A humorous memoir about growing up in a small town in the 1950s, and reflections on the changing nature of childhood and on aging.

Calling all Baby Boomers! This book is the first in a series that helps guide Baby Boomers through the Third Chapter of their lives and provides a guide to make their dreams and goals come to life. This series also helps Boomers become part of the growing Third Chapter of Life community, to connect with other like minded people, to provide mentoring and resources launch their own adventure and to share experiences and stories with one an other. The segment of the Baby Boomer Generation that is currently between 55 and 65 years old is the largest part of this population and the Third Chapter of Life Adventures, the Baby Boomer's Excellent Adventure Guide and the other books in the series are designed to help make the transition into retirement planning or full retirement as simple and as effective as possible.

In the 1960s and ’70s, thousands of baby boomers strapped packs to their backs and flocked to Europe, wandering the continent on missions of self-discovery. Many of these boomers still dream of “going back”—of once again cutting themselves free and revisiting the places they encountered in their youth, recapturing what was, and creating fresh memories along the way. Marianne Bohr and her husband, Joe, did just that. In Gap Year Girl, Bohr describes what it’s like to kiss your job good-bye, sell your worldly possessions, pack your bags, and take off on a quest for adventure. Page by page, she engagingly recounts the experiences, epiphanies, highs, lows, struggles, surprises, and lessons learned as she and Joe journey as independent travelers on a budget—through medieval villages and bustling European cities, unimaginable culinary pleasures, and the entertaining (and sometimes infuriating) characters encountered along the way. Touching on universal themes of escape, adventure, freedom, discovery, and life reimagined, Gap Year Girl is an exciting account of a couple’s experiences on an unconventional, past the-blush-of-youth journey.

This book is the story of the first fifty years of my life, covering the period from my birth in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, at the end of World War Two, to my return to England following the failure of my business in France in the 1990s. I was part of the huge increase in the UK birth-rate after the war ended, which has led to us being described as "Baby Boomers". My parents were from humble origins. My father worked as a blacksmith at the local steelworks, whilst my mother found employment as a bus conductress and seamstress until she gave birth to my elder sister. I was fortunate to possess above-average intelligence, enabling me to gain entry to the local Grammar School and, eventually, to two Universities. My career path began at the steelworks, then took me to a major car manufacturer, followed by stints at an international bank and a management consultancy, after which I ran my own business for twelve years. The story is not intended to be simply a chronological summary of significant events. It tells of countless incidents, some humorous, some serious, in a packed and varied life that could so easily have been cut short when I was diagnosed with Diphtheria at the age of three. Travel is a recurring theme, as is the variety of characters that I met along the way. My aim has been to show that with single-minded determination and a modicum of good luck it was possible for a working-class "Baby Boomer" to achieve success in life without falling prey to society's unspoken wish that we all conform.

On the first day back at school at Clee Grammar, Cleethorpes, the Head, Mr Shaw, started by saying “a new year and new decade “. It was Colin Shaw and it said C. Shaw on his office door. Appropriate for a seaside town! This got me thinking, At the age of 14. a decade had been a lifetime. The next decade would be another life time. In 10 years, I would have done my O and A levels, gone to college and may be even married! 10 years! I could not comprehend it. As it happened, each decade of my life did change dramatically. 50’s school. 60’s Grammar school and college. 70’s Family, allotment and weightlifting. 80’s O.U. and climbing UK. 90’s climbing Europe. 2000’s Retirement. 2010’s mountaineering worldwide and then 2020’s Covid! I started taking photos when I cycled over the Alps in 1964. Since then, I have amassed 7000 slides. 40 years later photography went digital and now I have another 10,000 or so. Therefore this little book is a photographic record of the changing decades of my life.