January’s end brings sunny dreams of spring and beyond
- Bruce Stambaugh: The Rural View
- January 23, 2020
- 950
As a youngster I remember those cold, blustery January days of sitting as close to the living-room heat register as possible. I would grab the latest seed catalog that had arrived in the mail and while myself away with luscious visions of warmer days ahead, corn on the cob and fresh lima beans.
My brothers and sisters would sometimes join me in this communal dreaminess. We couldn’t wait to be harvesting our own fresh-picked pickles, ripe red tomatoes and those buttery-colored ears of sweet corn. Of course a lot of time, hard work and patience would have to pass before all that deliciousness happened.
Besides, we would often get interrupted when one of the neighbor kids arrived at our doorstep to ask us to go sledding. Kids being kids, we usually traded future pleasantries for present ones.
With the advent of technology and electronic interconnection, emails seem to have replaced those slick, thick printed advertisements. The contents have changed too.
Smart marketers know most baby boomers now prefer discovery to husbandry, although I have plenty of peers who still love to get their hands dirty. It’s usually on a much smaller scale than 30 years ago, however.
My wife and I gave up gardening for the most part when we moved to Virginia. For a woman who loved her flower gardens, Neva furrows her forehead at any mention of planting a patch of wildflowers on our little slice of America.
Maybe the marketers have seen that expression too. That could explain why we don’t get those tempting seed catalogs anymore. Travel brochures, invitations, emails, booklets and, yes, catalogs have replaced their agrarian counterparts, promoting fun-filled cruises, exciting explorations and exotic destinations.
There’s a good reason for that. Because most boomers are retired or semi-retired, a majority of us apparently like to travel. Besides the printed and electronic information, television and computer pop-up ads besiege us with romantic places to go.
That’s alright with us. Neva and I both like to travel, and because we fit the retired category, we try to visit as many places as we can as time and money allow.
We also have to consider our age, our station in life and our health, not necessarily in that order. We both know we are fortunate when it comes to our overall physical fitness. We also know that may not last. So we must get in as much travel as possible while we still can.
Neva and I both enjoy learning about new places, cultures, languages, traditions, history, geography and enticing locales. We also like familiarity, which is why we keep returning to our beloved Lakeside, Ohio every summer.
Traveling allows us to enrich ourselves in all those subjects and much more. We know we aren’t alone because many of the offers we receive fill up quickly.
The land and ocean cruise we took to Alaska and the Yukon last summer was proof of that. Boomer-aged trekkers predominated at every stop and venue of the trip. In our group, only one young millennial couple dared to join our silver-haired entourage. Poor things, they were even on their honeymoon.
Because traveling is now so trendy and relatively easy, despite the security screening delays, cruises and group traveling are often planned a year or more in advance. You can dream in January, but if you don’t book right away, you may get shut out.
My touristy point comes full circle with personal disclosure. This January I’m writing from Florida.
Bruce Stambaugh writes about nature, weather, hobbies and people, often using personal experiences. Much to their dismay, he also writes about his family. He uses humor and pathos when he can’t think of anything else to include. To read more The Rural View, visit Bruce Stambaugh at www.thebargainhunter.com.