Idaho Senior Independent Oct/Nov 2011 by Montana Senior News

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Historian, writer, and musician – Dana Lohrey Plays Mean Honky Tonk Piano By Jack McNeel Gold rush era history surrounded Dana Lohrey as he grew up in the small town of Clearwater south of Kooskia, which was established in 1861 to supply miners and prospectors with the necessities. Though never very large in population, Clearwater had a good-sized business community. As a youngster in the 50s, Dana was fascinated with stories of those gold rush days. “I used to sit on the porch with the old storekeeper at the general store and drink pop and he would tell me stories about Clearwater and the freight wagons and teams and passengers that came through

town on their way to the goldfields,” he says. “Listening to the stories of old Fred Murphy just inspired me and I’ve always been interested in the local history.” The population of Clearwater had dropped to about 50 at that time, roughly half what it was during its heyday. “During the gold rush era there were two general stores, a church, a log schoolhouse, livery stable, blacksmith shop, and a saloon for a short period of time,” he relates. After high school, Dana took a job in a Lewiston bank for a couple of years until he received a draft notice. “I was given a choice to enlist in some branch of the Navy or be drafted into the Army. I had 48 hours to make that decision.” His mother had been an aircraft controller as a Navy WAVE, and all five uncles had served in the Navy during World War II and the Korean War, so that helped Dana make the choice. “I wanted to keep that tradition and went into the Navy for six years.” This was during the Viet Nam era. He returned to the Lewiston bank for a year, then to a Kooskia bank until 1978. That October he applied for a job at Washington State University in the Department of Applied Mathematics where he worked for nearly nine years, then transferred to the College of Pharmacy where he would become Director of Pharmacy Student Services, “an office that I created,” he adds. He spent 21 years in the College of Pharmacy and retired in October, 2008. But that local history bug never left him. In fact since 1991, he has been affiliated with the Friends of the Elk City Wagon Road, a volunteer historic preservation group. Dana began writing (Continued on page 20)

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

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OPINION

Why Medicaid Matters for People with Medicare By Ron Pollack, Executive Director, Families USA You have worked hard, saved what you can, and you think you are pretty well set for retirement. However, as recent stock market fluctuations make clear, a lot can happen to derail your good planning. For example, you might end up needing more long-term care than you expected. If that happens, the good news is that there’s already a safety net out there for you and your family. It’s called Medicaid and it’s the state and federally funded health insurance program that serves millions of seniors, children, and people with disabilities. In fact, more than one in six Americans over 65 relies on it. Unfortunately, there is a big misperception among many people that Medicare pays for nursing homes or home care, but that is simply not the case for most people. Medicare only pays for longterm care in very limited circumstances. In most cases, you’ll have to pay yourself unless you have a long-term care insurance policy. Even if you have that kind of insurance, many policies only cover costs for a limited time or for certain services. With nursing homes averaging over $70,000 a year and home health aides costing $19 an hour, you may soon find that you have used up most of your life savings. Luckily, the Medicaid safety net can help you get the care you need. Over 60 percent of nursing home residents rely on Medicaid, but Medicaid isn’t just about nursing home care. Medicaid also pays for services that help people stay in their homes

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 Dan Hubbard Rhonda Lee Sherrie Smith

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longer, such as home health aides or transportation to doctors’ appointments. Medicaid pays for some home care in every state, but the coverage of specific services varies. Medicaid does not just help you; it also helps your family. If you’re married, Medicaid includes financial protections for your spouse. That means that if you’re in a nursing home, your spouse can keep some money without affecting your Medicaid eligibility. Thanks to health care reform, after 2014 that same financial protection will apply if you need home care, so the cost of your care won’t impoverish your spouse. Furthermore, because Medicaid covers the cost of your long-term care, your family won’t have to. Your children can keep saving for your grandchildren’s education and for their own retirement. By providing care at home, Medicaid gives your family members more time for their jobs and families, lessening the stress for everyone. Millions of people and their families rely on Medicaid. Unfortunately, severe program cutbacks are a real possibility, especially in light of the ongoing deficit debate. The U.S. House of Representatives already passed a proposal to make drastic cuts to the Medicaid safety net. Although this legislation did not pass the senate, the threats continue. The latest debt compromise includes the

formation of a 12 member “super committee,” and in order to meet their Thanksgiving Day deadline for a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion, Medicaid will likely face the chopping block. Medicaid cuts would inevitably mean less help

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for seniors who need long-term care. There’s a better way to tackle our deficit than placing the burden on aging Americans and their families. That is by getting rid of tax cuts for the wealthy and closing tax loopholes for corporations - in short, taking a balanced approach to deficit reduction that makes

everyone pay a fair share. Dismantling Medicaid and leaving seniors on their own to pay for longterm care would be the wrong way to go. We need to make sure that the Medicaid safety net is there to help you and your family with the high costs of long-term care. ISI

Downsizing Solutions By Jim Miller The process of weeding through a house full of stuff and parting with old possessions can be difficult and overwhelming for many. Most people in your situation start the downsizing process by giving their unused possessions to their kids or grandkids, which you can do up to $13,000 per person per year before you are required to file a federal gift tax return, using IRS Form 709. Beyond that, here are a few extra tips and services that may help you. Downsizing for Dollars - Selling your stuff is one way you can downsize and pad your pocketbook at the same time. If you are willing, have the time, and access to the Internet, online selling at sites like Craigslist and eBay is the best way to make top dollar. Craigslist.org is a huge classified ads site that lets you sell your stuff free. And eBay. com lets you conduct your own online auction for a small listing fee, and if it sells, 9 percent of the sale price, up to $100. SAVE OUR PLANET Or, if you do not want to do the selling yourself, AND YOUR WALLET. you can get help from an eBay trading assistant REDUCE YOUR +($7,1* &22/,1* who will do everything ENERGY CONSUMPTION. for you. They typically charge between 33 and Regular maintenance 70% of the World’s 40 percent of the selling price. Go to ebayof your system increases energy is used by indoor tradingassistant.com efficiency by up to 50%. comfort systems. to search for trading assistants in your area. Some other popular selling options are conTake Advantage ntage of $ Furnace M Maintenance. signment shops, garage sales, and estate sales. Consignment shops are good for selling old clothing, household furnishLimited Time Offer. Offer

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ings, and decorative items. You typically get half of the final sale price. Garage sales are another option, or you could hire an estate sale company to come in and sell your items. Some companies will even pick up your stuff and sell them at their own location – they usually take around 50 percent of the profits. Donate It - If you itemize on your tax returns, donating your belongings is another way to downsize and get a tax deduction. Goodwill (goodwill. org, 800-741-0186) and the Salvation Army (satruck.org, 800-728-7825) are two big charitable organizations that will come to your house and pick up your donations. If your deduction exceeds $500, you will need to file Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions. You will also need a receipt from the organization for every batch of items you donate. And be sure you keep an itemized list of donated items. See IRS Publication 526 (www. irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf) for more information. Disposal Services - If you have a lot of junk you want to get rid of, contact your municipal trash service to see if they provide bulk curbside pickup services. Or, depending on where you live, you could hire a company like 1-800-Got-Junk (1800gotjunk.com, 800-468-5865) or Junk-King (junk-king.com, 800-995-5865) to come in and haul it off for a moderate fee. Another good option is Bagster by Waste Management (thebagster. com, 877-789-2247). With this service, you buy the bag (it measures 8 feet by 4 feet by 2.5 feet) at your local home-improvement store like Lowes or Home Depot for around $30. Fill it to a limit of 3,300 pounds and schedule a pickup, which costs between $80 up to $205 depending on your location. Get Help - You can also hire a professional “senior move manager” to do the entire job for you. These organizers will sort through your stuff and arrange for the disposal through an estate sale, donations, or consignment. Costs for these services usually range between $1,000 and $5,000. See nasmm.com or call 877-606-2766 to search for a senior move manager in your area. Or, you can hire a professional organizer through the National Association of Professional Organizers at napo.net. 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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In the Market for a Loan on Your Home? Know How to Avoid Predatory Lenders By Teresa Ambord It will not come as a surprise to learn that home equity is the main form of financial security for older Americans. According to latest statistics available from the Administration on Aging, 80 percent of individuals age 65 and older own their own homes. Of those, 68 percent of those 65 and older owned their homes free and clear. Even so, anyone relying on fixed income can be hit hard by costly home repairs, property taxes, and unexpected medical bills. Then it is tempting to start looking around for available cash. That is why predatory lenders may see seniors as low-hanging fruit, or easy

targets for low-quality loans that could ultimately be devastating to the borrower. Borrowing against your house may be a good idea, as long as you know what to watch for so you stay in control of the process. Here are some things to avoid: Limited time offers. Know this: reputable lenders do not solicit business with high-pressure tactics. A loan that is available for a short time only is probably a bad deal for you. A good policy in most cases is, “if it has to be now, the answer has to be ‘no.’” Rush deals. Is the lender pushing you to do

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your application over the phone? If a lender makes promises like a guaranteed low-interest loan, or a next-day approval for money paid in advance, chances are you will be walking into a situation you will regret. Home improvement scams. Most contractors are upright. Beware of those who use hard sell tactics to convince you that costly home repairs are needed immediately. Be especially wary when those contractors offer to help you arrange financing. Some contractors get commissions from finance companies for business they drum up for the lender, which may motivate them to put pressure on you. Once they get their money, some unscrupulous contractors may leave the work unfinished, or worse yet, they may never begin. Here are some additional guidelines to follow: Comparison shop. Rather than being talked into a potentially bad deal, check with your local bank or credit union to see if you qualify for a loan, and what the terms would be. The choice is yours, not your contractor’s. Read everything. If something does not make sense and the lender will not explain it to your satisfaction or will not make necessary changes to the contract, it is better to walk away. Leave no blanks. If you notice any blank spaces in the documents you are asked to sign, the best policy is not to sign until the blanks are filled in and you are satisfied with the information. Say no to balloon payments. Yes, they may seem enticing if they allow you to make low payments at the start, followed by a big payment at the end of the loan. But if unexpected occurrences leave you unable to make that balloon payment, you could lose your house. Do not rely on promises a lender makes to help you refinance when the balloon payment comes due. Those promises could be a scam. Avoid credit insurance. Lenders love credit insurance because it is profitable for them. This insurance is costly because the premiums are spread over the life of the loan, and in reality, provides you with little benefit. Consider the alternative of a reverse mortgage. If you must have a loan, a reverse mortgage might be a better deal. The money does not have to be repaid until you sell the house, move, or pass away. But like any other area of finance, there are unethical, high-pressure, and even illegal lending practices associated with some reverse mortgages too, so go slow and act with caution. In addition to the cautions above, there are numerous other warning signs to watch for when considering a new loan that encumbers your house. The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a notfor-profit agency that works to protect consumers from abusive financial practices. Note: CRL warns consumers that other organizations have tried to piggyback on the trust that CRL has earned, by using similar names. CRL can be contacted at www. responsiblelending.org. To improve your chances of getting a quality loan, watch for these red flags from CRL that may indicate a bad deal: High fees. Lenders charge fees for making loans. The fees are also known as “points,” or “discount points.” CRL says that three points or three percent is generally a good deal, but advises you to do a little research and find out what points typically are in your area. Early payoff penalties. If the lender charges a prepayment penalty, this could be in effect for several years. Do not underestimate the impact this could have. If you refinance before the end of the penalty term, you could end up paying thousands of extra dollars. Inflated interest rates. Brokers sometimes jack up the interest rate higher than the lender is willing to charge. That way, the broker makes more

PAGE 6 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

money. That is called a “yield-spread premium,” or a reward for talking you into a loan that includes higher interest rates. Exploding rates. Beware of loans that are subject to adjustable rates that can rise significantly (and probably will only go up, never down). Do not sign anything until you find out what the worst-case scenario is. CRL advises that you not be comforted by the promise of future refinancing to keep rates down. Future refinancing promises. This is a hallmark of a predatory lender. They are notorious, said CRL for selling bad loans with the promise they will refinance later. If the loan is too much of a stretch now or in the future, walk away.

The repeated refinance drain. It is also called flipping, and in the end you pay more in points and fees, end up losing equity, and owing more than ever. Taxes and insurance not included. Require the lender to tell you what the monthly mortgage payment will be, with property taxes and insurance included. Ask if an escrow account has been established for these costs. It is an old trick of unscrupulous lenders to keep the payment artificially low by stripping out these costs, which you will have to pay separately. Teresa Ambord is a former Enrolled Agent and tax practitioner. ISI

Fire Safety Tips Because of physical limitations and slower reaction times, older people are particularly vulnerable in home fires. In fact, according to the U.S. Fire Administration, those over the age of 65 are twice as likely to die or be injured in a home fire, than those younger. For those over 75, the risk nearly triples. But with a little awareness and a few precautionary tips (see firesafety.gov), seniors can go a long way in protecting their property and themselves. Fire Hazards - While there are many possible causes of accidental home fires, the three most common are smoking, cooking, and alternative heating devices. Here is a breakdown of what people can do to protect themselves in each of these key areas. Smoke Safely: Careless smoking is the leading cause of home fire deaths and the second leading cause of injuries. For those who smoke it is important to remember: • Never smoke in bed. • Put your cigarette or cigar out at the first sign of feeling drowsy while watching television or reading. • Don’t leave your lit cigarette or cigar unattended. • Use deep ashtrays and put your cigarettes all the way out. • Consider switching to fire-save cigarettes (firesafecigarettes.org) that self-extinguish when they are not being smoked. Cook Safely: Home cooking fires are the number one cause of fire injuries among older people. Tips that can help include: • Never leave food cooking on a stovetop unattended. When leaving the kitchen, take a wooden spoon or potholder as a reminder to turn off the oven or burners, or consider installing an automatic stove shut-off device as a safety precaution. Cookstop.com, homesensers.com, stoveguardintl.com and pioneeringtech.com sell them. • Avoid wearing loose clothing with hanging sleeves when you cook and keep towels and potholders away from flames or burners. • Never use the range or oven to heat your home. • Double-check the kitchen before you go to bed or leave the house. Heat Safely: Alternative heating devices like space heaters, stoves, and fireplaces are another potential fire hazard. Keep these tips in mind: • If you use a space heater, keep anything that can burn at least three feet away and always turn it off when you leave the house or go to sleep. Also, if you are buying a new space heater, look for one with a safety feature that automatically shuts off the power if the heater falls over. • If you use a fireplace that burns wood, be sure you have a glass or metal screen front to catch the flying sparks and rolling logs, and have the chimney flue inspected annually and cleaned if needed. • If you use a heating device fueled by gas, oil, wood, or kerosene, purchase and install carbon monoxide detectors to alert you to potential toxic gas problems. Home Tips - Around 75 percent of seniors who die in fires each year do not have working smoke alarms in their homes. Seniors or caregivers should make it a priority to install smoke alarms on every level of their house outside their sleeping area, and change the batteries at least once a year. It is also important to have an escape plan in the event of a fire. For those who are hearing impaired, companies like Silent Call (silentcall.com) and Harris Communications (harriscomm.com) sell smoke and carbon monoxide detectors that work with flashing strobe lights and bed vibrators to alert you when a problem arises. And, there are home smoke and fire monitoring services like ADT (adtfireprotection.com) that can alert caregivers and the fire department if a fire happens. 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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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Stonehenge Replica Stands in Washington Article & Photo by Craig & Liz Larcom Big-bucks investor Sam Hill was one of a kind, but the memorial he built to World War I soldiers and sailors was not. The monument that he started to build even before the War was finished was a copy of Stonehenge, the well-known ruin on the Salisbury Plain in England. Hill’s memorial stands today open to visitors near Maryhill, Washington. Hill’s Stonehenge was inspired by a visit to the prehistoric original, which, his host Lord Earl Kitchener told him, the Druids used to make sacrifices to their gods of war. Scholars no longer believe that Druids came to the English site early enough to build Stonehenge, let alone that human sacrifice was involved at any time. All the same, the story stirred Hill to think of the men of Klickitat County who sacrificed their lives in the War. He began his mammoth, life-sized undertaking even before the War was done, dedicating the altar stone in 1918. A Quaker, he considered the project a monument to peace and the folly of war. Skipping any copy of the earthworks that surround ancient Stonehenge, Hill jumped directly to working on the stones. But he decided to use reinforced concrete instead of moving humongous stones like the ancients did. It was a practical choice and an exciting one for Hill, who was a pioneer in the stuff. He had already used reinforced concrete to build a house in Seattle that was suitable for his executive standing (and included a 12-person elevator). Now he wanted concrete that would look like stone, so he had his workers

