Baby Boomers Go Bye-Bye

The blue planet has circled the sun one more time. And as we celebrate this annual journey, it comes time to pause and ponder (if only for a short moment) on all of those that have passed and gone before us. Many have done gone on, or so it seems. Many more than in other years , possibly, but in reality, people die all the time. It's just a fact of life.....Or is it?

The baby boomers came of age under trying circumstances. During the late sixties, a war was raging in Southeast Asia, young American soldiers were dying at alarming rates and there was no end in sight for the armed conflict. Combine these tragic events with the accelerated birth rate that the U.S. experienced from 1945 to 1955 and its no wonder that we now see what seems like a lot of celebrities kicking the bucket, especially, as they enter their eightieth year and beyond.

If one looks at the math, it seems logical that one follows the other. In other words, a soaring birth rate from 1946 till 1956, should translate into just as high mortality rate, when these very same people reach the tender age, when health issues overtake the fulfillment of life. As expected, this is putting some strain on our social service network, while at the same time we see the uptick in celebrities passing away.

Baby Boomers

A Pirate Looks at Forty (and Fifty)

When Jimmy Buffett moved to Key West (at the urging of Jerry Jeff Walker) during the swinging seventies, it was just a sultry tourist town with a few famous writers. Little did anybody realize, Buffett would eventually earn his oats as a writer. And looking back, it only seems fitting that a place, which nurtured such talents as Hemingway and Capote, would also give harbor to a rambling spirit like Jimmy Buffett.

Fortunately, there's a plus side to what seems like almost daily announcements, declaring that another baby boomer has just kicked the bucket. During those tumultuous times, we saw a cultural explosion take place that still resonates today. Perhaps nobody embodies the boomer generation better than Jimmy Buffett.

Though initially a Nashville recording artist, Buffett eventually found a home in laid back Key West, alongside such notables as Jerry Jeff Walker, Truman Capote and Thomas McGuane. Born on Christmas Day 1946, along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Jimmy Buffett was just destined to become something more than just another Country & Western singer. Not only did he maintain a wildly popular Caribbean-style touring band, the Coral Reefers, but the ever-popular troubadour came up with a handful of top hits that still get sizeable airplay today. Most notable is "Margaritaville", which a quarter way into the 21st century, has given rise to an international chain of hotels and restaurants, now valued at over a billion dollars.

But what really sets Mr. Buffett apart are his literary efforts. Jimmy began writing early in the nineties and at the peak of his success he had a book atop both the NY Times fiction and non-fiction lists. For reference, the last author to do that was Mark Twain back in the 19th century.

Buffett, the Entrepreneur