Idaho Senior Independent Feb/Mar 2010

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by Rhonda Lee

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Motion Is The Lotion That Keeps Dr. Don Pates In Fine Shape Article and photo by Dianna Troyer Ask Dr. Don Pates, how he’s doing and be prepared for a rapid-fire answer that blends the tongue-tied phraseology of Mary Poppins, the magical flamboyance of Mr. Magorium, and the humor and high energy level of Dr. Patch

Adams.

“I’m supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, absotively, positively, finger-lickin’ super good, no aches, no pain or stoop or squat or squint,” says the family practice physician who works in his clinic behind the Minidoka Memorial Hospital in Rupert. “How about you?”

What flamboyant event is he planning to celebrate his 86th birthday on Feb. 24? Maybe take a spin on his gold-colored 2006 Honda Gold Wing touring motorcycle? Or cruise down his favorite ski run at Pomerelle Ski Area, where he has been an instructor for several years?

“I’ll come to work like I always do,” says Dr. Pates, who works four mornings a week at his clinic and also serves as hospice medical advisor for Minidoka Home Health. “I have two part-

ners: one young enough to be a grandson and the other the age of a son, if I had one.

In 2009, the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians honored Dr. Pates, recognizing him as the oldest practicing family doctor in the state.

“Working here gives me a good reason to get up in the morning, and besides, I really love what I do,” says the tall, slender, blue-eyed doctor with a white goatee, as he relaxes in his office with photos of horses and Native American memorabilia decorating his walls. “With family practice, you never know what type of case will come through the door, so there’s a lot of variety and challenge.”

He attributes his longevity to keeping mentally and physically active, having an optimistic attitude, trusting in his spiritual faith, and inheriting his mother’s genetics.

“She lived to almost 102,” says Dr. Pates. “I was lucky she passed on her gene pool to me.

You have to keep your brain and your muscles working, too. You use it, or lose it.”

Those attitudes helped him during the past decades, working as combat medic in Europe during World War II, (Continued on page 37)

PAGE 2 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Musical Dreams Transcend Generations Around 1992, I gave a 15-year-old boy a few guitar lessons. Then I gave him additional instruction when he would ask, and I allowed him to play a bit in a local bluegrass band. I often taught youth music and played with young people at local events.

This young man continued and eventually went to Nashville where he entered a contest with 2,500 teens and ended up in the top five singing one of the songs that I had encouraged him to sing, Ghost Riders in the Sky. Later, he asked my help in pursuit of his favorite girlfriend, whom he soon married. They eventually moved to Nashville where, instead of playing music, he had his own pest control business. After working there for a few years and having three little girls, he moved back home to Kooskia, Idaho and decided to make music his full-time career. I was honored when he asked me if I would join his

wife and him in the Joshua Crosby and Lonesome Dove Band.

We have just added a 19-year-old young woman to the band and I am helping another 19-year-old young man to become a better guitar player so that he might also join us.

We recently returned from the Death Valley Days of ‘49 Encampment playing to crowds of more than 1,000 snowbirds with their RVs enjoying warmer winter weather.

I am the 64-year-old banjo and mandolin player in this band of young people that plays everything from John Denver and Joshua’s modern country originals to 1970s country and a little cowboy and bluegrass. Everyone in the band is under the age of 31, except me, Grandpa Pat dressed like George Strait, looking a bit out of place with these contemporary youngsters, but being able to show that you are never too old to fulfill your dreams.

Patrick Threewit ISI Kooskia

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Idaho Senior Independent A Barrett-Whitman Publication P.O. Box 3341 • Great Falls, MT 59403-3341 208-318-0310 • Toll Free: 1-866-360-5683 Fax: 406-761-8358 www.idahoseniorindependent.com email: idahoseniorind@bresnan.net The Idaho Senior Independent is published six times each year in February, April, June, August, October, and December by Barrett-Whitman, 415 3rd Avenue North, Great Falls, MT 59401 and is distributed free to readers throughout the state of Idaho.

The mail subscription rate is $10.00 per year (6 issues). The Idaho Senior Independent is written to serve Idaho’s mature population of all ages. Readers are encouraged to contribute interesting material. Views expressed in opinion stories, contributions, articles, and letters are not necessarily the views of the publisher. The appearance of advertisements for products or services does not constitute an endorsement of the particular product or service. The publisher will not be responsible for mistakes in advertisements unless notified within five days of publication.

All copy appearing in the Idaho Senior Independent is protected by copyright and may be reprinted only with the written permission of the publisher. Advertising copy should be received or space reserved by the 5th of the month preceding the month of publication.

Jack W. Love, Jr., Publisher/Editor Colleen Paduano Julie Crittendon Angie Erskine Rhonda Lee Sherrie Smith

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Contributing Writers Natalie Bartley Connie Daugherty Holly Endersby Clare Hafferman Cate Huisman Gail Jokerst Bernice Karnop Craig Larcom Liz Larcom Jack McNeel Michael McGough Dianna Troyer Š 2010

In today’s world most people live on their own for quite some time before they marry. The tradition of a Hope Chest can still be used, but in a different manner. Our winning Remember When submission reminds us of days gone by when this tradition had a good reason behind it.

Thanks go to Marilyn Cork of Priest River for her contribution, A Tradition Worthy Reviving.

Thank you, Marilyn for helping remember the Hope Chest. Marilyn wins this month’s $25 prize.

Remember When contains our readers’ personal reflections or contributions describing fictional or non-fictional events from some time in the

past. Contributions may be stories, letters, artwork, poems, essays, etc. Photos may be included.

Each issue of the Idaho Senior Independent features the contribution(s) deemed best by our staff. The contributor of the winning entry receives a $25 cash prize.

We look forward to receiving your contributions for our April/May 2010 issue. Mail your correspondence to Idaho Senior Independent, P.O. Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403, email to idahoseniorind@bresnan.net, or call 1-866-360-5683 or 208-318-0310.

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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 3

A tradition worth reviving?

Submitted by Marylyn Cork, Priest River “Whatever happened to Hope Chests?” a woman asked at a recent bridal shower I attended.

She was responding to a comment by the bride as she delightedly opened her gifts, that she and her intended had nothing in the way of furnishings for the home they were about to establish.

“They went out with virginity,” another guest quipped airily, and everyone laughed.

The question stayed with me, however. Whatever did happen to those once-popular trunks and chests that girls in bygone days began stocking with household goods - often before they reached puberty? My paternal grandfather, a carpenter, made mine when I could not have been much older than eleven, and at the same time turned out two more just like it for my even younger sisters. He used pine boards produced in our father’s sawmill, stained and varnished each box, and added a small padlock, hasp and key. I still treasure mine, well over half a century later.

By the time I married in 1954, I’d stocked it to the brim with items every homemaker needs: dish towels and table linens; dresser scarves and pillowcases I’d sewn and embroidered myself; and bath towels, washcloths, and even a wooden serving tray I’d decorated with fabric paints as part of a 4-H project.

Some of its contents, like the towels and wash cloths, were prizes earned peddling garden seeds

and salves to neighbors for companies like Lancaster Seeds and Cloverbud salve. In those days, few paying jobs existed in our little rural community for youngsters whose parents had mostly never heard of an allowance.

As I matured and managed to pick up an occasional housekeeping job for a neighbor who sometimes also paid in merchandise, I acquired a candy dish and a fragrant black mammy sachet doll that still hangs in my clothes closet. It is a collectible now.

The summer before I married, working as a waitress, I earned the money to buy other items I knew would be needed in my new home. A green Formica and chrome dinette set, quite the rage at the time, was too large to go into my chest, but Revere Ware pans and a cookie jar now worth many times what I paid for it, did fit.

Times change, and there are probably many reasons for the demise of hope chests. For one, girls today are encouraged to prepare for jobs outside the home and seem to have neither the time nor the inclination to learn to do the “fancywork” that used to be so important a part of training young females for adulthood. The handcrafted items that resulted often went into hope chests.

Google “The history of hope chests” on your computer and the following paragraph pops up: “The traditional hope chest is a wooden trunk that is used to store articles of clothing and other

We have a quiz this issue that is different from anything we have ever done. It will take you all the way back to your childhood, but not neglect your years raising children and interacting with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This age-old favorite is Mother Goose, of course! Remember how we used the sing song method to tell these rhymes to our nieces and nephews by matching the description with the name of each character in this fantastic collection of nursery rhymes!

Congratulations to Jean Carr of Twin Falls. She is the winner of the $25 prize for submitting the featured quiz for this issue, Who’s Who With Mother Goose?

Congratulations also to James Beard of Tetonia for submitting the correct answers to the Famous Movie Roles quiz that appeared in the December 2009/January 2010 issue. James is the winner of a $50 cash prize because we had no winner for the October/November 2009 quiz, so the normal $25 prize was added to the prize for the December quiz.

Two $25 cash prizes are awarded from the “Contest Corner” in each issue of the Idaho Senior Independent. One prize goes to the person who submits the entry selected by our staff as the featured quiz or puzzle in the “Contest Corner” for that issue. Turn your creativity loose and send us some good, interesting puzzles!

The second $25 prize goes to the person who submits the correct answers to the featured quiz or puzzle from the previous issue. When there is a tie, the winner is determined by a drawing.

Please mail your entries to the Idaho Senior Independent, P.O. Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403 by March 10, 2010 for our April/May 2010 edition.

Remember to work the crossword puzzle in this issue and on our website www.idahoseniorindependent.com.

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household goods for a bride to use after her marriage. The hope chest is thought to have evolved out of necessity. In medieval Europe, many marriages were arranged by parents in order to merge their fortunes. A wealthy prospective groom offered the bride’s parents money, land, or even business ownership in order to win her hand in marriage. In turn, the bride’s family provided the new couple with everything they needed to start their life together.

This gift, which is called a dowry, included linens, china, silverware, glassware, kitchen items, and even furniture.”

The posting went on to say that hope chests lost popularity in the U.S. around the beginning of the 20th century, but rebounded after World War II. The Lane Company had contracted to build ammunition boxes for the military. When the hostilities ended, the company converted its plant to the production of cedar chests, and began an advertising campaign to promote sales of the new Lane Hope Chest to young women.

Virginity seems to have had little bearing on the matter, one way or another. Nevertheless, in today’s economic climate, I do believe that “hope chests” are a tradition worth reviving. ISI

PAGE 4 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Who’s Who With Mother Goose?

Submitted by Jean Carr, Twin Falls It is time for a nursing rhyme quiz. Something you probably have not thought about since your last grandchild came into this world. Using Rand McNally’s The Real Mother Goose (copyright 1916, 1947 edition) or your memory as a reference guide, see if you know the Mother Goose characters that are the correct answers to the questions below. Just send in a numbered sheet of paper with your answers clearly written and you may be the winner.

Have fun!

1. Who rose through the air on a very fine gander? __________ 2. Who lost her sheep? __________ 3. Who went to London to see the Queen? __________ 4. Who would ride if wishes were horses? __________ 5. Who went up the hill to get a pail of water? __________ 6. Who lived in a shoe with so many children? __________ 7. Who could eat no fat while his wife could eat no lean? __________ 8. Who sat on a wall and had a great fall? __________ 9. Who had their tails cut off? __________

10. Who runs through the town in his nightgown? __________ 11. Who sat on a tuffet? __________ 12. Who had a wife and couldn’t keep her? __________ 13. Who flocks together? __________ 14. Who ran up the clock? __________ 15. Who lost their mittens? __________ 16. Who should fly away home? __________ 17. Who sings for his supper? __________ 18. Who lost her locket? __________ 19. Who was a merry old soul? __________ 20. Who picked a peck of pickled peppers? __________ 21. Who put the kettle on? __________ 22. Who was the piper’s son? __________ 23. Who kissed the girls and made them cry? __________ 24. Who met a pie man? __________ 25. Who sat in a corner eating Christmas pie? __________ 26. Who made some tarts? __________

Answers to “Tis the Season” Answers to “Famous Movie Roles” Submitted by Sylva Mularchyk 1. K 2. F 3. C 4. H 5. A

6. J 7. D 8. B 9. E 10. G

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ISI

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Across 1. The ___ Rights Act, prohibited discrimination against women in the workplace 4. Jeanette ___, the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives 8. Name of a southern California show, for short 9. The largest American feminist organization, for short 11. Little bit 13. ___ Caraway, the first woman elected to the United States Senate 16. Emotional Intelligence, for short 17. Constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal rights, abbr.

19. Second First Lady of the United States and education pioneer, Abigail 21. Pencil lead letters 23. Trademark abbr.

24. Carry Nation target 25. Skywards 26. Silver and gold 28. Class, for short 29. Ain’t I a Woman? speech giver, Sojouner 33. Fannie ___ Hamer, in 1963 she became a leader in the voting rights campaign 34. Romance 35. Glossy cotton fabric 37. Women’s history month 39. Providing that 41. August baby 43. Three-player card game 45. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s work, Woman’s ___ 47. The Second Sex writer, de Beauvoir 49. Civil Rights activist, Parks 50. Deep sleep cycle 51. Pacino and Gore 52. Change of political and driving direction (2 words) 53. German for yes 54. Sarah Lawrence College state 55. Honorable, for short 56. Second in the family 57. American civil rights leader and well-known suffragette, first name 59. You, in Paris 60. Noted educator and kindergarten advocate, Catharine ___ 62. Nickel symbol

63. Founder of The Red Flag journal, initials 65. French law 66. Girl ___, U.S. youth organization and cookie providers 68. Biblical second son 69. Start!

70. Distinguishing feature

Down 1. Shirley ___, the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives 2. This right was secured for women in 1920 3. American abolitionist and the first American “feminist,” initials 4. Barricade (2 words) 5. The Equal Pay ___, required equal wages for men and women 6. It precedes a work of art 7. Wade’s court opponent 10. Women’s peace movement created in 1915, abbr.

12. Goes with crafts?

14. Pastry types 15. Social Security card, for one 18. Dawn time 20. Life partner 22. Sis’ side 27. Mary Wollstonecraft’s continent, abbr.

28. Constricting garment worn by women in the Victorian era 30. Sun beam 31. Emmeline B. Wells’ state 32. Mister 34. Seattle state 36. Cleopatra river 37. Farm noise 38. 60 across’s sister 40. First, second or third-wave person?

41. Amelia Bloomer newspaper title, The ___ 42. After jays, kays, and els 44. Gin mixer 45. Arts degree 46. 1960’s garments to be burned?

47. ___ Day O’Connor, first woman on the United States Supreme Court 48. Religious lady 53. Oath taker

My Work History Submitted by Julie Hollar My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I was canned. I couldn’t concentrate.

Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn’t hack it, so they gave me the ax.

After that, I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn’t suited for it.

Next, I tried working in a muffler factory but that was exhausting.

Next was a job in a shoe factory where I tried, but I just didn’t fit in.

I became a professional fisherman, but discovered that I couldn’t live on my net income.

I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining.

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 5

So then, I got a job in a gym, you know a workout center, but they said I wasn’t fit for the job.

I finally got a job as a historian until I realized there was no future in it.

So, I retired and I found I am a perfect fit for the job! ISI

55. Jane Addams’ House?

57. Religious group 58. Against 60. ___ Sisters, youth mentor program 61. High school, for short 64. Gym loss, perhaps 67. United Airlines, abbr. ISI

PAGE 6 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Larry Curry Is On The Go

By Jack McNeel Larry Curry was described by a friend as, “very, very knowledgeable on outdoor Idaho.” That knowledge comes from a lifetime exploring Idaho much of it on foot. Hiking, fishing, and travel are high on his priority list and have continued to be since his retirement 12 years ago.

Larry was raised at Camas Prairie near Peck on property homesteaded by his grandfather when Nez Perce Reservation land was opened up to homesteaders after 1895. Larry grew up there helping with ranch work well into his college years.

He graduated from high school at Reubens, and then continued his education at the University of Idaho where he earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees in physical education and biology. He even played some basketball for the University between 1958 and 1960.

Larry began teaching and coaching at Gooding and then moved on to Riggins. Kellogg was his third and final, teaching destination where he remained for 31 years teaching biology and coaching. Basketball was Larry’s primary love,

[Photo by Mike Dunn]

“but I coached a lot of things over the years -- golf, baseball, helped with football, and usually had something to do with basketball,” he recalls.

Larry served as physical education coordinator for the district in elementary education for nearly 10 years and was principal of the junior high. He served 13 years as Superintendent of Schools until his retirement in 1997.

Larry and his wife, Ann, whom he married in 1961, have visited Ireland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and portions of Central America including Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala. They have also hiked in Canada.

“In Idaho I hike with some guys that are also retired now. We do an annual hike somewhere in Idaho so we’ve hiked pretty much all the wilderness areas in Idaho,” Larry adds. He also spent a week at the Taylor Ranch down on the Salmon last summer. That provided time to not only see a wild section of Idaho but also to visit with some range managers and the manager of the ranch where they talked of wolves and cougars.

“My wife and I just got back from the Owyhees.

We met some folks that used to live here so we spent three days with them down there. We then went to the City of Rocks, which I’d not been to, then back via an old road near Teton, up through Henrys Lake, and home. We had a nice two weeks.

“I was quite impressed with the depth of the canyons like the Bruneau in Owyhee County. I had no idea they were so deep. We did some hikes at Leslie Gulch and we went to Silver City. It’s very

interesting country and I enjoyed it.”

Fishing also occupies Larry’s free time. He is an accomplished fly tier and fly angler. Early spring found him making several trips to Montana in search of fish. In late March and early April, he fished Clark Canyon Reservoir near Dillon and Brown’s Lake by Ovando, where he took a 9.5 pound, 27 inch rainbow.

“They’re huge!” he says. “We caught them on scud flies, little egg flies, sometimes on leeches.

That’s fun!” As the season progresses he will devote more time to dry flies.

Larry also finds time to work a portion of each year helping Bob Boyd cruise and mark timber.

Boyd is a forester from Spokane and Larry has been working with him for the past 12 years. “I probably work 30 or 40 days a year,” he says. They work primarily for private landowners and the BLM in both Idaho and Washington. His background in biology and knowledge of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, plus his love of wildlife and the outdoors, made the transition from school administration to timber cruiser rather easy. “I didn’t know the forestry end of it but now I can do some cruising on my own. I don’t compile the data, Bob does that on the computer, but I write my notes and turn them over to him.”

It’s not a full-time job but he laughs as he says, “It’s sometimes more than I need to do. With the grandkids, and wanting to go fishing, and us traveling. We do a garden and lots of flowerbeds. With all that, I really don’t need other work.

Larry also plays a little golf but does not find time to do a lot. He enjoys photographing wildlife and he still runs and works out to stay in good shape.