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line the concrete forms with rumpled tin, and apply a coating. With an outer circle of 30 pillars that are each 16 feet high, and an inner circle of another 40 smaller pillars, plus five pairs of pillars of different heights, this was a mammoth undertaking, which ultimately used three million pounds of reinforced concrete. The design aimed to capture what Stone-

henge might have looked like in its prime. When Professor Campbell of the Lick Observatory came to the neighborhood to view an eclipse in 1918, Hill had him calculate the placement of the stones, so that the tall Heel Stone’s shadow would fall properly on the altar stone at the solstice. The Klickitat Hills block the sun from falling on Hill’s Stonehenge at dawn on the solstice, though in good weather it shines on the structure much of the day. Hill was a man of many projects, and this one lay unfinished for years, when Hill’s financial fortunes weakened. By 1930, his Stonehenge

was finished and dedicated. Hill’s 12-year gap from beginning to end of construction was but a blink compared to ancient Stonehenge, which took 1,500 years to build, and may never have been in a completed form. During the years the Maryhill Stonehenge was unfinished, Hill started and completed a second monument to peace, the International Peace Arch on the Canadian border at Blaine, Washington. Hill’s Stonehenge was not only the first monument to World War I, it was also the first copy of Stonehenge. Since that time the famous outlines have risen in a number of places around the globe, though often altered in scale and form, and in varying degrees of seriousness. Its shape lends itself well to parodies such as Carhenge, near Alliance, Nebraska. While over a million people a year stream to see the original Stonehenge, a comparative dribble of sightseers come to the monument at Maryhill. Visitors are likely to have at least a few minutes to themselves on a visit. Also unlike the English experience, visitors to Hill’s Stonehenge enter for free and can walk among the stones without signing up in advance for a deluxe tour. Indeed, no tours are offered. The memorial stands on a windswept bluff above the Columbia River, with a distant view of Mount Hood. Hill’s Maryhill Museum, in a house that he never occupied, sits three miles to the east. The castle-like house is, of course, built of concrete. Stonehenge is open daily all year, until 10 p.m. From State Route 14, just east of its intersection with US 97 near Maryhill, take Stonehenge Drive to the monument. ISI

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 9

Traveling the World Without a Passport By Andrea Gross, Photos by Irv Green The street is lined with quaint little houses, and a gracefully Gothic Catholic Church dominates the town square. “Bonjour,” says a woman as she strolls by, a fresh baguette in her mesh bag. I smile, feeling as if I am in a small French village. Instead, I am in southern Texas, indulging in one of my current, recession-induced passions. I am exploring the world without leaving the United States. To date I have “visited” more than 20 countries on four continents, all without once using my passport, and I would like to share with you four of the best. Texas’ French Hamlet - Castroville, Texas, 25 miles west of San Antonio, was settled in the mid1840s by folks from the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Like their homeland, this area of Texas boasts fertile farmland tucked between a river and the mountains. The weather, however, is different - a fact of which the newcomers were unaware. They built houses topped with steep, snow-shedding roofs like those in Alsace, not realizing how unnecessary this would be in southern Texas. The Visitors Center distributes a free booklet that details the history of many of these homes, as well as that of the church, schoolhouse, store, saloon, and hotel. No visit to France, whether in Europe or Texas, would be complete without great food. Castroville boasts two French restaurants extraordinaire La Normandie, which specializes in traditional French cuisine, and The Alsatian, which features “German food with a French flair.” For more information, contact the Castroville Chamber of Commerce at 800-778-6775 or www. castroville.com. Colorado’s Tibetan Center - Eight thousand feet is a mere hill in the Rockies and a valley in the Himalayas, yet it is high enough to give a heavenly glow to the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya. This grand example of sacred Buddhist architecture, the largest in North America, presides over the Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, a place where the cultural heritage of Tibet can be admired and celebrated. The Great Stupa is as tall as a ten-story building, and while the outside is inspiring, the inside

is even more so. Visitors are welcome to enter the main level, and few fail to be awed. A 20-foottall Buddha, gleaming with gold, sits solemnly beneath a ceiling covered with intricate Tibetan paintings. The floors are equally elaborate, consisting of a mosaic of inlaid granite and quartz. A small gift store carries Buddhist prayer flags, brass offering bowls, and other Tibetan items. Contact Shambhala at 888788-7221 or www. shambhalamountain.org. California’s Russian Enclave The golden dome of the Holy Virgin Cathedral is visible for nearly a mile in both directions as you drive along San Francisco’s Geary Boulevard, a major thoroughfare that links downtown with the Pacific Ocean. The surrounding area, which extends along Geary from about 15th to 26th Avenue and includes the side streets, has a distinctly Russian flair. Shops sell Russian lacquer boxes and matrioshka nesting dolls, restaurants feature Chicken Kiev and pelmeni [Siberian dumplings], and bakeries have crusty Russian breads and sweet poppy seed cakes. Old women with babushka headscarves and long coats jostle with young teens on skateboards as they walk along the crowded streets. While the Cathedral is the spiritual heart of the community, the Russian Center is its social center. In addition to a small museum that contains artifacts dating back to prerevolutionary days, it houses a theater and studios for budding folk dancers and gymnasts. Contact the Russian Center at 415-921-7631 or www.russiancentersf.com. Iowa’s Domestic Denmark - With a population

of 650, Elk Horn, Iowa is a very small small-town. Yet, as the hub of the largest rural Danish population in the United States, it boasts a 60-foot tall windmill imported from Denmark, a terrific Danish museum, and some of the best Danish food this side of the Atlantic. The windmill, built in 1848, lets visitors see how flour was ground 150 years ago. Nearby a

PAGE 10 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

full-size replica of a Viking home and blacksmith shop takes folks even further back into Scandinavian history, while the Danish Immigrant Museum traces the relatively recent arrival of Danes to the United States.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

The Danish Inn Restaurant serves such Danish specialties as open-faced sandwiches, meatballs, red cabbage and, for dessert, a scrumptious Dansk lagkage (layer cake). Hint: The Inn’s Sun-

day smorgasbord is, say the locals, both autentisk and dejlig (authentic and delicious). Contact The Danish Windmill Corporation at (800) 451-7960 or www.danishwindmill.com. ISI

Adventure Travel and Service Suit Gail Young By Natalie Bartley / Photo Courtesy Gail Young Gail Young, a retired public school teacher, keeps involved through serving others and pursuing adventurous travel. Originally from the San Francisco Bay area in California, Gail and her husband moved to Boise in 1974 for their new teaching jobs. After 33 years of teaching pre-school, kindergarten, and second grade, she retired in 2008. Along the way, Gail raised her two daughters, 27 years-old Becca who is now in Eugene, Oregon and 29 years-old Laura who lives in San Diego, California. “I am most proud of my teaching and parenting. I was passionate about my teaching and worked hard to make a contribution. My daughters are wonderful people - they bring me a lot of joy,” she says. Now divorced, Gail has developed some of her leisure skills in her retirement. She took up whitewater kayaking, charging down Idaho rivers in her inflatable kayak. She hiked, skied, and snowshoed in Idaho’s mountains. She

kept fit by bicycling and working out in the gym and she relaxed by reading. Gail furthered her lifelong interest in art when she met her future fiancé Erich. Unfortunately, in 2008 Erich passed on unexpectedly one autumn morning just prior to their departure to New York and Washington D.C. to view the fall colors. They had both just returned from separate adventures and were looking forward to enjoying time together. Exactly one year later to the day, Gail climbed to the summit of Kilimanjaro in Africa. That’s a huge feat for hikers of any age. While on the 19,341 foot summit, she spread some of Erich’s ashes. After the climb, she went on a safari in Tanzania, whitewater rafted the Zambezi River along the Zambia/Zimbabwe border, and later kayaked the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon on a 16-day trip. This summer, at age 63, she spent two weeks volunteering in Vietnam with PeaceTrees Vietnam followed by two weeks of exploring Laos and Cambodia in Southeast Asia. Gail’s group of volunteers worked with mine victims in the Quang Tri province in central Vietnam on the 17th parallel. The area was a hot spot during the war because the territory divided North and South Vietnam. Much of the land was destroyed by bombing and by Agent Orange, the deforestation chemical that resulted in health problems for those exposed to it. Gail says since the war ended, nearly 11,000 people have been injured or killed by unexpected encounters with the remaining unexploded ordinance of which much remains. Volunteers from PeaceTrees Vietnam are involved with teaching locals how to avoid the land mines and how to report mines when they come

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

across them. The volunteers also plant trees, build schools and homes for the victims and their families, distribute food and clothing, and sponsor kindergartens. Gail was so touched by the experience of working with the land mind victims, visiting the sponsored kindergartens, and planting trees. She says, “My intention is to do at least a month per year of volunteer work.” Meanwhile, back in Boise, she continues her volunteer work with refugees living in Boise. At the Artisans4Hope, a two-year-old non-profit program located in downtown Boise, local volunteers teach eight-week sewing and knitting classes. The goals of the non-profit organization are empowering refugee women with potential income earning skills and enabling them to feel part of the community. There are also English language lessons. Some of the women become skillful enough to create products sold at local Farmers’ Markets, with 90% of the earnings returning to the women in the program. The refugees’ handicraft abilities contribute to family incomes. A couple of days each week Gail serves as an English teacher to women from a wide-range

of countries including Myanmar, Congo, Somalia, Bhutan, and Afghanistan. “I really appreciate learning their stories and working with them,” she says. As one ages, Gail advises staying engaged with people and doing for others instead of focusing on one’s self. “I love learning about the world. By going to Africa and south Asia, plus volunteering with refugees, I’ve gained a broader world view, learned greater tolerance, and increased respect for other cultures.” Her next trip this autumn is to Peru and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. Originally, Gail wanted to join the Peace Corp when she retired. However, she modified her plans to remain available for her brother recovering from a brain tumor and for her 85-year-old mother. Gail adjusted her plan to yearly two- to four-week volunteer projects overseas. She gratefully acknowledges Erich, her deceased fiancé, for his contributions that allow her to enjoy adventure travel and volunteering beyond the level her teacher’s retirement plan allows. At a special location at each international adventure over the last two years, she has spread some of his ashes. After experiencing Southeast Asia and

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 11

how they honored their loved ones, Gail is planning to spread the last of Erich’s ashes at Erich’s family cabin in McCall. Gail is very aware of the changes and losses that happen during the journey through life. She experienced the struggles of a number of friends and family members with illnesses and unexpected deaths, including her dad, ex-husband, brother, son, and fiancé. Her philosophy is, “Find the good and find the places where you can put out positive energy in a peaceful way.” Gail’s future goals include service projects abroad and physically active adventure travel that bring her close to the local residents. Gail plans to continue her volunteer work with the refugee artisans in Boise, and staying connected with beloved family and friends. Natalie Bartley (www.NatalieBartleyOutdoor. com) is a Boise-based author of the mobile app Boise’s Best Outdoor Adventures available through iTunes, and the Best Rail Trails Pacific Northwest and the Best Easy Day Hikes Boise guidebooks available online, at outdoor retail shops, and bookstores. ISI

Hollywood Squares: Celebs Off the Cuff Submitted by Julie Hollar These questions and answers are from the days when the responses on the “Hollywood Squares” game show were spontaneous and unscripted. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, and with a wild crew of celebrities giving the answers, there were plenty of laughs. Below is a sampling. Q. Do female frogs croak? A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough. Q. If you’re going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be? A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False - A pea can last as long as 5,000 years. A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes. Q. You’ve been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman? A. Don Knotts: That’s what’s been keeping me awake. Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older? A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency. Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?

