Lately, I've been listening to the Beatles song "When I'm 64" because I'm 64 this month, and the Beatles became world famous in 1964. After conquering Europe, these four young musicians led the British Invasion of America, first landing in New York City on the Ed Sullivan TV show.
Who's Ed Sullivan? I'll get to that at another time, but in this post, let me tell you a bit about myself.
I'm Gene Dakin, better known as Gene On The Scene, and a Baby Boomer born in 1949 in Lebanon, Ohio. Baby Boomers never really retire; we just change careers. And we're the first generation to whole heartedly do that, although we have our models who preceded, or are, preceding us, into a glorious later period of life. Or maturity, if you want to call it that. But never old age, because Baby Boomers don't get old. So never call a Baby Boomer old-that's an obscenity to us. We're mature. We're seasoned. We're experienced. But never old.
Why not old? Because Baby Boomers don't believe in old age. We take to heart George Burns' words to a national TV audience when he was 95-"We can't help getting older-but we don't have to get old." When the Beatles penned "When I'm 64", I was a teenager-and 64 WAS old because the average life span was 65 to 70. Now I'm 64 and the average life span is around 80. People are living longer-thanks to advances in longevity science, also called biogerontology. And when I'm 80, the average life span will be 90...and so on.
That's why Baby Boomers don't believe in old age. We're the first generation who can afford to NOT-and WILL NOT automatically assume that we'll be dead in ten to twenty years due to old age! With scientific advances in lengthening our HEALTH SPAN-hence our LIFE SPAN-(just look at Suzanne Somers, who's at least 65 but looks 3 decades younger-does anyone doubt she'll reach the century mark before looking 65?)-we Baby Boomers can now make plans to LIVE! Including plans to start new careers.
Paul McCartney of the Beatles, who wrote "When I'm 64" when he was 24 years old, couldn't have known then that he wouldn't have been a decrepit old man in a rocking chair when he was 64. Now he's in his 70s, still creative, still productive, still rocking onstage. So are the Rolling Stones. So is Bob Dylan. And so is the Downtown Girl-Petula Clark, who's 81 this month. And lots of others, which I'll talk about in my posts along with greats of the past...
And young greats of today! Like Raven-Symone, one of America's most beloved young entertainers, whom I interviewed on my public access TV show when she was 11, and is still only in her late 20s.
That's the girl who played Olivia on "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s, played Nichole on "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" in the 1990s, and starred in the Disney Channel TV series "That's So Raven" in the 2000s. She's also done two "Dr. Doolittle" movies with Eddie Murphy, worked in Alex Haley's "Queen" TV mini-series, was one of the young stars of "The Little Rascals" movie remake in 1994...and made her first record album when she was 5-as she was telling me when I interviewed her.
Eventually, Raven wants to have her own stable of acting talent as a talent agent because they're the behind the scenes power brokers of Hollywood.
As I said, Raven was on my public access TV show in the 1990s, and by then my show had garnered two local TV award nominations. But more about that later, after I tell you my story from the beginning.
I was born in the 1940s after World War Two ended. The soldiers came home to their wives, married their girl friends, and after all those war years, there was GREAT JUBILATION! So you know what happened next-the Baby Boomer generation, which started in 1946. I came along in 1949, and according to my mother, I started trying to talk when I was only five days old-to an audience of visiting relatives-my first audience-and I haven't stopped talking since, which eventually led to my television show in the 1990s, then to my BlogTalkRadio series, "Gene On The Scene", and to Toastmasters International-where I'm in my fourth term as Vice President of Public Relations.
So back to my story. When I was six months old, my father recorded me on one side of a record. He was playing drums to music on the other side. He had a recording machine with a microphone and blank disks one would cut while recording just as we burn CDs today-only this was with REAL NEEDLES, and one played those records with real needles, too. Styluses came later in the 1960s, and CD burning in the 1990s.
My father was a drummer-an excellent one, according to my uncle. Growing up, I remember my father at breakfast hitting the table, the toaster, cups, glasses, and the walls in rhythm. When he was young, before he got married, he was on the road in my uncle's band for awhile, as a drummer and a vocalist.
My uncle, who lived to nearly 93, knew many band greats during his career-Glenn Miller, Glen Gray, the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, and Lawrence Welk. My uncle gave Henry Cuesta his first job as a clarinet player before he joined Mr. Welk's "Champagne Music Makers" as his longtime clarinet player.
My uncle's favorite musical instrument was the saxophone-the tenor sax I believe-which was played at my uncle's 1995 funeral, at the end of which we heard a tape of my uncle at a friend's birthday party-singing "Stardust" when he was 89 years old! Singing it well, my uncle hit that high note at the end-and held it!
