When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person. Her name was ‘Information Please’ and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anyone’s number and the correct time.

My personal experience with the genie-in-a-bottle came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer, the pain was terrible, but there seemed no point in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy.

I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone! Quickly, I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver in the parlor and held it to my ear. ‘Information, please’ I said into the mouthpiece just above my head.  (more…)

Lives there an adult who has not read or at least heard about Gail Sheehy’s book Passages?    The book was  written about adult crises and how to help oneself to cope and overcome them.

Well, I find I am past the “Adult Crisis” stage; instead I’ve entered a whole new phase of life experience.   For want of a better title, I call it “Transitions”.    The term Passages implies you are on your way from one place to another;  while Transitions means something very different.   According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, transition as a form of change means: a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another.  So what, you say?   Then you must be one of our younger readers.   

Transition means your life is changing as you become  a senior citizen. You find your interests and ideas are changing.  So is your body changing, both healthwise and in appearance.     Has your hair turned gray?   Do you need strong bifocal glasses?    Are hearing aids a necessity in your life?   Do you routinely forget names and places; or why you went from one room to another?   Instead of running and chasing with your grandkids, do you sit comfortably and watch them run and chase?   Do you heave a sigh of relief when they go home, collapsing into your favorite lounge chair?   If you answer yes to many of these questions, you are transitioning into senior citizenship.  Of course many of thr signs and symbols of aging can be covered or erased through modern cosmetic techniques and plastic surgery.   (more…)

Much as we were loath to lose Nelda/Cheers from this earth, we still wanted to give her a royal clown send-off. Her family in South Texas held their memorial service for her at 2 p.m. CST and we timed our celebration to parallel theirs.

Even though our celebration was on the internet, people really got involved in it and in their memories of personal experiences with Cheers. As the administrator said, no more tears today, just joy in celebrating Cheers’ life and blessings to us.

It was a fun time, held on the island of DUNFRETTIN (get the meaning there?) which is the place to forget sorrow and problems. It has sand and beaches, palm trees and mild breezes, with native staff to take care of food and refreshment. The good ship S.S. Imagination left the pier every 5 minutes to carry everyone to the celebration. We’ll be waiting for anyone who cares to join us there..

The theme of the day was Clowns (what else) and balloons figured predominantly in the posts. Also important were individual recollections:

DK “I think everyone here can remember all the times I was trying to explain how a program or something works. Cheers would get on me and say keep it simple for us simple folks. I would e mail her pictures & descriptions of how a program would install or how to do something in a program & she would e-mail me back saying HUHHHH We had a lot of fun going back & forth with explanations. I was glad I could make her last year a HAPPY year”

ARM: “Let the celebration begin.

Maybe these are Birthday balloons but it is the celebration of the birth of Cheers in a different life. Chloe, to your list of things about Cheers we should add all the jokes we had to explain to her. It was fun trying to confuse her.”

CHLOE: ” Wish I had kept a list of all the “Cheerisms”. Between the malapropisms and the bad spelling there were times I was laughing so hard just about fell off my chair! Know some of it was deliberate on the part of Cheers because she knew darn well that somebody would come back (often myself) with a smartas* comment. So the first graphic is to say THANK YOU!”

Finally, let us give Cheers the send-off she deserves

Saying goodbye …

Now the balloons rising to the heavens to say: Well Done Cheers

GOODBY DEAR FRIEND… WE SHALL MISS YOUR WISDOM, HUMOR AND LOVE.

Yes, my dear friend Nelda, aka Cheers has moved out of the cycle of pain and suffering into the heavenly arms of her Savior, Jesus.

Nelda was a very special person who was ordained to bless others with her humor, dedication, wisdom and love. She was non-judgmental as she offered up her suggestions and wisdom to those who came to her. She was also a human being, with her own faults and shortcomings, but now as we deal with her death we prefer to see her only in the ways she blessed us.