A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question, Peter, and I’ll give you a gesture you’ll never forget. Q. Paul, why do Hell’s Angels wear leather? A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily. Q. Charley, you’ve just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year? A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I’m too busy growing strawberries. Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls? A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out. ISI

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Indian Creek Winery: Delicious Wine In A Delightful Garden By Holly Endersby Our late August visit to Indian Creek Winery on the outskirts of Kuna was special for the delicious wines sampled and the lovely garden setting just outside the tasting room door. It is easy to see why the winery is the site of romantic weddings, reunions and other special events. A true family vineyard and winery, it is also a labor of love for everyone involved. Bill and Mui Stowe acted on their dream in 1982 and began planting the best grapes for the climate in what is now known as the Idaho Snake River Valley appellation, meaning that the area has such a distinct wine grapegrowing climate that it may be noted to identify and market wine from this locale. The Stowes set out to craft premium wines and have remained true to that goal. Today, Bill tends the vineyard, Mui is in charge of the beautiful garden, daughter Tammy Stowe-McClure runs marketing and special events, and son-in-law Mike McClure is the winemaker. This exceptional family enterprise is making news throughout the Northwest as Idaho Winery of the Year in the Wine Press Northwestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spring 2008 edition and with their medals earned at prestigious wine competitions. For example, at the

2010 Idaho Wine Competition, they garnered a gold medal for their 2009 White Pinot Noir. Eager to try it in the tasting room, I can report that it is delicious, refreshing, just slightly sweet, and a perfect pairing for fish, seafood, and chicken. And at $9 a bottle, it is a steal. The first white wine Tammy poured for me was Indian Creekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2010 Viognier, a $12 bargain. I must say this is the first Viognier I have truly enjoyed. Others I have tasted seem musty with an aroma I find disturbing and that affects the overall taste of the wine as well. Such is not the case with Indian Creekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Viognier. It is a truly diverse white that would go well with a wide variety of foods including salads, light cheeses, fruits, and especially chicken. It is crisp rather than sweet, but with no harsh tones. The 2009 vintage received a gold medal at the Northwest Wine Summit where wines from Washington, Oregon, Montana, British Columbia, and Idaho compete. I enjoyed the Viognier so much; I left with a bottle, a real first for me. Indian Creekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chardonnay has also received rave reviews and from the tasting I enjoyed it is easy to see why. The 100% chardonnay is aged for five months in oak then finished in stainless steel tanks for five

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months. “We find this produces a more mellow, smooth wine that’s not as oaky as many Chardonnays,” Tammy explains. Since I am not a fan of heavily oaked chardonnay, this offering hit just the right balance and would be superb on its own or with a wide variety of foods. Another popular white for Indian Creek is their dry white blend called Mountain Syringa, named after Idaho’s state flower. This sprightly wine is composed of 56% Gewurztraminer, 22% chardonnay and 22% Riesling. This is a delightful fruit forward wine that highlights the grapes and is a nice blend of the three used. The reds wines at Indian Creek are every bit as good as their white wines. The 2009 Pinot Noir earned gold and a best buy nod from the spring 2011 issue of Wine Press Northwest, with 170 pinots entered as competition. I found this aged-in-French-oak red to be very nice, with great balance, wonderfully flavored across the tongue, and not a bit harsh. At $16, this wine would make a lovely gift - if you can keep from opening it at home first. Star Garnet is the only blended red the winery offers. And it is very popular. “It’s made from Syrah, Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot grapes. Star Garnet earned a gold medal at the Northwest Wine Summit as well,” Tammy notes.

This wine has a lovely aroma, hits just the right balance of being full-bodied but not too heavy, and is lightly peppery as a hint of the Malbec grapes comes through. And speaking of Malbec, each year Indian Creek hosts a charity event for the Idaho Humane Society at which the Man’s Best Friend Malbec wine label for the year is auctioned with the winner having the dog of their choice front and center on each bottle. “We currently have Luke the black lab on our label,” Tammy says with a laugh. “He raised $3,000 for the Humane Society.” Indian Creek’s Malbec is not as heavy as some of the wines from Chile and Argentina, but instead is more vibrant with the peppery notes subdued. Another up and coming traditionally South American wine is the tempranillo. “The tempranillo is only available to our wine club members and is currently sold out,” says Tammy. “Wine club members get three bottles of Indian Creek wine every three months, 15% off wine and gift shop items, one free entry to our annual Happy Pappy’s Day open house, and a 5% discount on event hosting.” Indian Creek Winery at 1000 N. McDermott Rd., Kuna is open weekends from 12-5 p.m. Phone 208-922-4791 or visit www.indiancreekwinery.com. A visit to Indian Creek will be delightful, for the delicious wines, the beautiful garden, and the passionate commitment of its owners to making the best Idaho wines. ISI

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 13

PAGE 14 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Open Talent Search In The Treasure Valley

Visit our new website at www.idahosenior independent.com!

The Music Theatre of Idaho, the Treasure Valleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s professional quality, live, musical theatre company announces auditions for upcoming season 2012. This professionally managed production company is unique in offering performance training and on stage opportunities, on a professional level, to citizens of the Treasure Valley. The Music Theatre of Idaho is seeking approximately 200 performers to fill roles in eight musical productions throughout 2012. This seasonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s company will be ethnically diverse, with roles available for men, women, and young people of all ability and experience levels. Auditions will be held November 12-13, 2011 at the Nampa Civic Center, 311 3rd St. South, in Nampa, where the Music Theatre of Idaho is the Resident Musical Theatre Company. All auditions are by appointment only. You may register for an audition appointment by visiting www.mtionline.org and following the audition links, or by phoning the MTI office at 208-468-2385. Productions scheduled for season 2012 Season include Forever Plaid, Hello Dolly, Children of Eden, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Gypsy, Little Shop of Horrors, and Miracle on 34th Street. A large company of approximately 200 singers, dancers, and actors will be cast to fill a variety of roles from lead performer to chorus. The MTI is offering audition preparation coaching through private instruction. If you have questions about auditions, or would like to sign up for audition preparation lessons, please call the MTI office at 208-468-2385. All performers cast in Music Theatre of Idaho season 2012 will benefit from instruction by trained professionals in acting, voice, and dance. Additionally, performers will become a member of a very elite performance group, offering professional quality, Broadway style performances, and right here in the Treasure Valley. Sign up to audition today! ISI

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Miss Holiday Theater in Idaho Falls Starting Thanksgiving weekend, The Colonial Theater will host four different holiday productions in nine performances. Christmas at the Colonial is an opportunity to see holiday classics, rock out to your favorite holiday tunes, and enjoy a mix of original compositions. If you are dreaming of a White Christmas just like the ones you used to know, then you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to miss the return of The Playmill Theatreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theatrical production of White Christmas that features all of the music, spectacular dance, and holiday nostalgia audiences have come to celebrate year after year. Idaho Ballet Theatreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nutcracker ballet transports you to a magical place filled with adorable children, marching toy soldiers, mischievous mice, waltzing snowflakes, and a Christmas tree that will grow right before your eyes. The Snake River All Stars have rocked the Colonial Theater for three years and now you can prepare to join them for an amazing night of holiday fun. This show is filled with All Star versions of Christmas classics and more than a few surprises. Popular hybrid pianist (new age meets classical meets rock-n-roll) Jon Schmidt returns to the Colonial with cellist Steven Sharp Nelson for a memorable musical evening of melodic, unconventional, and beautifully syncopated arrangements and original compositions of holiday tunes. For tickets, please call 208-522-0471 or visit www.idahofallsarts.org. ISI

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Sex Bans in Nursing Homes By Ira Rosofsky recently had a resident referred to me for masturMore than 30 years ago, in Arkansas, a so- bating in front of an aide who had walked into the ciologist proposed to a group of nursing home room. Why did she walk in without knocking? Well, operators that they set aside privacy rooms for you cannot knock on an always-open door. And in their residents to do whatever it is that consenting your room â&#x20AC;&#x201C; typically shared with a total stranger adults do in private. Professor Eddie Hargrove after a lifetime of independence â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you have only maintained that handholding, a curtain for privacy. kissing, and petting â&#x20AC;&#x153;probably When I am having a sesI am no expert on sex, and I would go further than a little sion with a resident in a am not a lawyer, but where is nursing home â&#x20AC;&#x201C; even with medication at 10 oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock at night,â&#x20AC;? according to the New the door closed â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is quite the law that says you check York Times. for an aide just to your rights and liberties at the common The nursing home operawalk right in and start making nursing home door? tors all rejected this idea then, up the bed. The custodian and it apparently has not might appear next with a gained much ground since. mop, followed by the cable Flash forward a generation and an advocate guy fiddling with the TV. for medical marijuana asked me recently if â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in Unless you are into exhibitionism, it is hard my role as a psychologist in long-term care facili- to imagine consenting adult residents having sex ties â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I had ever seen it used in nursing homes. I under these conditions. could only lamely reply, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about as likely as One nursing home - the Hebrew Home at sex.â&#x20AC;? Riverdale in New York â&#x20AC;&#x201C; established, in 1995, a I am no expert on sex, and I am not a lawyer, policy recognizing the right to â&#x20AC;&#x153;sexual expression,â&#x20AC;? but where is the law that says you check your and it is often trotted out as the progressive exrights and liberties at the nursing home door? ample. But in the dozens of nursing homes I have There is none that I know of. In fact, the law visited over the years, I have heard lip service to says you retain the right to a sex life wherever you privacy but little action. My colleagues in other reside. states confirm my impressions. The federal government â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which pays for most In the typical nursing home, it is rare to hear long-term care through Medicare and Medicaid â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;sexâ&#x20AC;? without its being modified by â&#x20AC;&#x153;inapenacted the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, propriateâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;offense.â&#x20AC;? mandating that continued federal funding for a There may be an â&#x20AC;&#x153;ickâ&#x20AC;? factor when we think nursing home required the institution to maintain about our elders having sex. But a 2007 Univeran environment in which each resident can â&#x20AC;&#x153;at- sity of Chicago survey, â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Study of Sexuality and tain and maintain his or her highest practicable Health Among Older Adults in the United States,â&#x20AC;? physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being.â&#x20AC;? concluded that old people â&#x20AC;&#x201C; given the opportunity In addition to specifying that certified nursing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are as likely to be sexually active as the young, homes provide basic services such as physical and well into their 70s and 80s. But not in nursing therapy and recreation, the law also contains a homes. Residentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Bill of Rights that includes the right It is easy to slip into the mind-set that because to privacy and the accommodation of personal these people are in institutions, this gives us free needs. rein to decide what is best for them. But people in At the local level, many states have followed nursing homes retain the same rights as the rest up with a further enumeration of individual rights of us to mess up or enhance their lives with sex. in long-term care. In California, for example, I sometimes think of aging â&#x20AC;&#x201C; particularly in the Welfare and Institutions Code specifies that nursing homes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as childhood in reverse: going residents have the right â&#x20AC;&#x153;to live in an environment from independence to dependence and paternalthat enhances personal dignity, maintains inde- istic control. As my baby boomer generation starts pendence, and encourages self-determination,â&#x20AC;? to fill up these institutions over the next couple and â&#x20AC;&#x153;to participate in activities that meet individual of decades, I hope we continue to insist on our physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual needs.â&#x20AC;? cherished rights of self-expression. In the meanThen why is it so hard to remain sexually ac- time, does it make sense that it is easier to get a tive in a nursing home? conjugal visit in a jail than in a nursing home? First, it is hard to find any privacy in nursing Ira Rosofsky is a psychologist who works in nurshomes. Doors are always open; a closed one is ing homes, and the author of Nasty, Brutish, and viewed with the suspicious eyes of a teenagerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Long: Adventures in Eldercare. ISI mother wondering what is going on in there. I

Keeping Your Independence In

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IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 15

PAGE 16 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

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Caregiver Empty Nesting After the Need: Five Ways to Get Back to Yourself With the shift away from less personal and more expensive hospitals needs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and it can be difficult to begin focusing on yourself again once and long-term care facilities, millions of people are caregiving for loved youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re an empty nester. Now that caregiving isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t part of your daily schedones in their homes for as little as several days to a decade or longer. Yes, ule, take time to catch up on your needs. Schedule that wellness physical. Return to a well-balanced exercise routine (to help shed itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initially an adjustment to set your daily clock around Empty nesting isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just for the those extra caregiving pounds brought on by a stressful the care receiver. Parts of your own life must be put on situation). Concentrate on returning to a healthy diet. hold, but soon your schedule as a caregiver becomes parents of college students Set aside time for a massage or meditation, and get the the new normal, and you begin to make and cherish new anymore. Caregiver empty haircut youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been putting off. memories. And then one day, whether your loved one is nesting is an increasingly Give others you love some love. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have gone or simply no longer needs daily support, caregiving is no longer necessary. For many people, the transition common occurrence that refers time to devote to yourself while caregiving, you certainly to the feelings a long-term donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have as much time as youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to spend with othback to â&#x20AC;&#x153;normalâ&#x20AC;? life is unexpectedly difficult, especially if grief is added into the mix. caregiver experiences when her ers you care about. Even though your intentions werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t â&#x20AC;&#x153;When your â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;shiftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as a caregiver is over, loneliness, loved one is gone or no longer bad, your relationships with family members, friends, children, and even pets might have been somewhat grief, and confusion may replace the feelings of being needs daily support. strained through neglect. Now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to rebuild those needed,â&#x20AC;? says Joni Aldrich, speaker and author of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Conbonds â&#x20AC;&#x201D; no excuses. You need comfort and company, necting Through Compassion: Guidance for Family and so have a family and friends get-together. Ask your pals to join a bowling Friends of a Brain Cancer Patientâ&#x20AC;? (Cancer Lifeline Publications, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4515238-5-0, $15.95, www.connectingthroughcompassion.com). league or book club with you. Become active in your favorite charity. Walk, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Suddenly, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a caregiving empty nester. Things are too quiet. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re brush, and love up on your pets â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and catch up on veterinarian appointnot being pulled in three different directionsâ&#x20AC;Ś so ments, too. Just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t overcompensate and wear yourself out. Allow yourself to grieve and get counseling. You may be grieving what will you do now? How will you resume your the loss of not only someone you loved, but also a daily way of life that regular life?â&#x20AC;? Give yourself some love. Caregivers are so you have become accustomed to. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s definitely an emotional double used to taking care of others that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not uncom- whammy. Taking the time to get group or individual counseling is very immon for them to neglect themselves and their own portant. You may find that the best option for you is a combination of both. Counseling is available from many resources, such as religious facilities, the patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s medical facility, the community, your local hospice organizaSometimes we all need a little help... tion, or professional services. Focus on stabilizing your future. When you are involved in caregiving, Â&#x2021; Meal Preparation many other aspects of your own life can get out of balance. It may not have Â&#x2021; Laundry been a priority then, but getting back to financial peace and life stability is Â&#x2021; Errands important now. While it can be overwhelming in the big picture, take the Â&#x2021; Personal Assistance â&#x20AC;&#x153;one step at a timeâ&#x20AC;? approach to reestablishing your footing. Â&#x2021; Licensed, Bonded & â&#x20AC;&#x153;Make a list of the tasks at hand and prioritize them according to the Insured most critical and easiest to attack,â&#x20AC;? says Aldrich. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Find out what resources are available, and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be shy about asking for help.â&#x20AC;? FREE CONSULTATION Volunteer â&#x20AC;&#x201D; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good for the soul. As you navigated the many twists Dependable Caring Service Â&#x2021; Help Is Just a Phone Call Away and turns that cropped up on your caregiving path, you learned things that August Home Health can be invaluable to others. While itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to give yourself some time Coeur dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; AOHQH Â&#x2021; %RQQHUV )HUU\ before you jump into volunteering, helping others is one of the most fulfilling gifts you can offer. info@augusthh.com â&#x20AC;&#x153;Support groups are always looking for others who will pitch in,â&#x20AC;? Aldrich assures. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll often find that the people you are helping arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the only ones being helped!â&#x20AC;? Aldrich urges caregiving empty nesters to acknowledge they have served a purpose and should move on, regroup, and rebuild. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expect this process to be speedy,â&#x20AC;? she concludes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you approach it with self-awareness and patience, you will once again achieve a full, balanced life.â&#x20AC;? About the Author: Joni James Aldrich knows about caregiving. After her husbandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death from metastatic brain cancer, Joni has dedicated her life to helping others survive cancer, caregiving, and grief through her books and public speaking. For more information, please visit www.jonialdrich. com. ISI

