Another First For The Blog -- Absolutely Nothing About The Bakken

I don't think I have ever done this before, posted a YouTube video because of one of the comments. Here's the comment:

Wonderful, sure takes me back. Life was easier. We did not have to worry all the time about an evil world -- except for the Soviet Union.

We had fun. We rode our bikes all over the neighborhood and could stay out at night til the street lights came on. 

We respected our parents and the rules at school for the most part. Families were important. Not much TV but we did not just sit and watch. We did things and we listened to music like this all the time and knew the words. I am so grateful to have been brought up in this era of the 50s and 60s. My kids were born around 1980 but they were brought up with this music and I also liked a lot of their era's music.

It is a very different world today. The USA was strong and stood up as a nation for freedom. I know I digress! :) At any rate this music was so special and still is.

s/kkp

Here's the video:

Lost In The Fifties Tonight, Ronnie Milsap

*******************************

A Note to the Granddaughters

I don't think I have ever come across a comment that so encapsulated the years I grew up on 17th Street in Williston, North Dakota. Her entire comment (above) hit every chord but perhaps the best:

We rode our bikes all over the neighborhood and could stay out at night til the street lights came on.  

My close friend and I rode our bicycles, not only all over the neighborhood, but all over Williston. My mother never yelled for us to come in. She turned on the porch light as the signal that it was time to come in. And in Williston, we could not see a lit porch light until after 11:00 p.m. Williston was in the northern latitudes but more importantly it was right on the western-most edge of the central time zone. So, at 11:00 p.m it was still as light as if it were 10:00 p.m.

If that makes sense.

The summers were the best, of course. They say it gets cold in North Dakota in the winters. I hardly remember. I was born in Bismarck, moved to Williston when I was two years old, and graduated from Williston High School. About eighteen winters in North Dakota and for some reason I don't remember the cold. I remember the wonderful summer evenings though.

If that makes sense.

The granddaughters are growing up with the music of the 50's and the 60's. We drive back and forth to a lot of soccer games and water polo matches. Every summer, a cross-country trip to southern California. It's kind of funny, now that I write that -- that may be the high point of my life now, every year, a trip back to southern California. I did not visit Los Angeles until I was in college but it seems California and I have crossed paths more than I would have ever imagined forty years ago.

Lost in the 50's tonight.

*****************************

Exactly

The New York Times is reporting from Waxahachie, Texas:

WAXAHACHIE, Tex. — Most Americans suffered serious losses during and after the recession, knocked off balance by layoffs, stagnant pay and the collapse of home values. But apart from the superrich, one group’s fortunes appears to have held remarkably steady: seniors.

Supported by income from Social Security, pensions and investments, as well as an increasing number of paychecks from delaying retirement, older people not only weathered the economic downturn that began in 2007 but made significant gains, a New York Times analysis of government data has found.

As a result, America’s middle class is graying.

People on the leading edge of the baby boom and those born during World War II — the 25 million Americans now between the ages of 65 and 74 — have emerged as particularly well positioned in the nation’s economic timeline. While there are plenty of individual exceptions, as a group they are better off financially than past generations and may well enjoy a more successful old age than future ones, even those merely a decade younger.

“These are people who have been blessed with good economic circumstances, especially those who were able to ride the wave of postwar economic growth,” said Gary V. Engelhardt, an economist at Syracuse. “They’re definitely in a sweet spot.”

Waxahachie is 45 miles due south of us. 

Later in the article:

“It’s not so much that older people are experiencing unseemly gains in income,” said Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “It’s more that middle-aged people are not seeing income growing or even keeping pace with inflation.”

Middle-aged people are often still paying off mortgages just as the older children are starting college. 

The seniors between the ages of 65 and 74 are in the sweet spot: mortgages and college expenses should be things of the past, and if fortunate enough to be in good health, not yet having the expenses of assisted living and increased medical expenses. There's a 10-year-sweet spot for many from what I can tell for those baby boomers born in the late 50's.