Jim O’M, born in 1947, is a retired DJ living in downtown Knoxville with his 4th wife and 4 dogs. I was listening to the radio not too long ago on a long drive from my hometown of Knoxville to Washington, DC. While there were plenty of great songs on the “Classic” radio stations along Interstate 81, the fare was pretty standard – the newer Oldies. Eventually I lost interest and began thinking about the strange, diverse Top 40 stations of my cavalier youth. (I can hear the overly...
John D. was raised in Providence, RI and is a session musician in Boston. Photo below was taken in Providence in 1954. Children at a window decorated for Thanksgiving. Listen to the sound clip at the end of this story for a brief news commentary aired in 1954 on Thanksgiving. The three of us were born in three consecutive years, 1947, ’48 and ’49. My two sisters have led pretty traditionalist lives. They aren’t politically conservative but in every other way, they are. A musician, I’m sort of the...
Steve Jobs was the Co-Founder and CEO of Apple. I grew up in Silicon Valley. My parents moved from San Francisco to Mountain View when I was five. My dad got transferred and that was right in the heart of Silicon Valley so there were engineers all around. Silicon Valley for the most part at that time was still orchards–apricot orchards and prune orchards–and it was really paradise. I remember the air being crystal clear, where you could see from one end of the valley to the other… It...
Mark S. is a 64 year-old digital archivist who lives in Boston’s suburbs. In August of 2011, I regained consciousness in a New Hampshire hospital. My wife and 3 kids told me I had been out for 5 days after suffering an SCA – Sudden Cardiac Arrest – and had slumped down, essentially dead. A family member began giving me CPR. Then a volunteer fireman neighbor stepped in for the endless 20 minutes it took an ambulance to arrive. A medivac helicopter had been dispatched but had to turn...
Mike C. grew up an hour north of Pittsburgh, PA, He worked in the Washington, DC, area in computers until moving to Latin America. He and his family live in Nicaragua as expatriates. I’m a tail-ender (born 1964). I married late, so we have 2 small daughters ages 7 and 11. It’s interesting because I definitely fit into the boomer group far more than Gen X, but most of my “peers” would consider themselves Gen X. Anyway, I’ve been living as an expat for the last 9 years and...