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 17

Keeping Peace Of Mind In Long-Distance - Care Some Steps To Help You Cope By Lisa M. Petsche Approximately seven million Americans are involved in the care of an older adult - usually a parent - who lives in a different area, be it an hour’s drive or a plane trip away. The average travel time to reach their relative is four hours. At the best of times, caregiving involves a certain amount of stress, but often the anxiety is compounded when there are many miles between the caregiver and care receiver. Indeed, long-distance caregiving can be emotionally and financially draining. Worries about a parent’s physical, mental, and emotional health and safety can be overwhelming at times. You may wonder if plans you have set up are being implemented properly. You may also feel guilty that you cannot be there on a daily basis to see how your parent is doing (which may be quite different from what he or she reports) and provide assistance as needed. You might wonder if you should be making more sacrifices - either moving closer or inviting mom or dad to come live with you. Then there are the financial costs: the many long-distance telephone calls; travel expenses, and wear on your car; and perhaps the cost of hiring a companion or personal support worker because you cannot be there yourself. If you are employed, you may have to take time off work to deal with crises; some employers are less sympathetic than others are. Despite these challenges, there are many ways to maintain peace of mind while providing long-distance care: Make it easy for people to get in touch with you. Get an answering machine if you do not already have one, and perhaps a cell phone or pager as well. Email may also be advantageous. Set up a regular time to call your parent. Find someone local who can check with your parent daily, either by phone or in person. This could be a reliable neighbor or relative, or even a volunteer from a telephone reassurance service. Keep important phone numbers handy: your parent’s neighbors, close friends, family physician, local pharmacy, and any home health care providers. Ensure all of these people also have your name

and contact information, and encourage them to potential hazards, and do what you can to remove call you with any concerns. Stay in touch to get their them. Visit a medical supply store and check out ongoing perspectives on how your parent is doing. the many products that might make daily activities Shop around for a good long-distance sav- easier and safer for your parent. If you have siblings in the area, arrange ings plan so you do not have to be too concerned about the frequency and duration of a family meeting to discuss your parent’s caregiving-related telephone calls. You might needs and determine who can provide help. Ideally, plan to stay with your parent long consider getting a private, toll-free number so that friends, neighbors, and health care providers enough so you are not rushed. That way you will have no reservations about regularly calling you. have ample time not only to attend meetings (try Maintain a file of key information, such as your to set these up in advance of your arrival) and parent’s medical conditions and surgical history, run errands, but to enjoy your parent’s company. Lisa M. Petsche is a clinical social worker and medications, medical specialists, banking institutions, and other financial contacts, lawyer, clergy, writer specializing in elder care issues. ISI as well as daily or weekly schedule and W E A R E C O M F O R T K E E P E R S® any upcoming appointments. If your parent has a chronic illness, obtain information from the appropriate organization to help you understand the For over a decade, Comfort Keepers® disease. S E R V I C E S has been helping seniors maintain Investigate other available resources independent lives by providing in-home in your parent’s community, which might care and safety. Like cooking, light include: personal emergency response housekeeping, bathing or grooming. systems; letter carrier or utility company And our SafetyChoice ™ PERS and Transportation Medication Management Systems means alert services; accessible transportahelp is always available. tion; adult day care programs and other leisure programming; outreach services such as foot care and seniors dental – clinics; home health services involving nursing, homemaking, therapy, and companion services; and alternative housing. Such information can be obtained from the local Area Agency on Aging. (To find the appropriate office, call the AdminEntire istration on Aging’s toll-free Eldercare Entire Treasure Valley: 895-8822 Locator Service at 1-800-677-1116 or Pocatello Area: 234-9825 Pocatello Area: 234-9825 search online at http://www.eldercare. Burley/Rupert: 434-8888 gov/.) Burley/Rupert: 434-8888 Twin Falls Area: 733-8988 When you do have an opportuTwin Falls Area:208-895-8822 733-8988 Treasure Valley: nity to visit, pay close attention to your Each office independently owned and operated. © 2009 CK Franchising, Inc. parent’s physical condition, mental W W W. C O M F O R T K E E P E R S . C O M functioning, and mood. Consult his or her family doctor if you have any concerns. Perform a safety assessment of the home environment to identify

Luther Park Provides Lifestyle Choices At Luther Park at Sandpoint Assisted Living & Memory Care Community, we want your new home to be a positive and inviting place offering peace of mind for you and your family knowing that you are well cared for. Our professional staff is dedicated to honoring your lifestyle choices so that you can enjoy life on your terms. At Luther Park, we take care of the things that you do not want to so you can enjoy what you like doing best. Each person has unique needs that change over time. When more assistance becomes necessary, our customized services provide our residents the ability to stay right where they live. At Luther Park, our nurse consults with each resident and his or her family to design an individual plan of care. From the moment you walk in, we want you to know that Luther Park at Sandpoint is special place that puts you first. Join us for lunch, tour our community, meet our staff, and see for yourself why Luther Park at Sandpoint was voted Best Senior Community in Bonner County 2009, 2010, and 2011. Call 208-265-3557 today to arrange your personal tour. ISI

PAGE 18 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Well, fall has arrived. For many, this is a favorite time of year, when the air turns crisp, the days grow short, and the rustling leaves beneath our feet remind us of another cycle passing. We also think about holing up and hunkering down for the upcoming winter months. It’s soon time to get the fires going. Why not think about finding a friend to share and prepare for the impending cold! End the old cycle and start anew by answering one of these ads or writing your own. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find the perfect someone to kindle a fire, bringing new warmth to your heart! 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 next 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 in the December 2011/January 2012 issue, the deadline is November 10, 2011. Interested in SWM only, not over 65. I live in Coeur d’Alene. I am a SWF who has been a widow since 2008. I need a friend. I want someone to share thoughts with and laugh with. Must have a

good sense of humor. I am 65, love people, and enjoy having fun. No smokers or drug users! Reply ISI, Dept. 7401, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. SWF, 70, retired, live in Coeur d’Alene area. I am looking for a SWM to be a friend and companion. I am a non-smoker, honest, and friendly. Live on a limited income, which I budget quite well, but I don’t have extra if that is important to you. I am not looking for someone to take care of me, and you should be able to take care of your own needs. Reply ISI, Dept. 7402, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. SWF, 67, live in NW Idaho. If you are a kindhearted, honest gentleman (67+), with a sense of adventure and a sense of humor, then I want to meet you. Want to travel? Since I retired from a major airline with flight benefits, it would be great to have a fun travel companion. Hope you like to dance because I do! What I like: the morning dew on the lake, rain on the roof, slow dancing or swing, hooking the huge halibut in Alaska, cozying by the campfire, walks on the beach, spontaneous road trips, exploring new places, and laughing. Actually, anything I’m doing is enjoyable with that special guy who enjoys being together and sharing retirement with me. This fun-loving romantic would love to hear from you. New Adventures await. Reply ISI, Dept. 7403, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. I would like to meet a nice Christian gentleman who likes to go to church, who likes to travel, and who likes to go camping. I am 69 years old. Reply ISI, Dept. 7404, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

SWM 50 coming 100 – Fallen mountain man, frustrated renaissance man, serious shepherd – seeks female counterpart, 60 to 80, to help write a few more chapters in the book of life. Not interested in smelling the roses or going south for winter. Reply ISI, Dept. 7405, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. DWF, 64, searching for SWM, 64-68, for companionship or long-term relationship. Have similar interests as mine: gardening, flower arranging, cooking, animals, dining out once in awhile. I’m a non-smoker, drinker, no drugs. I’m not a Miss America look alike, just an ordinary person. Hope to hear from someone. I live in Grangeville, ID. Reply ISI, Dept. 7406, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. I am a SWF, 64, who is looking for a nice religious man, 70-80. I live in assisted living in St. Maries. I am a non-smoker, and I don’t do drugs. I like to go out and watch movies, dance, and go shopping. Reply ISI, Dept. 7407, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. SWF, relocatable, 5’6” slim, brown eyes, long brown hair, attractive, up-beat, fun-loving, who loves walking together, romance, cooking, RVing, and traveling. I want someone to care for, respect, love, and laugh with for the rest of our lives. ISO caring gentleman, 55-75, with sense of humor. Intelligent, secure, shares same values. Not seeking a place to stay or financial gain. Time is a-wasting. Let’s make life exciting! Photo/phone #. No D/S. Reply ISI, Dept. 7408, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. ISI

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FUN1447 ISS1 AUG11

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Lake Overturn by Vestal McIntyre; HarperCollins, 2009 Reviewed by Connie Daugherty Vestal McIntyre uses an actual natural disaster in 1986 as a springboard to launch his first novel of ordinary people leading ordinary lives in an ordinary small town in Idaho, Lake Overturn. As a story of personal exploration and experimentation for the adults as well as the teenagers, it in some ways reads like a collection of short stories - individuals living their separate lives in the same small town. They encounter each other because it is a small town, but mostly they bounce off one another like repelling molecules - touching but not connecting. McIntyre has divided the book using the seven steps of the scientific method of discovery - the problem, research, hypothesis, experimentation, analysis, results, and presentation. The symbolism is subtle, intriguing, and occasionally surprising. The writing is as crisp and clean as the plot is complex, peopled with enough characters nearly to fill a small town. Eula is a small town in central Idaho - the sort of town that is overlooked in the big scheme of things, peopled by the sort of people who are easily overlooked. “Rain was unusual for Eula. Eulans were quietly perplexed by cousins in California… by uncles in Oklahoma… by grandchildren in the south” where fog, tornados, and intense thunderstorms were the norm. Eula was very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer… Weather-wise there was no place simpler.” However, people and relationships are anything but simple in Eula. As is often the case in small western towns, life centers on the church and the school and we see most of the characters with that backdrop. Enrique wants to win the science fair; Gene, his friend and neighbor in the trailer court is odd and shy, but smart so Enrique, the outgoing one, convinces Gene to be his partner. “Gene felt no shame or regret about anything; it was a capacity he had been born without. So their friendship was one of a kind: the forces of fear and guilt that buffeted Enrique about in the rest of his life were quiet here.” It is Gene’s idea to build the project around the mysterious disaster along Lake Nyos in Africa that killed everything. Gene’s mother, Connie, a devout fundamental Christian, has her life shaken like the soda can the boys use for their experiment when a visiting missionary comes to town. Lina, Enrique’s mother, finds love in a most unexpected place, but that does not make dealing with Enrique’s budding homosexuality any easier. Jay, Enrique’s older brother is struggling with his own identity crisis - a Mexican in a mostly white town raised by a white foster family, but still not completely accepted by either his Mexican family - whom he mostly denies - or the white community. Liz and Abby have been best friends forever. They are attractive, kind, smart, and can hardly wait to get away from Eula - they have both been accepted to college. But Abby’s mother is dying of cancer and Liz has a

secret admirer who has sent her a love note. Liz is completely unprepared for any declaration of love. “No one loved Liz because no one but Abby knew her.” Still Liz holds on to the “token of her unloved state” as she heads home to “the grand house where she lived with those three strangers - Winston and her parents - who didn’t, couldn’t, love her.” In Eula there is love and then there is love - it is a small town with as many churches as businesses and too much open hostility causes the very fabric of the community to fray. So, “in Eula, everyone loved everyone in God’s way, or at least that was the story… it was forbidden not to love everyone.” Wanda is also looking for love - even God’s love would be nice - and she thinks she has finally found a way. The idea is so perfect, so potentially fulfilling that she even manages to walk away from the drugs that have sustained her existence and sanity for most of her adult life. “I want to carry a baby,” she tells her brother. So she applies to be a surrogate, and goes to Portland to meet a prospective couple. “She had known what type of people they were since she laid eyes on them: They exercised regularly and watched very little TV. There were people like them in Boise.” Boise is where Eulans go to get a taste of the

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 19

outside world, few go beyond Boise, except for serious medical treatment, and then they go to Salt Lake. Meanwhile in Eula, Enrique’s life is upside down again. His fight with Gene just before the science fair has left him alone, “Yet he is no longer sad.” He conducts his own social experiment. “His newly imagined role in junior high was the lone wolf… Enrique no longer raised his hand gloatingly in class,” to answer every question.” The sensitive, emotional boy has found a way to keep himself safe. By dividing the novel into sections based on the scientific process of discovery, McIntyre also gives himself that bit of distance. He examines the lives of his characters without judgment or bias presenting what he discovers about each of their successes and failures without reservation. He dredges deep underneath the surface, stirs up what lies beneath and shakes up the routine lives of his characters. Along the way, Lake Overlook becomes Lake Overturn. Born and raised in Nampa, Idaho, Vestal McIntyre is an award-winning writer. Lake Overturn was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Washington Post Best Book of 2009. McIntyre was also nominated for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. ISI

PAGE 20 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Dana Lohrey Plays Mean Honky Tonk Piano - continued from cover books about the history of the region. “The first book was a mile by mile history of the Elk City Wagon Road itself,” he explains. “A person could purchase it and take a trip over the wagon road and just follow my mile markers. I did a history of each weigh station and stopping house along the way.” Since that first book, fifteen more softbound books have followed. He self publishes them. “I’ve kept the prices low so I could get them into peoples’ hands so they could afford it. My largest endeavor was The History of Clearwater, a 247 page book. I thought maybe I’d sell 50 copies but I’ve since sold over 300.” Some other books include a history of the Chinese in the Clearwater Mountains during the gold rush era, and another about Elk City Wagon Road Pioneers. Dana has done community histories as well including History of Harpster, History of Stites, and Clearwater. “Different families have asked me to put together books on their family histories associated with the wagon road era,” he added.

“I spent a lot of time in Grangeville looking through old copies of Idaho County Freepress and Kooskia Mountaineer and Stites Enterprises,” he explains. “I spent time in the Idaho County courthouse looking up public records. People have given me information from their records and bibles, and visiting with the old timers. “My goal was to bring back these histories so they could be passed on to future generations so the history would not be forgotten.” Dana says that every year on the third weekend in July they hold an “Elk City Wagon Road Days” celebration in Clearwater to honor the gold rush era and the history of the area it serves. He sells the books from his home in Lewiston and his sister runs the And Books Too bookstore in Clarkston that also carries the books. Asked what the future holds, Dana says, “I am doing a short history on Kooskia, which was originally known as Stewart, Idaho. It’s not part of the wagon road but was in close proximity and the railroad came through there. That’s all right now but when I get enough stuff put together I might

consider something else.” Dana has another activity that also keeps him pretty busy. “I’m a honky-tonk piano player too,” he says. “I play honky-tonk and ragtime piano, and sometimes southern gospel.” He provided a short demonstration of his skills on his piano at home and I will vouch for his abilities. Seated at his old upright piano and dressed in white shirt with black sleeve bands, black bow tie, and black derby, he could have stepped right out of a 1880s photograph. Dana plays throughout the general Lewiston area. “I did a southern Gospel program at Bovil recently. I play periodically at Lewiston Eagles for Friday evening sing-a-longs. We have an old time sing-a-long at the Lewiston Elks, plus nursing homes and retirement centers around the area. Whether it is the pioneer history of the area or traditional honky-tonk piano, Dana Lohrey is thoroughly steeped in the culture and records of the people who have come before him and is working very hard to keep the stories alive for future generations. ISI

Who doesn’t enjoy a good movie? For this month’s quiz, dig into your celluloid memory and see if you can’t recall Faces in Famous Flicks - the actors who played these engaging characters that kept you glued to your theater seat. Congratulations to Bonita Daniel of Plummer who submitted the winning answers to the The Royal We - Britain’s First Family quiz that appeared in our August/September 2011 issue. Thank you, Bonita.