“I’ve run lots of fun runs like Bloomsday and things like that. I have probably run for over 20 years. I don’t have specific weekly goals but I run when I don’t have anything else to do. I ran this morning, down the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes below The Snakepit for two miles and then back.

I saw a moose in that first pond and she was still there when I came back.”

Larry also saw three moose the previous Friday near Cataldo Mission as he was headed out on a timber cruising job, and then saw another while on the job. Larry’s love of Idaho and its wildlife is apparent when he talks. He truly is very, very knowledgeable about outdoor Idaho. ISI

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Bud Koski Is Kind of a Sports Nut

Article & Photo by Jack McNeel Bud Koski devoted his career to education and a substantial part of that was spent working in athletics. Retirement has taken him out of the classroom and away from the business classes like shorthand, bookkeeping, and typing. But, his love of athletics remains and his time is now filled with a variety of other activities.

Bud moved to Mullan with his mother when he was just four years old. He graduated from Mullan High School before spending a year at the University of Idaho and then three more years at the University of Montana where he graduated with a degree in health and physical education and a minor in business. He then spent 37 years teaching, 33 of them in Mullan.

He retired from teaching 12 years ago but remains a Mullan resident and a fixture in the community.

During that time, Bud served on the city council and was the mayor for a spell. “I decided I really wasn’t made out to be a politician so I got out of politics. I just never liked the behind the scenes stuff that went on,” he laughs.

Retirement has not meant slowing down.

During his school career, he did a lot of coaching, basketball primarily, and that continued after he retired from teaching. Even now, he helps run the scorebook or the score clock for basketball games. He also officiated football for 40 years until 2006.

“I did softball and baseball umpiring for years.

They had me out on the field this spring because they were short of umpires, but I really don’t care to stand out on the field any more. I’d rather just sit down and watch,” he laughs.

Bud has two sons, both of whom live in Kootenai County, and between them has seven grandchildren whose sports he watches.

“I spend a lot of time going back and forth watching football, basketball, and baseball games,” he explains. With grandkids ranging from 6 to 15 years of age, watching them will keep him busy far into the future.

All Bud’s sports involvement has led to some recent awards. “Back in 2006 they put me in the North Idaho Officials Hall of Fame,” he explains.

“Basically it was for football, but I also served seven years as Basketball Commissioner. I guess between the two capacities is why they gave me the Hall of Fame thing.”

Then last year he received the Wes Lowe Memorial. “That came from the Idaho State High School Activities Association. It’s a branch of the Hall of Fame. It’s for a lifetime of involvement with student activities and has to reach beyond a local school district. I was fortunate to officiate some state football games and was involved in

assigning officials and holding basketball officiating clinics with my job as basketball commissioner.”

It is easy to understand why he says, “You can see I’m kind of a sports nut.”

But sports are just one aspect of his life.

“This will be my seventh year driving bus for the Route of the Hiawatha, where I drive two days a week. I pick people up at the bottom end and take them back to the top at the Taft Tunnel.”

The Route of the Hiawatha is the former railroad route that has been converted into a bicycle trail that begins at Lookout Pass on the Idaho/Montana border and then passes through 10 tunnels, including the 1.6-milelong Taft Tunnel, and over 7 high trestles during its 15-mile route toward the St. Joe River. Bicyclists ride down the trail and then ride a shuttle bus back to the top. Riders frequently see big game animals, which are another of Bud’s passions.

“We see mainly moose and deer on those trips. The last couple of years it has slimmed down – not sure why. We had nine moose for a while but now we’re lucky if we see three or four in a day.”

Bud enjoys talking with people and bus driving provides a wonderful opportunity. “You get to talk to people from all over the world,” he says.

“I’m always asking them questions.”

He sometimes gets a real surprise. Perhaps the ultimate was meeting a woman who was a former student of his the one year he taught at Hansen in southern Idaho nearly 40 years ago. He has also run into people he knew from Missoula when he was at the University those many years ago.

Bud is a charter member of the Historical Society in Mullan and a major activity the past couple years has been working on a Finnish heritage book the group wants to have published.

“We’re trying to find out all the information we can about our Finnish ancestors who came to Mullan. It has turned out to be quite a project.

Hopefully we’ll get it done before Christmas so it will be available for Christmas presents.”

He also serves as secretary for the Morning Club. The building was built by the Federal Mining Company and later taken over by ASARCO for the benefit of its workers. It has a four-lane bowling alley and formerly had a billiards and pool room plus a gymnasium. It

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 7

has now been remodeled and used as a senior assistance meal site. Bud is in charge of buying beverages and commissary items while serving as business manager.

If that were not enough, he still drives bus for the school district. He did that full-time for 10 years but two years ago, he dropped back to working as the relief driver.

In the “strictly for fun” category Bud tries to play almost weekly in a cribbage tournament in Wallace. Then there is hunting. “I’m still at it,” he laughs. I’m still trying to get a moose permit but mainly I hunt elk. I get a deer tag and might take one if it’s a nice buck but other than that, I’m looking for elk. I just like to be out even if I don’t get anything. One of my passions has always been hunting.”

Describing his satisfying retirement, Bud says, “I stay as busy as I can.” ISI

A story to be told.

Wisdom to be learned.

Everyone is someone.

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PAGE 8 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Lessons from Bob and Debby

By Saralee Perel, Senior Wire When my husband, Bob, bought a lottery ticket, I asked him, “How would your life change if you won?”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to move. I would not want another car. I don’t want more things.”

“They why buy the ticket?”

“It would allow me to spend more time with you, to read, and to play with the dogs and cats.

I do not want expensive things anymore. The best time I have had this week was sitting on our porch brushing your hair. That did not cost a dime. So if I won, we wouldn’t have to work as hard and we could be together more.”

He kissed our 14-year-old dog on her forehead. “Money wouldn’t make Gracie live longer.”

Now, I am not living in fantasyland. There are people who do not have homes, cars, or food for which money would surely matter.

It took me most of my life to realize, for myself at least, that what matters are unadorned blessings - simple times, simple gestures, simple matters. Most of life is made up of simple things.

If I do not notice them and do not appreciate them, then I have missed most of my life.

I received a rather eye-opening email from a column reader in Colville, Washington, named Debby: “Hello Saralee, your column made me step back and look at life differently. I’m learning to love the simple things. When the sun is coming up, I love the cool feel of the dew on the lawn; the warmth of the sun as it touches my cheek.

The birds are just beginning their morning songs, and the smell of brewing coffee floats to me from the house. I can hear my husband moving about getting ready for morning and my dog, Lamar, and my cat, Sammy, chasing each other for a morning play.”

What made me do a double take was when she mentioned, “Lamar is my seeing eye dog.”

After learning that, I’ve read the rest of her emails much differently.

She wrote: “The air coming in through the open windows is cool and fresh. I love to hear my husband’s wry humor as we watch the morning news; his gentle voice as he talks to our cat. These are the things that I love and am so grateful for. Thank you for reading this.”

Debby is thanking me? I thank her: “Debby, your email came at a perfect time.

I’ve been feeling so pessimistic lately and I hate

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wasting precious time feeling that way. I am caught up in so many things that don’t matter when in reality, I have so much to be grateful for. Thank you from my heart for your beautiful words.”

Debby answered: “You are so very welcome! It certainly is easy to get our priorities and everything all mixed up, isn’t it?”

I asked Debby if she could tell me more.

Her words changed my life in an instant when she wrote: “I realize that the more thankful I am for whatever happens in my life, the more joyful I am.”

That is so logical, yet I have never thought that way before.

Debby has been blind since birth. Her way of thinking does not come naturally. She works hard on it. She wrote: “Well, I have had to fight being a pessimist.

But hey, who wants to sit around feeling sad or angry? Then I just make myself and other people miserable. So now, I think of every day as a new day to enjoy life. It’s the simple things in life and love that make everything work.”

I wrote that she was an inspiration to me, and she replied: “Me? An inspiration? I don’t think so. LOL.” Recently, Debby’s husband, Craig, became very sick. She wrote: “Craig was in the ICU until yesterday. It is so very, very wonderful to have him home! Life is even more precious, since a week ago they were VERY concerned about him.”

Later, I emailed to see how Craig was doing and Debbie replied: “Craig is home and on oxygen. I even learned how to work the oxygen tank! Life with Craig is sweeter than ever. Whatever happens I’ll just keep rejoicing that he’s here with me today.”

After thinking about Debby’s gratitude for things that have nothing to do with wealth, I asked myself to name three things for which I am grateful, that did not cost money.

1. For the first time in an email, a friend I

have known for 12 years signed “Love,” before his name.

2. When I turned my head away from the table where we were dining on roast chicken, my little cat, Eddie, who in 2008 was given two months to live, was gorging himself on the chicken.

3. I learned from Debby that love, beauty, and gratitude are not things you see with your eyes.

Saralee welcomes emails at sperel@saraleeperel.com or via her website www.saraleeperel.com. ISI

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 9

An Easy Approach To A Heart-Healthy Lifestyle

By Robert Kowalski Not too many years ago, medical authorities believed that it would take major diet and exercise changes to protect against heart disease. Today we know that a heart-healthy lifestyle is actually easier than ever before.

When it comes to diet, the only thing we really need to cut back on are saturated fats and transfatty acids. Choose low fat or nonfat dairy foods including milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream. We do not have to give up red meats; simply select lean cuts of beef with the words “round” or “loin” in their names and pork loin or tenderloin and ham.

Read ingredient labels for “partially hydrogenated” oils that result in the trans-fatty acids that not only raise the bad LDL cholesterol, but also lower the protective HDL cholesterol. Look for reformulated products including crackers, margarines, and other processed foods with labels announcing, “No Trans Fats.”

The flipside of the coin is that there are many foods that actually protect our hearts. Every diet should include lots and lots of fruits and vegetables, at least five servings a day. The more of those foods men and women eat, research shows, the less the chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke. The same goes for whole grain breads and cereals.

Foods rich in soluble fiber actively lower cholesterol levels. You have many choices: oatmeal, oat bran, dried beans of all sorts, barley, and figs.

One day you might have oat bran muffins for breakfast and the next day it could be chili for dinner, made with two cans of chili beans instead of just one. And, maybe some dried figs for a snack.

And, speaking of snacks, today we know that those who regularly enjoy a handful of nuts (about an ounce or so) are more protected against heart disease than those who avoid nuts, even if the total fat in their diet is higher. Almonds, walnuts, pecans, and peanuts are all good for you.

Consider yourself lucky if you are a fish lover.

Fish are rich in the omega-3 fatty acids, which tend to prevent formation of blood clots. Salmon, herring, mackerel, and other fatty fishes are best.

And, if you hate fish, consider a supplement that provides 1000 mg of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. While shopping, look for foods that have been supplemented with the plant sterols called phytosterols. Those plant sterols are another natural way to lower cholesterol levels.

Diet books come and go, but our problems with overweight and obesity continue to grow. The best solution is a diet that you can live with and enjoy for the rest of your life. Simply cut back on the calories from excessive fats and carbohydrate-rich foods that provide little or no nutrition, including white bread, rice, pasta, and snack and dessert foods.

And, burn some extra calories by increasing your physical activities daily.

Speaking of that, most men and women – and even children – fall into the couch potato category.

Modern sedentary lifestyles not only lead to weight gain, but also are considered a major risk factor for heart disease.

But, here too, getting the physical activity we need is easier than most folks believe. Simply enough, the old adage of “No pain, no gain” is out the window. A heart-healthy lifestyle calls for about 30 minutes of brisk activity daily.

You do not even need to do the whole 30 minutes at one time. It all adds up throughout the day. So take a 15-minute walk during your lunch break and another one at the end of the day, for example.

The secret to success in sticking with a resolution to get more exercise is to choose activities you actually enjoy. That might be riding a bike, going for a weekend hike, swimming some laps in the pool, gardening, or dancing. An hour of swing, folk, or square dancing can be as good for the heart as an hour of jogging. Plan some activities with your spouse or with a friend. There’s nothing like good company and conversation to make the time fly and make you look forward to the next outing.

You will find that as you get more physical, you will sleep better, be more productive at work, enjoy life more, and – here is a very important benefit – cope with stress more efficiently.

Everyone has stress in his or her life. We cannot simply run away from it all. And, stress and emotional distress, have been strongly linked to heart disease risk. But, there are ways of dealing with it.

In addition to daily exercise, start practicing the ancient art of deep breathing. Take a few minutes a day and actually pay attention to deeply breathing in and out, in and out. For best results, do so with your eyes closed, in a darkened, quiet room.

Turn those moments into “mini-vacations” by thinking of places you love - the beach, the mountains, a fishing stream, and the golf course.

Then when the going gets rough, get away by going to that “special place” where life is simpler and more enjoyable.

This takes practice. The

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more you do it, the better you will get at it.

I began my personal fight against heart disease, including all the lifestyle changes above, more than 20 years ago after undergoing a second coronary bypass surgery. My motivation was to stay alive to be the best Dad I could be for my children, who were very young at the time.

I achieved my goal, and my son and daughter are now grown. Now I look forward to some day playing with my grandchildren. And, in the meantime, I am enjoying life to the fullest, feeling more robust energy and vitality all because of those simple lifestyle changes.

There is an old saying that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Take that first step today. You and those who love you will be glad that you did.

Robert E. Kowalski has been a medical journalist for more than 35 years. After his second bypass surgery at age 41, he set out to develop a hearthealth program. He shared that program and its dramatic results in a book, The 8-Week Cholesterol

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Cure, which put oat bran into the American diet and became an international bestseller. The father of two grown children, Mr. Kowalski lives with

his wife in Thousand Oaks, California, where he publishes The Diet-Heart Newsletter. His website is http://thehealthyheart.net. ISI

What Did Your Stomach Know, When Did It Know It, And Are You Going To Have A Heart Attack?

Hospital Dallas, rated as one of the best reBy Dick Seelmeyer, Senior Wire Since a good number of Americans love search and treatment hospitals in the nation detective stories, here is another anecdote in have concluded that nausea without apparent cause is a good indicator of the continuing saga of “What The report indicates that an impending serious heart did the body know, and when almost two-thirds of heart attack among people with did the body know it?” potential heart disease. The The underlying question attack victims experience findings are preliminary and a is, “Does your body give you nausea prior to the onset broader study is underway to a warning sign that something of a heart attack. determine whether the initial bad is brewing internally that findings warrant broader conspells bad news for you?” This is followed by, “If you are paying attention and clusions regarding the location and seriousness seek medical attention, might you save yourself of the heart attack.

The incidence of nausea followed by a some misery and maybe your life?” serious heart attack is too frequent to be a Good questions you say, but people cannot run to the doctor or hospital every time they feel coincidence. If the research can determine the gritchy. Feeling out of sync sometimes is part of correlation, the patient would seek care sooner and appropriate care regimens could get effecthe price we pay for the luxury of a long life.

Maybe. But, medical researchers are learn- tive treatment to the patient earlier. The earlier ing more about how the body signals that we that medication is administered to prevent or to are running a quart of oil low and are in serious moderate the severity of a heart attack, the better the patient’s chance of a full recovery. The need of repair.

Researchers at Texas Health Presbyterian findings appear in the December 2009 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

The report indicates that almost two-thirds of heart attack victims experience nausea prior to the onset of a heart attack. People who have risk factors such as age, obesity, high cholesterol, and lack of exercise should be aware that an attack of nausea could be indicative of an impending heart attack.

The research will provide medical providers with the tools better to predict when a heart at-

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

tack will occur and the time window for effective treatment.

Nearly two million people annually suffer heart attacks, and approximately 25% die. Others recover, though many do so with seriously injured hearts that restrict their activities for the rest of their lives.

Previous studies have indicated that vomiting and nausea are more common in less serious heart attacks that involve the back portion of

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 11

the left ventricle. Anterior heart attacks - the most dangerous type of cardiac arrest - often happen when the left coronary artery, called the “widow maker,” is blocked. However, the current study indicates that no assumptions should be made about the type of heart attack or where it is located based on nausea. ISI

Feel Good, Do Good, and Save Taxes

By Mel Feeley, CFP Planned Giving Director - American Heart Association Do you wish you could give more to your favorite charities but can’t afford to? Could you use guaranteed lifetime income and some tax relief?

Would you like the tax dollars that would normally go to the government instead go to your favorite charity?

These are a few of the results that can be achieved by creatively and thoughtfully planning your estate and charitable gift giving actions.

Most are very simple and you need very little assistance. On the other hand, if your estate is sufficiently large there is a host of more complex strategies that you could utilize – and that is when professional assistance

is necessary.

Combining charitable giving with estate planning is the realm of “Planned Giving” within a charity’s organization. This area deals with wills, trusts, charitable gift annuities, life insurance and IRA beneficiary designations, real estate gifts, etc. Because most charities are recognized by the IRS, there are usually significant tax benefits afforded.

Many donors are not aware that most large charities receive 15-25% of their annual revenue from these types of gifts. For the donor, these are easy, painless, and leave a lasting legacy.

Call your favorite charity today to see how you can help them and feel good too! ISI

Your Kidneys Are Amazing - Pay Attention And Preserve Your Health Do you give much thought to your kidneys and the amazing job they perform? Your kidneys not only help your body rid itself of drugs, toxins, water, and waste, but also regulate the amount of water in your body and chemicals such as potassium and calcium. They also release hormones that help your body generate red blood cells, make your bones strong and regulate your blood pressure - pretty impressive for organs that are each only the size of your fist.

But suppose your kidneys stopped working as effectively as they should. Waste could build up in your body causing shortness of breath and swelling of the hands and feet. You might experience puffiness around your eyes or have dry, itchy skin. You might have trouble sleeping or concentrating or notice that you have an increase in urination.

If you were lucky, you’d experience one or more of these symptoms.

Unfortunately, most people with declining kidney function don’t have symptoms until kidney disease is advanced. Chronic kidney disease (CKD), the ninth leading cause of death in the U.S., is a progressive loss of kidney function over time and early detection and treatment are vital to keeping kidney disease from turning into kidney failure - a life-threatening condition.

Anyone can develop CKD during any stage of his or her life, but it’s more often seen in people with diabetes, high blood pressure, or a family history of kidney disease. If you are at risk for developing CKD, there are several things you need to do. First, talk to your doctor. Have you been tested for kidney disease? Find out if you are taking an ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitor or an ARB (angiotensin receptor blocker).

These medicines help control blood pressure and can slow the progression of kidney disease if you have it.

Next, there are a couple of simple tests for detecting CKD. One test looks for protein in your urine, which is important for detecting and diagnosing early kidney damage and disease. The other measures GFR, or the glomerular filtration rate, which tells how well your kidneys are filtering and functioning. If you have CKD, following the advice of your doctor can slow the progression of this disease.