Have you lost a very special person? Someone who loomed larger than life in your heart? Then perhaps you can understand how the members of the Senior Playground are feeling.  (http://www.seniorsplayground.com/). This woman’s impact on the world around her is much larger than she, and we, ever realized.

For much of her adult life, Nelda was Cheers, the clown. She had a clownmobile called Beaux and she did love that little car - as did the people who saw it coming in parades and special activities. She never really stopped being a clown; she simply dispensed with the clown apparatus as age took its toll on her. Then cancer reared it’s ugly head and the battle was on! Nelda never quit fighting until the very end; but she passed away quietly and peacefully at home. ‘Tis a blessing to those of us who mourn her because we won’t have to watch her valiant struggle as we pray for her.

Nelda/Cheers never lost her positive attitude and she sheperded our forum whenever she could. Fortunately she had prepared for this eventuality and trained two very good people to carry on after her. So the Playground will continue, but right now the slides and swings are empty as we all gather to celebrate the life of our friend and mentor.

May all the blessings and peace of God be upon Cheers, her family, and her many friends. She will receive the royal clown sendoff of balloons at her memorial service next
Saturday.

I’m happy to announce that I’m finally connected to the internet and ready to resume acquaintance with my friends all over the internet world. It took me a week to get connected although I tried to set up services in advance.  It seems I was forced to commit to a many headed hydra of a corporation that has a contract for all such services here in the apartment complex. I do not like that corporation, nor have I ever liked them. BUT in today’s “global” world one is forced to follow the big guys, right?

It took me until yesterday to get my television service and today for the internet. It also took two technicians and my apartment manager to get the various issues resolved. But ’tis done and I’m in business. YIPPEE! Wonder if Andy has any champagne left over from his birthday celebration? (See Archives for February 10 2008,)

I write this with my cat lying on my computer desk “patting” my left arm with her paws. That would be great except she hasn’t been declawed and sometimes she digs in~ Ouch!

Well the decision has been made, the perfect apartment located, deposit paid and movers arranged for the BIG DAY. Now it is time to set up utilities and services, along with my endless packing. I HAVE TOO MUCH JUNK! Thought I got rid of a lot of it at my last move but it seems I kept a lot of it.

Anyhow, on Friday I started with electrical companies. We have to have electricity you know. Pulled up all the Texas Electrical Energy Providers for this area on the internet and started phone calling. You see, at today’s prices I want to get the best deal possible. The various issues I dealt with were a 35 minute, “Please hold, a customer representative will be right with you.” Then there was “Our computer is down, please call back in two hours.” Forget that one! Or how about “This number is no longer a working number.” Oops, something did that company in, I guess.

By this time I was so frustrated I gave up and went back to packing. Restarted the phone calls on Saturday, and finally ended up with the same company and the same package I had the last time. Why didn’t I start with them and save all the trouble? I did! That was the one that put me on hold for 35 minutes. That’s why.

Well, tomorrow I tackle the telephone, internet, and television suppliers. You see, way out here in the hinterlands a person is very limited as to what is available. Television is a disaster, and internet services very limited. So we shall see what luck I have tomorrow.

Are you enjoying my moving experience? I hope so, since I’m not! I’ll be back later when I have something new to report.

The day is fast approaching while I sort of prepare for my own moving experience. Boxes are being packed; plastic bags loaded down and phone calls arranging for services are being made. The only real problem is that the owners of this property just completed and filled a swimming pool of Disneyesque proportions.

It’s got an 18 foot curving slide, a diving rock dug up from the hillside, a grotto , a sauna, numerous waterfalls, (last count was 10), full night lighting, brick, rock and tile construction, and, oh yes, lots of water for swimming. It makes a delightful diversion from packing and moving plans. As with most people, I’ll take swimming over packing any and every day of the week.

IT’S PRIVATE! No maddening crowds to irritate and discombobulate us, only family members. Of course they can be irritating enough sometimes. Especially the four young boys who tend to “take over’ the pool when their parents bring them over. But hey! What are swimming pools for, anyway?