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 that our staff selects as the featured quiz or puzzle in the “Contest Corner” for that issue. Be creative and send us some good, fun, and interesting puzzles! The second $25 prize goes to the person who submits the most 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, or email to idahoseniorind@bresnan.net by November 10, 2011 for our December 2011/ January 2012 edition. Be sure to work the crossword puzzle on our website www.idahoseniorindependent.com.

By ISI Staff Below are 25 famous movie roles along with 25 actors. On a numbered sheet of paper, match each role with the actor that played it and send it to us. The winner will receive a $25 cash prize. Good luck! 1. Atticus Finch; To Kill a Mockingbird 2. The Monster; Frankenstein 3. Juror # 8; 12 Angry Men 4. Betty Haynes; White Christmas 5. Don Lockwood; Singin’ in the Rain 6. Ann Darrow; King Kong 7. Ned Land; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 8. Luther Billis; South Pacific 9. Prince Feisal; Lawrence of Arabia 10. Scarlett O’Hara; Gone with the Wind 11. Count Dracula; Dracula

12. Ilsa Lund; Casablanca 13. Butch Cassidy; Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid 14. Johnny Gray; The General 15. Dorothy Gale; The Wizard of Oz 16. John Prentice; Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 17. Samuel Spade; The Maltese Falcon 18. Major Frank Burns; M.A.S.H. 19. Eliza Doolittle; My Fair Lady 20. Danny Ocean; Ocean’s 11 21. Lisa Carol Fremont; Rear Window 22. Jim Stark; Rebel Without a Cause 23. Vince Everett; Jailhouse Rock 24. Blondie; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 25. Rose Sayer; The African Queen A - Paul Newman B - Frank Sinatra

Faces in Famous Flicks

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. - Rabbi Abraham Heschel

C - Fay Wray D - Kirk Douglas E - Katharine Hepburn F - Gregory Peck G - Sidney Poitier H - Rosemary Clooney I - Vivian Leigh J - Elvis Presley K - Robert Duvall L - Ingrid Bergman M - Grace Kelly N - Boris Karloff

O - Alec Guinness P - Clint Eastwood Q - Judy Garland R - James Dean S - Ray Walston T - Henry Fonda U - Audrey Hepburn V - Buster Keaton W - Gene Kelly X - Bela Lugosi Y - Humphrey Bogart ISI

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 21

Answers to The Royal We: Britain’s First Family By ISI Staff 1. M - April 29, 2011 2. T - 20 3. O - 2 4. F - Edward VIII 5. L - George VI 6. Y - Royal Consort 7. A - 59 8. W - Prince Albert 9. G - August 31, 1997 10. U - Queen Victoria 11. B - Windsor Castle 12. N - Queen Elizabeth I

Across 1 3 8 9 10 11 12 15 17 18 19 20 22 24 26 28

Alarm cry of a doe or fawn Best way to find the best spots Too noisy! Period when a doe is capable of breeding Third chamber of a deer’s stomach Vet title California lake It comes after black or white Rolodex abbreviation That is Rejection Found a regular sleep spot Moves when frightened, for example Cabin in the wild Night bird Frolic like a fawn

30 31 33 34 36 38 40 41 42

Blue Ridge Mountains locale __, shucks! Penn’s state, for short Bow shape Signs of a deer Description of some trees Holds firmly French for the Subject that a hunter must consider to avoid alarming deer 43 Took off quickly

Down 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Doe sound Observed closely Help message Copper symbol One way a deer can become aware of a hunter Ingrained behavior Deer category

8 11 13 14 15 16 18 20 21 23 25 27 29 32 33 35 37 39

Attract by calling The buck stops here! Chewed the cud Mature Currents used by deer Auction section Agreement words Eats quickly to avoid predators Large deer Not getting a lot of sun Field description perhaps Big Before Tip off Energy Imitate deer sounds Barbecue site Cost ISI

13. J - Catherine Parr 14. R - 16 15. D - Prince Harry 16. I - Prince Philip 17. V - Charles I 18. E - Roman Catholicism 19. P - Westminster Abbey 20. X - Duke of Edinburgh 21. C - Palace of Holyroodhouse 22. S - Duke of Cambridge 23. K - The Church of England 24. H - September 15, 1984 25. Q - Buckingham Palace ISI

PAGE 22 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Gary Gillespie shares his passion for shooting and safety with the next generation ager of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development By Dianna Troyer Like Ernest Hemingway, Gary Gillespie, an Department. “I love the competition and thrill of avid angler and hunter, loves the fall the best of all, hitting your target exactly where you intended to especially October. There are so many decisions hit it.” Since Gary started teaching hunter education, to make, none of them bad for Gary. “So many hunting seasons open in October, so a program offered through the Idaho Department it’s hard to decide what to do,” says the 73-year-old of Fish and Game to youths 10 and older, he has Boise resident, a nationally ranked marksman in taught thousands of students and was awarded pistols and rifles, who has taught hunter education the Idaho Hunter Education Instructor of the Year Award in 2004. “I retired that year and had more since 1965 in Arizona, Oregon, and Idaho. time to teach more “There are upclasses.” land game bird seaThe department’s sons, deer, elk…. classes fill quickly I used to hunt elk and often have a and deer, and ducks waiting list. “We try and geese along with to limit each hunter upland game birds. ed class to about 30 These days, I like to students, but we’ll go hunt pheasants and up to 35, if we have quail in the valleys to. I teach five or six because it’s hard classes and have for me to run uphill, three assistants. keeping up with the There are so many kids and chasing wonderful volunteer wildlife, especially instructors throughthose chukars. I love to fish, too, for any- Gary Gillespie, an avid angler and hunter, has been teaching out the state, more thing that bites, pref- hunter education classes since 1965 [Photo by Ronnie Gillespie] than 500, with about 100 here in the Treaerably rainbow trout. sure Valley, so we team teach.” Usually, I’m in the right place at the right time.” After his students graduate from the class, Gary says one of the best decisions he has ever made is teaching marksmanship and ethics which includes 15 hours of classroom instruction to the next generation of shooters, through hunter and three hours of testing at a firing range, they are education classes from March to September and ready to hunt safely in Idaho. Gary teaches huntthrough the Meridian ing ethics and regulations, first aid, survival, map Optimist Junior Rifle and compass reading, gun safety, caring for and Club from October to cleaning a gun, wildlife identification, field-dressing big game, and making the first shot count. March. The first shot has counted throughout Gary’s “I tell all my students again and again, shooting life, ever since he was in college on the ‘You can never be too Army ROTC rifle team in Eastern Washington safe with a firearm. They University in Cheney and later as an active duty are unforgiving if used Marine and Reservist from 1957 to 1998. When improperly. Never get he retired from the U.S. Marine Corps, he was on the corps’ Air Wing Rifle and Pistol Team and won complacent.’” For Gary, shoot- high expert in rifle. He was on the pistol qualificaing has always been a tion course for more than 33 years. Wanting to pass along his passion for shooting welcome break from his and safety, he started teaching hunter education daily work routine. “ I t h a s a l w a y s in Yuma, Ariz., in 1965. When he moved to Orhelped me let loose and egon, he led a Boy Scout troop and taught Scouts get into a different mind- marksmanship and hunter education. After moving to Idaho, he continued to share set,” says Gary, who moved to Boise in 1986 his skills and successful mindset, teaching hunter to work as senior man- education courses and coaching nationally com-

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

petitive shooters at the Meridian Optimist Junior Rifle Club west of Boise. A member of the U.S. Practical Shooting Association, Gary is still competitive, winning titles in practical pistol and rifle marksmanship contests sponsored at the Nampa Rod and Gun Club. “At one time, I was shooting every weekend

in three different shooting sports: cowboy action shooting, practical pistol, and police practical course at the Boise Police Athletic Association matches. I decided if I wanted to get very good at one of them, I’d have to pick one, so I chose the practical pistol. There’s not enough time to do it

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 23

all.” He plans to take enough time to teach his 12-year-old grandson to shoot. “He says he’s interested in competitive shooting, so I’ll give him some tips. These days, I don’t always win, but I still have a lot of fun trying.” ISI

Working with Boise’s Wild Life What is the difference between a monkey and an ape? Well, if you don’t know, you can visit Zoo Boise and hopefully run into Mike Larabee who knows the answer. “Monkeys have tails and apes don’t,” he explains. “If you come to the zoo and ride the Conservation Cruiser you’ll learn all kinds of interesting facts like that.” The Conservation Cruiser Larabee is talking about is just one of the places he works at in Zoo Boise. This inveterate volunteer spends three and a half days a week helping prepare food and clean enclosures for the small carnivores (think ocelot, bobcat, bat-eared foxes, swift foxes, and others), driving the Conservation Cruiser around the lagoon, and working as a naturalist for the giraffe feeding, and at the wallaby and butterfly exhibits. “I really enjoy helping people learn about and touch the animals,” Mike says. “We bring out a Russian tortoise that lives on the Russian steppes as well as in Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and a hedgehog that fits right in the palm of your hand. It’s best to wear gloves when handling the hedgehog, but if you rub them in the right direction, their spines lay down. We also have insects like the ferny devil and Australian walking stick for folks to touch.” The Conservation Cruiser that Mike pilots around the lagoon is the only way to get to a special exhibit of Black Mangeby monkeys (yep, they have tails) native to the Congo. According to Mike, these monkeys have facial hair that rises to a peak atop their foreheads and big, bushy side-whiskers. “If they were green they would look like the Grinch,” he says with a laugh. “These monkeys are threatened due to habitat loss and a thriving business in bush meat as food.” The fee visitors pay to ride the boat is just one way Zoo Boise raises money for worldwide wildlife conservation. If you think Mike’s work career prepared him for being a zoo volunteer, you would be way off the mark. Larabee spent eleven years in the Navy and eleven years in the Air Force, always as an electronics technician. “I was out of the Navy working at Boeing when they had the big lay-off from 1968-1970 (remember the billboard in Seattle that read “Will the last person leaving town please turn the lights off?”). And since I had gotten married to my wife, Janice, in 1969, I decided to go back into the service and chose the Air Force because it is more civilized for family life than the Navy.” The couple have two children, Sean and Erica, who benefited from having their dad around rather than off on some Navy cruiser. When Mike retired from the Air Force in 1982 he went on to work in Twin Falls for a few years then spent seventeen years at Micron in Boise and retired for good from a job with a civilian contractor at Mountain Home Air Force Base in December 2007. But despite his technical background, Larabee does admit to a rather exotic childhood background with animals. “My mom and dad both worked for a circus doing a bullwhip act,” he explains. “When they

divorced, my stepmom took over the bullwhip act and continued her original aerial act as well. I would live and travel with them in the summers, so I got to be around a lot of different animals. When my dad’s eyes got bad, he became the ringmaster. I have pictures of our son petting a baby lion and a camel as just a little boy.” But for an active man like Mike, retirement was not all it was cracked up to be. So one day, when he saw an advertisement in the paper stating volunteers were needed at Zoo Boise, he took action. “I called the zoo and got an application,” he says. “I started volunteering two and half days a week but I enjoy it so much I added another day.” Mike says one of the best things about volunteering is everything he has learned. “I’ve learned a lot about all the zoo animals, not just the ones I work with,” he explains. Most people, Mike says, do not realize that just by coming to the zoo they are helping save animals around the world. “Everyone gets a token when they pay their zoo admission and they can put those tokens in one of three barrels, each with a different animal on the outside, right inside the entrance,” Mike explains. “Each month, the group working to protect the animal with the most tokens is sent a one thousand dollar check from Zoo Boise.” Like most zoos around the country, Zoo Boise depends on volunteers to make ends meet. Tracy Bryan is the zoo’s volunteer coordinator and she says volunteers are a huge part of Zoo Boise’s success. “We have 234 people volunteer and they contribute around 35,000 hours to Zoo Boise,” she says. “There’s no one type of volunteer, either. Some people are retired, others work full time, and we have a lot of Boise State University students as well.” Each potential volunteer must fill out an application, go through a short interview, and attend an orientation Tracy explains. “This fall we start our orientations with animal care, exhibit maintenance, diet preparation, and observation of animals. The very best part of my job,” she says, “is getting to work with all the awesome people who volunteer at Zoo Boise.”

Volunteer Mike Larabee getting ready to drive the solar powered boat! [Photo provided by Zoo Boise]

And according to Mike Larabee, “I would recommend volunteering at the zoo to anyone. It has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.” To find out more about volunteer opportunities at Zoo Boise call 208-384-4125. ISI

PAGE 24 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Life is a joy ride for artists Dick and Judy Deam in their Flying Cloud Airstream trailer By Dianna Troyer Whenever Dick and Judy Deam pull into a gas station in their 1958 Cadillac, towing their 1958 Airstream trailer, they are always ready to pull out a welcome mat, too. “While we’re filling up, we often have three or four people come up to ask about our trailer,” Judy says. “It brings so much joy to people and evokes so many memories. People tell us their grandparents had one, or they’ve always wanted one. They want to see the inside so badly, and we’re okay with that,” she says of the retro wooden walls and cupboards, and flooring of aqua, red, and yellow linoleum tiles. “We’re happy to share it with people.” Airstream trailers make people smile not only for summoning pleasantries of the past but also for their shape. “To some people, they look like giant silver Twinkies,” Dick says of the distinctively rounded polished aluminum Airstreams. Three years ago, the Boise residents bought their 22-foot trailer from a friend and live in it while vacationing or traveling to juried art shows throughout the Northwest, where they sell their paintings. When they first saw the vintage Flying Cloud, a popular model still manufactured today, they were smitten with its soothing streamlined curves and interior. “It was sitting in a friend’s front yard, and he intended to restore it as a guest house, but he never had the time, and his wife got tired of looking at it, so we bought it,” Dick says. “It never leaked and had never been restored. For 20 years, we had been pulling a 1959 Mercury Canned Ham Camper behind our ’52 Hudson, so the Flying Cloud was roomy compared to that.” The Flying Cloud slipped naturally into their lifestyle. “We love buying and restoring old stuff – our 1936 house, cars, trailers, bikes, toys, antiques…. Our primary cars have always been vintage, too,” Dick says. “Besides the Cadillac, we have a 1965 showquality VW bug.”