Maybe it’s time to start thinking about your kidneys and the remarkable role they play in keeping you well. And if you are at risk for CKD, see your doctor to have your overall health and kidney function evaluated yearly because an early diagnosis gives you the best chance of controlling this disease. ISI

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Reducing Your Risk Of Chronic Kidney Disease Is Easier Than You Might Think If you have high blood pressure, diabetes, or a family history of kidney disease, you are at risk for chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, the news is not all bad. Preventing the loss of kidney function is not as difficult as you might think.

March is National Kidney Month and here are some tips on preventing kidney failure from the National Kidney Foundation: • Find out your family’s health history if you do not already know it.

Research whether or not anyone in your family has CKD, diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), coronary heart disease, or protein or blood in the urine, and let your physician know.

• Visit your doctor for regular checkups for the above diseases and request blood and urine tests to check for CKD. One vital CKD blood test is a check for your glomerular filtration rate (GFR), a test that can see how well your kidneys are filtering wastes.

• Follow your doctor’s instructions to keep hypertension and diabetes in control.

• Keep your weight in check. Being overweight can increase your chances of developing diabetes, heart disease, and other problems, and

is also associated with CKD. Follow a balanced diet recommended by your doctor.

• Start exercising by walking for 30 minutes at least three times a week.

Exercise helps control weight and can alleviate hypertension. Check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

• Limit salt intake to control high blood pressure.

• If you smoke, quit! Smoking can contribute to a host of health problems including lung cancer, heart disease, and hypertension, as well as contribute to kidney deterioration.

• Avoid taking large amounts of painkillers, especially non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen and naproxen, which can harm the kidneys, but only if the kidneys are already under stress. For example, dehydration from overexertion can stress the kidneys. If you stay hydrated, these drugs generally are safe for the kidneys.

• Limit your intake of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol can both cause and worsen hypertension.

African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Pacific Islanders are at increased risk for chronic kidney disease. To learn more about risk factors, prevention, and treatment contact the National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho at 800-869-5277 or log on to www.kidneyut.org. ISI

Colonoscopy Getting a Good Result In The End

By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Senior Wire Fair is fair. Babyhood has immunizations, adolescence has its often self-inflicted bodily traumas, and the 30- and even 40-somethings face everything from diapers to late nights waiting up for teenagers. The over50 crowd has a lot going for it, but one of them is not colonoscopies.

I remember mine like a 2-color video. I was watching the screen, a journey through a curved, ridged tunnel that was pleasingly un-topographic. The doctor explained what was going on in a low, soothing tone, and eventually I slipped out of consciousness, awakening to the sound of my husband’s voice coming to take me home.

All in all, a pretty uneventful event, which is why my experience with my friend Jane was poignant. The other day I picked her up to drive her to her appointment. She was practically in tears over how her preparation night had gone. I didn’t say at the time, but she looked like we used to look when we’d been awaiting an errant teen.

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“Oh my gosh! You were right about the prep diet,” she sobbed. We had shared a spaghetti dinner with them the previous night. I was surprised that she was allowed to eat anything. I thought I remembered from my procedure that the strict eating regimen started a couple of days ahead.

She had assured me she was fine. “I just can’t eat raw fruits and vegetables,” she’d told me. “Then starting at midnight I can’t eat solid food, and nothing tomorrow except clear liquids.

I read the instructions three times to make sure,” she added. I figured she had a different doctor with different instructions, so I hadn’t pressed it, and we finished the conversation by reviewing when I’d pick her up.

Now she explained her dilemma.

“I reread the instructions before bed last night, and realized I’d misinterpreted the time periods they were talking about. By that time it was too late to cancel without a fee, so I figured I might as well drink the laxative on schedule in hopes they could do a sigmoidoscopy, which is what I did last time.”

The sigmoidoscopy is similar to a colonoscopy, but examines only up to the furthest segment of the colon, called the sigmoid. A colonoscopy examines the entire large bowel.

Dowager’s Hump Could Portend Risk of Earlier Death

By Tait Trussell, Senior Wire Elderly women with “dowager’s hump,” can be at higher risk of earlier death.

Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles Health Sciences found that the exaggerated forward curvature of the upper spine seen frequently in older women may predict they will die earlier, independent of any other conditions they may have.

Men and younger adults were not part of the research. But our lifestyle these days seems to be leading to something like dowager’s hump just because of poor posture.

If you are bent over for long periods of time typing at your computer, for instance, reading emails, and sending letters to your grandchildren or old friends, doing genealogical research, or whatever, you could acquire a stooped posture.

Coby Langford who runs an osteopathic clinic and lectures throughout Europe on managing and reducing back pain, says dowager’s hump is becoming more prevalent. She says it is a spinal curve caused by poor posture.

“After a while, the muscles and joints become lazy and get used to holding this curved position. I am seeing it more and more in younger people, as the amount of time we spend just sitting increases, and the amount of time we spend running around being active reduces.”

She contends the condition responds relatively quickly to correction, once you start working on it.

“I have seen women and men of advanced ages, who have had a dowager’s hump for many years straighten up within four to eight weeks of corrective treatment.”

The UCLA study, published in the May issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, found in a long-term study that older white women with both vertebral fractures and the exaggerated spinal curvature could die earlier, independent

The sigmoidoscopy is a little quicker and a little easier, and a successful screening grants you a five-year pass before you have to repeat. A failed test screening puts you back in line for the full colonoscopy, which can be good for up to 10 years if you’re clear.

Jane barely slept, feeling torn about her decision. She jolted awake with her 4:45 a.m. alarm to drink the magic potion. It did its magic on both ends, and she spent the early morning mostly in the bathroom. She was still in her pajamas a few hours later when the doorbell rang. She and her husband were having the inside of their home repainted, and the young painter had arrived. She found herself trying to stay out of sight and out of hearing distance of the painter. He was working in another part of the house, but she still felt embarrassed using the bathroom frequently.

As soon as she could, Jane phoned the doctor’s office to explain her dilemma. They weren’t happy about it, but agreed to go ahead with the procedure. There seemed to be no ill effects of the spaghetti dinner, at least none that the medical staff shared with my friend.

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 13

The results were good, and she was awarded a five-year pass.

We used to have to suffer in silence about these procedures, but Katie Couric made them trendy. She raised awareness for routine colonoscopies a few years ago when her husband Jay Monahan died from colon cancer at age 42. Katie came out swinging for the simple procedure; she even had the guts to have her colonoscopy televised in March of 2000, to help the rest of us get past the yuk factor. You can watch Katie’s colonoscopy on YouTube at www. youtube.com/watch?v=15JsYSZIT-Q. More importantly, nationwide colon checks jumped 20% after her experience, a phenomenon that’s now known in the scientific literature as the Katie Couric effect. Her sights are set on reducing new cases of colon and rectal cancer, which the American Cancer Society estimates will be 146,970 in 2009.

We all know preventative medicine is what health, especially senior health, is all about. Jane is relieved to have put this behind her, and won’t be confused next time. Funny thing is, she’s a PhD. ISI

PAGE 14 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

of either age or spinal osteoporosis. But women who had only dowager’s hump (medical term is hyperkyphosis) without vertebral fractures didn’t show an increased risk of premature death.

Dowager’s hump has its cause in several factors, including habitual poor posture and degenerative diseases of the spinal discs and the muscles.

“Stand up straight. You look like an old man,” says many a spouse whose husband has tended to slump as he has most of his life, seemingly, watching sports on the television set.

I’ve caught a glimpse of myself in the full length mirror occasionally and realized I have developed poor posture, at least partially from sitting at my desk and bending over to pound out articles on my computer or to go on line to research some matter.

Dr. Deborah Kado, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery and medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the dowager’s hump study’s major investigator, said, “Just being bent forward may be an important clinical finding that should serve as a trigger to seek medical evaluation for possible spinal osteoporosis, as vertebral fractures more often than not are a silent disease. We demonstrated that having this age-related postural change is not a good thing. It could mean you’re likely to die sooner.”

The researchers who worked on the dowa-

ger’s hump study looked at data on 610 women whose ages ranged from 67 to 93. Those taking part were selected between 1986 and 1988 in several cities. They assessed mortality based on follow-up examinations averaging more than 13 years.

The researchers discovered that women with previous vertebral breaks and more spinal curvature were at more mortality risk no matter how many fractures or the severity of the fractures.

The study noted that although it focused on women, the dowager’ hump occurred in older men too.

“What to do?” asks Coby Langford rhetorically. “I find this condition responds well to a couple of osteopathic treatments, just enough to free the joints enough for the corrective process to begin and be effective.” Then, she says, it is “vital to follow prescribed exercises to start retraining the muscles and joints to hold a straighter position.”

Installing posture supports such as a foam seating wedge or lumbar roll “will help a lot, as it is generally your position in a chair that is causing the problem in the first place.”

She recommends an easy exercise to help correct dowager’s hump is to stand up straight, clasp your hands behind your back, and stretch your hands toward the floor.

Try it. I think I will. ISI

George Washington A difficult denture patient?

By Karla Barnes, Barnes Mini-Cassia Denture Center Many tales have been told over the years about George Washington and his false teeth. Historians sometimes refer to our first President as a difficult denture patient. Despite good hygiene, which included brushing and tongue scraping, President Washington lost his teeth at an early age and struggled with dentures for the rest of his life.

One set of teeth fashioned exclusively for George Washington came at the exorbitant cost of $60 - a lot of money in those days! Our first President’s false teeth were produced painstakingly from the finest materials available. Fabrication was a very time consuming process in Washington’s days, which made owning a set of dentures something only the very wealthy could afford.

According to American legend, impressions were taken using paper and cloth. The materials used to make the plates came from various forms of ivory and the teeth from animals such as pigs, cows, elk, and even humans. The final set of teeth constructed for the President was made of ivory from hippopotamus teeth, human teeth, and brass screws. Contrary to common belief, no wood was used in Washington’s dentures.

Interestingly, springs were incorporated into the dentures to create more comfort for this historical denture wearer. The theory was simple; the springs assisted in keeping the upper denture up and the lower denture down.

Did Washington wear these atrocious contraptions? I suppose the answer is... sometimes. Like most denture wearers, Washington struggled with the three essentials of false teeth - fit, function, and aesthetics.

Though metals came into play in the 18th century and plaster casts followed shortly after, dentists, denturists, and dental technicians have struggled throughout the decades to please each and every denture wearer.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Washington suffered greatly, as most edentulous people do, however the challenges that our first President faced after losing his natural teeth were much different from those that denture wearers confront today. Today however, the world of dental technology has changed completely to make the denture wearing experience much more pleasant than it was in the days of ivory, lead, springs, brass screws, and the like.

Twenty-first century denture wearers no longer endure paper and plaster cast impressions - instead comfortable impression trays and pleasing impression materials such as alginates and injection materials are used. The technician

uses state-of-the-art model pouring techniques that make a good fit much more likely.

Materials for teeth have also changed, and high impact acrylics and multi layered composite teeth are the most popular materials used in dentures. Some older denture wearers may still wear porcelain teeth because they were some of the first teeth available in the days when extractions were more popular than restoration.

In fact, Washington himself may have had one of the first sets of porcelain teeth made in the late 1790s.

Today, more than eighty percent of false teeth are made of plastics and the materials just

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 15

keep getting better. Implants, soft liners, and constant technological advances make life for the denture wearer much more appealing than wearing a set of hippopotamus teeth.

If curiosity has gotten the best of you and you would like to see President Washington’s dentures for yourself, the lower denture made

by J. Greenwood is on display at Mount Vernon, Virginia. The dentures and the President’s toilet set (toothbrush & tongue scraper) are part of the special exhibit A Leader’s Smile on loan from the New York Academy of Medicine until the year 2013. ISI

Organ Donation Myths and Facts

By Tait Trussell, Senior Wire Some 97,501 Americans needed an organ transplant (as of October 2009). Many patients never will receive the organ they vitally need.

Michele Goodwin, visiting professor of law at the University of Chicago School of Law, predicts that more than 7,000 of these patients who anxiously wait for the miracle of a new organ will die. Thousands more will be crossed off the list of organ recipients because they are too old or too weak. On average, 18 die per day.

Last year, 28,930 organ transplants were made. Live donors - 6,729 of them - volunteered their gift of a vital body part so another may live.

The balance of the transplants came from people who had died and had already designated that their body parts could be used when they were gone.

It is against the law to pay a donor for his or her organs. So, time runs out for thousands of ailing patients because no organ is available. It is a felony for you to sell one of your kidneys or even an important vein.

It is also against the law to pay a donor’s family for the costs of a transplant from a dead relative’s body.

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in Richmond, Virginia, manages the country’s only Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. It was created by Congress in 1984 as a non-profit, scientific, and educational organization. It collects information about every transplant that occurs in the United States.

UNOS facilitates organ matching and placement matters. And it brings together doctors, transplant recipients, and donor families to develop transplant policies.

There is obviously a serious organ shortage in our country. Complicating this is the raft of misconceptions about donations. Here are some of the major myths and the facts: • Myth: You are too old to be a donor.

Fact: People of all ages and medical conditions should consider that they are possible donors.

Your medical condition at the time of death will determine what organs or tissues could be do-

nated.

• Myth: If emergency room doctors know that you are waiting for an organ donation, they will not work as hard to save you. Fact: When you come to a hospital, the normal priority is to save your life.

• Myth: When waiting for a transplant, your financial or celebrity status is as important as your medical status. Fact: What really counts is the severity of your illness, time spent waiting, blood type, and other medical information.

• Myth: Having “organ donor” on your driver license or carrying a donor card is all you need to become a donor. Fact: While these designations are legal documents, organ and tissue donations are usually discussed with family members to make sure your family understands these are your current wishes. Some states have additional requirements.

• Myth: Only hearts, livers, and kidneys can be transplanted. Fact: Needed organs also include pancreas, lungs, liver, and intestines.

Eyes, skin, bones, heart valves, and tendons also can be donated.

• Myth: A history of illness means your organs or tissues are unfit for donation.

Fact: Medical professionals will review your medical history to see whether you can be a donor. Recent advances in transplantation have broadened the number of people who can be donors.

• Myth: If you agree to donate your organs, your family will be charged for the cost involved. Fact: There is no cost for organ or tissue donation to the donor’s family or estate.

• Myth: Your religion prohibits organ donation. Fact: All major religions approve of organ and tissue donations and consider it an act of charity.

• Myth: There is real danger of being heavily anesthetized and waking up to find you had one or both kidneys removed. Fact: This wild tale has been widely circulated on the Internet. There is no evidence of this occurring in the U. S.

There’s Lot To Be Said For An Old Farmer’s Advice Submitted by Julie Hollar/Brantley The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about is not going to happen anyway.

Don’t judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.

Don’t interfere with something that isn’t bothering you.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with watches you from the mirror every morning.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in. ISI

Suppose that the United Network for Organ Sharing took the position that starting next year, no human organ will be available for transplantation into people who are not registered organ donors themselves.

Such a position would cause a rush of people to register as organ donors. People who did not register would know that they would be dropped to the back of the recipient waiting list if they ever needed an organ transplant.

People would probably register in such large numbers that the organ shortage would shrink quickly. Quite simply, thousands of lives would be saved every year if everyone would sign up. ISI

N.S. Burbank, M.D. • C.J. Fatz, M.D. • K.C. Hewel, M.D. C.E. Ley, M.D. • A.J. Martinez, M.D. • K.P. McKlendin, M.D. B.J. McNamee, M.D. • A.E. Michalson, M.D. L.S. Michalson, M.D. • D.E. Moody, M.D. R.L. Opp, M.D. • T.F. Reichel, M.D. • R.S. Thornton, M.D. Diplomats of the American Board of Radiology 700 Ironwood Drive, Suite 110 Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 208.666.3200 • Fax 208.666.3217

1300 E. Mullan Post Falls, ID 83854 208.777.1305 • Fax 208.777.1313

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PAGE 16 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Are You Burdened by Credit Card Debts You Can't Pay?

By Jerome S. Lamet, Supervising Attorney - Debt Counsel for Seniors and the Disabled (DCSD) If you are having trouble paying your credit card debts, you should know that you are not alone. The following excerpts are from a recent article in the Washington Post, called “Seniors Leaning on Credit Balances Balloon for Older Cardholders – and Health Bills Don’t Help.”

Alice Smith thought she would live comfortably and quietly in her Hyattsville retirement community. Instead she’s fretfully dodging calls from her creditors.

She owes more than $10,000 to four credit card companies and more than $7,000 to a credit union – in part, she said, because of spending to help her family. She doesn’t give exact figures because she is unsure of them; with late fees and higher interest rates, the amount she owes has grown. Her income has not. Through a pension and Social Security from her former job at a National Institute of Health laboratory, she receives about $2,000 a month. Her rent is $955.

She doesn’t know how she can ever pay down her debts. So she thinks she just might not.

“I am 80 years old,” she said, “and I don’t need this headache at my age.”

Average credit card debt among low- and middle-income Americans 65 and older carrying a balance for more than three months reached $10,235, up 26 percent from 2005, according to a recently released study by the public policy

group Demos. It was the fastest increase of any age group. Soon-to-be retirees are also struggling with debt.

It’s a surprising reversal of fortune for a generation that had been considered more financially responsible than younger generations.

Frequent or frivolous use of credit cards had not been a common trait of older Americans, particularly those 65 and older, because credit was not as easily available in their formative years. Now, even they are finding they have little choice but to borrow money.

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) recently issued a report that explains why people are having difficulty dealing with their credit card debts. The following is an excerpt from this report, which answers the question, “Why?” “Families with credit card debt are often thought to be shortsighted or ill disciplined, guilty of “living beyond their means.” Of course, societal pressures to consume – to acquire certain goods and to achieve a certain lifestyle – have their place in a discussion of credit card debt.

But the survey findings reveal that much of the debt for low- and middle-income households is “safety net” debt. That is, families are going into credit card debt as a way to cope with drops in income or unexpected expenses.

Our findings illustrate that most debtstressed low- and middle-income consumers are trying to cover unavoidable expenses, not

discretionary purchases.

• The most significant predictor of “debt stress” level was whether a household relied on credit cards to cover basic living expenses such as rent, mortgage payments, groceries, utilities, or insurance.

• Households dealing with a layoff or major medical expenses were more likely to have a higher relative debt-stress level. These economically vulnerable households were more likely to have higher relative credit card debt because they used their credit cards to cover expenses associated with an illness or necessary medical treatment, as well as basic living expenses.

