by Marlene Bumgarner | Feb 16, 2015 | Family, Grandparenting
Do you remember Barbie dolls? They appeared with designer clothes in toy stores and children’s lives in 1959; handsome Ken showed up in 1961. To me, who had moved on from dolls to a bicycle by that time, it seemed like every one’s little sister had a set...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Feb 9, 2015 | Family, Grandparenting
We’ve all heard about Millennials, also known as Generation Y, those tech-savvy youngsters born in the 1980s. And marketing analysts are increasingly watching Generation Z, the post-1990 generation that, according to Business Insider, “doesn’t...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Feb 2, 2015 | Family, Grandparenting
Have you seen that saccharine-sweet photo of the smiling grandma sandwiched between two small children? It’s been all over Facebook lately, usually titled “Grandparents Who Babysit Less Likely to Develop Alzheimer’s.” That particular photo was...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Jan 26, 2015 | Community
The Annual Report of the Santa Cruz Food What? youth empowerment program arrived in my mailbox this weekend. Last fall a friend invited me to their annual fundraiser, and by making a modest donation (how could I not, after that delicious dinner prepared by the youth...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Jan 19, 2015 | Family
A fellow grandmother gave me an amusing gift for Christmas this year. Shaped like an old fashioned handbag and held together with an elastic bungee cord laced through each of the content pages, it is actually a book, with a catchy plot that made both my granddaughter...