Besides sharing musical talents, my father and uncle also shared as favorite singers jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday-and a belief-"To be really good at something, you don't have to be crazy-but it helps." I believe it too. I've seen it in a lot of successful people.
After I finished my studies at Miami University, Ohio's only Ivy League school, I authored and self published stories on gifted and talented youth in the 1970s and 1980s. I followed that with a public access TV series on gifted and talented youth in the 1990s. It was nominated for three local TV awards-Best Informational Documentary Series in 1995, Best Performing Arts Single Program in 1996, and Best Talk Show in 2000. And my show came within a hair of a fourth TV nomination for my televised telephone interview with Raven-Symone. In the 2000s, I started doing my "Gene On The Scene" shows on public access television at the Miami Valley Communications Council or http://mvcc.net, then switched to BlogTalkRadio at http://www.blogtalkradio.com in 2008.
Now I'm starting to do my "Gene On The Scene" series on BlogTalkRadio in a regular time slot on the first Friday each month at 2:00 PM Eastern USA Time as a 15 minute commentary program.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
Last Blast of Winter While in Homestead
Last Tuesday night, we had the last blast of winter here in Ohio. Driving home from Starbucks, I was scared to death driving 20-25 miles per hour on a major road where I couldn't tell one lane from the other. I was constantly afraid that I might slide off the road at any time from the snow that was coming down in buckets.
After I got home, I found out that there was more to come that night, up to a foot of snow in some places. It reminded me of a similar early March final winter blast five years ago when there was 12-16 inches of snow falling to the ground all over Ohio.
Only that time, I was lucky. I wasn't in Ohio. In early March 2008, I was basking in 76 degree heat in Homestead, Florida while the snow was flying here. I had just found out about BlogTalkRadio, and started writing commentaries for my "Gene On The Scene" BlogTalkRadio show while still in Florida. So naturally I did one on Homestead. Here's how it went:
"This is 'Gene On The Scene' in a tropical climate in the middle of the winter, while absorbing rich Florida history and culture...from Homestead, Florida between Miami and the Keys, where the average daytime temperature in February is 77 degrees. It's been in the 80s since I've been here. For a couple of days, it's been as high as 89 degrees. After the coming rain, it's due to fall into the upper 60s by day and the 40s by night-cold by South Florida standards. But even on a hot and humid day, the sea breezes are blowing from the Atlantic Ocean. So the effect is a perfect climate. It feels balmy here.
"I'm staying at the Everglades Motel, the most reasonably priced accommodations I can find in an area where most motels and hotels charge as much as they can get away with. The owners, Amit and Arti Patel, are hard working and nice people, and so's the motel. Most importantly, it has Internet access in my room, so I can work. There's a Walmart store nearby where I can buy my groceries.
"But the most interesting places are in the historic district of Homestead, which is just a walk down the street. That street is Krome Avenue. From Everglades Motel, here at 605 South Krome Avenue, I take a good walk down to 806 North Krome Avenue, where I can have breakfast at Royal Palm Grill and Deli, and take home a turkey sandwich for lunch or dinner. It's country cookin', reasonably priced, and friendly service, seven days a week from seven in the morning until four in the afternoon. On my way back, I usually stop by a little Haitian grocery called La Sagesse Food Market at 281 South Krome, where its friendly owner, Jacobo La Sagesse, is from Haiti, and whose native language is French, once sold me vanilla juice. Not the extract, but the juice, which he recommended I use for making cookies...
"But today, I also meet Ruth Campbell, who served on Homestead's City Council for 24 years, off and on, from 1963 to 1997, and now works as a hostess and reference person at the historic Homestead Town Hall Museum on 41North Krome Avenue. At a healthy and athletic-looking 87, she moves with an easy grace, while telling me that she knew Everglades legend Marjory Stoneman Douglas from her years on the city council-and shows me books written by Douglas and others. She also reveals that John Rothchild, who helped Douglas write her autobiography, lived with the Everglades legend for three years to compile his notes and observations into her life story.
"I sit at one of the tables at the town hall museum, taking notes on one of their white paper pads, while reading through the books there that are part and parcel of local Floridian history and culture. One was the 1947 national bestseller "The Everglades: River of Grass" by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who remained active as the foremost Everglades conservation activist until her death at the age of 108 in 1998. There are others by Douglas, and by Seminoles author Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, and by Patty West, among others."
In her 1959 children's book, "Alligator Crossing", Marjory Stoneman Douglas "describes the plethora of inhabitants of the Everglades: the snowy egrets, the brown pelican..., cormorants, green herons, the great white heron, the American egret, the blue and white heron, the roseate spoonbills (those are pink birds). And a bird called a stilt, which has red legs..."
