by air often because we, like a lot of Americans in the post-World War II era, just didn’t have the money. But I remember the … well, it was the feeling of riding on a plane back then and sitting in a seat that was actually spacious even for an adult and swallowed up a kid like me. All that is fast-changing before our eyes. We baby boomers may be the last generation with those memories of great legacy airlines … and great service.

Continued

Popularity: 37% [?]

Let them talk about our generation’s over-indulgence. At BoomerCafé, we’d rather think about our inventiveness. In communication, in convenience, and in … food? BoomerCafé co-founder David Henderson is grateful for the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs but these days, his heart really goes out to a younger woman named Michele. Why? Because she has come up with the best: Baby Boomer Soul Food:

I don’t know whether it is an indication of greater awareness or personal preference or maturing in my likes and dislikes … but I have been paying a lot more attention over the last decade or so to the quality of food I eat.

I love fish so why eat farm raised when wild caught fish is available even though it might cost a little more? Why drink mundane coffee when really outstanding coffee, such as Lavazza, costs no more, as I have previously written on BoomerCafé? Why eat meats, fruits and vegetables that are loaded of chemicals and growth hormones when organic and much healthier food is readily available?

And … so it is with granola, something I consider to be a soul food of the baby boomer generation.

Continued

Popularity: 64% [?]