Discovering The Mature Lifestyle
U.S. Curling Olympian resides in Columbia Heights Story inside
Health & Exercise January Issue
January 19, 2018
Exercise has been a lifelong habit for St. Louis Park man By SUE WEBBER Contributing Writer
Gerald Mortenson has been a fitness buff at Lenox Community Center in St. Louis Park for the last five years. He participates in enhanced fitness, Tai chi, and Zumba gold. On his own, he goes to the gym and does Kung Fu and other martial arts. “The senior exercise program is dance-based,” Mortenson said. “I almost minored in dance at the University of Minnesota Bemidji. Kung Fu is really dancing.” An active lifestyle is nothing new to him, he said. “It’s a lifetime thing you do for physical conditioning,” he said. “I grew up in a rural area next to Maplewood State Park near Pelican Rapids, and there were so many things to do,” Mortenson said. “I was the oldest. We went for walks in the woods. It was a pioneer area, like a step back in time. We made sure we went in a group.
You don’t go alone in a rural area.” His mother encouraged her children’s outdoor activities, but was opposed to their participating in school sports, Mortenson said. “She would say, ‘There’s enough brain damaged people in the world without adding to it.’” At the time, he recalls, “I was pretty much upset. It took half a century to prove her right. “My father always said, ‘If you keep busy and do something new today, think what you will be tomorrow.’ He guided us by that, and my mother agreed with him.” Mortenson has been involved in Kung Fu since before he was in grade school, he said. “There was a family from China who lived a quarter of a mile from us, and I babysat for the parents,” he said. He has been a trail walker, hunter and ice fisherman along the way, and used to ski, though he said he backed off that because it was too expen-
sive. Growing up, Mortenson enjoyed chemistry and biology in school and wanted to work in a scientific field. “My first choice was to be an attorney, but you simply have to come up with the money for law school,” he said. Now retired, Mortenson worked in medical
research for 15 years and in the motorcycle industry for another 15 years, as well as at Best Buy and Carlson Marketing. “I had the most fun being in the motorcycle industry,” Mortenson said. “It really started to become a cultural event, and everyone was so excited. I had my trusty
Gerald Mortenson (left) was recognized for contributing 250 volunteer hours to the St. Louis Park Senior Program. (Submitted photo)
Gerald Mortenson is shown (in the back) doing Tai Chi with instructor Rand Adams (foreground). (Submitted photo)
Harley Shovelhead. I sold it eventually, and I’m sorry about it to this day.” He also enjoyed power boating and archery. He works at having meals with several courses and lots of vegetables, and no bacon or pizza. “Rather than eating out, we eat in – nice simple meals,” he said. Mortenson, who has two daughters, a son and six grandchildren, is an
Curling is sport of choice for Columbia Heights man By SUE WEBBER Contributing Writer
John Gordon has enjoyed the sport of curling since 1977, when his exfather-in-law in Superior, Wisconsin, said he was looking for players.
“He was a pretty accomplished player,” Gordon said. “I started playing recreationally then. Curling was a very popular game in Superior in the early 1970s. It’s still popular there. It’s a hotbed of curling.” His steady playing and
love for the sport resulted in Gordon’s being a twotime Olympian. “When curling became an Olympic sport, there was a special tournament to qualify,” Gordon said. “You qualified by doing well in the state, district and regions.”
“When I competed, nobody selected you,” he said. “You formed your own team and qualified or not. It was all decided on the ice.” Now, a committee for U.S. Curling selects the athletes and puts the teams together, he said.
“They evaluate you on your on- and off-ice ability, compatibility and sports psychology,” Gordon said. He added that while more than 50 countries have curling, only 10 countries make the Olympics. “The host country
unabashed Minnesota booster. “Why would you live in one of the most beautiful spots on earth without taking advantage of it?” he said. As for getting involved in physical activity, he said, “If you get exposed to it, those are the things you choose to do. That’s the important thing, rather than sitting around. There are so many things to do.”