Complicating matters, many card companies have raised interest rates, fees, and minimum payments recently in anticipation of a new law taking effect in February that will restrict such hikes. Older borrowers have been hit especially hard by such actions, consumer advocates said, because their incomes are fixed and their ability to get a job is limited. “There are just less shock absorbers in a senior’s budget,” said Cate Williams, vice president of financial literacy for Money Management International, a nonprofit credit counseling agency.

Is there help for people who can’t pay their credit card debts? Yes! It’s Debt Counsel for Seniors and the Disabled (DCSD), a national legal service. Visit www.DebtCounsel.net or call 1-800-992-3275 ext. 1304. ISI

You still have time to make a change!

We go beyond Original Medicare with coverage that offers all your medical and prescription benefits in one plan.

Call us today to learn more!

Or attend one of our seminars.

Join us for a free informational meeting to learn more: Call today to register for a meeting in your area!

1-888-492-2583 or TTY 1-800-377-1363, 8 AM to 8 PM seven days a week.

Or, visit www.bcidaho.com/medicare to find a meeting in your area!

True Blue HMO, Secure Blue PPO and Flexi Blue PFFS are Medicare Advantage organizations with a Medicare contract and are Medicare approved Part D sponsors. We will discuss True Blue HMO, Secure Blue PPO and Flexi Blue PFFS, the Medicare Advantage plans offered by Blue Cross of Idaho at this seminar. A Medicare Advantage Private Fee-for-Service plan works differently than a Medicare supplement plan. Your doctor or hospital can continue to treat you if it agrees to accept our terms and conditions of payment, and thus may choose not to treat you, with the exception of emergencies. If your doctor or hospital does not agree to accept our payment terms and conditions, they may choose not to provide healthcare services to you, except in emergencies. Providers can find the plan’s terms and conditions on our Web site at: www.bcidaho.com/PFFSterms A sales representative will be present with information and applications. For accommodation of persons with special needs, call 1-888-492-2583 or TTY 1-800-377-1363 between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. seven days a week. Blue Cross of Idaho is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 17

Bad Luck, Good Luck with Inheritances

By Jonathan J. David Dear Jonathan: My mother-in-law recently died. My late husband was my mother-in-law’s only child. After he passed away, I felt an obligation to care for her in her later years. During that time, she had always promised me that for all my help she would take care of me. After she died, I discovered she had a very small estate and a decent sized life insurance policy, but she had named her husband as the beneficiary, with no contingent beneficiaries named. What happens to those proceeds now? What about her estate?

She did not have a last will and testament.

Jonathan Says: Unfortunately, since there is no beneficiary named to receive those life insurance proceeds, they, along with your motherin-law’s assets, will need to be probated in her estate. The other bit of bad news, however, is that since your mother-in-law did not leave a last will and testament, the state will control where those life insurance proceeds, as well as the balance of her assets, go and I am not aware of any state that provides for a child’s spouse.

Consequently, you are probably out of luck. In any event, you should check with an estateplanning attorney in your area who can advise you of the particulars of your state’s law as to what happens to a decedent’s assets when he or she dies intestate, i.e., without making a last will and testament. Good luck.

Dear Jonathan: My sister died naming me as the beneficiary of her estate, as well as the beneficiary of her life insurance and IRA. She never told me this while she was alive, but since she was not married and had no children and since I am her only sibling, I guess it made sense that she would do this. The problem is I am in poor health myself and I really do not need

the assets; my late husband left me very well taken care of. Am I required to take under her will and as beneficiary under her life insurance and IRA, or can I refuse receiving those assets and proceeds?

Jonathan Says: Under both state and federal law, you are entitled to disclaim, i.e., refuse, assets from an estate or as a beneficiary. However, there are certain time constraints that need to be followed and certain ways the disclaimer needs to be documented in order to make it valid. Consequently, I suggest that you meet with an estate-planning attorney in your area to determine how to go about making a disclaimer that would satisfy both state and federal law.

Before disclaiming the proceeds from the investments and the assets of the estate, you might want to determine whom your sister named as the contingent beneficiaries on both the investments and in the will. Are the people she named to receive the assets if you failed to survive satisfactory to you? If not, you may want to rethink whether you want to disclaim or possibly consider making a partial disclaimer.

In other words, you could take all or a portion of the assets from the estate and the investments proceeds, and then through your own last will and testament name beneficiaries of your own choosing whom you would like to receive

those assets upon your death. As one example, you could direct that the investment proceeds and the estate assets you receive from your sister’s estate be distributed to a charity or charities after you pass away. This could be a wonderful legacy for you to leave, so before you make a decision to disclaim, I encourage you to spend some more time thinking about this to make sure this is what you want to do. Good luck with your decision. ISI

Reverse mortgage Larry Waters

Reverse Mortgage Consultant 1-866-787-0980 Toll-Free 208-762-6887 Local Must be at least 62 years old.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is a division of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. © 2009 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. #65730 11/09-02/10 Equal Housing Lender

Tax Help – Where To Find It

By Jim Miller There are millions of people in your situation. In fact, according to the Tax Policy Center, around 55 percent of Americans over age 65 will not have to file income tax returns this year mainly because their incomes are under the IRS filing requirements. Here is what you should know.

2009 Filing Requirements - If your “gross income” is below the 2009 IRS filing limits, you do not have to file a federal tax return this year. Gross income includes all the income you receive that is not exempt from tax, not including Social Security benefits, unless you are married and filing separately. Here is an income breakdown for each filing status.

• Single: If your 2009 gross income was less than $9,350 ($10,750 if you are 65 or older), you do not have to file.

• Married filing jointly: You do not need to file if your gross income was under $18,700. If you or your spouse is 65 or older the limit increases to $19,800. And if you are both over 65, your income must be under $20,900 not to file.

• Head of household: If your gross income was below $12,000 ($13,400 if age 65 or older), you do not have to file.

• Married filing separately: At any age, you must file if your income was at least $3,650.

• Qualifying widow(er) with a dependent child: If your gross income was less than $15,500 ($16,150 if age 65 or older), you do not need to file.

Note: Just because you are not required to file a federal tax return does not necessarily mean you are also excused from filing state income taxes. Check on that with your state tax agency before concluding you are entirely in the clear. For links to state and local tax agencies see www. taxadmin.org – click on “Links.”

Senior Tax Credit - If you find that your gross income is more than the IRS filing limits, you will need to file a federal tax return. But depending on your income level, you may be eligible for an elderly tax credit, which can amount to as much as $750 for a single taxpayer and up to $1,125 for a couple.

To qualify, you must be 65 or older (or under

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PAGE 18 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

65 and disabled), a U.S. citizen, and your adjusted gross income must be less than $17,500 for a single filer, and the non-taxable part of your Social Security or other nontaxable pensions, annuities or disability income must be less than $5,000. Or, if you are married and are filing jointly and you both qualify, your income will need to be less than $25,000, and your nontaxable Social Security or other nontaxable pensions must be under $7,500. To claim the credit you will need to file either Schedule R, if you are filing Form 1040, or Schedule 3, if you are filing Form 1040A. To learn more, see IRS publication 524 “Credit for the Elderly or Disabled� at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p524.pdf, or call 800-829-3676 and have them mail you a copy.

Tax Prep Help - If you do need to file a tax return, you can get help through the IRS sponsored Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE). This

program provides free tax preparation and counseling to middle- and low-income taxpayers, age 60 and older. Call 800-906-9887 to locate a service near you. Also check with AARP, a participant in the TCE program that provides free tax preparation at more than 7,000 sites nationwide.

To locate an AARP Tax-Aide site call 888-227-7669 or visit www.aarp. org/money/taxaide.

Savvy Tips: If you have tax questions, the IRS offers a helpline at 800-829-1040, or visit a nearby IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center (see www.irs.gov/localcontacts) where you can get face-to-face help free. Also see www.irs.gov/individuals/retirees for a variety of tax tips for seniors.

Send your senior questions to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior� book. ISI

Pet Insurance: Is it a good idea?

By Jim Miller Most seniors who have pets treat them like their own children. If your mother-in-law is the type of person who would do anything for her furry family, including spending thousands of dollars on medical care, pet insurance is definitely worth looking into.

Rising Costs - The cost of owning a pet has gone up quite a bit in recent years. New technologies in medical treatment now make it possible for pets to undergo similar treatments as humans for many life-threatening diseases. But just as with humans, these treatments are not cheap.

Pet Policies - Pet insurance is actually very similar to human health insurance. Typically, pet policies come with deductibles, co-pays, and caps that limit how much will be paid out annually. Pre-existing health problems and hereditary conditions can exclude many animals, and the older the pet is, the more you will have to pay out in premiums. Some insurers will not even cover pets older than eight.

Pet policies also vary widely on what is covered. Some policies are comprehensive,

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including such things as annual checkups and vaccinations, spaying/neutering, death benefits, and even reimbursement for offering a reward for lost pets. Other basic plans cover only accidents and illness. Cost too will vary, ranging from around $10-25 per month for basic coverage, to $25-75 for a comprehensive policy.

Shopping Tips - To find a policy that meets your pet’s needs and budget, here are a few tips: • Shop and compare: To compare benefits, co-payments, and deductibles of major pet insurers go to www.petinsurancereview.com. Many insurers offer discounts for insuring multiple pets – be sure you find out. It is also not a bad idea to check with your mom’s veterinarian to see if they have a recommendation. And do not buy a policy from an insurer that is not licensed in your state. • Know what you are getting: Be clear on what the policy covers and does not cover, and that it works with your vet. Some companies, like Pet Assure (www.petassure.com), are membership discount plans, but only work with the vets in their network.

Cost Cutters - Whether you choose pet insurance or not, here are Specializing in: some other ways you can cut your vet bills. • Look for discounts: Humane societies often host events or they Health insurance for Medicare may know of local clinics where you can get pet care and vaccinations Beneficiaries; Long Term Care, at reduced prices. Also, find out if your vet offers discounts to seniors or Critical Condition, Cancer, and offers reduced fees for annual checkups if you bring in multiple pets.

Life Insurance.

Mark Lee • Get a second opinion. Before committing to expensive treatments (208) 658-9977 or drugs, get a second opinion from another vet. Another option is to consult the Merck Veterinary Manual (www.merckvetmanual.com) for a Underwritten by Sterling Life Insurance Company rundown on her pet’s condition and recommended treatments.

SCB.109.09 • Shop around for meds. Get a written prescription from the vet (ask for generic if possible) so you can shop for the best price. Discountpetmedicines.com is a good resource that has links to sites that offer lower-priced medications. And it does not hurt to ask the vet if he or she has free samples they can give her.

Savvy Tips: Studies have shown that many pet owners can manage medical expenses between $500-1,000, but have difficulty paying beyond that level. If your situation fits that category, low-cost, high-deductible plans that cover catastrophic injury or illness are considered a sensible option. To help decide, the American Animal Hospital Association offers a pet insurance buyer’s guide at www.healthypet.com/sealofaccept. aspx.

You also need to know that many animal advocates think most pet owners are better off forgoing pet insurance and instead putting the money they would have spent on premiums into a savings account.

Depending on the policy, pet coverage can cost $1,500 to $6,000 over the life of an average pet, and most pet owners will never spend that much for treatment.

Send your senior questions to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit www.savvysenior. org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior� book.

ISI

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 19

Frenchman’s Gulch Winery Horse Heaven Hills as well as Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes from the same general region. This gold medal winner at the Northwest Wine Summit will not disappoint you. It is drier than the other wines at Frenchman’s Gulch but the beautifully balanced blend will go well with a wide variety of foods.

Kathy and I preferred the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon over all the wines poured that day. It is a superb blend of grapes mostly from Alder Creek and Matador Vineyards. According to McCarthy, the south facing slopes of Finney Hill where the grapes are grown in the Horse Heaven Hills is the key to superior cabernet sauvignon grapes. “Finney Hill is considered “the� cabernet sauvignon hill in all of Washington,� he explains. “The quality of the vines and fruit are superb.�

We found the wine to be luscious and full-bodied without being over powering.

A tad dry, the full berry flavor softens up any edginess. In fact, we liked it so much we bought a bottle to share with friends at dinner that night. It went beautifully with a meal of pork, vegetables, and olive oil-brushed polenta grilled perfectly over glowing coals. Our only regret was not buying another bottle.

To learn more about Frenchman’s Gulch visit www.frenchmansgulch.com, call 208-726-0118, or do yourself a favor and drop into the tasting room at 360 9th Street East, Ketchum any time between 3-6:00 pm, Wednesday through Saturday. ISI

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Article & Photo by Holly Endersby Any winery with the motto “dedicated to making fine wines and living the dream� is right up my alley. After all, if you do not have a winemaker that loves his or her job, the wines will reflect that. On the other hand, if you have a small winery with an owner/vintner who is both passionate and educated about wines, you are likely to find some delicious surprises. Such is the case at Frenchman’s Gulch.

It was just happenstance that we found the winery. A tiny sign out on the main highway at the north end of Ketchum announcing the tasting room was open, caught our eye and we made an unplanned stop just to see what was offered. And how glad we were for that serendipitous event!

Circling around the block to the winery wedged in between other businesses we parked then opened the door onto a small but comfortable tasting room. But no one was around. However, in just a few seconds we heard a voice float down from the second story announcing, “I’ll be right there!� And indeed, in came uber-casual Stephen McCarthy, owner and vintner.

Like gleaming jewels, bottles of deep red wines lined the back counter and my friend, Kathy and I, were ready for the first pour. McCarthy poured a generous amount of 2005 Merlot into our glasses and despite the high alcohol content (15%) the wine was not unbalanced. Think of ripe blackberries bursting with flavor. Like most of Frenchman’s Gulch wines, this one was a blend. Eighty percent merlot grapes from Dwelley Vineyard in the Walla Walla, Washington wine region and twenty percent Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Matador Vineyard also in Washington enlivened the blend. Both Kathy and I found that the more the wine breathed the smoother it became. We felt this rather robust wine with accents of ripe plums would pair best with assertive red meats like venison and pungent Italian dishes.

Our second tasting was of a 2005 Syrah.

I have a penchant for a good syrah, as it is an easy wine for people just not sure about reds to enjoy. This vintage does not disappoint and has a pungent, yeasty aroma reminding you of grapes basking in the late summer sun. It is a “soft� wine, with not a hint of edginess. McCarthy says the sandy, loam soil of eastern Washington is perfect for the syrah grape and the wine is a testament to that. McCarthy says the grapes were picked very ripe from Aldercreek Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills of Washington resulting in what he calls a wine similar to a traditional Rhone wine.

We liked the fruity fullness reminiscent of dark cherries and felt this wine would be welcome at anyone’s table.

McCarthy’s favorite wine, the 2005 Ketchum Cuvee, is an award winning blend of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Alder Creek Vineyard in

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By Connie Daugherty Borne on Air: Essays by Idaho Writers, Mary Clearman Blew & Phil Druker editors, Eastern Washington University Press; 2009.

“Air: the holy element, which inflicts pain and illness, bestows health, strikes fear, and inspires hope,” is the theme of this third anthology in the Idaho “Elements” Series. Written on Water (2002) and Forged in Fire (2005) began the series. According to Editor Mary Clearman Blew, the series grew from a chance remark - a teasing comment really - after the publication of Written on Water that was intended as a single-themed, one-time publication tribute to Idaho’s rivers. The comment (the challenge) to continue with the other elements as themes was… well, just too much to resist. “But what topics, we wondered, might be considered for ‘air’ essays,” writes Blew.

“What themes might emerge…?”

The themes that comprise Borne on Air include the physical, emotional and spiritual, the humorous, tragic, and compelling. Twenty talented Idaho writers have contributed to this literary endeavor. Each cleverly crafted essay is unique in voice, style, and perspective. What do you think of when you air? There is something for just about everyone in Borne on Air. “When it’s dark, I think about Micah Mabelitini,” writes Paul Cockeram in Demons. “Micah taught me about demons during the long, empty summer before my senior year of high school.”

Cockeram’s story is not only about ethereal be-

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

ings - ghosts and demons of another plane - it is about friendship and the memories that stay with us long after we have moved on in place and time.

In More than Air Clair Davis writes about sitting with her father who is dying of lung cancer.

“I sigh and the weight of that sound startles me.

I realize he has lapsed into a quiet so complete that I stop breathing.” She watches her father struggle for each breath, places her hand on his chest to feel the process of inhaling and exhaling. Sitting in the hospital room, she recalls her childhood and her father’s place in her growing up. She understands the need to let him go. “[O]ver my father’s face I watch the calm that deeply settles. There follows a last exhalation.

It is soft, the sound… and that final breath was so much more than air.”

“Here, one hundred feet above the treetops, all is so quiet I hear blood coursing through minuscule capillaries, so still I imagine I can even detect the meticulous metering of oxygen within each cell….” In Air Reclamation Susan Glave tells about the hot air balloon ride her husband gives her as a “forty-something” birthday gift.

She also remembers childhood abuses and adventures. Then, a blue heron flies by. “This stilt-legged bird… seems out of place in the air.

But we are alike… pulsing oxygen to every cell.

I have reclaimed air.”

In Putting on Airs Lois Ruskai Melina remembers the “A-list” girls of high school as she and her non-A-list friends participate in Sandpoint’s Lost in the Fifties festival. “We are middle-aged women in tiaras,” she writes. They ride in the parade like the prom queens they never were and as the Hot Flashes they entertain at the sock hop singing familiar songs from the fifties and sixties.

“The audience falls silent and moves toward the stage…. Even as the laughter of those once firmly in the popular crowd mixes with that of those who never quite made it, I know there is some genuine pain, and I know some of it belongs to those who raised their hands first.” I feel a twinge of remorse as I dedicate the song to those who weren’t on that A-list…”

“Mystical, paradoxical fog… this keeper of the kingdom with power enough to eclipse the Clearwater and power… to maroon villagers in Yupik, Alaska. Yet we attempt to communicate all that this phenomenon is with a mundanesounding, three-letter word - fog,” writes Borg

Hendrickson in Fog. He writes about camping on a mountain top above the fog, about challenging the weather in Alaska as he flies in and out of a remote village, about hiking along the river in the fog. “I am thinking fog is a kind of mirage. I can see that fog is there, yet as I reach out with a finger to touch: nothing… lick with extended tongue: nothing, I listen, I sniff. No touch, taste, sound, or smell…. Yet fog fills and bathes me, infuses me with the essence of the vessel that I am.”

“It doesn’t help that I’m betraying my cultural background,” says Denice Turner in Coming to Earth. “Mormon women are not meant to fly….

Even our angels don’t fly.” Turner tells about learning to fly a plane, about being a Mormon woman and about her personal culture clash.

