Do baby boomers need to step aside?

I am so sorry I've not posted in the last week, but I'm in the middle of keeping this month's authors' tours in check and securing stops for next month's authors, plus promo, plus keeping my book marketing blog updated daily and poor ol' Boomer Chick needs a break.

So, I sat down with one of my client's books and decided the perfect book would be Amazing Grays: A Woman's Guide to Making the Next 50 the Best 50 by Maggie Rose Crane.

Maggie's book I knew would be a fun read even though it touches on a very important message - no matter how old we get, we still have to remember to keep it real, we still have to keep in touch with our Inner Goddess, and how we shouldn't let a little thing like aging keep us tied to the old belief that we're just one more step toward the coffin. I believe that aging is going to come, no need to stop believing in our dreams and our goals and whatever it is out there that is making us happy. Well, Maggie believes that, too.

So I'm sitting there at work (it's incredibly slow right now so I can get plenty of reading in) and I start. I get to about page 7 and something hits me like a ton of bricks.

She wrote:

"It all began with the swiveling hips of Elvis, the yeah yeah yeah of the mop-topped Beatles and the great revolution that was Rock 'n' Roll...Now, our generation's first cultural contribution - establishing youth as its own distinct culture - is coming back to bite us! Millions of baby boomers who saw themselves as integral to the radical culture of yesteryear are now struggling to let go and swallow a very hard truth: it's another generation's turn to set the standard."

You know, that's a hard pill to swallow for this boomer chick. When did that happen?

Think back, when did this actually happen?

My daughter and I were coming back from Wally World last night, right. It was raining and dark and of course I had my hands gripped on the side of the door with my imaginary brake pedal glued to my feet, while she was whipping through the rain like it was nothing.

Now between the highway and our house is this causeway. I've often talked about it before, but it's about a 3 mile span that allows you to go over water and marsh and takes you to the island which is where we live. It's a combination of road and bridge and has only two lanes. Much of it you can go 55 m.p.h., but there are other places where you have to go lower. Doesn't matter. If she's not going 60, she has seizures.

So I've got my hand gripped on the side of the door and my feet planted on my imaginary breaks and the worse thing that could happen to me happens. Two cars in front of us are going 45. I mean, it's raining for God's sakes; people are going to go slow over a bridge in the rain at night.

So I'm all prepared for her to try to pass them. The thing is, in the rain and in the dark, you can't see who is coming over some of the parts of the road that rises. I mean, those double yellow lines are there for a purpose, you know?

But I know she's going to do it and we have this fight every single time and that's why I hate riding with her.

Before she even has a chance to pass, I tell her, "Don't pass!" and she says, "For God's sake, Mom, they're going freaking 45 miles per hour," and I say, "Do not pass!"

So she gets all bent out of shape and I say the magic words, "Are you going against me?"

I've not used those words since she was a teenager (the girl is 30 now).

Well. Ho-ney. So she's pissed. I mean royally pissed. A car behind her passes us AND the two cars in front of us and she goes, "GO AHEAD, CAR, AT LEAST YOUR MOM ISN'T TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO!"

She hated me. I mean royally hated me at that moment. She has this thing about living with me, thinking she should be out on her own, and this was one of those moments she was talking about.

I just wanted to live. I didn't care how much she hated me.

I tell you this story because it's an example of how much I'm fighting the issue. I know it's time for the next generation to step in and have their say and be right just like it was for us back in the sixties, but I'm happy to say this time, Mom was back in town.

I'll be talking about Maggie's book more in depth next week over at my reviewing blog, As the Pages Turn, so you might want to stop on over there to find out more about this inspiring woman who can be a role model to all us baby boomers!