The Boomer Chronicles

A number of years ago I visited North Carolina’s Outer Banks for the first time and part of my trip was spent on the island of Ocracoke. What an enchanting place it was. The sultry weather; the wild horses; the few families that populated the place, resulting in the fact that many residents sported the same last name; the lights going out during a sudden, drenching tropical storm. I stayed in an inn created from the old lightkeeper’s house.

Most interesting to me is that the island was once so isolated that some of the older folks still used Elizabethan English. In fact, the summer I was there, I rented a bike. As a I waited in line, I heard the proprietor say to the man in front of me, “That will be twelve dollars for the day, Sire.”

So as I hear the Hurricane Earl evacuation orders include Ocracoke, I am hoping for the best for this little place.

Do you believe in ghosts? I do. I’ve seen one myself and I know folks in my neighborhood whose homes have ghosts.

My ghost story took place about 10 years ago. I was in an old house in my neighborhood of Jamaica Plain playing a board game on a coffeetable with my hosts. I felt a cat slink by my leg and then scoot under the table. It never saw it re-emerge on the other side. I asked my hosts if they had a cat and they said no. Here’ s what I saw: a moving smudge. It was dark but had no distinct shape. But it definitely did that unmistakable cat-slinky thing on my leg.

Anyway, here are some true ghost stories from my region of the world — New England. And, if you are so moved, you can even join the New England Paranormal group and help hunt down ghosts.

It’s interesting living in a college town like Boston. Around this time of year, everything turns to college. The arrival of a new class of freshmen can be exciting but it can also lead one to review one’s life, even if you are not a college student and in fact may have graduated some 30 years ago. Personally, I believe in learning all your life. Here is what I intend to learn this (academic) year:

Continue with my violin lessons

Take a cooking class (maybe ethnic)

Maybe take another bike repair class and actually try to change a tire by myself

And you? What would you like to learn this year?

I like the sound of No. 175. Yep, it’s our baby boomer carnival’s 175th edition, hosted by Nancy over at Vaboomer.com

She spends one year trying her hand at professional baking. Read about her last day on the job (with a hat tip to Universal Hub)

Adult children are still boomeranging to Mom and Dad’s house.

Want to know more about sleep apnea? Who doesn’t?

Learn about Ancient Woman, a scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas.

hit the slide
Steven Slater was fed up with working for a–holes, so he hit the slide

I am baaaacckkk from my one-week-long, very ambitious road trip. Here are ten amazing facts.

• I traveled about 2,500 miles in one week
• I didn’t try to sneak a photo of any Amish people, although I was tempted to (Photo 1)
• My friends in Ohio were digging a trench on their farm and they unearthed a very old horseshoe. They gave it to me to take home as a souvenir.
• There’s a former Shaker village in Kentucky where you can book a room and stay overnight. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to living like a Shaker (Photo 2)
• You can tour coal mines in West Virginia and Pennsylvania
• When you’ve driven about a million miles to Loretto, Kentucky, and arrive after the last tour of the day at the Maker’s Mark bourbon distillery and are ready to go home all disappointed, you can still sneak into the last tour when the group walks by
• Bourbon will never be my drink of choice (Photo 3)
• I sort of learned the difference between a bushel and a peck
• Pearl S. Buck (The Good Earth) was born in West Virginia and I visited her former home
• Learned in Gettysburg, Pa., that thousands of Northerners are still obsessed with the Civil War (Photo 4)

Our host this week is the co-founder (with Yours Truly) of this carnival. Wesley at LifeTwo — take it away!

I’m on vacation this week, so you’re getting just one link, but it’s a really good one:

The Best of Neatorama