“The same air that frees me from confinement also creates a feeling of being detached. Air offers no comfort, no concrete paths. I can’t embrace the wind. It adheres to nothing. Its molecules… expand to fill the space allowed.”

The sky offers freedom and adventure. The ground offers home, family, and security. Turner treasures it all, “it occurred to me that the reason I feel uneasy aloft is not because I don’t belong in the air, but that, for the time being, I do.”

In Eleven Ways to Consider Air, Brandon R. Schrand discusses his own asthma, his grandfather’s emphysema, his family’s smokers, and his city’s air pollution. “Of all the elements in the American West romanticized… air is perhaps the most curious,” Schrand says in his first way to consider air. “Air… was the most egalitarian of elements, and it was purer in the West,” He goes on to talk about that air’s being polluted.

He recalls his grandmother’s Belair cigarettes. “I will not soon forget the artwork… crisp blue windblown sky…. The package was the image of the freshest air imaginable.” The industries that bring employment to small Idaho towns also pollute that pure western air. Schrand wonders about our choices, about our understanding between the image and the reality of our western air.

A dozen more Idaho writers consider air in essays about the terror of a tornado, about mountain climbing and sky diving, about Nez Perce spiritual beliefs, aerobic exercise, and the nature of God. The final section lists all the contributors with some brief information about each. Borne on Air is an entertaining and thought-provoking read that is worthy of your attention. ISI

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 21

Assisted Living Options: Research Early, Don’t Wait for Crisis Call

By Jacqueline Marcell, Senior Wire At one of my recent seminars, an “at-herwit’s-end” adult daughter, Sally, rushed up afterward pleading for my advice on how to get her elderly parents to move to assisted living before their health deteriorated any further. She lived across the country and was terrified about their being alone as there had already been a few close calls - like the time her father left the gas stove on without it lighting, filling the house with fumes and nearly asphyxiating himself and his wife. Sally had already tried to hire caregivers to come into her parents’ home, but her father would not allow it. She was desperate to get them to move before the next crisis call - hoping to preserve their safety!

It reminded me of the time I received a late night call from another adult child, Paul, begging for my advice on this same exasperating situation. He had just flown in after receiving his crisis call and was at the hospital with his folks.

His father had accidentally burned their house down! He said he had begged his parents for years to move into assisted living and a couple times even had everything signed and ready to go, but they canceled at the last minute. I felt so bad for him and suggested maybe it would be better to wait a bit until his parents recovered from the smoke inhalation before he brought up the move to assisted living again; but Paul (a 60year-old man), burst into tears with, “Jacqueline, I can’t wait - I just found out my father already hired the contractor to rebuild the house. My parents are 90 and 92 years old!”

So how do you convince a loved one to move

to assisted living when they flatly refuse? Oh, I wish I had the magic bullet! Of course, the key would have been by having “the conversation” years earlier and being prepared to handle these difficult situations. By documenting a person’s wishes for their later years and having living wills, trusts, and durable powers of attorney in place (for health and financial decisions should they become incapacitated), much of this stress can be reduced. But unfortunately, most people go into denial and procrastinate dealing with endof-life issues until they absolutely have to. And since our civil rights laws are properly very strong and you cannot just move someone out of their home against their will. It boils down to: 1. Begging, pleading, and a test of wills and perseverance.

2. Repetitive family interventions.

3. Soliciting healthcare professionals to help with the convincing.

4. Contacting Adult Protective Services (APS) and an elder law attorney, and going through the nightmare of trying to get a legal conservatorship/guardianship over your elder.

This requires substantial proof that the person is a danger to himself or herself or someone else.

But, if the day they go before the judge they are sharp as a tack (which happened to me with my father), you cannot get it!

So, it behooves everyone to talk to his or her parents early on, while everyone is still healthy and thinking clearly.

By having rational solutions for their later years documented,

We Aren’t What We Appear To Be Submitted by Jack Smith When an old man died in a nursing home in North Platte, Nebraska, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.

Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, they found the following poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the facility.

One nurse took her copy to Missouri. The old man’s sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News

and discussing assisted living options, when the time comes it will be much easier to accomplish.

Jacqueline Marcell is a former television executive whose caregiving experience resulted in her bestselling book “Elder Rage,” a Book-ofthe-Month Club selection. She is also a breast cancer survivor who advocates that everyone (especially caregivers) closely monitor his or her own health. www.ElderRage.com. ISI

PAGE 22 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

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Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.

And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this anonymous poem published and read thousands of times on the Internet.

Remember this poem when you meet an older person you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within. We will all, one day, be there, too!

Crabby Old Man What do you see nurses? What do you see?

What are you thinking when you’re looking at me?

A crabby old man not very wise, Uncertain of habit with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food and makes no reply When you say in a loud voice, “I do wish you’d try!”

Who seems not to notice the things that you do And forever is losing a sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will With bathing and feeding - the long day to fill?

Is that what you’re thinking? Is that what you see?

Then open your eyes, nurse. You’re not looking at me.

I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still, As I do at your bidding as I eat at your will.

I’m a small child of ten with a father and mother, Brothers and sisters who love one another.

A young boy of sixteen with wings on his feet Dreaming that soon now a lover he’ll meet.

A groom soon at twenty - my heart gives a leap.

Remembering, the vows that I promised to keep.

At twenty-five, now I have young of my own.

Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.

A man of thirty, my young now grown fast, Bound to each other with ties that will last.

At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone, But my woman’s beside me to see I don’t mourn.

At fifty, once more babies play round my knee.

Again, we know children my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me - my wife is now dead.

I look at the future and shudder with dread.

For my young are all rearing young of their own.

And I think of the years. And the love I have known.

I’m now an old man and nature is cruel.

Tis jest to make old age and look like a fool.

The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart.

There is now a stone where I once had a heart.

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But inside this old carcass a young guy still dwells, And now and again, my battered heart swells.

I remember the joys; I remember the pain And I’m loving and living life over again.

I think of the years all too few gone too fast.

And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.

So open your eyes, people! Open and see Not a crabby old man.

Look closer. See ME! ISI

We’re working twenty-four seven to help you maintain independence in your own home. We help with: t Bathing and other personal needs t Household maintenance and yard work t Laundry & Housekeeping t Errands, Shopping & Activities t Meal preparation t Medication reminders t Nursing services & visits t Companionship t Emergency monitoring t Any other aspects of daily living

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 23

When Stroke Hits A Family Tips For Managing The Stress

By Lisa M. Petsche your area. A physical therapist or social worker Strokes are the leading cause of long-term can facilitate this. adult disability in this country. Approximately Helping Hands - Focus on progress made, 600,000 Americans experience one each year. however small the steps, and encourage your Only ten percent recover completely. loved one to do the same. Take things one day at Stroke can result in physical disability and a time so you don’t get overwhelmed. Encourage mental impairment as well. Paralysis or weakness your loved one, and perhaps other close relaon one side of the body is the most obvious sign of tives, to participate in decision-making, so you damage, but mobility, personal care, communica- don’t have to take on tion, mood, memory, and problem-solving ability sole responsibility for can also be affected. important choices.

Without a doubt, stroke is a life-altering experiFind at least one ence, not only for survivors but also for their loved person you can talk to ones. It can be a time of grieving losses. Life may openly, someone who never return to the way it used to be, and plans will listen and empafor the future may have to be revised. thize. Consider joinLike survivors, family members initially can ing a support group experience a wide range of conflicting feelings, for families of stroke including shock, relief, denial, fear, anxiety, anger, survivors. sadness, and frustration. In the midst of such upMake a concerted heaval, relationships within a family often become effort to look after your strained. own health. Schedule Impaired speech or language comprehension regular breaks from can make it difficult for the survivor to communicate visiting at the hospital with loved ones. Chemical changes in the brain or caregiving at home in can cause what is known as emotional liability order to stay connected - sudden, uncontrollable laughing or crying, often to friends and outside at inappropriate times. This can make for some activities. awkward moments in social situations.

Ask other famIn addition, some people undergo personality ily members to help changes following a stroke. A confident person out as needed. If your may become slow and cautious; conversely, a loved one will be returncautious person may become impatient and im- ing home or already is pulsive. home with you, find out Depression, a common consequence of stroke, about relevant commay affect the survivor’s motivation for rehabilita- munity support services tion. Sometimes it manifests itself as irritability, and make use of them. other times as indifference and withdrawal.

Don’t take on every Stress Points - Such changes can lead fam- responsibility singleily members to feel that they no longer know the handedly or you will survivor very well. Furthermore, they often feel as burn yourself out. if no one outside the family understands what they Be patient. Allow are going through. It can make for lonely times. plenty of time to adjust Uncertainty about the future - for example, how to the changes in your much function their loved one will recover after the relationship and lifestroke and whether he or she will be able to return style. Look for ways to home - also contributes to stress among close include laughter and joy relatives. One result can be depression. in each day - this will Spouses or adult children may be over- enhance your relationwhelmed by the number and types of decisions ship with your loved that they need to make regarding rehabilitation one and help foster a options, medical equipment purchase, home positive outlook. modifications, and other considerations following Lisa M. Petsche is discharge from the hospital. a medical social worker They often have to take over practical tasks and a freelance writer such as managing finances, preparing meals, and specializing in boomer housekeeping. In addition, they may be expected and senior issues. ISI to assume the role of hands-on caregiver, assisting with dressing, grooming, bathing, and even using the toilet. Feelings of doubt and resentment may surface, closely followed by guilt.

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Attend some therapy sessions with the stroke survivor.

Find out what he or she is and is not able to do.

Include your loved one in conversations, even if his or her ability to participate is limited.

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PAGE 24 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

The Wisdom Of Larry the Cable Guy...

Submitted by Julie Hollar/Brantley 1. A day without sunshine is like night.

2. On the other hand, you have different fingers.

3. Forty-two percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.

4. Ninety-five percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

5. Remember, half the people you know are below average.

6. He who laughs last thinks slowest.

7. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

8. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

9. Support bacteria. They are the only culture some people have.

10. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory. ISI

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 25

Remembering the Pacific War Story by Andrea Gross & Photos by Irv Green The room is dark. In front of me, a 78-foot Japanese submarine is silhouetted against a screen the color of pre-dawn sky. Suddenly the sound of airplanes pierces the silence, and a siren blares. My heart starts pounding, even though my head knows I’m safe and sound in Fredericksburg, Texas, home of the newly enlarged National Museum of the Pacific War. This museum, which reopened last December after receiving a $15.5 million, 43,000square-foot expansion, was originally established to honor Fredericksburg’s local son, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Allied Forces in the Pacific during World War II. In accord with Admiral Nimitz’s wishes, it honors all of the men and women who served in the Pacific Theater. To put it mildly, it is quite a place.

Angled walls lead visitors through a series of small cubbies, each devoted to a different segment of the war. Several galleries, like the one devoted to the attack on Pearl Harbor, feature large-screen multi-media presentations complete with theatrical sound effects. Others have smaller screens that feature old newsreels, tables with animated maps and computer kiosks with interactive exhibits.

Then there are the artifacts: some small,

like weapons, uniforms and equipment; others large, like the Japanese submarine. Outside a three-acre Pacific Combat Zone shows still more equipment, including a restored PT boat.

I wander through the exhibits slowly, reading the story of an Iowa mother, who lost five sons off the Solomon Islands, and listening to recordings where veterans speak of their experiences on the Bataan Death March or the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which some say is the largest naval battle in history.

Visiting the museum is healing for veterans and their families. Esther Glassman Wilson, whose husband “fought on every godforsaken island” in the Pacific, tells me that people need to know how very brutal this war was. “After my husband came home, he didn’t smile for eight years,” she says.

It takes time to absorb these stories, and the folks who planned the museum wisely made the admission tickets good for 48 hours so that folks can take a break midway through. I spend the rest of the day exploring the shops and galleries of Fredericksburg’s downtown and returned to the museum early the next morning.

How To Make Grandpa Feel Warm And Fuzzy Submitted by Julie Hollar/Brantley Six-year-old Mandy went to the hospital with her grandmother to visit her Grandpa who had been ill. When they got to the hospital, she ran ahead of her Grandma and burst into her Grandpa’s room.

“Grandpa, Grandpa,” she said excitedly. “As

soon as Grandma comes into the room, make a noise like a frog!”

“What?” asked her Grandpa. “Why do you want me to do that?”

“Because Grandma said that as soon as you croak, we’re all going to Disneyland!” ISI

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I walk into Gallery 33 to see a rather unimposing yellow canister - 10.6 feet long, 5 feet in diameter - that looks like a metal blimp. It should, I think, be carrying a banner advertising a county fair. Instead, it’s a nuclear container like that used for Fat Man, the bomb that devastated Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Had Japan not surrendered six days later, this canister would have been used to deliver another bomb.

A final multi-media show depicts the ceremony aboard the USS Missouri when General Douglas MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender on behalf of the Allies and Fleet Admiral Nimitz signed on behalf of the United States.

“I’m not here as an individual, but only as a representative of the brave men who fought under my command in the Pacific,” he said, forecasting the focus of the museum that would later be built in his hometown.

For more information, visit www.pacificwarmuseum.org.

Hint: The museum lacks only one thing - places to sit down. Even the lobby is devoid of chairs. If you can’t be on your feet for long periods of time, bring your own chair.

To see more about World War II in the Pacific, visit the USS Midway, commissioned eight days after the Japanese surrender, remains a fine example of the type of aircraft carrier that plied the Pacific during the War. Now docked at Navy Pier in San Diego Bay, it is filled with more than 60 exhibits and restored aircraft (www.midway. org). ISI [Photo] A Japanese Aichi “Val” dive bomber used during Pearl Harbor

PAGE 26 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

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Tips For Choosing A Mortgage (NAPSI) - Doing a little homework before choosing a mortgage could help save homebuyers plenty of cash. Still, many consumers accept the first loan they’re offered, often not realizing they may be able to get a better deal.

On any given day, lenders and brokers might offer different interest rates and fees to different consumers for the same loan. In fact, neither lenders nor brokers are required to find the best or most affordable loan for you. According to the Federal Reserve Board, the best way to avoid overpaying for a mortgage is to shop around.

The Fed offers these tips: • Know What You Can Afford - Review your monthly spending plan to estimate what you can afford to pay for a home. Be sure to include mortgage, property taxes, insurance, monthly maintenance, and utility costs in your calculation.

It’s also important to check your credit report to ensure all the information it contains is accurate.

A higher credit score might help you get a lower interest rate on your mortgage.

• Know the Benefits and Risks - Mortgages have many features. Some have fixed interest rates and some have adjustable rates. Still others have payment adjustments or allow you to

only pay the interest on the loan for a period of time before you pay against the loan amount.

There are also certain loans that charge penalties if you pay them off early and some that have a large payment due at the end of the loan. A mortgage shopping worksheet can help you identify the features of different loans. You can find a sample of one at www.federalreserve. gov/pubs/mortgage/worksheet.pdf.

• Know Your Options - You can get a loan from a mortgage lender or a mortgage broker.

Brokers arrange mortgage loans with a lender, rather than lend money directly. Be sure to shop around for the best deals.

• Get Advice You Can Trust - A mortgage loan is one of the most complex and expensive financial commitments many people ever assume. It’s OK to ask for help. Talk with a trusted housing counselor or a real estate attorney who you hire to review your documents before you sign them.

For more information, visit www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo or call Federal Reserve Consumer Help at 888-851-1920 (Phone) or 877-766-8533 (TTY). ISI

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 27

PAGE 28 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

How To Make More Of What You Already Have

By Clare Hafferman Remember when we were kids lined up to get into something - the cafeteria or the Saturday movie - and some pushy elbower would try to get in front. We all yelled, “No cuts!”

Now that you remember the term, I’m here to tell you in the world of gardening, taking a cut is legitimate. If you break off or cut a stem or a branch (called a “slip”), there are many plants capable of reproducing themselves using this method.

We know from history that when the pioneers loaded that creaking wagon, somewhere

between the crates and barrels were plant starts, probably wrapped in damp burlap or old clothes. Among the botanical travelers were old friends like Harrison’s yellow rose or varieties of rosa rugosa, lilac stems, a start from a parlor geranium, a cutting from a forsythia bush, and certainly some currant, honeysuckle, pear, plum, or apple branches. Johnny Appleseed didn’t spread orchards by keeping everything at home, and neither did these early wayfarers. Many old homesteads, deserted and dilapidated, have an old rose bush in the yard or a lilac hedge originally planted as a windbreak still making flowers decades later.

If you want to make extra plants to give as gifts or sell at your Farmer’s Market, start with the houseplants you have on hand. Ivy, hoya, philodendron, geranium, spider plant, African violet, Christmas or Easter cactus, and donkeytail sedum are good examples. Sharpen your knife and put the cuttings in a rooting medium as soon as possible. Cuttings from the lower part of the plant, closer to the roots, will root easier than those from stems higher up. Flowering stems won’t root as easily as non-bloomers. Make cuttings only 3-4 inches long and use a diagonal cut for the lower end and a straight cut from the top of a branch.

Then when you plant, put the diagonal cut in the soil.

Dip the bottom two inches of the cutting into water, then into a rooting hormone like Rootone. You can also speed things up by using water in which willow stems have been soaked. Use a mix of equal parts of vermiculite and perlite, or just potting soil. Moisten this mix beforehand.

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Strip off any leaves that would be below soil level and remove any flower buds. With a pencil or a dowel, poke a hole in your potting mixture to 1-2 inches and insert the stems. Put the pots in a shallow container of water so they can absorb water from below.

Once you have filled a flat or a group of containers, it’s advised to keep them at a temperature around 70 degrees, but they will survive at cooler temperatures. Cover the flat with clear plastic propped up by sticks and take off the plastic from time to time to let in fresh air. The same principle applies to cuttings in pots.

Some people use a heating mat to provide bottom warmth, but if you only have one flat and no mat, try the top of the refrigerator for the same effect, with the flat set on newspaper. The results may be a little slower, but it works.

Some plants will also root in water. Ivy and hoyas are two examples and if you have a cube of Oasis, poke holes in that, keep it damp and on a tray, and try some starts in it.

Once the flat or containers show evidence of new leaf buds, pot up the individual plants and keep them where they can receive some light.

You can help them grow by applying more willow water. A table set by a window on the east side of your house will serve if you don’t have a greenhouse.

Softwood cuttings from plants that have new green growth are best taken in late spring or early summer when the temperature has warmed up. They usually root easily from 3-4 inch starts and include plants like Forsythia, rambling roses, and willows. Some of these will also root in water if you stir the water every few days to incorporate air. Other cuttings from geranium, impatiens, and some houseplants will drip some sap, so put these aside in a dry shady place so the cuts heal over before you put then in the potting medium.