Oh yes, back to my moving experience. That will occur on July 18th and I’ve made arrangements for the off-duty firemen to do the heavy work. That has become common in many places. Since they have time off from their 24 hour shifts, they make good money and are usually very careful with furniture, etc.

So if you are planning a move soon, think of the firemen. And if you’re not moving, but hate moving with a passion, PLEASE THINK OF ME. Even a prayer or two would be nice.

The American government and many citizens tremble at the thought of  “seniority” coming to baby boomers who originally appeared on the world stage after WWII. As the former military personnel came home to  assume their peacetime identities, there seemed to be a concerted effort to make up for lost time. Tteir effort resulted in the Baby Boom; which may have included replacing the multitudes of American men and women who lost their lives in the war,

Baby boomer is a North American-English term to describe a person born between 1946 and 1965.^[1][2] Following World War II, these countries experienced an unusual spike in birth rates, a phenomenon commonly known as the baby boom. (SeeWikipedia, Baby Boom)

Many of us here don’t actually fit the ‘boomer’ generation, having been born earlier. I personally missed it by about 5-10 years. But the effects of the boom will definitely be felt by us as increasing demands are placed upon governmental programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

That is a topic for another blog.   The area I would like to discuss is the effects of seniority/retirement of the baby boomers to positively affect the American culture.   Since many of this generation experienced and participated in the 50’s and 60’s,  their upbringing was very different from ours.  The cultural revolution during the 50’s and 60’s changed North American society completely.

Better educated, more world wise, with a higher sense of gender and racial issues, these boomers will play an increasingly important role in government, politics, education, social programs, economics.

We can see this today in the presidential primaries, where a woman and a black man are battling for nomination on the Democratic side.   After all, when John Kennedy was elected president it was considered revolutionary that a Catholic got the nod.   Now gender and race are being eliminated as blocks to the White House.   The Republican candidate is 72 years old; he has crossed the previous age barrier.

Many of those working and voting in these campaigns are in their late 40’s through their 50’s.  Are they impatient with the current state of malaise in our society?   Whatever the case may be, our country is ready for change and these emerging baby boomers will be a very large part of it.

It will be interesting for us more elderly retirees to view just what occurs when the Boomers take center stage in  the United States.

It’s amazing when I stop to think of the years and the life I have lived.

As so many of us say, I’m old in years but young at heart. If I never looked in the mirror I might not believe that I have just reached the biblical 3 score and ten. Not too long ago, that seemed a very long way away. But hey, our perspective changes with time. For example, I picked this up on a senior forum today:

“My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, “62.” He was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, “Did you start at 1?” ”

When I was a child I thought like a child, but when I grew up I put away childish things.” Then when I was an adult I thought and acted like an adult but when I became a senior citizen I put away some adult things. No water skiing for me, or horseback riding, or even a good vigorous game of tennis. No sirree! Some of those favorite adult activities are better left to the younger people. But there are many compensations to take their place. Like being able to sleep late in the morning; not having to get out in bad weather to go to work every day, no longer worrying how I’ll pay for the kids’ college expenses, Yes there are definite compensations.

Would I like to go back a decade or two or three? Not really. It’s been a long and interesting life but now I have new interests to follow and new things to learn. For example, this blog, and training class, and volunteering along with whatever else offers itself. Being old is not a disease; it is a new way to actively participate in life.

Does that ring a bell with any of you , my fellow senior citizens?

So you have had a long day and you don’t feel like reading but there’s nothing on television to watch? Then crank up the computer, come visit us and click on the “Listen Now” button to listen to the latest post on here.

Yep, friend Andy got it installed already and I hope each and every one of you will take advantage of the opportunity to listen while you rest. Isn’t technology great!

Frankly, I’ve been losing sleep thinking of all the things I want to do, now that I have recovered the ability to see what was unseen, to communicate with people who have ideas, opinions and feedback. So please open those weary eyes long enough to comment on what is happening in the world around you and, especially, here on Actively Senior. We need your input to make this a blog for and by seniors of 2008.