STAYING HAPPY, HEALTHY AND HOT

In this lighthearted memoir, radio personality, voice-over performer, pilot and hypnotist Summer (Lovin Touch, 2004, etc.) tells humorous stories to encourage seniors to happily traverse life with a whole lot of love.

Summer anoints himself the leader and spokesperson for what he calls the “Louie Louie Generation,” those “guys and gals” for whom the Kingsmen’s 1963 version of the rock ’n’ roll song captured the lust, energy and optimism of the times. As Summer sees it, members of this generation face a daily struggle for respect, recognition and happiness—a struggle exacerbated by the “Pimple People” (clueless, usually young folks) and the “Drab and Dreadful Drones” (older folks who slouch through life). Summer seeks to rally the troops and offers up a cornucopia of “wisdom” as Big Louie, the grand poobah of the Louie Louie Generation. He suggests, “We can’t change what is. But we can change what we think about what is, and what we do about it.” Another musing: “Honesty = The Truth + Maybe.” And, perhaps most important, “You know what Louie says when you still have some moving parts left: ‘move ’e’’’    m.’” And Big Louie apparently takes every chance he gets to move his parts with his wife, Barbara, whom he calls “Lady Wonder Wench” and met in the 1960s when he was the all-night deejay at WBZ radio in Boston. About her he says, “She plays with me and laughs. She makes me feel powerful because she lets me make her feel beautiful.” Summer adroitly covers the waterfront of topics relevant to seniors from work to retirement, from the slights of aging to the joys of fulfilled relationships. Some of his vignettes seem off topic, like his patriotic “E pluribus unum” and his story about recording funny phone messages. But the majority displays a keen sense of humor and a sharp understanding about how to live a happy, healthy and hot life. After all, “Louie Louie Generation guys and gals have a big advantage in figuring things out: it’s called been there, done that.”

Laugh-out-loud advice for the AARP set.