Hardwood cuttings, 7 to 10 inches long, are best taken a month or so before the first hard frost. The plants ordinarily successful using this method include cotoneaster, currant, elderberry, forsythia, honeysuckle, mock orange, pear,

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

plums, roses, pussy willows, spirea, viburnum, arborvitae, and many vines. Make your cuts and then cover them in damp newspaper to keep them from drying out. Tie the cuttings of each plant together in a separate bundle, with the tops pointing in the same direction (all straight across the top.) Make a mix of perlite and sand or vermiculite and peat moss in a 5-gallon bucket and keep the cuttings in this until springtime.

Keep the bucket in a place where it’s cold but not freezing-maybe in an unheated porch. Plant these starts in spring.

Here also is an old-fashioned way of rooting roses. Cut off a branch of 5 to 7 inches with at least one leaf node on it. Plant the branch in good dirt and put a glass canning jar over it. The jar insures moisture gathering to keep the stem

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 29

from drying out. You might try a hybrid variety or an old-fashioned rose to see what succeeds.

Assuming you are a gardener who likes experimentation, you may be surprised at the parent plants that can give you whole new families. Now you can take your “cut” because this time, no one is going to yell at you to get back in line! ISI

How to Make Home a Safer Place

By Jim Miller Your parents are like most people in this country. They want to stay living in their own home as long as they’re physically capable. But for many people in their 70s and beyond, staying put can present some real safety challenges.

Here’s what you should know.

Every year in the U.S. about 7,000 older people die in home-related accidents, and millions are seriously injured. Falls are the leading cause of injuries, but people are also at risk for being burned by the stove or scalded by hot water. To help make your parent’s home a safer, more age-friendly place to live, here are some tips and resources that can help.

Get Informed - Your first step is to learn where the potential hazards lie in your parent’s house and what you can do to reduce them.

A good place to do this is at the Home Safety Council’s website (www.mysafehome.net) where you can take a house tour that points out the possible dangers room-by-room. Many of the changes the site suggests are simple and inexpensive, like removing clutter and throw rugs to avoid tripping, installing brighter bulbs in existing light fixtures to improve vision, and adding grab bars to the bathroom for support.

Get an Assessment - If your parents have medical issues like chronic arthritis or poor vision, ask their doctor to prescribe a home evaluation by an occupational therapist that specializes in home modifications. They can analyze the potential challenges and shortcomings of your parent’s home to come up with a plan that you, a handy person or a contractor can easily follow. Many health insurance providers, including Medicare, will pay for a home assessment. However, they will not cover the physical upgrades to the home.

Another option is to contact your nearby independent living center (see www.ilru.org).

These are nonprofit centers that provide information on home modifications and assistive living equipment, and many even offer free or low-cost home assessments.

Ways to Pay - If your parents need or want

to make substantial changes to their home, but don’t have the cash to pay for them, they should consider taking out a home equity loan. Another possibility is a reverse mortgage. Available to people over 62, a reverse mortgage will let your parent’s convert the equity in their home into cash that doesn’t have to be paid back as long as either one of them is living there. But the fees can be substantial, so be sure to speak with a financial planner before taking out this type of mortgage. For information on ways you can tap into your home equity, go to www.longtermcare. gov, a site run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

If your parents happen to have long-term care insurance, they should call their insurance agent and ask whether home modifications are covered under their plan and what documentation they need to be reimbursed. A policy will not pay for upgrades if they are still healthy.

If funds are scarce, contact the Eldercare Locator at 800-677-1116 or visit www.eldercare. gov to find the Area Agency on Aging near your parents, and inquire about home modification loans and other available services. Many state and local communities have low or no-interest loans, tax credits, or other programs to those with low or moderate incomes.

In addition, get in touch with Rebuilding Together (www. rebuildingtogether. org, 800-473-4229), a national nonprofit organization that repairs and modifies homes of older, low-income homeowners to help them age in place.

Send your senior questions to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book. ISI

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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Painter Barbara Janusz Has Found a Home on Lake Pend Oreille Article & Photo by Cate Huisman Barbara Janusz’s studio and home perch like an eagle’s aerie on a narrow shelf above Lake Pend Oreille, just west of Hope. There is a house from the 1940s, a large workroom filled with paintings, a big garden full of flowers and vegetables, and a manicured square of flat lawn. On a summer afternoon, the sound of wind chimes wafts in on an ever-present breeze.

But the most striking aspect of the home is its view. Far below Janusz’s front porch, the northern curve of Lake Pend Oreille expands into the mountainous distance. Janusz takes her inspiration as a painter from looking at that view and others like it, finding subjects as large as that vista and as intimate as the smallest of leaves and berries.

“I always loved the northwest,” says Janusz, although she was born in New York State and grew up in southern California.

She first came to Idaho on vacation, and several visits followed to paint, do shows, and teach workshops before she finally came to stay in 1991.

Her fondness for her surroundings is evident in her paintings. Water is a theme

–including a whole series of waterfalls, some real and some from her imagination. There are numerous alpine and sylvan landscapes, and they are rarely without lakes or rivers. Often the mountains have a familiar look for her neighbors in north Idaho who will recognize portrayals of the Green Monarchs and Chimney Rock.

Anglers appear in many of her paintings, too.

Janusz likes flyfishing, and she tries to capture “that oneness with nature when you are in the water. It’s almost like a meditation. I paint that

feeling.

The flyfisher is usually small in my painting, and nature is grand.”

Flowers are another theme - many different kinds, from her garden and from the wild. Her studies of leaves are striking in their use of purple and even blue to reflect a subject often conceived of as only green. And, a series of paintings of lily ponds is a natural melding of these two themes - water and flowers. Janusz has even created a lily pond in her garden to provide a model.

Janusz’s predominant medium is watercolor, a preference she picked up in college at Cal State–Long Beach, where she earned a Master of Arts degree.

“I occasionally do oils, but watercolor’s my favorite,” she says. “There’s something about the fluidity and the luminosity… the layers of color that create the light coming through painting.” But, she admits it is a less forgiving medium than oils. “You have to have a strategy. It’s like playing chess.”

Janusz’s strategy starts with a light sketch in pencil, which gives a sense of her overall composition. Next, she plans where the whites are going to be. The waterfalls and a small series of seascapes make particularly good use of this whiteness, where it appears in sea foam and, appropriately, whitewater.

The sky and trunks of aspens take their turns

as places without color, too. Most intriguing of the colorless places is the fine thread of an angler’s line. Several of Janusz’s paintings have this tiny line of reflected light cutting across a darker background of water and rocks and trees.

“Once the whites are planned, I start with lighter colors and let that dry and build it up darker and darker until I get the dark shadows and the texture shows on the rocks,” she explains.

The paintings are not finished in one sitting because the many layers can take a few weeks, so Janusz often has two paintings in process at once. Each painting evolves over many sessions as she studies it, determines what is working, what is not, and then progresses further.

“Sometimes when I’m finished, I think, ‘Wow! That worked out great.’

Other times, I think I should start over.

It just depends. Sometimes you go too far and that’s it. You can’t paint over it as you do with oils.”

Although painting is like a chess game to Janusz, it is also like a meditative state, and all the strategizing in the world will not work if she tries too hard.

“The creativity flows through you. You can’t worry about anything; you’re in a zone,” she adds.

This approach is reflected in her teaching, where she finds that students learn a lot about themselves in this process of simultaneously planning and letting go. During her popular watercolor workshops, students gather to paint on that square of lawn in her garden.

“Watercolor isn’t an easy medium to learn, but it can be very rewarding,” she says. “There are definitely steps you can learn to become a better painter. It’s like tennis or skiing - you have to learn how to unweight a ski or hold a racquet.”

One advantage to holding these workshops in her home is that it brings would-be artists to an area she finds so inspiring.

“I think artists are drawn here because it’s such a beautiful place to be, and there are so many artists here.”

Janusz opened the ArtWorks Gallery with a group of other artists in 1997, and she finds the artist community a source of ongoing support.

She participates in the area’s Artists Studio Tour, and the ArtWorks Gallery is a popular stop on Sandpoint’s twice-yearly “artwalks” sponsored by the Pend Oreille Arts Council. These kinds of activities expose her art and those of her north Idaho colleagues to a wide range of buyers.

“I’ve been a painter all my life,” says Janusz.

Surrounded by her favorite subjects and colleagues, this is a place where a painter like her belongs. ISI

Inventor, Scientist, ForRest Bird Flies High In North Idaho

By Cate Huisman Bonner County resident Forrest Bird is almost a household name in the panhandle since the opening of the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center in 2007. Over 3,500 schoolchildren visited the museum last year, and Bird is often there as well, explaining exhibits and technologies, showing visitors around, or hobnobbing with other World War II veteran flyers.

Forrest Bird stands out – he’s very tall (6’4”) and wears distinctive glasses with extra lenses that flip up and down - a form of trifocals that gives him a wider range of vision than single-lens trifocals would. He also stands out because he is very friendly and approachable. His manner never makes it evident that he is any different from all the other people around who have not been honored at the White House twice or been featured on 60 Minutes as he has.

In the 1940s, Bird began developing medical respirators that have saved countless lives in the six decades since. The first Bird Universal Medical Respirator, later known as the Bird Mark 7, went into production in 1958.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

“I started work on it probably ten years earlier,” at the age of 14 in 1935.

In 1937, he had two brushes with aviation says Bird. Later he developed the Babybird - a respirator specifically for infants that contributed history that must have intensified his interest. On to reducing mortality for infants with breathing May 6, he was buzzing his home in his father’s airplane when he saw a large object in the distance. problems from 70% to 10%.

The most recent version of his respirator He flew up close to discover himself next to the is called the Percussionator, which varies from Hindenburg airship.

“It was massive - I can still picture it,” Bird reearlier models in the speed and volume of its calls. Older readers will remember that just a few ventilations.

“The Bird ventilator gives big breaths so many hours later it exploded and descended in flames.

That fall, Bird met Orville Wright on a trip to times a minute. What we do now - we take and ventilate the lung very rapidly with very small breaths. the Cleveland Air Races with his dad. It was an The rates of ventilation vary in milliseconds instead of seconds… we get rates of up to maybe 600 times a minute - so fast it’s percussion,” Bird explains.

“A lot of patients die on the battlefield because of respiratory failure,” says Bird.

In combat, medics carry the Percussionator along with a bottle of oxygen, and this reduces death by preventing further lung damage and keeping the soldier alive until surgeons and other [Photo provided by Forrest Bird] medical specialists have time to repair exciting moment for him. the injuries.

“I looked up to him because I loved aviation, Given the significance of these inventions, it is no surprise that Bird has been awarded the Presi- and he started it.”

Having racked up a great deal of flying time in dential Citizens Medal (by the second President Bush) and the National Medal of Technology & his youth, Bird rose quickly in the Army Air Corps after he was called up in 1941 and became an air Innovation (by President Obama).

However, Bird’s inventions do not stop with training officer. His interest in breathing apparatus the respirators, and he holds over 200 patents. started when he was in the military, looking for a Another of his innovations was the conversion of a way to enable pilots to breathe at high altitudes.

PBY Catalina airplane for what he calls “interconti- After the war, he got interested in developing some nental intensive care.” Because of Bird’s changes, of the same apparatus for medical purposes, and the plane could transport paralyzed patients over that is what led to his respirators.

So what is this famous inventor doing in north very long distances to medical facilities. Bird has flown the plane all the way from Lake Pend Oreille Idaho? After the war, Bird married a Sandpoint girl, his first wife, Mary, who died in 1986. He started his to Copenhagen, a distance of 8,000 miles.

Bird became interested in aviation when he respirator manufacturing facility here in the 1960s. was quite young. Growing up in Stoughton, Mas- Forty employees work at the end of Glengary Bay sachusetts, as the son of a World War I flyer, he Road, 15 miles off the highway, on the shore of was in airplanes early. He made his first solo flight

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 31

Lake Pend Oreille.

“Most of our work is in the universities and with the military,” says Bird, which may account for his low Panhandle profile in the past decades.

Although many local folks have become aware of his accomplishments only in the few years since the museum opened, UPS and FedEx have known about him for years.

“UPS comes in and out of here and also Fed Ex every day; they ship all over the world,” says Bird. “If I get an order [for a respirator] before noon, it can be in Europe or Japan by 10 o’clock the next morning.”

Right now Bird’s focus is on education - not only teaching and inspiring local young people through his example and the museum, but also educating medical professionals around the world about how to use his respirators. He particularly admires the respiratory therapists who are trained to use his inventions.

“They’re bright as all get out. I give them a lot of credit.”

After 60 years in the breathing business, Bird claims, “I haven’t been asked a new question in 20 years, but the way they’re asked makes me start thinking. Teaching keeps me young.”

Not that he sees youth as a particular advantage. A couple of years ago in the 60 Minutes program that featured Bird and his work, Morley Safer asked Bird whether people might feel uncomfortable flying with an 86-year-old pilot. But Bird, who is now two years older and shows no sign of slowing down, pointed out one advantage of older pilots.

“We have arterial sclerosis. Now, a young fellow, at 25, will black out faster than we will because our arteries are harder and they’re less expansive.

So we maintain our blood pressure better,” Bird told Safer.

Readers of Idaho Senior Independent might particularly appreciate this fact. ISI

Remembering the River Pigs

By Cate Huisman It seems an odd moniker for men who might have been called oxen for their strength or deer for their agility. But pigs?

No one knows exactly the origins of the term “river pigs” but thanks to the Bonner County Historical Society and its archived transcriptions of talks with old timers, it is clear that river pigs were bold men who brought timber out of the mountains of

north Idaho by floating down streams and rivers.

The first log drive on the Priest River in Bonner County was at the turn of the last century, and the river pigs drove their last logs in 1949.

Only 67 miles long, this stretch of river is much like most of the Panhandle’s mountain streams beautiful. Bill Whetsler, a river pig for over 30 years, described it as “swift, rocky, and rough” with “a hell of lot of rapids.” In the heyday of the log drives,

more than 100 million board feet of timber ran these rapids in the span of a few weeks.

Before the advent of logging roads and diesel trucks, it took manpower and ingenuity to get logs out of the woods. Horses were helpful, but a river required neither care nor maintenance and was already running in the right direction. So lumberjacks used horses, sledges, flumes, and a certain amount of colorful language to get the logs to the

PAGE 32 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

the farm chores for the $6 and chuck,” remembered Paul Croy, who ran drives in the 1920s and 1930s to help put himself through the University of Idaho.

Once the water was up, Jim Bews, another river pig, remembered, “The job of the drivers was to start the logs moving - whatever it took to start them moving.” Whetsler described it as “wrestling the logs into the water” to get them going, and then

breaking up the log jams that invariably formed on boulders or bars in the river.

The newer and less-skilled men were called “bank beavers.” They wrestled beached logs into the water and broke up the wing jams along the banks. This involved prying logs free with a peavey, a stout pole with a spike on the end and an angled metal spike attached by a hinge back from the point. But, this work couldn’t all be done from the shore, and daily the bank beavers waded deep into water that had been snow just the day before.

But they wore long woolen underwear, and Croy remembered they had a saying, “With long johns on, no matter how cold and wet you get, you’re always warm and dry!”

The most experienced men went after the center jams in a bateau, a sturdy wooden boat about 30 feet long. The bateau was powered by oarsmen on both sides and commanded by a boss at the bow with a long pike pole. The pigs would hop out of the bateau onto the jam and set to working it loose with peaveys. Not all the logs moved as planned, of course, and even planned log motion required an agile pig to dance across the loosening logs and back into the bateau before the jam broke up. There was a significant learning curve, and the bank beavers did not stay as dry as the more experienced men in the bateau did.

“I swam half the length of the river that first spring,” Croy recalled. “I don’t know how many times [my boss] hauled me out of the river and then fished for my peavey with his pike pole. It was uncanny how he could locate it in ten feet of water in a swirling current. He’d pole the boat alongside me and then ask, ‘Now where did you drown your hook this time?’”

No account of this activity fails to use the word dangerous, and it is hard to imagine what the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would think if another Priest River log drive were held next spring. Nevertheless, as Whetsler pointed out proudly, “We never had as much as a broken bone on my log drive. The first thing I did was to spend most of the first day teaching every man that he was the top safetyman of the crew… I had a few boys hurt a little and we saved some too.”

Just as the tractor made the draft horse obsolete, the log drives ended as motorized transportation made its rise.

When roads were built into the forests of north Idaho Urologic Institute, PA continues to set the standard of urologic care in the Treasure Valley.

Idaho and multi-geared We are dedicated to comprehensive urologic care for men, women and children. monster log trucks were built to traverse them, Additionally, our highly-trained physicians are the most experienced in the Treasure Valley in the following: there was less need in • Minimally invasive surgery for kidney disorders and prostate cancer, including daVinci robotic prostatectomy the woods for moving water, colorful language, • Male Infertility and long woolen under• Minimally invasive procedures for stone disease wear. Modern young men • Pediatric urology and urologic surgery in search of a few weeks of hard work are left to buck hay in small family We are welcoming new and established patients to our new office! fields or fight wildfires if Conveniently located on the West Valley Medical Center Campus in the they can get on a crew and their mothers will let Caldwell Medical Arts Building them.

1818 S. 10th Ave., Suite 240, Caldwell But the log drives live on in the collective memory of the citizens The Idaho Urologic Institute physicians and physician assistants are: of Priest River, although fewer and fewer logs are David B. Rice, MD Cynthia A. Fairfax, MD brought out of the woods Todd M. Waldmann, MD William H. Fredriksson, MD with each passing year.

Joseph H. Williams, MD John A. Greer, MD The town’s Timber Days Nicolas J. Allen, PA, MPAS Dawn K. King, MD festival each summer is a Derek Derkacs, PA, MPAS Eric W. Klein, MD remnant of that life.

Katy Holder, PA, MPAS Stephen J. Miller, MD And if you hoist a few at the River Pig’s Inn and Call today to schedule Our three other locations: then wander down the an appointment: street a ways, you will find 2855 E. Magic View Drive, Meridian a bateau outside the town 333 N. First Street, Suite 100, Boise or visit our website: museum – waiting for the 1613 12th Avenue Rd, Suite B, Nampa www.idurology.com next log drive. ISI

water’s edge, where they were stored until the snow melted in the spring and the river rose to carry the logs down to the Pend Oreille River and the mills at Dover and Laclede. The drive lasted a few weeks, so it was nobody’s full-time work.

