Blogging through retirement with Mike Bellah, Ph.D.
Stories, reflections and hard-won hope about retirement, walking for joy, faith, family and the dreams that keep us young.
Mike Bellah doesn't just write about retirement. He's living it—and inviting his readers along for the adventure. Meet Mike →
New book
How Opportunity Cost Tells You When to Retire
From the blog
“The Summer of 1958”
Memories & Nostalgia · October 21, 2026
“OO EE, OO AH AH, TING TANG, WALLA WALLA BING BANG.” Ask any child or teen-ager of the ’50s what this phrase means and they will remember the summer of 1958, a summer most memorable because of its music, including “Witch Doctor” by David Seville and “Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley. Actually, Seville’s song…
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What if the baby boom generation—who were recipients of JFK’s fitness program in schools of the ‘50s and ‘60s—could once again return walking to an everyday practice for ordinary Americans—young and old? How could that happen? Well, I’m pretty sure we won’t do it by lecturing on the subject. Similarly, Kennedy’s words in Sports Illustrated…
In December of 1960, while still the President-Elect, JFK wrote an article for Sports Illustrated called “The Soft American.” In it he bemoaned the fact that American young people lagged far behind their European counterparts in physical fitness. Kennedy believed the “softness” of the nation’s youth portended greater consequences than the obvious health one. “The…
I posed the question in my last blog. I’m closer to 80 than to 70 now so what makes me think I can go on writing something people will actually read? Don’t those creative juices dry up when you get older? Maybe not. In 1932 Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote Little House in the Big Woods,…
I said there were two problems selling the first version of my book. The first I wrote about in the last blog. The title and cover did not appeal to the right audience. The second was similar. The paperback price was not acceptable to potential readers. It was way too high priced (almost $30). And…
We composition teachers talk a lot about audience. If one doesn’t know who his audience is—even if he writes a persuasive argument—he will fail. Why? Because the audience may not understand or, even worse, may not care. Which is what happened on my first attempt to publish this book. It was titled Walking through Retirement:…
I originally wrote this as a retirement book. Now, I’ve decided it’s more of a work on aging and fitness. Last month I turned 77, and I’m still walking five miles most days in the week. When I have to be indoors, I’m on a spinner bike that helps build cardio endurance for longer walks.…
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From the #1 bestseller 1001 Fun Things To Do in Retirement to devotional memoir, Mike’s books share what he’s learned about recovering lost dreams—and living them.
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