Born between 1946 and 1964, U.S. Baby Boomers are 73 million strong and by 2030 all will be at least 65 years old, according to the Census Bureau.
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BONUS: More Boomer memories.
Texas Hill Country Thunder Rally is back.
The March 25-28, 2021 event will be the 20th straight rally held at Bandera’s Mansfield Park.
Consisting of tent camping, poker run, vendors, food, and field events, there will be music throughout the day Friday and Saturday. Their bike show, tattoo contest, and Sunday morning church service are popular. 21 OR OVER, NO EXCEPTIONS.
Because of the pandemic, last year’s rally was changed to October with a covered stage to enjoy outdoor concerts and contests in “the wide-open fresh air, under the bright stars of the beautiful Texas Hill Country.
“Ride the beautiful Texas Hill Country all day then come back and shop with our many vendors,” their promotional material states. “Enjoy your meals with one of nine Food vendors located outside the Barn, then go shop with over 30 Inside Vendors (spaced out) and over 40 Outside Vendors, before enjoying the evening concerts and contests.”
NOTE: The first leg of Twisted Sister has been detoured because of the construction of a new bridge on Highway 337.
“The fun doesn’t stop when the sun goes down. We start it off loud! Hot Bands rock the night away…We will treat you so many ways you are bound to like one or two.”
The Bike Show categories include Peoples Choice, American Touring,
Metric Touring, Radical Custom, American Cruiser, Metric Cruiser, Antique Trike/Sidecar and Sport.
Other events include a Tattoo Contest, Nightly Risque Contests, The Famous Weenie Bite, Balloon Toss, Drag Race, Slow Race, Pole in the Hole, Keg Push, Keg Throw and Burn Out Contest.
Other features include 2 Beer & Liquor Gardens Ice Sold Onsite Hot Showers Full Hook-Up Spots Available Free Tent Camping Sewer Dump Available Rain Or Shine Event
Lots Of Self Contained Camping
Free Auto Parking Vendors
and lots of shade in this rain or shine event.
“If you had previously pre-registered and have not contacted to provide us with your preference to attend the rescheduled Thunder in the Hill Country or to attend Thunder in the Hill Country 2021, March 25-29, 2021, please contact us at customerservice@bikerralliesoftexas.com so that we have a written record of your preference.”
“For further information or questions, please contact our office at (409) 655-8800 or visit us at http://www.bikerralliesoftexas.com or follow us on Facebook, Biker Rallies of Texas.”
Big Tech has launched a major assault on Americans’ right to free speech. In their most audacious attack, some of the most powerful big businesses in America joined together to force Parler off the Internet.
Parler, a social media site that rejects Twitter’s censorship policies, had millions of users until Google, Apple, and Amazon deplatformed the entire website, removing it from their app stores and web hosting service.
Americans must fight back against this blatant censorship. While Parler’s working through the courts to get back online, Big Tech continues to silence conservatives and trample our right to free expression.
Fortunately, independent bloggers such as CleverJourneys have found phenomenal growth in reporting what Big Tech try to censor and the “Mockingbird” Media dare not report.
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We are migrating to Parler (@Jackdennistexas), Gab (Jackdennistexas), and more.
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Some of our most popular articles are JackNotes, executive summaries of books, articles, speeches and other useful information that may save you the expense and trouble of reading the entire publication….or it may spur you on to seek more information from the original source.
We are now rolling out another new feature, Accounts of the Old West as a tribute to Jack’s great, great uncle Charlie Bassett, the first marshall of Dodge City, Kansas…and James Allison Morgan–a cattle driver and cowboy, Jack’s great grandfather. (You thought TV’s ‘Marshal Matt Dillion’ was the first didn’t you?)
We also feature “Top 10 Buzz Trends of the Week” highlighting some of the best posts, memes, and photos on the web the prior week.
Another feature is T.R.A.S.H. (Trivial Relevations of A Sick Human-being), an updated version of Jack’s national and Texas award winning column from back in his Texas State University days.
Remember, we don’t just write news. You will enjoy travel, recipes, lifestyle, humor, motivation, wellness and health, how-to, history, reviews, military, crime, police, heroes entertainment, interviews, fun and so much more.
Dodie has over 38 years in the medical, health and wellness field being a registered nurse. She has trained hundreds in nutrition, prenatal and post natal care, pregnancy, parenting, nursing, and general health. Much of her time was also devoted to immunology and vaccines.
Jack is an award winning journalist, investigative reporter, and author. He was an executive for H-E-B FOOD-DRUGS for almost 30 years, a founder and first elected president of Professional Retail Store Management Association (now CONNEX), life coach and private investigator.
Thank you for your readership and kindly sharing our articles.
God Bless America.
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Young and impressionable, some of my school friends in the 1960s and 70s thought rioting was cool. Some even organized a “walk out” and “sit in” to object to restrictions of how short a dress could be or long a boy’s hair could grow out.
As we grew into adulthood, became parents and matured, rioting was not so hip. It was stupid. With looting or destruction it is criminal.
Something about becoming a legitimate taxpayer and seeing how our money is wasted by politicians because of their pork, special interests and self serving profits (a la the Biden, Clinton, Pelosi, and Obama families), can change a naive idealist mind.
Texas’ all time honest and fair television news anchor Chris Marrou said it best today:
“Is there some new dangerous drug in Seattle or is Trump Derangement Syndrome (hatred of Donald Trump) doing this to people?”
KOMO News excerpts:
“Brittany Nicole Torres is accused of pushing a stranger to the ground at a bus stop and then using a rock ‘the size of a baseball’ to beat that person.”