“The beginning of the drive varied from year to year depending on whether the spring was early or late. The crew was made up largely of lumberjacks and stump ranchers who left the camps and

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IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 33

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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Camp for those with special needs cheers Pat Hunter as much as campers

By Dianna Troyer w/photo of Pat Hunter It’s hard to tell who benefits more - the volunteers like 73-year-old Pat Hunter or the special needs campers like 25-year-old Tami Fitzgerald - at the Helping Hands/Freedom Trails’ popular annual three-day campout the last weekend of July in southern Idaho.

During 23 years of volunteering, Pat has helped bring a smile to the faces of hundreds of special needs campers who attend the campout at the Old Independence Ranch in the scenic Elba Valley about 10 miles north of the Idaho/Utah border.

“It feels good to know I have done something good for someone else, and that I’ve helped make them smile,” says Pat, who lives in Heyburn and gathers donations and door prizes from businesses. “This gives me the opportunity to help out. I get tired, because I have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and I’m on oxygen, but it’s fun, so I keep going to camp every year.”

To request donations for the campout, Pat mails letters to about 500 businesses in Minidoka and Cassia counties each year. She pats her “Trail Bible” notebook filled with the addresses of previous donors, meticulously organized geographically.

“It’s my pride and joy,” she says. Pat, along with more than a dozen other volunteers, begins planning the campout in August for the following year.

Since 1986, Helping Hands/Freedom Trails, a non-profit volunteer organization, has sponsored the campout to provide people, regardless of their ability level or special need, with an opportunity to explore the Idaho outdoors.

Most of the 200 to 300 participants, including campers and about 60 volunteers, come primarily from southern

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Idaho, but some also come from as far away as California and Florida.

Pat began volunteering at the campout from the beginning because she took her grandsons, the late Brandon, Patrick and Matthew Hunter, who have muscular dystrophy. “I helped with the cooking and got hooked on the camp. I love being associated with the kids. I’ve watched those campers grow up, and some have passed away, too.”

Campers receive trophies, plaques, and awards during the weekend and participate in a variety of activities. They ride adaptively saddled horses, take wagon rides, do arts and crafts, participate in a talent show, perform Karaoke, play bingo, have a dance with a band, compete in a stick-horse rodeo, take archery lessons, slip down a water slide and bounce in an inflated jump house.

“For some participants, it’s the only camping experience they have,” says another volunteer Edie Fitzgerald of Albion. Edie and her husband, Harry, have been helping at the camp since 2003, when their daughter Tami participated for the first time. The Fitzgerald’s store the Helping Hands covered wagon at their home and haul it to the campout to give rides.

“I like the wagon rides and the horses,” says Tami, who has Down syndrome. Tami loves to wear a blue polar fleece vest she was awarded in 2006 for being named Camper of the Year.

Edie says she and Harry became involved with Helping Hands after a volunteer saw them with Tami in Price’s Café in Burley and invited them to participate.

“We’ve been helping ever since,” Edie says.

“Organizing the campout is a lot of hard work, but when you see the gratitude and expressions on campers’ faces, it makes it all worthwhile. Many of the volunteers don’t even have a child with a special need.”

Helping Hands President Tammie Pace, who lives in Rupert, became involved even though she didn’t have a relative with a special need, because she says the group helped her deal with the intense depression she felt after her 19-year-old daughter Bobi Jo, who was seven months pregnant, died in a one-vehicle rollover in 2002.

“Those campers saved my life,” Tammie says.

“Bobi Jo died on June 8, and I didn’t want to get out of bed or leave the house for several weeks, because I was so depressed. Then my folks came over and told me I was going to this event. When we got there, I did not want to get out of the camper.

When I finally did, a camper named Eddie, who is the same age as me and my husband, Dan, came running up to us, gave us a big hug, and started calling us Mom and Dad.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

â&#x20AC;&#x153;That night during karaoke, he said he wanted to sing a song for us. He sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. It was Bobi Joâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favorite song. How did he know? It still gives me goose bumps. When I saw how those campers overcame obstacles every day of their lives, I snapped out of my depression.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been helping with the campout ever since.â&#x20AC;?

Pat and Tammie say they are grateful for yearly donations from sponsors throughout the area.

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 35

Food is donated, and businesses provide donations and door prizes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I get a really good response from the businesses in Burley and Rupert, probably because Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m practically homegrown, and everyone knows me,â&#x20AC;? says Pat, who has lived in Heyburn since 1969.

Tammie emphasizes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;If it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t for the kindness and financial support of businesses and individuals, we could not provide this special service

Cougar Ken finds elusive predators, big game animals

each year.â&#x20AC;?

Each camper is charged $20 to participate. To volunteer or to provide donations, contact the Helping Hands organizers: Tammie Pace at 208-4366838, Carolyn Davis at 208-438-5413, Jeane Miller at 208-324-3022, Pat Hunter at 208-679-8061, or Harry and Edie Fitzgerald at 208-673-6280.

More information about Helping Hands can be found at www.hhfreedomtrails.org. ISI

W E

A R E

K E E P E R SÂŽ

C O M F O R T

Article & Photo by Dianna Troyer Friends have a couple of nicknames for Ken Jafek, depending on his particular job and the For over a decade, Comfort KeepersÂŽ S E R V I C E S particular time of year. Some days the Malta, Idaho resident is Cowboy Ken, and his favorite has been helping seniors maintain time of year is when he is Cougar Ken. t $PNQBOJPOTIJQ independent lives by providing in-home t $PPLJOH -JHIU Ken helps friends feed cattle in winter, trains his horses, and every fall starts his favorite care and safety. Like cooking, light )PVTFLFFQJOH job - guiding big game hunters, when his work becomes his play. Whatever his job, he packs housekeeping, bathing or grooming. t *ODJEFOUBM And our SafetyChoiceâ&#x201E;˘ PERS and along his sense of humor.

Transportation Medication Management Systems means â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve hunted a little,â&#x20AC;? he says of more than six decades of hunting, â&#x20AC;&#x153;but not nearly enough. t -BVOESZ help is always available. t 4BGFUZ 1SPEVDUT Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been hunting since I was about 7. Some people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe it, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true.â&#x20AC;? o 1FSTPOBM &NFSHFODZ While he is serious about his hunting, Ken can joke and not take himself too seriously. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m 3FTQPOTF 4ZTUFNT just a hillbilly from Oklahoma,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You know how you tell a rich Okie, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you? Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x201C; .FEJDBUJPO %JTQFOTFST t (SPPNJOH %SFTTJOH the one with two mattresses tied to the top of his car instead of one when he moves.â&#x20AC;?

(VJEBODF The Oklahoma native says as a youngster, he always knew the best hunting awaited t .FEJDBUJPO 3FNJOEFST him in the West. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beautiful country where I grew up north of Stillwater, but I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see t 1FSTPOBM $BSF 4FSWJDFT o #BUIJOH )ZHJFOF staying in tornado alley.â&#x20AC;? o *ODPOUJOFODF $BSF After high school, he and a friend traveled the West and liked Idaho. Ken returned per o .BOZ 0UIFST manently to Idaho in 1960 after his wife, Dolly, and him were married.

Entire He found jobs working in agriculture and eventually was Entire 895-8822 Treasure Valley: hired to manage the C&Y Farms for the J.R. SimPocatello Area: 234-9825 Pocatello Area: 234-9825 plot Company near Malta. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I worked for them for Burley/Rupert: 434-8888 more than 25 years before I retired in 1997.â&#x20AC;?

Burley/Rupert: 434-8888 Twin Falls Falls Area: Area: 733-8988 733-8988 No matter what his jobs, Ken has always Twin had several Walker hounds he trains himself.

Each office independently owned and operated. Š 2009 CK Franchising, Inc. He has relied on them to track cougars for W W W. C O M F O R T K E E P E R S . C O M biologists. The baying and bawling of hounds on a scent is as natural to him as his own breathing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My dad and granddad had hounds,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve heard them ole hounds bark all my life.â&#x20AC;?

From 1985 until 2002, Ken and his hounds helped track and tree mountain lions throughout southPERSONALIZED SUPPORT ern Idahoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Raft River Valley, so radio collars could be placed on them for a study conducted through Idaho State University. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People from England, Australia, Japan, and Germany went out with us to study the lions,â&#x20AC;? Ken says.

Three mountain lions he will always remember traveled hundreds of miles from southern Idaho, where the radio collars were placed on them. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One we collared around here ended up near Tonopah, Nevada; another was found north of Gardiner, Montana; and a third ended up east of Baggs, Wyoming,â&#x20AC;? he recalls. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quite a ways.â&#x20AC;?

Ken has tracked mountain lions for his hunting clients, too. In 1982, he started his outfitting business, War Eagle Outfitters and Guides, named for a nearby peak, and took hunters out on weekends or during his vacation from Imagine watching your Simplot. He also takes people trail riding and fishing.

His passion for hunting, knowledge of the mountains skirting the Raft loved one regain an enthusiasm River Valley, and his personality make him a popular guide. for life with personalized â&#x20AC;&#x153;Most hunters hear about me by word of mouth,â&#x20AC;? he says, relaxing in his living room. Trophy mounts surround him. A full-sized grizzly bear from the support in a friendly, Yukon Territory stands in a corner. A trumpeter swan from Utah and a turkey encouraging environment. A from Idaho rest in individual glass cases. Mounts of a big horn sheep and a mountain goat hang on the wall. little help can make an â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of guys will draw a tag but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the area, so they could spend enormous difference with a lot of time and be unsuccessful,â&#x20AC;? says Ken, who is known for seeming to have a built-in global positioning system as he navigates the mountains of activities of daily living such as southern Idaho. bathing and dressing.

Ken says his guiding business is a small family operation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t try to run a lot of hunters through,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Usually I guide for a Call to schedule a getdozen mule deer, three or four mountain lion and a moose or elk or antelope.

WYNWOODÂŽ TWIN FALLS acquainted visit, or tour our In 2007, I guided my first big horn sheep hunt, which was successful. My sons, Personalized Assisted Living SM Dan and Dennis and son-in-law Blair Davis help me out.â&#x20AC;?

Respect for Individual Preferences website today and discover how Some clients are like brothers, Ken says, because he has known them 1367 Locust Street North we provide our residents with so long.

Twin Falls, Idaho 83301 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some guys have been hunting with me for about 20 years,â&#x20AC;? he says the highest standards of (208) 735-0700 flipping through his address book of clients until he finds the names of Paul Personalized Assisted Living.

Stewart, Bob Crisman, and Pat Roth from the Longview, Wash., area that come in October to hunt mule deer.

Paul laughs when he recalls his first impression of Ken and how wrong W W W. B R O O K D A L E L I V I N G . C O M it was. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ken didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look like he was in that good of shape, and I thought I ÂŽ

Personalized Assisted Living... with an emphasis on Living.

Respect for Individual Preferences is a Service Mark of Brookdale Senior Living Inc., Nashville, TN, USA. ÂŽ Reg. U.S. Patent and TM Office 07280-RES01-0909

PAGE 36 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

could walk him into the ground. I was wrong,” Paul says. “Ken doesn’t quit. He’ll walk from daylight to dark. He’s patient and can squat and glass for an hour. If I squatted like he does for even five minutes, I couldn’t stand up again. He works hard and knows the country. He’s honest and head and shoulders above the rest in the hunting field. He’s phenomenal and has a good sense of humor, too.”

Paul says Ken’s teasing lightens the load and shortens the long stalks.

“You need me to carry that rifle for you? Is it getting too heavy?” Ken asks Paul occasionally.

Bob says Ken “is incredibly humorous, extremely good at what he does and makes hunting so much fun.”

Ken has a reputation for putting surprises in his friends’ lunches or playing pranks with dead snakes, Bob says.

Pat recalls how he and his friends first heard about Ken. “Bob and I were hunting, and he was successful and had gone home. But I didn’t harvest anything and stayed a few days longer,” Pat recalls. “I stopped in the Blue Goose, a bar in the Burley area, and everyone told me to hunt with Ken Jafek.”

From what people told him in the bar, Ken had a reputation for being as surefooted as a bighorn sheep, having the keen eyesight of a hawk, the strength of a moose, and the silent predatory nature of a cougar.

Ken says he feels fortunate to work outdoors and hunt in Idaho because of “the clear blue skies and good, clean air to breathe and of course the rain, snow, wind, and cold wet sleeping bags.”

He admits that since he started his outfitting business, he and his clients have aged a bit and now prefer sleeping in his bunkhouse, where they appreciate the luxury of indoor plumbing, warmth, and Dolly’s home-cooked meals.

“Some say they would come just to eat her food,” Ken says.

Ken says he will never retire from guiding and hunting.

At the end of October, he will once again guide Paul, Bob, and Pat. “He makes you want to come back again and again,” Pat says of hunting with Cougar Ken. ISI

Barbershop quartets deliver singing valentines Article & Photo by Dianna Troyer Paul Brown rotates his silver metal pitch pipe and laments, “My B flat is busted.”

Paul, who sings bass, and his friend Jim Rodgers, who sings melody, laugh and substitute another note before launching into a wonderful rendition of Let Me Call You Sweetheart as they rehearse at Paul’s home one morning.

The song is one they will perform again and again on Valentine’s Day, as the two, who are members of the Snake River Flats men’s choral group, deliver singing Valentines to sweethearts throughout the Burley, Rupert, and Heyburn areas.

“We divide up into quartets and go in a radius of about 25 miles from Burley,” explains Paul, who has been singing with the group for 30 years. “We sing two songs and deliver either a flower or

candy for $25.”

Members of the Snake River Flats, the non-profit Burley-Rupert chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, have been sharing their love of a cappella music with residents since 1968, when the group was chartered.

With only their voices as their best instruments, they perform for community holiday events, company banquets, Christmas parties, family reunions, class reunions, church events, funerals, weddings, and at care centers and schools.

“For Valentine’s Day, we’ll do two songs, usually ‘Let Me Call You Sweetheart’ or ‘Heart of My Heart,’ or ‘My Wild Irish Rose,’” Paul explains.

“We advertise locally in early February, and then people call us to schedule a time.”

Jim always remembers to schedule a singing Valentine for his sweetheart, Barbara, his wife of 53 years.

“She and some other members of the Take Off Pounds Sensibly group here get a kick out of being serenaded,” Jim says.

Donna, Paul’s wife of 53 years, is a little more reserved and is content with one-on-one singing from her husband at home.

The number of members in the Snake River Flats has varied over the years, and the group currently has 16 singers. They welcome singers of all ages and have had high school students perform with them.

“No matter what our ages, we all love to express ourselves musically,” says Paul, a retired residential building contractor. “It’s a good clean family-oriented hobby, and we all enjoy the camaraderie.”

For Jim, a retired farmer and rancher, hearing

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

the blend of the baritone, bass, melody or lead, and tenor parts is powerful and breathtaking.

“Music is so inspiring like nothing else,” Jim says. “Hearing the harmonies is so profound; it raises the hair on the back of your neck. It’s far more stimulating than watching TV. With singing, there’s no expense or risk, like there is with some adrenalin sports and hobbies. We’re a congenial bunch who share a common interest in music and find it stimulating. It’s such a thrill for us to perform, too.”

Every year, they pick new songs to learn and can be counted on to perform at local celebrations including the Festival of Trees, Fourth of July in Rupert, and Memorial Day. After Valentine’s Day, the group’s next big public performance is their annual spring show, the Snake River Flats Chorus Show at the King Fine Arts Center in Burley on March 27 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

“This year, we have a professional group coming from Salt Lake City, the Sugarhouse Quartet, to sing for the second half of the show,” Jim says.

“They’re really good. The Trend Setters, a group from Declo High School that has competed successfully in California, will perform, too.”

To prepare for their performances, they practice Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. in Rupert at Harmony Hall, 123 K. St., and listen to CDs in their cars or at home.

Their director, Sharon Hardy-Mills, has been leading the group for two years. “My cousin asked me to help out, and I love music, so I said, ‘Why not?’ I’ve led music on and off for 20 years at churches. Working with them is a great way to pay it forward and give something back to the community. We have a blast.”

With money they earn, the Snake River Flats pay it forward locally and donate to local school music departments.

Paul’s desire to sing isn’t limited to the Snake River Flats. He also is a member of the Troubadours, five karaoke singers who perform at six local care centers once a month.

The Snake River Flats welcome new members.

To schedule a singing valentine, or to learn more about the group, call Paul at 208-679-1522 or Jim at 208-436-6047.

To find a barbershop quartet in your area, or to learn more about the Barbershop Harmony Society, check out the organization’s website at www. soundoftherockies.com/DMap. ISI

Dr. Don Pates In Fine Shape - continued from page 1 graduating from medical school, starting a career and family, and having two wives die of illness.

“Having a sense of humor and a strong faith are important, too. I trust that God knows what he’s doing,” says Dr. Pates, who attends Trinity Lutheran Church in Rupert. “I’ve been in some car, motorcycle, and ski wrecks and have come out OK.” Dr. Pates, a native of Iowa, was drafted in World War II and assigned to be a combat medic in Europe. “I was in France, Luxembourg, Germany, and Austria for six months.”

His war experience sparked his interest in a medical career. He enrolled at the University of Iowa Medical School, where he met his wife of 49 years, Elaine, a registered nurse.

“We almost made it to 50 years, when she died of cancer,” he says.

After graduating in 1951, Dr. Pates worked in Belding, Michigan for 18 years in a solo practice.

“We had three daughters, and by the late 1960s, the drug scene was hitting, and I didn’t want our daughters to be raised in that type of area.”

He found a job in Alamogordo, N.M., but he and his family were discontent living there. “It was dry, windy, dusty, and hot, and besides that, my partners didn’t want to let me deliver babies, which I love, so I started looking around again in the West. I found a job here in Rupert in 1971 and have been here ever since.”

His daughters have ended up working in the medical field, too. “Carla is an occupational therapist, Karen is a registered nurse, and Colleen is a medical transcriptionist.”

Dr. Pates is as passionate about his adrena-

lin-inducing hobbies of skiing and motorcycle riding as he is about his profession.

“When we lived in Michigan, the girls wanted to learn to ski at a small area about 15 miles from our house. Elaine and I got tired of sitting in the lodge watching them, so when I turned 40, I took my first ski lesson and have been skiing ever since.”

He always loved motorcycles, too. “I learned in the 1930s, even though I didn’t own one at the time. I was on the basketball team, and some seniors had a big Harley and an Indian, so they taught me. Once our girls were grown, I started riding again in the 1980s.”

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 37

PAGE 38 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

In summers, he leaves the practice to his partners and takes off several weeks with his wife Jeanne to go on a 1,000-mile motorcycle trip with friends or relatives.