Vintage items have so much character and evoke nostalgia, Judy says. “We’re Baby Boomers - Dick is 64 and I’m 56 - and these things remind us of our era.” Dick restored the Flying Cloud before and after work as executive director of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a Department of Defense agency that ensures soldiers get their jobs back after completing their tour of duty. “It took me about 600 hours to restore,” Dick says. He sanded and varnished the wood, splatter-painted the walls, put in new copper plumbing, and installed tile flooring. Judy sewed aqua curtains highlighted with geometric designs in coral, blue, black, and butter yellow. “When we’re in there,” Judy says, “it’s cozy, like being in a big playhouse. It’s small, so it simplifies how we live, which I like. We don’t have common electronic items in it either, like a TV or computer. We just have our cell phones. For meals, we buy fresh food wherever we are. It might be a crab from a dock or vegetables from a farmer’s stand or market.” Inside the Flying Cloud, “we feel like we’re on Cloud Nine, like we’re in a mansion,” Dick says. “We have modern amenities: a stove, refrigerator, bathroom with toilet and shower, and a silent pressurized water system.” Wherever they go, the Deams draw crowds not only with the Flying Cloud but also with their artwork at shows and galleries. Judy, a fulltime working artist for the past decade, has sold her sculptures, calligraphy, and paintings at solo shows. She is best known for her whimsical watercolors of animals and vintage toys. Reproductions of Dick’s large oil paintings of vintage cars and trucks have been featured on magazine covers of Old Cars Weekly and Jukebox Collector. Most recently, he sells his work as digital giclee prints on canvas. Judy began painting as a child, learning from her artist uncle who babysat her. “When I was 4 and 5, he would draw for me and teach me techniques. I’m grateful to have been born with a talent to create art. I’ve taken several painting workshops and can teach myself anything from a book.” Recently, she started reverse painting on glass. “You paint on the back of glass, so it’s challenging to think in reverse. I’m excited about doing something new, and these pieces are more abstract.” Dick began painting in 1985, after seeing an artist’s vintage car paintings, while they were vacationing in Virginia. “I thought, ‘Hey, I could do that,’ and I could. It takes me about 100 hours to complete a painting.” In January 2010 at a Boise gallery, the selftaught successful artists did their first joint show called “Joy Ride,” a fitting description of their 36year marriage. Their mutual interest in art and the old-fashioned brought them together while Dick studied business at Western Colorado College in Gunnison, where Judy grew up. When they started dating, he courted her in his Model A Ford. After they were married in 1975, they worked

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

various jobs, and then decided to see the country. In 1978, they sold most of their possessions, bought a 1950 Chevy country school bus converted into a camper and traveled the U.S. for several months, earning an income by painting signs. Once their wanderlust was satisfied a bit, Dick worked a variety of jobs as an antique car salesman, wax museum director, plumber, safety director at a ski area, and house painter, while Judy sold

antiques. In 1985, Dick, an infantry officer during the Vietnam War, joined the Idaho Army National Guard. He retired as a colonel in 2008. In a few years, when Dick retires again, he and Judy plan to devote themselves more to painting and traveling with their dogs: 1-year-old Duesy, a golden doodle, and 2-year-old Sugar, a Great Dane. When they are not riding in a vintage car or

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 25

living in a retro trailer, the Deams are touring on a 2006 Yamaha 1900-cc Roadliner. “Even when we retire, we won’t be ready for the rocking chair,” Dick says. “We never worry, either,” Judy says. “We were both born with a talent to paint and can always earn some money making and selling signs wherever we travel. Life is good - no matter what happens.” ISI

Pete Rolfe brings back the day, cruising Boise streets aboard his Cushman scooters By Dianna Troyer Whenever Pete Rolfe cruises Boise streets on his 1957 Cushman Eagle, heads turn. “People give me a thumbs-up, or other times people wave me over and want to talk about Cushmans they knew of or rode when they were younger,” says Pete, of the chunky scooters built between 1936 and 1965. “Many people have owned a Cushman or have known someone who has, or they wish they had one, but not too many people ride them today.” The Eagle is one of 12 Cushman scooters he owns. “They range in manufacture years from 1947 to 1963. Five run, and the others still need some restoration,” says Pete, 73, a mechanic who restores the scooters in his spare time after he gets off work as a shop lab assistant in the diesel technology program at the College of Western Idaho. Pete began collecting Cushmans three years ago, when he bought a 1959 Pacemaker Alligator for $750. “I saw it at a swap meet, and the owner ended up selling it to someone I knew. A couple of years later, I saw that guy at a ski area and asked him if he’d had all the fun he could with it. He told me [Photo courtesy of Pete Rolf] he had, so I bought it. It wasn’t the style I wanted, but it got me going on Cushmans.” He finds the vintage scooters by reading ads on eBay or in the American Classifieds weekly advertiser and by attending swap meets. “You never know what you’ll find. If you are planning to buy a restored Cushman that runs and is mechanically sound, you can expect to spend about $2,000 to $3,000. The really high-end ones, like the Super Silver Eagle, cost about $6,000 to $7,000.” After buying his antique scooters, Pete joined the Cushman Club of America, a national club with active membership of about 5,000 families that are as charmed with the scooters as consumers were decades ago. A comfortable step-through design on many scooters and efficient gas mileage of 75 miles to the gallon made them popular. The Cushman Corporation was eventually bought out by Textron Inc. and makes scooters for law enforcement and turf care uses. Today, Cushman Club chapters throughout the U.S. sponsor shows, rides, contests, and banquets. Of all Pete’s scooters, the Eagle is one of his favorites to ride to car shows or swap meets in Boise. With its eight-horsepower engine, it can zip along at about 50 miles an hour, but he only goes about 30 to 35. “A Cushman is heavy, about 250 to 335 pounds, and doesn’t stop or accelerate quickly. Even though it can go 50, it doesn’t have 50 mile-an-hour brakes. The mechanical brakes aren’t worth a darn, so I’m always cautious when I ride it. I’m always looking ahead to see what cars are doing on side streets or in the changing lanes. On a Cushman, you can’t speed away from anything because acceleration is something it just doesn’t have.” During its heyday, the Eagle was popular because it resembled a Harley-

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Davidson motorcycle but was less expensive. “Teen-agers who couldn’t afford a Harley bought an Eagle. They liked the looks and were trying to emulate the Harley riders.” Pete found the Eagle on eBay in Redding, Calif., two years ago and bought it, even though it did not run. “Cushmans are easy to work on, so over Christmas break I got it running. Then I put on new tires and packed in new wheel bearings. It still has the original old paint, so I nicknamed it Old Paint, and it has won prizes at motorcycle shows for ‘best patina.’” Besides his Eagle, another favorite is an aqua step-through 1947 Roadk-

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ing nicknamed The Green Monster. “I found that in Redding, too.” Cushmans are not the only vintage vehicles Pete collects. His British sports cars are “another hobby out of control,” he says of the 60-some cars located in storage buildings on various rental properties. “About a half dozen run and another six could be driven with minor repairs. I have a hobby parts business, too.” He drove his 1974 blue Triumph TR6 with

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

redline tires and wire wheels during a tour with other members of the Idaho British Car Club in September. “We went from Boise, through Yellowstone National Park to Cody, down to Jackson, then Lava Hot Springs and back to Boise.” He advises people who want to drive vintage vehicles to be their own mechanic. “It’s not really cost effective if you have to pay someone else to do all the restoration and maintenance work. It can cost $500 to $1,000 a year to maintain a

30- to 50-year-old vehicle. Things like alternators, clutches, hoses, water pumps, and belts wear out just like our bodies do. Stuff happens.” As he rides his Cushmans, Pete is fulfilling a wish from his teen years. “I wanted one in junior high, but my family wouldn’t let me have one. Finally, I have what I wanted way back when.” To learn more about Cushmans, the Cushman Club of America has a website at www.cushmanclubofamerica.com. ISI

Virginia James: A Life Spent Horsing Around! Article & Photo by Holly Endersby For a young bride brought up in the plush horse country of New York, the idea of buying a ranch and getting to ride everyday was just perfect. “I was always crazy about horses,” Virginia James of Pollock confesses. “I’ve shown in English pleasure, hunter, halter, and matched pairs throughout my life. And I was never stuck on one breed. I always said it was the brains in the horse’s head that mattered to me. But I didn’t ride western until I moved to Idaho.” Virginia recalls that she always had a horse growing up. “Like most kids I had a pony to start with, but my parents both rode and always kept horses

for other people so there were plenty of full-size horses to choose from. I had a Morgan horse that just loved to jump so I showed him a lot - he lived to be thirty. My dad loved jumping, too, and rode a great big Irish hunter who could jump cars!” Virginia’s parents rode to hounds, a fairly common country activity in those days. “My father was the whip (the person in charge of the hounds) for the Golden Bridge Hound and Hunt Club, so riding was a big part of our life.” And she was a country kid even before she headed to Idaho. “We lived way out in the country, and it was common for us to be snowed in for a week or two in the winter. They didn’t plow country roads then like they do now.”

Like a lot of women after World War II, Virginia married a veteran, Julius “Jesse” James, who had come to New York on leave from the Navy with one of her cousins. “Jesse went to Danbury Technical College in Connecticut when he got out of the service so we could see each other. As soon as I turned nineteen in 1949 we got married. I’d never even been away

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

from home before!â&#x20AC;? Immediately after their marriage, the young couple headed to Idaho, Jesseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home state. It was in Boise that Jesse began a thirty-five-year career with Mountain Bell, the local phone company. As soon as Virginia and Jesse got settled in Boise, they began looking for a ranch. Jesse, a native of Council, had ranching in his blood. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We found a ranch on Pine Butte on the backside of Bogus Basin called Pine Creek Ranch,â&#x20AC;? Virginia recalls. Soon, the young couple had a bull and thirty cows along with other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cattle. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was pretty rustic,â&#x20AC;? Virginia laughs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There was no electricity except what we could get from a generator at first. We built a log cabin, and, while Jesse worked in town, I was responsible for taking care of the cows and getting the irrigation done. I rode every day and loved it!â&#x20AC;? Although Virginia found Idaho different from New York, she felt at home immediately. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I especially loved the mountains we have here and how far you could see.â&#x20AC;? Later on, Jesse did some work for folks in Caldwell, and they invited him to bring his bride. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I rode with the people, and they told us to take two horses for the summer. So we found a pasture and kept them. In the meantime we broke some horses to ride for them, and the couple ended up giving me the two horses they loaned us.â&#x20AC;? Although the work at Pine Creek Ranch was hard, Virginia never minded it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I got to ride every day to check on the cattle in the morning and then again when I brought them in for the night off the Forest Service allotment we grazed. We brought in feeder cattle in the spring and shipped them out each fall, and I loved it all.â&#x20AC;? Virginia said it gave her great pleasure to teach her daughter, Katherine Marie Coonts, now of McCall, to ride. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Katherine showed a lot and came home with plenty of ribbons and trophies,â&#x20AC;? Virginia says proudly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She had a buckskin gelding of no special breeding and she could do anything in the world on him. Katherine showed him in barrel racing, jumping, hunt seat, and even goat-tying.â&#x20AC;? When Jesse retired and had heart by-pass surgery, the couple decided it was time to move to a place with less work. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was really tough keeping our five miles of road open from the highway to the ranch in the winter, so it was time to find a smaller place,â&#x20AC;? Virginia says. They found a lovely place outside Donnelly and lived there for fifteen years. The ranch had a barn and pasture for their Morgan horses. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They were just lovely mares,â&#x20AC;? Virginia recalls fondly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I kept them for pleasure riding, not for competition. By that time of my life, shows had become way too serious and had lost the element of fun.â&#x20AC;? When Jesse died after fifty-six years of marriage, Virginia stayed on the Donnelly ranch. But a year later, a series of harsh winter storms convinced her she needed to move from the 5,600 foot elevation to a warmer spot. She chose to move to Pollock, a tiny grouping of homes anchored by an

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 27

equally miniscule post office on the banks of the Little Salmon River. There, winters are benign and flowers bloom early each spring. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Since I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have horses any more, I love to go 4-wheeling,â&#x20AC;? Virginia says with a grin, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and I bought a side-by-side for my dog to ride in.â&#x20AC;? As anyone in Pollock will tell you, Kilie Blue, an Australian Shepherd, looks very sporty in her â&#x20AC;&#x153;dogglesâ&#x20AC;? and polar fleece vest in cold weather. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s such a good girl,â&#x20AC;? smiles Virginia. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She never takes her goggles off. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just the sweetest dog.â&#x20AC;? It is obvious from Virginiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quick smile and sunny disposition that she considers herself lucky to have had the experiences of ranch living during most of her life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;All the time, wherever I was, it was a big thrill for me to be riding. No matter where we were going!â&#x20AC;? And for those horse lovers out there, you know exactly what Virginia means. As the saying goes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a manâ&#x20AC;Ś and a woman, too!â&#x20AC;? ISI

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Botox Or The Bathroom Sink, What Will It Be? By Clare Hafferman Cosmetics for women have changed somewhat since Cleopatra took a bath in assâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s milk and outlined her eyes with kohl. Since then, mudpacks, marcelled hair waves, plucked eyebrows, and artificial fingernails are among the artifices added to enhance the female form. Enter any establishment today that deals in lotions and potions for the feminine army of buyers, and you will see the chemical side that promises â&#x20AC;&#x153;anti-aging ingredientsâ&#x20AC;? on every jar, bottle, or tube. The current pitch is to stall wrinkles, age spots, or other signs of wear and tear. The beauty product manufacturers guarantee they are devoted to that cause. Botox is the main ingredient in medical wrinkle prevention, and although there have been articles warning of possible side effects, physicians still offer this solution to furrowed brows. Nor have practitioners who offer microderm abrasion, collagen injections, hair implants, and permanently tattooed eyebrows left the scene. The Botox treatment takes about ten minutes and consists of tiny injections made directly into the muscles responsible for lines on the forehead or between the eyebrows. Localized pain, infection, inflammation, tenderness, and swelling may be associated with the procedure. The results last 4-6 months, and then you go back again. Working mothers of ages 40-55 are the most common users of Botox If the expense and minor pain, along with the not too long-lasting effects of this do not interest you, there are simple at-home remedies you can employ to achieve smoother skin, whiter teeth, clear eyes, and shinier hair.

