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| BBHQ Boomer Essays: |
| Our Boomer-In-Charge here at BBHQ, Hershel Chicowitz, writes frequently about current events... from a boomer perspective. He is sometimes funny, sometimes provocative, sometimes a little of each. We hope you get a kick out of our Boomer Essays. |
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Remember when we were teenagers? Wasn't life terrific? Oh, sure; there was acne, and thick glasses, and peer pressure. And some of us were geeks. But, for the most part, things were easy. Life was great. We had hardly a care in the world! I mean, what was there to worry about?
Well, what the heck happened? Today, life is just one miserable pain in the neck after another! And it is soooooo hard!
I have whined enough in this space about my problems. Let me tell you about some of my friends' difficulties:
My neighbor Carl dropped out of college during his freshman year. College was boring, and Carl figured that he did not need a college degree. Twenty years later, he decided that he was wrong. So he went back to school - night classes at a junior college. But today Carl has a wife and three kids. He is a marketing representative for a medical supply company. It was a tough load. And at the rate he was going, graduation was at least six years down the road. Last week, Carl dropped out again. With the family and the job, Carl said it was just soooooo hard! And that was the end of that.
Judy is not going to college. But she has a husband and two teenage sons. Wow, talk about a challenge! The kids have an 11 p.m. curfew. But Judy admits that she and her husband rarely enforce it. "I mean, kids will be kids; and... it's soooooo hard!"
There is a television commercial advertising a new birth control patch. The spokeswoman says, "Remembering to take the pill is not so hard. But forgetting to take it is soooo easy." Huh? But Maybe that confusion explains why my niece's friend, Shauna, has three kids... without the benefit of a husband. She is a sure candidate for the patch. Many times she has complained that remembering to take the pill every day is "soooooo hard." Apparently remembering to cash the welfare check every month is not.
Libby is also a single mother. Her 7 year-old son has been having trouble in school. He is always goofing off and getting in trouble. Libby says her son is a handful; she knows that she should work with him more. But the school said he might have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and recommended Ritalin. Libby is reluctant to put her son on medication. But she says that training him properly "is soooooo hard."
Don is a writer... fiction, in the style of Mark Twain. And as Mark Twain wrote, Don says that quitting smoking is easy; he's done it hundreds of times. But Don is currently a two pack a-day smoker. He knows it is bad for him; he knows he should quit for good. But Don's explanation: "It's soooooo hard!"
Theresa is more than 75 pounds overweight. She has tried and tried and tried to lose weight.... for most of her adult life. But nothing happens. Sitting in front of the TV, Theresa complains, "It's soooooo hard!" And she nibbles on a mini-doughnut.
Mitch is a lawyer in California; he helps illegal aliens with their legal problems in the U.S. Radio talk show host Sean Hannity asked Mitch why he helps people who are in this country illegally. "Well, they try to become legal residents; they really do. But there are so many forms to fill out, and it takes so much time. It is sooooo hard for them!"
Bruce is one of the lucky Enron employees; he still has a job. But his pension plan was nearly wiped out in the Enron debacle. Oh, he figures he will get some of it back if the rumored settlement comes through. But his dream of retiring at age 55 is gone. At this rate, he figures he will have to work till he is nearly 70 in order to be able to afford to retire. Bruce feels cheated. These days he goes into work every morning and thinks, "It's soooooo hard."
Why is life is so hard for us? Why did our parents and grandparents leave us with this mess? Couldn't they have made things easier for us? Things were soooooo simple for them. I mean, all they had to worry about was putting food on the table. They did not have to worry about spam, or forgetting to take the pill, or telemarketers, or fat content, or their 401K plan, or SAT scores, or Osama bin Laden, or their HMO, or which cell phone plan is better. Heck, they did not even have to choose between paper and plastic! They had it made!
Why couldn't they have made life less difficult for us? Why is life soooooo hard?
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If you like what we're doing here at BBHQ, please help us by buying stuff through our link to Amazon.com:
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
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The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
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