Shacka-Lacka-BOOM, What was that? Aftershock!

I just got off the air from an interview about Baby Boomers & Gardening on The Heather Taylor Show. It airs Wednesdays, 12noon-1pm on WMET 1160 on the AM dial in DC and now broadcasts just a few blocks from my house in the World Building. It goes out live online too and is archived at the WMET site, so those outside the area or stuck at work can tune in too. Heather's talk show is "the DC area’s first and only radio talk show just for Boomers." Today's topics were "Sept 12, 2007: Second and Third Chances: The New Entrepreneurship in Fashion, Beauty, and Gardening." Heather gave me the first segment and a generous amount of air time plus a nice link at her web site to ours. We talked about starting a second career, marketing your business, and then delved into boomer gardening advice.

I gave a nice plug for one of my favorite garden tools the Cobrahead weeder and cultivator. I can't say enough good things about it - I won't say it makes weeding "a pleasure," but it sure makes it a heck of a lot less burdensome. Being just 39 myself, it is interestingly to look ahead to my forthcoming gardening years. I'll be staring 40 in the face next June and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I do know that I feel better and healthier than I did at 20 and I hope that trends continues. Everyone says they want an active, well-balanced life. In my yoga classes, I see many inspirational women and men who are much more flexible and energetic than myself and are at least a few decades older. How wonderful it'd be to join their club when I'm that age.

Baby Boomers have not always been on my A list. As a GenXer, it is sometimes grating to be so fully tucked in their shadow and see the way the media lionizes them along with the youngsters Generation Next. When you are a Baby Bust generation, you only get the limelight and marketing focus for a fleeting couple of years. It kinda sucks to be so dominated by the Beatles and Britney. It is like how Canadians must feel sometimes, "I'm NOT the USA or the UK. Can I get a little respect and attention without the constant comparisons." You know?

One thing I AM grateful to Boomers for is paving the way in aging issues. Every time there is a news story about aging, senior living, diseases of the elderly, etc., I think how glad I am that they are doing it before me, cause I know that every aspect will be microscopically picked apart and explored by them. Then, as I age, I just set back and reap the benefits of all those mega amounts of research dollars and collective angst. Not only that, but the definition of "old" keeps getting reinterpreted and the numbers are going my way-- 60 is the new 30? That makes me the new 18, right? Not such a bad deal to be the baby sister after all.