"Although I drove through the Everglades so I couldn't see these birds from the road, I did see some of these birds at other places. I saw a pelican at a gas station in Okeechobee. And of course, I saw pelicans diving into the crashing waves of Daytona Beach...I also saw a lot of pelicans in Everglades City-in a boatyard. While I was staying in Everglades Motel in Homestead, I saw a green heron fly out of a tree in front of the motel."
All the Florida authors I learned about were very interesting, and I resolved to read their books at my local public library, or though Inter-Library Loan when I returned home to Ohio. You can find out about them at www.worldcat.org too.
After I got home, I found out that there was more to come that night, up to a foot of snow in some places. It reminded me of a similar early March final winter blast five years ago when there was 12-16 inches of snow falling to the ground all over Ohio.
Only that time, I was lucky. I wasn't in Ohio. In early March 2008, I was basking in 76 degree heat in Homestead, Florida while the snow was flying here. I had just found out about BlogTalkRadio, and started writing commentaries for my "Gene On The Scene" BlogTalkRadio show while still in Florida. So naturally I did one on Homestead. Here's how it went:
"This is 'Gene On The Scene' in a tropical climate in the middle of the winter, while absorbing rich Florida history and culture...from Homestead, Florida between Miami and the Keys, where the average daytime temperature in February is 77 degrees. It's been in the 80s since I've been here. For a couple of days, it's been as high as 89 degrees. After the coming rain, it's due to fall into the upper 60s by day and the 40s by night-cold by South Florida standards. But even on a hot and humid day, the sea breezes are blowing from the Atlantic Ocean. So the effect is a perfect climate. It feels balmy here.
"I'm staying at the Everglades Motel, the most reasonably priced accommodations I can find in an area where most motels and hotels charge as much as they can get away with. The owners, Amit and Arti Patel, are hard working and nice people, and so's the motel. Most importantly, it has Internet access in my room, so I can work. There's a Walmart store nearby where I can buy my groceries.
"But the most interesting places are in the historic district of Homestead, which is just a walk down the street. That street is Krome Avenue. From Everglades Motel, here at 605 South Krome Avenue, I take a good walk down to 806 North Krome Avenue, where I can have breakfast at Royal Palm Grill and Deli, and take home a turkey sandwich for lunch or dinner. It's country cookin', reasonably priced, and friendly service, seven days a week from seven in the morning until four in the afternoon. On my way back, I usually stop by a little Haitian grocery called La Sagesse Food Market at 281 South Krome, where its friendly owner, Jacobo La Sagesse, is from Haiti, and whose native language is French, once sold me vanilla juice. Not the extract, but the juice, which he recommended I use for making cookies...
"But today, I also meet Ruth Campbell, who served on Homestead's City Council for 24 years, off and on, from 1963 to 1997, and now works as a hostess and reference person at the historic Homestead Town Hall Museum on 41North Krome Avenue. At a healthy and athletic-looking 87, she moves with an easy grace, while telling me that she knew Everglades legend Marjory Stoneman Douglas from her years on the city council-and shows me books written by Douglas and others. She also reveals that John Rothchild, who helped Douglas write her autobiography, lived with the Everglades legend for three years to compile his notes and observations into her life story.
"I sit at one of the tables at the town hall museum, taking notes on one of their white paper pads, while reading through the books there that are part and parcel of local Floridian history and culture. One was the 1947 national bestseller "The Everglades: River of Grass" by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who remained active as the foremost Everglades conservation activist until her death at the age of 108 in 1998. There are others by Douglas, and by Seminoles author Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, and by Patty West, among others."
In her 1959 children's book, "Alligator Crossing", Marjory Stoneman Douglas "describes the plethora of inhabitants of the Everglades: the snowy egrets, the brown pelican..., cormorants, green herons, the great white heron, the American egret, the blue and white heron, the roseate spoonbills (those are pink birds). And a bird called a stilt, which has red legs..."
"Although I drove through the Everglades so I couldn't see these birds from the road, I did see some of these birds at other places. I saw a pelican at a gas station in Okeechobee. And of course, I saw pelicans diving into the crashing waves of Daytona Beach...I also saw a lot of pelicans in Everglades City-in a boatyard. While I was staying in Everglades Motel in Homestead, I saw a green heron fly out of a tree in front of the motel."
All the Florida authors I learned about were very interesting, and I resolved to read their books at my local public library, or though Inter-Library Loan when I returned home to Ohio. You can find out about them at www.worldcat.org too.
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