gets in automatically,” he said. “The rest of the spots have to be earned.” Gordon was on the first Olympic curling team, the XVIII Winter Olympics (1998) in Nagano, Japan. He was one of 2,176 participants from 72 nations
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CURL - FROM PREV. PAGE that year. The team captured fourth place. After his team qualified for Japan, the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Valentine’s Day front cover showed a photo of Gordon getting a kiss from his wife. He also was a member of the XIX Winter Olympics curling team in 2002, in Salt Lake City, one of 2,400 athletes from 78 nations. That team tied for sixth place. “Those are pretty moving experiences,” Gordon said. “They’re lifechanging.” He said most of the curling team players came from Minnesota and Wisconsin, though some were from the East Coast (New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.). “When I played, Wisconsin had the most competitive curlers,” Gordon said. Gordon and his wife moved to Columbia Heights in 1995, built a house behind the high school, and raised four children. They now have four grandchildren. Curling is still part of their lives. Gordon is a member of the Four Seasons Curling Club at Fogerty Arena in Blaine. “It’s like a regular league that meets weekly,” he said. “It’s been fun. Everywhere you go, everyone is friendly. It’s a lot like golf. No one roots for you to do badly. Everyone gets along.” Gordon’s wife, Denise, a lifelong Columbia Heights resident who has done some curling, too, is the team administrator, in charge of making the group’s travel and hotel arrangements for tournaments. A Wisconsin native, Gordon said he worked originally for 30 years as a printer and pressman. He’s also worked some shorter stints at Home Depot and Slumberland, he said. “I’m winding down now,” he said. “Four months ago we sold our
house. We’re doing home care for my father-in-law, who had hip replacement surgery.” Although special shoes are needed for curling – plus a long-handled brush – Gordon says the rest can be as simple as wearing loose-fitting clothing and finding three other
The front page of the Star Tribune on Valentine’s Day 1998 featured John Gordon getting a kiss from his wife, Denise, after the U.S. Olympic curling team qualified for the semi-finals. people who want to play. There are mixed leagues as well as all-men or all-women teams, according to Gordon. “It’s a very active sport; you’re moving pretty good,” Gordon said. “It’s good cardio for the heart and lungs.” When he’s not involved with curling, Gordon says he does some working out and a lot of walking, and he swims three times a week. “If you don’t stay active, you get rusty,” he said. “Rust never sleeps. It
keeps moving.” Instructional sessions are available at Fogerty Arena for people who want to learn curling, Gordon said. “They have beginning leagues,” he said. WHAT IS CURLING? According to the internet, curling requires a long, narrow sheet of ice with a marked target area, called the house, at each end. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding 42-pound granite stones to the far side of the ice sheet. The objective is to get your stones closest to the center button of the house. The teams alternate throws toward the circular target. The object is to have more stones closer to the center than your opponent after all 16 stones have been thrown. Participants wear curling shoes that are similar to ordinary athletic shoes except that they have dissimilar soles; the slider shoe has a Teflon sole and is worn by the thrower. The gripper is worn by the thrower on the back foot during delivery and is designed to grip the ice. Players also use curling brushes, usually with hollow tubes, that may have fabric, hog hair, or horsehair heads. According to the internet, the sport is popular all across Canada, in the northern U.S. states, in Scotland, in the Scandinavian countries, in the northern European countries and increasingly in the Far East. It can be played by people of all ages and skill levels with a minimum of equipment, according to the internet. Curling has been an official sport in the Winter Olympic Games since the 1998 Winter Olympics. It currently includes men’s and women’s tournaments. Mixed doubles have been added to the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang County, South Korea.
Guest column ... by Bob Ramsey
It’s time to speak out against elder abuse Who would want to hurt a sweet little old lady? Or steal from a harmless old curmudgeon? Apparently, a lot of people do. According to the Minnesota Elder Justice Center, one in ten adults over 60 is a victim of elder abuse. Worse yet, a recent study sponsored by Allianz Insurance indicates an even higher incidence. The research found nearly one-third of elderly Americans have been victimized by some form of financial fraud alone. “It’s clear that elder financial abuse is becoming more commonplace, and, it appears to be greater than we thought in scope and impact,” explained Allianz CEO Walter White. To make matters worse, the perpetrators of financial exploitation of senior citizens are often family members, friends or other trusted adults who have an existing on-going relationship with the victim. What kind of society robs from its own grandmas and grandpas? The truth is we don’t know the full extent of physical, mental, emotional or financial elder abuse, because masses of cases go unreported and undetected. Many victims remain in denial, are too embarrassed or ashamed to admit their vulnerability, are afraid of retaliation, or feel the subject is too personal and private (family business) to go public. Other barriers to reporting include ageism and excessive false pride.
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Senior abuse largely unreported due to fear, shame This lack of reporting is allowing crimes against older people to become an “invisible epidemic.” In many ways, elder abuse is the new frontier for fraud in America. There are more older adults living longer, with more money than ever before. And many are physically, mentally or emotionally compromised. This makes seniors tempting targets for an assortment of abuses including scams, extortion, identity theft, physical or sexual assault, neglect, bullying, emotional abuse and, even, spiritual abuse. Un-
fortunately, where one form of abuse exists, there are usually other forms as well. Based on this data, it’s almost certain that I know someone who has experienced elder abuse. You probably do too. Yet, I don’t know who these victims are. The victims may not know it themselves. Maybe no one knows. Someone should know! That’s the only way that this societal sickness will be surfaced and solved. That’s why the Elder Justice Center wants everyone to know that it’s OK to report and talk
about suspected elder exploitation. The signs to look for range from physical evidence (e.g. bruises, unexplained accidents, etc.) and financial clues (e.g. unusual withdrawals) to changes in personality and social isolation. The experts all agree that anyone who suspects elder abuse should report it. It’s easy—just contact the Minnesota Elder Justice Center at 651-410-9304 or the Department of Human Services at 844-880-1574. Elder abuse can only be as rampant as we allow it to be. So we need to step up, stand up and speak up
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against elder exploitation—and speak loud enough for legislators, lawyers, litigators and law enforcement to hear. Noise attracts attention; and attention is the first step to action. After all, most seniors have spent a good deal of their adult life looking out for others; now, it’s time for others to help look out for them. Bob Ramsey is a lifelong educator, freelance writer and advocate for “Vital Aging.” He can be contacted at 952-922-9558 or by email at joyrammini@comcast.net.
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