“Mauluga Matautia has been charged with Assault in the 3rd Degree and Assault in the 4th Degree after he allegedly assaulted people at random outside of an apartment building near 3rd and James.”
“Sabrina Greges is charged with Assault in the 2nd Degree after she’s reported to have tried attacking a woman at an espresso stand with a pair of scissors. According to a police report, she told officers she ‘lost control’ of herself.”
“George Kiona approached multiple people at the [hot dog stand] and began shouting racial slurs and threatened to kill them. One woman is said to have been punched in the jaw by Kiona during his tirade.”
The far left and liberal city leaders have allowed the destruction to occur with little ramifications. They are reaping what they sow.
The Federal Government should not provide financial aid to bail out any city–including New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Portland and others–that allows this illegal and criminal conduct.
You broke it. You fix it.
Baby Boomers are responsible for the most dynamic cultural changes in American history.
From music, art, language and fashion, almost radical like emphasis was placed on distorting boundaries between the sophisticated elites and the creative have-nots.
In art, “Pop” permeated into packaging, television, advertisements, comic books, and movies.
In fashion, we evolved from greaser crewcuts to ducktails, pompadores, Beatles mops, sideburns and hippy hair. Bobby Soxers moved to mini-skirts, Go Go boots, love beads, capris and tie-dyes. Turtle necks and Nehru jackets became mod.
Accessories consisted of metal squares, nailheads, rattling chains, zippers, brass buttons, clamps and chain belts.
After WWII in 1945, an economic boom hit the U.S. thus, the Baby Boomers started arriving. Between 1945 and 1957 nearly 76 million babies were born in America. By the middle 1960s, most of these kids were young adults or teenagers.
From Rudy Valle, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, out popped Elvis Presley, Little Richard, The Beatles, Janis Joplin, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.
As with each generation, Boomers questioned the “Establishment” materialism, cultural and political norms.
We addressed faced controversial issues — civil rights, Vietnam War, nuclear proliferation, drugs, sexual freedom, and nonconformity.
Music festivals and concerts were a prominent feature of the 60s and 70s landscapes. A unique artform found expression in band posters and album covers. Especially “Psychedelic” posters. Taken from Latin, the word “psyche”, meant mind, and the Greek word “delos” means to manifest, or awaken: “to awaken the mind.“
Here are some representative posters, beginning from my hometown, of the 1960s and 1970s era for you to “keep on truckin,” “groove out” and “trip on.”
In the 1960s and 1970s, this was a popular poem on black light and groovy posters. But it was actually written in an early 1921 poem by Max Ehrmann, an American writer.
“Desiderata” is Latin for “things desired.”
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Words for Life by Max Enhrmann
In 2010, Ehrmann’s home town of Terre Haute, Indiana unveiled a bronze statue by Bill Wolfe of the author sitting on a park bench.
Next week is the 51st anniversary of Woodstock.
David Falconnier, a McCollum High Classmate from the early 1970s reminded some of us on Facebook about a global Hong Kong Flu pandemic that took place in 1968 – 1969.
I started thinking about what was going on in those days and recalled the World’s Fair, Hemisfair ’68 was held in our hometown of San Antonio. Nationally, CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite reported on things like the first Moon landing, the war in Vietnam, assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, and the drowning of Ted Kennedy’s aide at the Chappaquiddick Bridge in Massachusetts.
The Hong Kong Flu (yes, it was quite OK to identify pandemics and viruses by their places of origin before the days of socialistic political correctness kicked in) was also in the headlines, but the Media and politics were as near obsessed as they are today.
Also getting big time coverage was the Woodstock festival held in August 1969.
Although Woodstock didn’t take place during the pandemic’s peak, (for the U.S., December 1968 through January 1969; Dec 28, 1968 in New York state), a second ‘wave’ of illness was going on all the way into 1970.
About 70% of America’s deaths were during the first wave. As with most cases of influenza, its occurrence subsided over the summer of 1969 before returning in the later months of 1969 for its second wave.
So basically Woodstock was going on between the first and second waves of the new H3N2 ‘Hong Kong Influenza.’
It had emerged in 1968, but not during a peak in infections and months after the first, deadlier wave of the virus hit the U.S.
“It was first noted in the United States in September 1968,” according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). “The estimated number of deaths was 1 million worldwide and about 100,000 in the United States. Most deaths were in people 65 years and older. The H3N2 virus continues to circulate worldwide as a seasonal influenza A virus.”
For young readers, Woodstock Music and Art Fair was an iconic music festival held at a dairy farm in upstate New York. The organizers expected 30,000 people but hundreds of thousands showed up.
There were traffic jams up to 20 miles long, which resulted in concert-goers abandoning their cars and walking to the venue. The festival did not have enough food, water and sleeping areas for the unexpected crowd.
By today’s standards, tickets for the three-day festival were a steal at $18. In 2019 dollars, that same ticket was $125.
Thirty-two acts took the stage over the weekend, starting with Richie Havens, included Janis Joplin, Creedance Clearwater Revival, and ending with Jimi Hendrix’s iconic rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” In between, Woodstock featured The Who, The Grateful Dead and Santana.
Food, water and places to sleep ran short as the crowds surged. But drugs remained in ready supply during a psychedelia-enthused area, and an iconic recording of the performance features promoters warning people not to take a bad batch of the “brown acid.”
In 2019, Woodstock co-creator Michael Lang attempted to organize another concert commemorating the 50th anniversary. It was eventually cancelled after they had to twice relocate the site and lost its headliners — including Miley Cyrus, Jay-Z and several of the original Woodstock 1969 performers.
Clever Journeys 