All the rest have thirty-one, except February, twenty-eight days clear. It is the shortest month of the year. But you, the readers, have shown some fascinating insights based on your clicks and you clicked more this short month than last month.
There seems to be a yearning for deeper than surface nostalgia based on the top three. I think that matters. Before we get to the top three I wanted to share a story I feel is germane to the conversation we have been having for the last year.
The Nostalgic Boomer
In observance of National Retro Day I had a Memphis Pattern tie on. It generated a lot of conversation. In the course of the day I had an 81 year old man comment on my tie. I told him I was celebrating National Retro Day. He asked what that was. I told him it was a day to enjoy a bit of nostalgia, maybe dust off an old record and enjoy it.
He laughed and said for him it would be Frank Sinatra and Dino. I asked him to tell me more. I wanted to travel in his time machine!
I got to hear about his life as a teenager in the 50’s. He told me he hung out with a lot of “hard men” but he wasn’t one. A hard man was a tough guy, macho, that sort of thing. He was grateful he was not a hard man. His wife of over 60 years liked a real man and not a hard man. I asked him what a real man is. He told me that a real man is someone who is honest and kind and has strength of character, not of muscle.
He then told me the love story of meeting his wife. It was a romance filled with sodas, walks, laughter, friendship, and the historic Riverview amusement park that used to be part of Chicago’s landscape.
He has three sons, one of them is about my age. I asked him if he liked any of his son’s music or pop culture from the 80’s. He didn’t, but he loved that his son found his happiness. But he did have a few songs that he liked from the early 80’s. I asked him what he liked from the 80’s. He really liked Africa by Toto, Gloria Estephan, and loved Laura Branigan.
He asked me if she was still around. I told him she died of a cerebral aneurysm in 2004. He looked down for a moment and then back at me and said, “That’s a shame. Her version of “Ti Amo” was beautiful and made me realize that good music is just good music. The synthesizers and computers don’t make it less music. Did you like her?”
Before I could answer he said, “Of course you did, you knew when and how she died. You only know that when you lose someone you love or a figure who touched you.”
He thanked me for listening to his stories about his music, hot rods, and his wife. He told me he doesn’t get to tell many stories anymore, most of his friend and his wife are gone.
I have another swatch of a life in the patchwork quilt of my own world now. And I think that ties into our top three.
The Top Three Articles of February 2025
#3 We Passed Notes in Class! Zen and the Art of Origami Texting (Passing Notes)
Based on the comments, passing notes brought memories of expression, friendships, and connection. You made this the month’s #3 most read article.
#2 You Need Better Friends!
This article about the difference between good friends and bad friends and the impact toxic friendship have on you generated the most beautiful comments of the month on the article and in the socials. It also led to the most shade thrown at me in private messages. Hate mail is just something I get a lot of for some reason, but this one came from people from my past. But the idea of exploring deserving better friends in this life struck a chord.
#1 We are Still Talking About Uncle Rico
For the second month in a row this article from August of last year is in the top 3 most read articles. This month it is the top slot? In internet time this is a retro article! But for two month now it just keeps growing. It is about the unhealthy nostalgia, of being caught in a moment in the past so much that it affects your present.
The Top Three and the Nostalgic Boomer Bonds
There has been a shift in what readers are responding to and what they are not. The ones about connection and the ones about the things that hold us back are a bond, and when that nerve is struck, stories come out and are shared. Fictional characters and everyday people seem to strike a bigger chord than the artists who play them lately.
During the pandemic I took some refresher classes on documentaries and made several self published short documentaries. Each one was twenty pages long and well received projects.
Maybe it is time for us to explore the stories and hop in the Time Machine together. While traveling through time we can find the truth in stories and characters. Listening to the gentleman reminded me of the power of basking in stories of another time and another place. The difference and the common ground evokes something powerful in the heart.
The upcoming novel, Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World, does this. The time machine takes us to 1988, the characters are all of us, and the stories take us into the beauty of love and the power of friendships while dealing with partner violence, sexual assault, ableism, and financial hardships.
I think we need the hope stories give us.
See you next month! Thank you for being part of this.
Stay Totally Awesome!
Stay True to you!
Rediscover the 80s in Pat Green’s New Book!
Ford is a traumatized former child model. Cassie is the epitome of DIY punk with a life full of poverty and pain serving smoothies at the Orange Julius. Finally there is Jenny, a young preppy with talent and dreams held back by a society not designed for women like her.
As their lives intersect in the late 1980’s at the Fox Valley Mall in Aurora, Illinois, there will be love, confusion, and dangerous adversaries with wealth and power. Ford, Cassie and Jenny just have each other. Will it be enough? How do they survive as Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World?
By going to the indiegogo, you can not only secure yourself advance copies of the book, special merch, and experiences, but you get to help provide copies to teens that live in shelters and seek resources in community centers. You also provide opportunities for ASL translators at our speaking events about this wonderful book. Go to the link, get your copy, and help others!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/be-part-of-the-hearts-of-glass-story-and-mission/x/38415051#
Stay Totally Awesome!
Stay True to You!
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