Ingredients for these treatments reside in the kitchen cupboard, the medicine chest, or the refrigerator. The others can be purchased at a health food store. For a skin smoother, use a double boiler and heat half a cup of almond oil, one ounce of beeswax, and three teaspoons of cocoa butter. When the beeswax melts, remove the mixture from the heat. Add twelve drops each of rose oil and Vitamin E oil and then mix thoroughly. Pour this into small glass jars. Allow the mixture to cool and add lids. It keeps indefinitely. The next is supposedly Cleopatraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 7-oil cream, adapted for today. Combine two tablespoons each of the following oils - safflower, sunflower, peanut, avocado, mineral, olive, and sesame. Hopefully, you can purchase small bottles or persuade friends to split the cost and share the oils. The author of one book advises buying one kind of oil at a time to see which seems best for your skin. She found apricot kernel oil and avocado worked best for her. She also warned that many kinds of vegetable oil will encourage acne if you have that problem, and recommended adding a tablespoon of mineral oil to each cup of vegetable oil to prevent this. A Los Angeles spa provided this recipe for a homemade facial scrub. Mix one tablespoon of pure safflower, almond, or grape seed oil with 1.5 cups of granulated sugar. Add .75 to 1.5 cups of raw, unfiltered honey, 20-30 drops of oil of lavender, and 10 drops of essential oil of rose geranium (if desired). Pour the base oil into the sugar and mix it with your fingers. Add the honey, a little at a time until you have a soft paste. Store the mixture in a covered glass container in the refrigerator and use it within two weeks.

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Before using the scrub, take off any make-up by cleansing your face with oil, and then use low ph soap like Dove, to wash away any residue. You can also make a small amount of scrub by combining a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of oil in your hand, and then spreading the mixture over your face avoiding the eye area. Rinse off the mixture, soak a sea sponge with lemon juice and water, and wipe your face. You can also use this sugar and oil treatment all over bare skin before you shower. Then use soap and a good rinse. You will step out feeling refreshed all over. To rejuvenate your hair, mix 12 crushed aspirin tablets in half a cup of olive oil and add a teaspoon of mayonnaise. The salicylic acid in aspirin rids the scalp of scales or dandruff. Rub these ingredients in before you shampoo and then wrap your head in plastic wrap and a warm, wet towel. Leave the towel on for 20 minutes. If it cools off, re-heat it in warm water. Rinse your hair in warm water and then shampoo. Simple remedies for brighter teeth and refreshed looking eyes are still the ones you have probably heard before. A mixture of equal amounts of baking soda and salt will clean your teeth and slices of cucumber seem to have an ingredient that makes your eyes less tired looking. If you have brittle nails, blame age and heredity. Nail builders, minerals, or gelatin donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t guarantee unbreakable nails and any nail strengthener containing formaldehyde should be avoided. Typing and playing the piano are supposed to make stronger nails and if you combine one tablespoon of honey, a pinch of salt, one teaspoon of avocado oil with an egg yolk, and rub this mixture into your nails, they will thank you. The old solution of

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

rubbing your nails and hands with Vaseline and encasing them in cotton gloves, worn overnight, is also good advice. Another spa treatment for a facial mask to tighten your skin consists of mixing a tablespoon of plain yogurt with a tablespoon of powdered milk. Apply this and leave on for 15 minutes. Rinse off with cool water.

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 29

The last solution is the oddest. If you have rough skin on your elbows or heels, try rubbing on crunchy peanut butter. It is full of oil and the ground peanuts are abrasive. You can experiment with any of these formulas and produce a smoother, silkier, fresher looking you. Bend over the sink and begin now! ISI

From Standard Care To Hospice - Helping Cancer Patients Get The Care They Want (NAPSI) A new booklet may help patients talk to their doctors about getting the kind of care they want. For patients who have a terminal illness such as advanced cancer, this is especially important. Making treatment and care decisions can be difficult and it may be hard for patients to talk to their doctors about the kind of care they prefer. Fortunately, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has a free booklet to help patients with advanced or late-stage cancer talk about personal preferences for care based on their own individual circumstances, desires, and beliefs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Advanced Cancer Care Planning,â&#x20AC;? available on ASCOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patient information website www.Cancer.net, has practical information on what patients and families need to know about planning for endstage or terminal disease. The booklet is designed to help guide discussions about the range, risks, and benefits of all available treatment options once chemotherapy or surgery is no longer effective. ASCOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patient booklet includes information on advanced cancer care treatment options, including standard care, clinical trials, palliative care, and hospice care; the role of family and caregivers in treatment decisions; guiding principles on evaluating care choices; ways to cope and find support; as well as questions to ask the doctor. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Identifying all of the available care options helps patients to understand, consider, and develop a plan that takes their personal needs, goals,

and preferences into account. Having a plan in place can ease the emotional burden for patients and their loved ones alike,â&#x20AC;? said Michael P. Link, M.D., and president of ASCO. Studies have shown that patients who talked with their physicians about their preferences for end-of-life care: â&#x20AC;˘ Had less fear and anxiety; â&#x20AC;˘ Felt they had more ability to influence and direct their medical care; â&#x20AC;˘ Believed that their physicians had a better understanding of their wishes. Palliative or end-of-life care is not to be confused with hospice, which is an end-of-life option for people with a terminal illness who are expected to live six months or less. Palliative care is about improving quality of life, providing an extra layer of support and having a team to focus on patient care, which can be provided at any stage in serious illness. For a copy of the booklet and more physicianapproved information, visit www.cancer.net/advancedcancer. ISI

When a bee comes to your house, let her have beer; you may want to visit the beeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house someday. - Congolese Proverb

New Flu Vaccine Provides Better Protection By Jim Miller The new extra-strength flu vaccination you are inquiring about is called the Fluzone High-Dose, and it is designed specifically for people 65 years and older. Here is what you should know. Fluzone High-Dose - Manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur Inc., the Fluzone High-Dose vaccine was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administra8, (OSPICE )$3R)ND PDF !tion in Dec. 2009, and was first made available last flu season on a limited basis. The main difference between the Fluzone High-Dose and a regular flu shot is its potency. The High-Dose vaccine contain four times the amount of antigen (the part of the vaccine that prompts the body to make antibody) as a

Urgency? When you have overactive bladder, the need to find the bathroom can be urgent and immediate. People over the world are dealing with the distressing effects of overactive bladder ---- just like you. The symptoms can include: Â&#x2030; YZXUTM Y[JJKT [XMKY ZU [XOTGZK Â&#x2030; ZNK TKKJ ZU [XOTGZK LXKW[KTZR_ Â&#x2030; XKVKGZKJ ]KZZOTM KVOYUJKY We are conducting a research study of a study medication LUX U\KXGIZO\K HRGJJKX /L _U[ ZGQK VGXZ OT ZNOY YZ[J_ ]K ]ORR ask you to attend three clinic visits and two telephone visits over a 14 week period. You will also receive study medication or placebo (an inactive substance) and study-related medical care at no cost. You may also be compensated for time and travel. For more information please contact: Advanced Clinical Research 2950 E Magic View Dr, Ste 182 Meridian, ID 83642 208 377-8653 ext 102 ]]] GIX XKYKGXIN IUS Â&#x2030; ]]] LGIKHUUQ IUS ')8/JGNU Advancing Medicine. Enhancing Life.

PAGE 30 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

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regular flu shot does, which creates a stronger immune response for better protection. This extra protection is particularly helpful to people who have weaker immune defenses and have a great risk of developing dangerous flu complications. The CDC estimates that the flu puts more than 200,000 people in the hospital each year and kills around 24,000 – 95 percent of whom are seniors. As with all flu vaccines, Fluzone High-Dose is not recommended for people who are allergic to chicken eggs, or those who have had a severe reaction to a flu vaccine in the past. To locate a vaccination site that offers the Fluzone High-Dose, ask your doctor or pharmacist, or check the online flu-shot locator at flu.gov for clinics or stores offering flu shots. Then, contact some in your area to see whether they have the High-Dose vaccine. CVS, Walgreens, Safeway, Kmart, Rite Aid, and Kroger are among some of the chains offering the High-Dose shot. You will also be happy to know that if you are a Medicare beneficiary, Part B will cover 100 percent of the cost of your High-Dose vaccination. But if you are not covered, the cost is around $50 to $60 – that is about double of what you would pay for a regular flu shot. Pneumovax - Another important vaccination the CDC recommends – especially this time of year – is the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine for pneumonia and meningitis (the vaccine is

called Pneumovax 23). Pneumonia causes more than 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, many of which could be prevented by this vaccine. If you are over age 65 and have not already gotten this one-time-only shot, you should get it now before flu season hits. Pneumovax 23 is also covered under Medicare Part B, and you can get it on the same day you get your flu shot. If you are not covered by insurance, this vaccine costs around $75 to $85 at retail clinics. This vaccine is also recommended to adults under age 65 if they smoke or have certain chronic conditions like asthma, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, diabetes, sickle cell disease, have had their spleen removed, or have a weakened immune system due to cancer, HIV or an organ transplant. Savvy Tips: In addition to getting vaccinated, the CDC reminds everyone that the three best ways to stay healthy during flu season are to wash your hands frequently with soap and water, cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze, and stay home if you are sick. For more information on the recommended vaccines, see cdc.gov/vaccines. 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

Taking Three To Heart: Know The Cholesterol Three (NAPSI) Some important health issues also come in threes. Cholesterol, for instance. Cholesterol is a type of fatty substance, also known as a lipid. Your body makes cholesterol, but it also comes from some foods you eat. Your body needs some cholesterol to function, but the wrong amounts of cholesterol can put you at risk for heart disease, heart attack, or stroke. Here are the facts: HDL (high-density lipoprotein) is “good” cholesterol because it carries cholesterol from the arteries to the liver, where it is removed from the body. While having low levels of HDL may increase your risk for heart disease, high levels of HDL seem to protect against heart disease. You can help increase your HDL levels through lifestyle changes, such as getting more physical activity and choosing healthier fats like those that are found in olive oil, nuts, and fish. LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is considered the “bad” cholesterol. If too much LDL is in the blood, it can build up in your arteries. Together with other substances, LDL forms plaque that can restrict blood flow to your heart and brain. Having high levels of LDL in your blood can lead to heart disease, heart attack, or stroke. Triglycerides, often called “trigs,” are the third main part of cholesterol. Trigs are produced in the liver and also come from the foods you eat. Like LDL, high levels of trigs may contribute to the narrowing and hardening of arteries, making it hard for blood to flow. And many people with a high triglyceride level often also have high bad cholesterol and low good cholesterol. “It’s important to address the three main types of lipid levels. You need to pay attention to high LDL and triglyceride levels, and low HDL levels,” says Dr. Peter Alagona, associate professor of medicine and radiology at Penn State College of Medicine and Program Director of General Cardiology at Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute. Try these practical tips to raise your HDL and lower LDL and trigs:

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

• Cook low fat: bake, broil, grill, steam, poach, or boil. • Exercise: It is okay to break it into three 10-minute segments. • Do not skip meals: It can make you hungry and lead you to overeat.

• Read nutrition labels to avoid harmful saturated fats and trans-fat. • If your doctor has prescribed medication, set the alarm on your cell phone as a reminder of when it is time to take it. “A heart-healthy diet, moderate exercise, and,

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 31

for some people, medications are the keys to managing and maintaining your lipid levels,” says Dr. Alagona. You can learn more about cholesterol management at www.GetTheCholesterolFacts. com. ISI

New Book Reintroduces All Ages To The Fun And Fitness Of Bicycling Riding a bike is like riding a bike: once you have learned how to do it, you never forget how. But if the last bicycle you rode had a banana seat and clothes-pinned baseball cards on the spokes, you could probably use a refresher course on modern biking. Because, other than the fundamental act of mounting a bike and pedaling off down the street, practically everything has changed. The facts regarding the popularity of bicycling today are as plain as the helmet on your head: • Interest in bicycling is growing rapidly, with worldwide industry sales up 10 to 25% per year over the past decade. • There are currently 450 million bicycles owned in the US. •There are currently over 60 million adult riders. Add to that interest in commuting (gas prices), health and fitness (boomers retiring), and environmental concerns (zero emissions), and you are faced with the reality that bicycling is a trend that is not going anywhere anytime soon. Now available, Bicycling: A Reintroduction is designed as both an introduction to bicycling for novices and a reintroduction for those whose bicycling

skills have been on hiatus. From mountain and commuter bikes to hybrids and fixed gear bikes, this book discusses each available two-wheeler in detail to help readers choose the one that is right for their body and needs. Also featuring current information on clothing, helmets, saddlebags, and other accessories, along with professional quality step-by-step photos regarding maintenance and repair, Bicycling: A Reintroduction is the ideal guide for anyone looking to get back on two wheels. Bicycling: A Reintroduction, ISBN: 9781-58923-604-2, 8.25 “ x 11”, 128 pages, 100 color photos. ISI

A Day To Remember By Suzanne Handler At 8:30 a.m., I reluctantly offered my arm to the sympathetic-looking nurse standing before me. There would be no turning back: she knew it and I knew it. The road to this moment had been treacherous: diagnosis, surgery, and now the specter of chemical invasion just a heartbeat away. The date was September 11, 2001. Even now, ten years after the devastating events of 9/11, I remember well the terror of that morning and the out-of-control beating of my fearful heart. In the beginning, it was a daunting challenge to separate my personal pain from the pain of an outraged and wounded nation. Both events are inextricably linked together in my mind. Perhaps they always will be. In 1993, I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and underwent a lumpectomy, followed by radiation and five years of medication. Dutifully, I visited my oncologist every six months. On those nerve-wracking appointment days, I recall walking rapidly by the chemo room, grateful that at least I had escaped that dreaded bullet. But my good luck ran out in July of 2001: the cancer had come back. Or, maybe it never really went away, for I was diagnosed with a recurrence in the same breast. The question of how this could have happened twice has haunted me ever since. The night before my August surgery, my life partner and I raised a champagne toast and said a tearful good-bye to my breasts. I was at peace with my decision to undergo a bi-lateral mastectomy. During my surgical recovery, he and I considered my follow-up options and mutually agreed that this time I would seek the most aggressive treatment available. On September 11, 2001, the reality of that decision could not be denied. The nurse inserted a tube into my arm and the agonizingly slow drip of the chemo cocktail began. After the nurse made all the necessary tweaks to the medical equipment, she asked if she should turn on the television. With eyes, ears, and brains instantly jolted to attention, we watched in disbelief as an American Airlines jet plowed into the Twin Towers. Was our nation under attack? What did it all mean? As a barrage of horrific pictures from both New York City and our nation’s capital flooded the screen, the toxins being pumped into my body were having their inevitable affect: I was drowning in poison. I could taste it. The boundaries between my own truth and what was happening 1,500 miles away began to blur. I wanted to rip the tube from my arm and run. But there would be no escape that day. Pain was all around me. By the time the last drop of chemo had been delivered, I was so bloated