“A few years ago, I had the Gold Wing made into a trike for better stability on road trips. We’ve been sightseeing up the West Coast, in Arizona,

Michigan, and up into Canada. I still have a 500 CC sport bike for around town,” adds Dr. Pates, who wears a white cotton jumpsuit and gold-colored helmet.

His other hobbies are square dancing with his daughter Colleen in the River Reelers and

golfing.

As for retirement, Dr. Pates jokes that people will know he has retired when they read his obituary. “We keep getting older, but we don’t have to act old. Try to be optimistic about your future.” ISI

World Trivia Submitted by Darlene Young It is a big world out there, and since it is so difficult to know the interesting details and curiosities, we have gathered a few of them below to expand your geographical knowledge.

More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.

The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that more than one hundred miles at sea

beyond the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water from the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon River is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.

Antarctica is the only land area on our planet that is not owned by any country, and 90% of the world’s ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. However, Antarctica is essentially a desert with average annual precipitation of about

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For more information about the center in your community please call...

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two inches. Although covered with ice (99.6%), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet with humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

Brazil got its name from the nut - not the other way around.

Canada is an Indian word meaning “big village” and has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.

Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1 because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents.

Los Angeles’ full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula - and can be abbreviated to 3.6% of its size as L.A. The term “Big Apple” was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930s who used the slang expression “apple” for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple. There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.

There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio - every one is manmade.

The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn Island in Polynesia, at just 1.75 sq. miles/4.53 sq. km.

The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.

Siberia contains more than 25% of the world’s forests.

The smallest sovereign entity under international law is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has the area of two tennis courts, and a population of 80 - 20 less people than the Vatican.

In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, Algeria, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. However, the driest places on earth are in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island. There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

Spain literally means “the land of rabbits.”

ISI

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 39

Elk enthrall sleigh riders in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

By Dianna Troyer As if on cue, two bull elk begin to spar as our horse-drawn sleigh draws near them at the National Elk Refuge north of Jackson, Wyoming on a February afternoon. Their antlers rattle as they butt heads and shove each other around.

Our driver halts Sarah and Sam, snow-white Percheron draft horses, and the bulls pause a few moments to look our way, as if posing. We tuck our blankets on the padded benches, stand, and gratefully take postcard perfect pictures with jagged Teton Range in the background.

These bulls are a highlight of our hour-long tour among the renowned Jackson Hole elk herd. Our driver tells us the elk are famous because they migrate the longest distance of any elk herd in the lower U.S. Some of the elk walk 100 miles, from Yellowstone National Park, while others travel as little as 20 miles from nearby Grand Teton National Park.

As Sara and Sam pull us toward another group of elk, our driver tells us the refuge was established in 1912, after several harsh winters, to help the elk survive. Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages Two bull elk spar on the National Elk the 25,000-acre refuge.

Refuge north of Jackson, Wyo. HourAs the runners of our sleigh long sleigh rides to see the elk are crunch across the snow, thousands offered until early April, depending on of elk seem to form a vast ocean weather. [Photo by Diane Troyer] around us. Our driver navigates us past bulls and cows as far as we can see in each direction. Some lie down absorbing the afternoon sun, while others wander about.

The number of elk migrating to the refuge varies each year depending on weather and the amount of available forage. During the past few winters, the refuge has supported 5-8,000 elk. From January to April 2009, 7,300 elk and 800 bison consumed more than 5.5 million pounds of alfalfa pellets.

Our ride is unforgettable, just as Patricia Schiess, sleigh ride manager, assured us it would be. Patricia, who lives in Driggs, Idaho, has been commuting to Jackson for 10 years to manage the rides, drive a sleigh when needed, and to treat herself to an up-close encounter with the majestic creatures when she has time off from her office duties.

“It’s such an awesome experience for people of all ages,” Patricia says. “Our drivers tell passengers about the history of the refuge and the biology of the animals. Feeding the elk and taking a sleigh ride is nearly a century-old tradition here.”

As the winter viewing season progresses, the drivers become as familiar with the elk, as if they are having daily coffee with an old friend.

Some bulls are easily recognizable by their antler formation or by the shape of missing patches of hair caused by scabies mites.

The elk use their antlers to relieve the itching caused by scabies, and in severe cases they wear away the downy hair near their skin and a thick outer layer of guard hair. Without the hair to protect them from temperatures that can dip to minus 20, some elk perish. Each year, only about 1.5 percent of the elk on the refuge die.

Generally, frigid weather doesn’t affect the healthy elk or the sleigh rides. “We go out seven days a week and generally have three to four sleighs leaving every hour, depending on the number of passengers,” Patricia says. “The only time we wouldn’t go out is if the snow is blowing so badly that it makes it hard to see.”

We see more wildlife than only elk. A bald eagle swoops in and perches on a tree branch to watch us. Trumpeter swans, ravens, and magpies glide nearby. Coyotes trot along the edge of the herd.

The sturdy, gentle draft horses are just as popular as the elk, judging

from questions posed to our driver and people posing with the horses after our ride has ended. In 2007, brothers Jeff and Chris Warburton, who live in nearby Victor, Idaho, bought the sleigh ride concession and keep 38 Percheron, Belgian, and Shire horses stabled nearby.

Besides our team of Sarah and Sam, others are Smith and Wesson, Jack and Jill, Gun and Smoke, and Lefty and Poncho. After a day of working, each team gets a couple of days off to rest.

After the sleigh rides have ended for the season, local Boy Scouts and volunteers converge on the refuge in late spring to retrieve, sort, and bundle about 10,000 pounds of shed antlers.

On the Saturday before Memorial Day weekend in Jackson’s town square, the antlers are auctioned in about two hours to more than 150 bidders from 28 states, who represent local buyers, Asian markets, and crafts people. The amount of antlers and money raised each year varies.

Last year, 10,317 pounds of antlers were sold for about $88,000.

With the antlers scooped up off the refuge, the last of the impressive Jackson Hole herd disappear, and they are only a memory for a season.

During summer, they wander the high country, fatten up on fresh grass, and begin to grow their impressive racks that will once again enthrall sleigh riders on the refuge during the coming winter.

Sleigh tours run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Tickets cost $18 for adults, $14 for children ages 5 through 12, with children younger than 5 riding for free. Passengers meet at the Jackson Hole & Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center, 532 N. Cache Street in Jackson. A free shuttle bus takes passengers to the sleigh boarding area three miles north of Jackson on Highway 26/89/191.

Reservations are needed for private tours and groups of 20 or more.

For more information about the sleigh rides, call 307-733-0277 or 1-800-772-5386, or check the website, www.bart5.com. ISI

PAGE 40 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

North Idaho Couple Tours With Vintage Chevrolet Club of America

By Cecil Hicks A great way to spend a summer vacation for Sandpoint area residents Tom and Jackie Peters is to drive scenic back roads across America in a vintage automobile. For them it is even better when they can tour with several dozen other old car enthusiasts.

They are members of the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America (VCCA), and each year they sign

up for a few adventure car tours. Late last summer, Tom and Jackie cruised through Yellowstone National Park in a convoy of vintage Chevrolet cars for several days enjoying the mountainous scenery, watching Old Faithful geyser erupt, and taking pictures of wildlife.

The retired couple enjoys the outings as they say it is a time for fellowship, making new friends, checking out the other vintage cars, and the adventure of driving through new regions of the country.

For the Yellowstone trip, Tom finished rebuilding a 1930 Chevy for his daughter, Louise, who accompanied them on the park tour. The car they took was a 1931 Chevy that they hauled to a designated rendezvous location in a covered trailer hitched behind an RV motor home.

Over the years, Tom and Jackie have toured in Minnesota, Tennessee, and South Dakota. A couple of years ago they drove around the Puget Sound area of Washington with 18 other cars and their owners.

Tom says that on some of their larger trips there can be upwards of 50 cars. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been touring in restored cars for more than 20 years and we never had any breakdowns until our trip to Washington. On that trip we had to replace a coil, rebuild a gas pump, and fix a

Original aircraft and collections from WWI,

WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

A wedding dress made from

WWII Japanese parachute silk.

Trench art and sweetheart pillows.

!. /

! " Explore personal histories from the

battlefield and the home front with us!

# ! #

# $ " We are also available as a venue

for special events. Call for details!

See our website for our

! "# # $

2010 Summer Events

General admission: $10 % & ' "# Seniors (65+) and Military: $8

( ) " * "$ Kids between 5 - 12: $4 # + , - &' ) - (.

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flat tire.â&#x20AC;? Because of this repair experience, they packed a selection of parts for their Yellowstone outing.

According to Jackie, about the only requirement needed in order to tour with VCCA is you must have a vintage Chevy car and a desire to have fun.

Fixing up old cars has been Tomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hobby for some 65 years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I started working on engines and repairing cars when I was 14 years old,â&#x20AC;? he relates. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Right now I have six vintage cars at home that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve rebuilt. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve even built a couple cars for one of our daughters.â&#x20AC;?

Their vintage Chevys include a 1931 five passenger coupe, a 1922 pickup, a 1928 coach, a 1962 Nova convertible that is perfect for cruising during Sandpointâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual spring Lost In The 50s Week, and a 1965 Impala. They also have a 1926 Ford Model T roadster pickup.

It usually takes Tom about six months and $7,000 to $15,000 to completely restore a car from scratch in his shop if he works at it full time.

Tom says that he has only had to sell a couple of his restored cars over the years because he needed more space. He stores his cars in a garage and warehouse and works on them in a shop with a heated floor, which is great for winter work.

When they moved to Idaho from California a few years ago, they sold three cars, because as Tom says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was either sell the cars, or make three additional trips driving them up.â&#x20AC;?

Tom recalls that Jackie got a little upset with him once when he hauled home the body of a 1927 Chevy four-door sedan he bought from the Antique Auto Ranch in Spokane. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was nothing but a derelict.â&#x20AC;? Apparently, he was the only one that could see the carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s potential.

By the time he was finished with this project, he had installed a new engine, rebuilt the body and frame, painted it, and made a Woody out of it.

Although Tom is an admitted Chevy man, he has been working on restoring his one Ford for 45 years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had the engine installed for 16 years and even fired it up a few times. I plan to finish the Ford, but every time I buy another vintage Chevy it becomes a priority and I put the Ford on a back burner.â&#x20AC;?

Married for 55 years, Tom admits to knowing his wife for 77 years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She was my next door neighbor in San Francisco, and I can still remember when I was two-years-old going next door with my parents to see the new baby named Jackie.â&#x20AC;?

Tom and Jackie married in 1954, and she became a schoolteacher and taught elementary school - mostly fourth and fifth grades - for 28 years before retiring. He recalls that the first car he rebuilt after they retired 23 years ago was a 1931 Chevy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was a duplicate of the same model car I took Jackie to the high school prom in decades ago,â&#x20AC;? Tom explains.

Tom worked for a number of years as an ironworker in a fabrication shop in San Francisco.

He later moved to the Santa Cruz area where he owned and operated his own steel fabrication shop. He also served on active duty in the Naval Reserve.

The career switch Tom made in 1962 to work as a wildlands firefighter for the California State Department of Forestry lasted until his retirement in 1984.

In 1994, Tom and Jackie bought property north of Sandpoint and moved a manufactured home onto their land. For a decade, they came to Idaho for summer vacations to visit two of their daughters and their families. Finally, they sold their California property and moved permanently to be closer to their grown daughters and their four grandkids. Their third daughter still lives in southern California.

Every year during the local Bonner County Fair at the end of August, the couple spends a few days watching one granddaughter show her steer.

And Tom and Jackie Peters know when the fairâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s over and the grandchildren are in school, early September is an opportune time for them to pack up and get back on the road again for another Chevrolet vintage car tour adventure. ISI

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

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Spring is fast approaching! It is time to find that special someone to enjoy all of nature’s new life - from newborn bunnies to the first green shoots coming from the ground. Submit your letter today and find a new relationship.

To those who wish to respond to any of these personal ads, simply mail your message, address, phone number, and/or email address to the department number listed in the particular personal ad, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, P.O. Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

Your response, including your address, phone number, and/or email address will be forwarded to the person placing the ad. If you answer an ad in this section, there is no guarantee that you will receive a response. That is up to the person who placed the ad. Please make sure you submit your correct address plainly printed so you can promptly receive responses.

Respond to the ads in this issue and also sit down now and prepare your ad for our April/May 2010 issue. There is no charge for this service, and your ad may bring a breath of fresh air to your heart as well. Responses to personal ads appearing in this column can be submitted at any time.

However, to place a personal ad, the deadline for the April/May 2010 issue is March 10, 2010.

Single, Native American-Irish woman. I look 50, but am 61 years old.

Very healthy, 5’2½”, 130 lbs. I live in northern Idaho, faithful Christian, traditional dancer, enrolled Assiniboine Sioux, published author, business owner, artist, musician, love all kinds of music, own and ride horses, do all fun activities, no smoking, no drugs or alcohol. Only committed Christian men please. Age, nationality, and looks do not matter. Reply ISI, Dept. 5601, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

SWM, 64-years-old would enjoy meeting a lady for companionship.

Someone between 55 and 75 who likes country music, taking long rides, give and receive massages, meeting people, long walks, and holding hands. I am retired, 5’5” 180 lbs, and blonde. I enjoy camping, fishing, cooking, and romantic evenings. Reply ISI, Dept. 5602, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

SWM, 62-years-old, looking for honest, caring woman, 55-70 years old.

I am 165 lbs, 6’1”, and looking for a long-term relationship. I like camping, fishing, going for walks, and quiet evenings. Non-drinker, happy, and healthy.

I like to show my car at car shows in the area. Reply ISI, Dept. 5603, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

Early 70s, white male widower, non-smoker, non-drinker, no drugs. I lead a very active lifestyle including being semi-retired and a member of many professional and fraternal organizations. I am white, 5’10”, and around 210 lbs. Well educated and well spoken, enjoy history, theology, genealogy, world travel, writing, Judeo-Christian studies and research, and am also a reader. Live in Lewiston, Idaho and am not able to relocate at this time. I have led a very active life and would like to continue to do so. I am seeking a well educated, financially secure, faithful woman for companionship and more in the 60-75-year age range who likes music, good food, activities, good conversation, exploring the high country, and canyons.

Your reply will assure a reply from me. A recent photo would be appreciated. I will also reciprocate with a letter/photo. Reply ISI, Dept. 5604, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. ISI

Graveyard Souls Submitted by Julie Hollar On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.

“One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me,” said one boy.

In the process, several of the nuts dropped and rolled down toward the fence.

Soon, another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.”

He just knew what it was, so he jumped back on his bike and rode off down the road, where he met an old man hobbling along with a cane.

“Come here quick,” said the boy. “You won’t believe what I heard!

Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls.”

The old man said, “Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk.”

But when the boy insisted, the old man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.

They stood by the cemetery fence and listened. Sure enough, they heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.”

The old man whispered, “Boy, you’ve been tellin’ me the truth. Let’s see if we can see the Lord.”

Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.

At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. That’s all. Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done.”

They say the old man made it back to town a full five minutes ahead of the kid on the bike. ISI

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Aging Workers Staying on the Job, Or Coming Back To It have enough weapons to keep them in check, if

By Dick Seelmeyer, Senior Wire Aging workers are living longer and healthier caught early enough to treat.

As reported by a research team coordinated lives today, a fact of life that often translates into longer time on the job because they aren’t eager by Duke University in North Carolina, there are to retire when they still enjoy the job, and employ- discernable connections between adequate ers are happy to retain skilled people who know health protection funding and mortality rates their customers, as opposed to having to find and from all diseases. That means that an American farmer who begins to train new workers.

What has caused this first-of-its-kind feel bad while atop With managehis tractor plowing a ment and labor both upheaval in business is the cultural satisfied with the archanges across the country caused by field in Iowa, will shut down the tractor, get rangement, it would good medical insurance for workers, seem to be a win-win healthier lifestyles generally across the in his car and go see a doctor. situation. With a poor board within the nation over the last 50 A Mongolian farmeconomy across the years or so, and medical advances that er, trying to grow grain nation for the past keep people pretty much as alert and 2,000 feet up on a several years, many steppe will pasture his workers who had retired suddenly found themselves needing to get ox and go lie down if he feels bad. Mongolians back into the workplace. And, having done so, are a hardy people, but a heart attack kills there just as easily as it kills in Des Moines, Iowa. It also many have decided to stay for a while.

Everyone benefits, except, of course, for means that when the farmer near Des Moines young people entering the workplace and look- gets treated, he can in all likelihood go back to ing for a job. The fewer openings available to farming as usual, and his farm production will them mean settling for a job that will not advance stay pretty close to normal. For the Mongolian the skills they gained in college, and were hoping farmer who became disabled for lack of medical care when he had his heart attack, the results to make their life work.

What has caused this first-of-its-kind up- can be much more heaval in business is the cultural changes across devastating to himself the country caused by good medical insurance and to his family. The for workers, healthier lifestyles generally across farming will have to be the board within the nation over the last 50 years done by other family or so, and medical advances that keep people members if the fampretty much as alert and healthy as they were ily is to survive. That means that his wife, in earlier decades.

Yes, Americans still age just like people ev- children, and/or aged erywhere do, but steady improvements in diet, grandparents must healthcare, and medical advances have left older plow the fields, sow Americans feeling a lot younger and friskier than the grain, and tend ever before. They feel good, involved, as sharp the animals as best as ever, and they don’t want a rocking chair yet, they can.

The study focused thank you very much. They still enjoy challenge, on health issues of and being part of the action.

As a nation, we have pretty much known workers and how loss these things were happening. There is a lot of time from the job more gray hair in executive circles these days, because of disease and that much more experience too. Good for affects the overall the corporate bottom line, no question. But, it economy. Today, they isn’t only happening here. It is happening across found, one of the largest factors affecting the globe.

In industrialized nations where healthcare the work force is that tends to be better than at any time in the history as America ages, peoof the world, the trend has been visible for a ple are not retiring as while. In less industrialized nations where quality early as they used to. healthcare tends to remain an unfulfilled goal, no Healthy at 80 years-oflight at the end of the tunnel is yet discernable, age and older, many but sooner or later, the up-and-coming wannabe workers stay on the nations emulate what their richer industrialized job far longer than age nation neighbors do. From a business point of 65 which used to represent a time when view, it makes sense.

The poor, as always, tend to get the short end those with jobs that of the stick. For all of us, dying is free of charge; came with good penfor those who must live without medical insur- sions would retire. ISI ance, staying alive often seems too expensive to be realistic.

Diseases which killed huge numbers of people across the industrialized world in the 1950s, including stroke, cancer and diabetes, are very treatable today. The death rates from those diseases are far lower and dropping steadily.

That is true for most other diseases too. The diseases are still killers, but today’s doctors now

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