Women Over 50: Popeye Meets the Beatles!
As baby boomers and the first TV generation, we’ve been into entertainment for years. As youngsters, we turned on the tube (back when TVs actually had tubes) and viewed the comedic exploits of our favorite television families: Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best, and The Donna Reed Show. We vicariously assumed the mantle of strength and bravery (Superman, Mighty Mouse) and shared the world of those especially gifted kids with the big ears (The Mickey Mouse Club). What a plethora of selections we lucky prepubescents had!
As we grew into our teen years, we anxiously awaited the several minutes of the Ed Sullivan show dedicated to the mop-top soldiers of the British Invasion. Herman’s Hermits, Jerry and the Pacemakers, The Rolling Stones and, of course, the Beatles made us scream, grow weak at the knees, and writhe about the couch with our Clearasil creamed faces red with emotion. Our love and devotion were passionate beyond measure and, had we ever run across a mod or a rocker with a Liverpudlian accent, we could not have been held responsible for our actions!
No doubt about it—entertainment was a big part of our formative years. But even I was surprised at how the hours I spent viewing the tube have returned full force in my menopausal years. Maybe it’s a sign my brain is shrinking or maybe it’s a yearning for simpler times but I find myself thinking a lot about Popeye these days. Yes, I do like spinach and know that antioxidants and the other valuable nutrients it provides are important nourishment for older bodies. But it isn’t spinach I connect to him. I gave up smoking long ago so it isn’t his corncob pipe that intrigues me. Actually, I relate mostly to something he said: “I yam what I yam.” That is coming back to me big time these days!
As a woman over fifty, I think I represent how most of us feel when I say Popeye knew what he was talking about. It took me a while but I’m feeling more and more that “I yam what I yam” with all my glorious foibles and faults, strengths and achievements. And, although my sense of self is at an all time high, I also heed the words of the Fab Four—we can each use and often need “a little help from our friends.”
So, many thanks go out to my friends for being there and supporting me and my work. My book for jobseekers over 50 has been featured on Midlife With a Vengeance and WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty and will be hitting other blogs soon. Please take a moment to head over to these fabulous sites dedicated to making us boomer gals even groovier as we age.
Also, for my writer friends, there’s a contest I wanted to share: WriterAdvice seeks flash fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction that mesmerizes the reader in 750 words or less for their Fifth Annual Flash Prose Contest. DEADLINE: April 15, 2010. Entry fee: $10 per submission. First prize: $150. Former prizewinners are the judges. Complete guidelines, mailing address, and prizes at http://www.writeradvice.com.
And, borrowing another quote from the sailor man: “Blow me down—I has got an idea!” A tip o’ the cap to all my boomer sisters—at long last “we is what we is!”
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February 27th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
I love this and wish I had listened to Popeye all those years ago. I had to be in my late 40′s and early 50′s before I was comfortable in my own skin.
February 27th, 2010 at 10:39 am
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr. Seuss.
Just thought I’d throw that into the mix
February 27th, 2010 at 10:00 am
This is my favorite blog post that you have written, Eileen!
I can identify with everything you said. Popeye was my hero, and made me laugh as a child. I ate spinach only because he recommended it. I can only eat it raw now. lol
“I yam what I yam”…and that is a woman who desires to be all that God made me to be. I accept who I am, and praise Him for the opportunities and wonderful frinds he has placed in my life, of which you are a special one!
Thank you for the tip regarding the writing contest. One doesn’t often see calls for “memoirs”. I’m all over that one!
February 26th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
I can tell the 50′s are going to be the best decade! Popeye’s saying puts it perfectly.
February 26th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
We certainly were the television generation as we both came of age at the same time. My first memories involve sitting around an old black and white fighting over which of the three networks to watch with my siblings.
The one thing we all watched (at least in the fifties) were the cartoons and Popeye and Olive were often to be heard blaring from our old RCA. I wonder if the creators of the cartoon knew how iconic that “I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam” would become?
Popeye had the right idea over 50 years ago – be who you are and express it, dam the torpedoes and full speed ahead, matey!
February 26th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Thank YOU, Eileen. WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty was honored to be part of your tour!! All the best for this fabulous book!!
Mary
http://woofersclub.blogspot.com
http://cynthiasattic.blogspot.com