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Growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, many of us had parents who taught us lessons about character, values, life, love and emotions. Although you might remember those lessons as incredibly annoying and often bordering on nagging, now you’re old and wise enough to know the wisdom of some of their directives. And just maybe you’re even passing them on to your children and grandchildren. Here are 14 that we remember well. Sit or stand up straight and tall, and more. “Margaret, you’re slouching. Do you want bad posture and to be bent over like a little old lady?” “Barbara,...

Everyone urged me during my divorce proceedings to move on, build a new life, have fun and do things I had never done during my marriage. I listened carefully, though during this very stressful time, I was lucky to keep my head above water. When I finally emerged as a healthy single, I was ready to heed my friends’ words and that included the purchase of my first house on my own where I discovered a new passion– gardening. It was to become a metaphor for growing and nurturing my new life in general. I hadn’t planned gardening to be...

What have we learned from our offspring? Plenty. As children growing up in the 50s and 6os, our primary role was to be seen and not heard. Advice was doled out like morning vitamins with such directives as “Sit up straight,” “Chew with your mouth closed,” “Be respectful of your elders,” and so on. And we listened without challenging—at least most of the time–for our mothers and fathers knew best. We’d like to think we’ve passed on what we learned from our parents to our children, primarily the many lessons about living a good life and being kind to others,...

We all make mistakes, and by this age most of us could stretch our “sorrys” for “oops I didn’t mean that” clear across the country and back, maybe several times. However, we’re not talking only about the many ways we use the simple words “I’m sorry” in those cases when you’re sincere and apologetic, a mea culpa for a specific act. We may have hurt someone’s feelings because we were in a bad mood and screamed at our kids, spouse, partner, friend, mailman, trash collector or store clerk for absolutely no reason, asked a waiter to describe how a pasta is prepared multiple...

We boomers have carefully planned most of our real estate moves—starter apartments and homes to get on the equity upswing, places to live as we raised families with good schools nearby and “location, location, location” our guiding mantra, maybe a larger home if we wanted to trade up, and now a place to trade down or downsize as we started to discard too many furnishings and possessions, and simplify our lives. Being single after my long-term marriage ended in divorce and giving up my former family home proved a great incentive for me. But few of us, including myself, had...