Welcome! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed so you won't miss the Blarties (=blog+party) on the weekends. To find out more about our Blarties check out this post, too. Looking forward to seeing you on the weekends!

In the process of going through some old family pictures for the purpose of creating a collage, I came across a couple of pictures of cars of my parent’s from the 60’s and a house in my hometown. I thought it would be fun to publish several of the pictures and play a Boomer’s memories name game. (Click on the thumbnails for a larger view.)

The car in the forefront of this picture was our family car when I was in elementary school in the 60’s. This car was blue and white. Why did I say “family car”?! That sounds as though we had more than one car. Only the rich and famous had more than one car back then! So, can you name the make, model, and year of the car in the forefront of this picture?

The next picture is of the car my Daddy taught me how to drive in during the early 70’s. The steering wheel was wider than me and I had to sit on a pillow to see over the top of it. The seat had to be moved all the way up for me to reach the brake and accelerator, too, which made my poor Daddy have to look over his knees. (Not only did “short people got nobody”, before the energy crisis of the 70’s brought on small economy cars, short people got no cars either.)

Turning corners was a trick in this big ole boat of a car, lemme tell ya! Fortunately it had power steering. (NO! Of course that isn’t me…it’s my little brother.) Daddy made sure I wouldn’t ever get stuck in a situation I couldn’t get myself out of…after learning to drive this car I had to learn to drive his Ford F150 pickup with three-on-the-tree. Can you name the make, model, and year of this car?

The next pic is of the home of a celebrity that was practically my neighbor for 8 years. This home was only 10 minutes from my house. My brothers and I saw the gates graced with musical notes to this home more times than we care to remember. Not because of the home or its owner, but because, depending on the time of the year, it got awful hot or we were so freakin’ cold our teeth chattered ninety-to-nuthin’.

We had to go EVERY TIME our Mom heard through the grapevine that the celebrity was coming home! Back then many people would have given their right arm to sit out there and wait…and wait…and wait. Not us! We wanted to go home to our own house where we would be much more comfortable NOW! Little did we realize at that time, but NEV-v-v-vah did see the dude. Rumor has it there was a back entrance. Can you name this home?

Popularity: 33% [?]

On May 17th I wrote a post about fond Boomer memories when I read about b5media.com preparing to launch a music channel. Well, I’m experiencing major flashbacks now because the b5media Music Channel was launched July 9th, and I’ve been there a LOT reading blogs about Rock-n-Roll, Hippies, the Beatles, and Crooners since Tuesday when I discovered it. They’re celebrating the launch with a contest featuring iPod Shuffles, MP3 players, and iTunes certificates for the prizes.

I’m happy to tell you I spotted four blogs rather quickly that I’m sure will be of interest to most Baby Boomers. My favorite is The Rock Relic by Chuck Hinson. Chuck’s writin’ will take ya back to yer rock’n ‘n rollin’ days faster’n you c’n whip out yer Hi-Fi stereo or 8-track cassette play’r, ‘n yer 50’s, 60’s, & 70’s rock albums, 45’s, and cassette tapes! I LOVED it! For a bit there I thought I was back in school in Memphis in the 60’s and early 70’s again!

If you’re worried about exercising your mind and keeping it fit, you can stop because Chuck includes some interesting and challenging trivia questions. The questions will have your mind doing all kinds of sit-ups, jumping jacks, and stretches to the far reaches of your memory for the answers. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll remember.

You’ll have plenty of time to warm up before doing your memory exercises because he gives you several days to submit your answers, but don’t wait too long. You need that mental exercise and this kind is fun, especially when it produces pleasure from the mental 8MM reel-to-reel movies in your memories.

Who knows? Once you start groovin’ with your 8MM movie memories you’ll get to movin’, and you just might get enough physical exercise that your Doc will let cha drop the blood pressure pills ya been takin’. Trust me, you WILL start groovin’ ‘n movin’ when you read The Rock Relic.

The other three blogs I’m sure you’ll enjoy are:

1. The Beatle Invasion by Gilan Israel - The title of this one speaks for itself. What more can I say?
2. Hippie Sounds by Jennifer Chait - Generation Jonesers will appreciate this one!
3. The Crooner Culture by Lara Kulpa - Were you born in the 40’s, attend school in the 50’s, and come of age in the early 60’s? Then this one is for you!

Awight, git on over to b5’s Music Channel and have yersef a pahteeeeeeeeeeeee! (Uh-oh! Either Chuck’s writin’ is contagious or bein’ back in the south for a few years is ketchin’ nup wit me!) Blog about it and see if you win one of the prizes. It could come in handy when you need to pump up your heart rate.

Popularity: 26% [?]