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with the nasty liquid that I could smell it emanating from every pore. This was cancer, and I was at war. As a soldier in the trenches, I had assumed my rightful place among the multitudes that had gone to battle before me. Two weeks later, when every hair on my body had fallen out (day 14) and I was too weak to hold my head up, I would again be reminded of my sisterhood among the thousands of women, and to a lesser degree men, who are diagnosed each year with breast cancer. With morbid fascination, our family watched TV for endless hours as the latest body count of dead Americans scrolled across the screen. I hunkered down in what I affectionately called â&#x20AC;&#x153;my chair,â&#x20AC;? until I could no longer bear witness to the sorrow of my

country on bended knee. To escape the constant media coverage, I found myself counting the hours each day until darkness fell: only then, could I crawl into my bed and descend into blessed oblivion. I knew I was depressed; I knew I was afraid. Scanning the skies from my bedroom window for enemy planes and checking my mailbox for anthrax-laced mail, did little to calm my jangled nerves. As our nation slowly healed, I have also healed. As our nation waits for the next assault on its shores, I also wait â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for cancer never sleeps. Will

this vigilance ever end? I think not. We Americans will never be the blissfully ignorant citizens of the world we once were. Terrorists, our own government, and our media will not allow it. In much the same way, I pledge to stand sentry over my less than perfect body with a determination that has taught me to survive when I was convinced I could not. For that knowledge, I paid a heavy price and for that knowledge, my country has paid an even greater one. ISI

Give The Gift Of Music For The Holidays By Barbara Jacobs, M.S. As a caregiver for someone with dementia, you may be wondering what gift to give your loved one for the holidays. Have you considered the gift of music? In my years as a therapeutic musician, I have led countless musical sing-along programs for those with Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disease and other forms of dementia. During these programs, I witness musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s power to unlock memories. My students remember the melody and lyrics of familiar songs as well as the life experiences that the music evokes. I find this to be true for all stages of the disease, and research confirms my experience. One of my students, Edie, is 85 and has mid- to late-stage Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disease. She rarely speaks, but when I played â&#x20AC;&#x153;Home on the Rangeâ&#x20AC;? on the piano, she went from sitting quietly to becoming quite animated. Edie shouted, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I had a horse named Buddy!â&#x20AC;? This type of reaction to familiar music no longer surprises me. Music can bring dramatic behavioral changes, encourage socialization, and improve the overall well-being of those with dementia. Research confirms the benefits music has for Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patients. It has been reported that singing on a daily basis raises the brain chemicals melatonin, epinephrine, and norepinephrine in our blood levels, thus posi-

tively affecting our mental state. Testing of patients with dementia who sing daily shows that these elevated blood chemicals help them to become more active, more cooperative, and less agitated. Additionally, it often improves their ability to sleep. Dr. Ardash Kumar, with the University of Miamiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s School of Medicine, found that music provided lasting benefits to elderly men with Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disease who participated in a music therapy program. These men sang familiar songs for 30 to 40 minutes a day, five days a week, for a month. Dr. Kumarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research further found that the musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behavioral benefits continued for weeks after their participation in this music program had ended. In light of the overwhelming evidence of musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s positive benefits, wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it be wonderful if your loved ones could sing every day? There are a variety of ways to bring old favorite music into their lives. Your local public library is a good resource for renting free musical CDs and old movies or operas on DVD that are sure to bring a smile to their faces and words to their lips, as they sing-along with joy and recognition. There are a number of music and sing-along programs on the market that can be purchased through senior product catalogs such as Sea Bay Games, NASCO, and S&S Worldwide. Additionally, I have developed three sing-along DVD programs, Front Row Seat Videos, which are also available through senior catalogs and my website at www.FrontRowSeatVideos.com. I have always known that music can open hearts. Through my teaching experience, reinforced by recent research, I have seen how it can open minds as well! So, as the holidays approach, consider a musical gift for your loved one. I know you will be happy you did, as it will be beneficial and enjoyable for him or her, and it just may give you some well deserved respite time. For questions or more information you can email me at barbara@customvideosf.com. Happy Holidays! Barbara Jacobs, M.S., is a therapeutic musician who has taught music classes at long-term care facilities for the past fifteen years. See her website at www.FrontRowSeatVideos.com ÂŠ 2010 Barbara Jacobs ISI

Bone Scans - Keep That Calcium Coming to Keep Results Positive By Tait Trussell, Senior Wire Older women - maybe you - just got some great news: Women age 67 or older with normal bone mineral density may not need to have a density screening (to see if they are developing osteoporosis) again for a decade. Until now, there has been no definite scientific evidence to guide women in this medical area. Since 2002, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has been recommending that women age 65 or older have a screening for osteoporosis every two years. But a study, the results of which were presented at a meeting of the Society for Bone Mineral Research, said, in effect, that there was no need. Legacy House at Post Falls, a dedicated Memory The bone density of most older women does Care Community, is offering a rare and substantial not change significantly. The study found that â&#x20AC;&#x153;it Move-In Special worth up to $1,000 OFF any would take about 16 years for 10 percent of women Assisted Living Move-In! in the highest bone density ranges to develop osThis discount is available for all new Assisted Living residents on any of our spacious suites. Call TODAY 208-773-8218 and mention The Idaho Senior Independent Special! This limited-time offer is expiring soon! % -ULLAN !VE s 0OST &ALLS )$ s WWW LEGACYHOUSEPOSTFALLS COM This discount does not apply to Medicaid approved move-ins

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teoporosis.” That was longer than expected, and it is “great news for this group of women,” the study scientists said. Those with somewhat lower density could go for five years without screening. The study analyzed data from more than 5,000 women aged 67 and older who were part of the longest-running osteoporosis study in the country - the Study of Osteoporosis Fractures. And fractures, of course, are what it is all about. A hip fracture, for instance, can often lead to death for elderly people within a year of the break. Many women, as they age, take calcium supplements to guard against osteoporosis. They believe that this could protect against vascular disease by lowering cholesterol in the blood as well as protecting bone health. But these supplements could be risky to your health in another way. Scientists at the University of Auckland launched a study on the effect of calcium supplements on heart attack and stroke. Their study involved 1,471 healthy, postmenopausal women aged 55 or older who had previously taken part in a study to assess the effects of calcium on bone density and rates of fracture. Some of the women got a calcium supplement and others got a placebo. Heart attacks were reported more commonly in the group taking calcium. The occurrence of any of three vascular events - heart attack, stroke, or sudden death - was also more common in this

group. The findings do suggest that high calcium doses might have an adverse effect on vascular health. In 2007, another study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis discovered that women who get most of their daily calcium from food have healthier bones than women whose calcium intake is mainly from supplemental tablets. This is the case even when the supplement takers ingest higher average amounts of calcium. The researchers found that women could be divided into three groups. One group, called the “supplement group,” got at least 70 percent of their calcium from tablets or pills. Another, the “diet group,” got at least 70 percent of their calcium from dairy products and other foods. And a third group, the “diet plus supplement group,” consisted of those whose calcium-source percentages fell somewhere between these ranges. The “diet group” took in the least calcium, an average of 830 milligrams a day. Yet this group had higher bone density in their spines and hipbones than women in the “supplement group, who consumed about 1,030 milligrams per day. Women in the “diet plus supplement” group tended to have the highest bone mineral density as well as the highest calcium intake, at least 1,620 milligrams per day. Obviously, adequate calcium is important to

Arthritis And Your Teeth Provided by the Arthritis Foundation Having arthritis makes caring for your teeth difficult, but common dental procedures may make matters worse. According to an article in Arthritis Today, recent studies show an increased risk of developing one arthritis-related condition and suffering a serious complication of another. Studies found that dental x-rays could trigger Sjogren’s syndrome. Sjorgren’s syndrome is an inflammatory autoimmune disease that causes dryness, especially of the eyes and mouth. In addition to dryness, Sjorgren’s syndrome can cause problems in other parts of the body including joints, the lungs, kidneys, liver, nerves, thyroid gland, and skin. Studies show fewer cases of Sjorgren’s syndrome in less-developed countries where dental x-rays are uncommon and the disease is not present at all in the least developed countries. Researchers in the Oklahoma Research Foundation say it raises questions about a link between x-rays and Sjorgren’s syndrome. Studies have now shown that the use of bisphosphonates, such as Fosamox or Actonel, for osteoporosis, along with invasive dental work, such as a tooth extraction, may lead to an increased

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 33

guard against osteoporosis, which affects about 8 million women and about 2 million men in the U.S. Another 35 million Americans have low bone mass. This places them at greater risk of osteoporosis. The whole idea in taking calcium is to maintain bone density by preventing our bodies from stealing the calcium it needs for other purposes from our bones. So, draw your own conclusions, but be sure to get plenty of calcium as you age. ISI

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risk of an uncommon but serious complication of osteonecrosis of the jaw. Osteonecrosis is the break down and eventual collapse of bone resulting from the loss of blood supply to bone tissue. Symptoms may include pain, swelling or infection of the gums or jaw, gums that are not healing, loose teeth, numbness or a feeling of heaviness of the jaw, drainage, and exposed bone. Researchers are not sure exactly how bisphosphonates contribute to osteonecrosis of the jaw. If you are concerned about Sjogren’s syndrome or osteonecrosis, please talk to your dentist or oral surgeon before any procedure or talk to your dentist about having x-rays taken less frequently. ISI

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Saving The Past By Clare Hafferman If you have recently purchased a sympathy card, played a CD on your boom box or a music tape in your older truck or car, then Bob Dylan’s song, The Times They Are A-Changin’ might seem appropriate. A sympathy card is now almost obsolete. Your sorrow at someone’s passing is delivered by a touch of the button on your computer, and the music most Americans listen to is heard on an electronic device. Our Mother’s solicitation to write thank-you notes will probably suffer the same fate. In the case of music we have enjoyed in the past, there might be a bell ringing for you. It is the same bell that was on the train that knocked Border’s bookstores off the track and they did not hear it coming, either. When Borders recently announced they were closing their doors, it meant approximately 11,000 American workers would lose their jobs. Many of their customers were astounded by the news. How could such an innovative company, praised for its combination of books, music, stationery, related gifts, and coffee shop atmosphere, suddenly vanish with no light at the end of the tunnel? The train that hit them was technology advancing. A library director in my family told me that her library stopped purchasing music CDs some time ago, but that Borders continued to feature them in their stores and as it turned out, to their detriment. When I asked where she got her music selections, she said she subscribed to a service that charges 99 cents per tune and what she buys goes on her iPod. Another friend of mine who owns a viable independent book store and keeps not only the current best sellers but regional biking, hiking, fishing and camping volumes, a wonderful children’s section, and artistic greeting cards, told me she understood that Borders preferred to put their stores near the big traffic producers, Wal-Mart and Target. If there is a lesson to be learned by music lovers who do not fancy or want all the technical aspects of today’s electronic gear, here is a piece of advice. One company in America is aware of that and it is Crosley. They sell a combination record player with AM/FM radio and separate slots for CDs and for tapes. Target featured them recently at a price of $119. If your local library has already divested its shelves of records, CDs, and tapes, your next move is to call or stop by second-hand stores or thrift shops. These items also show up sometimes at yard sales. If you want something specific, try running an ad in the want ads. Relatives emptying a house might also have what you are looking for. Play like Sherlock and take Dr. Watson along. Should looking for outdated music seem archaic, you have not been watching the American Pickers program on television. They recently found an RCA wind-up phonograph with the logo of the little dog “listening to his Master’s voice,” , it was worth $400. The buyer said the stack of usable records that came with the phonograph was what made it valuable to him. “You just can’t find these anymore,” he said. So, if you take all this into account and before you can’t find the original Big Rock Candy Mountain, where “the little streams of alcohol come trickling down the rocks,” or one of my favorites from the rock and roll period, Because, by the Dave Clark Five, get in gear and start looking! ISI

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Ever feel that special connection to another being? In Kathleen McKay’s case, that other being was her horse. As summer closes and fall approaches, McKay remembers how, as a young girl, she watched her soulmate enter into this world - and reflects on how she watched her revered mare leave this world 32 years later. Thanks to Kathleen for sharing touching memories of wild rides through fields and through

life. Congratulations for winning this issue’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

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 35

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 December 2011/January 2012 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.

Soulmates in Life and Beyond By Kathleen McKay, Twin Falls When I was a young girl, I loved horses. I lived them, breathed them, and had dreams of them. I would even gallop along the canal banks as if I were a horse. I had little plastic horses on every available flat surface in my room. I felt I was connected with our farm horses, and I knew that my being born human was some kind of cosmic accident. I was supposed to have four legs, thundering hooves, and the ability to outrun the wind and leap over gates. Our mare was expecting, and I was told that her offspring would be mine. I was 10 years old, and the anticipation of that horse giving birth was as close to torture as I could imagine. I did not know what barometric pressure was, but my mother would say that when the pressure dropped the mare would likely go into labor. I asked obsessively whether this pressure had dropped and thought it made me sound smarter to use big words like barometric. I would spend afternoons bringing carrots and treats to the mare, stroking her long face, and putting my hands all over that enormous belly. Sometimes I would just lean in and wrap my arms around her neck, filling my nostrils with her warm horse smell. Very early one morning, the mare delivered a small sorrel filly with a white star on her forehead. I watched with angst as this tiny horse struggled to get on her feet, and at one point, I even attempted to hold up her belly for her. With her tiny pointed ears and soft childlike nickering, it was infatuation at first sight! We made eye contact and sealed a friendship that would last well into my adulthood and her old age. I spent every available moment playing with her, usually at the expense of my homework, tying my teddy bears or kittens to her back and running from her so she would follow me excitedly. I would sit in the tall grass next to her as she lay sleeping just to listen to her breathe and watch her ears flick. I could not get enough of her and would ache when I was in school and away from her. When she was two years old, I climbed the fence and slid onto her back. There was no “breaking” or training, just I draped over her neck and back as she grazed. Soon we were saddled and going places. Many mornings I would wake up and go out to the corral only in a nightgown, and we would ride off into the pasture. I was a feral child, hair unbrushed, and clinging to her mane as we ran bareback through the fields. The tall grasses we waded through would tickle the bottoms of my bare feet. It was a summer of magic and possibility. Sometimes, I would hold my hands out to my sides, close my eyes, and squeeze her warm belly with my legs so she would gallop home. Occasionally, we would gallop through the trees along the ditches, I giggling hysterically, and she squealing as if having just as much fun as I was.

To my 12-year-old mind, $600 was a lot of money, so when she was just over two years old, I sold her. Only after the trailer left the drive, did I realize what I had done, and that night I sobbed myself to sleep. I felt like I had squandered my joy. I had given away my clandestine morning excursions in my pajamas, the countless arguments over crossing the irrigation ditches, the bribes with a handful of sweet grain. I had abandoned my four-legged soul mate; I had sold my friend. I grew up, went off to college, and went to work. When I was 26, I found her and bought her back. Through college and then grad school, I would see her whenever I came home. We would take adventures along the country roads or canals banks, sometimes even running through the trees laughing and squealing. She saw me through losing my grandparents, recovering from a car accident, and getting over a few breakups. All she ever asked for was a clump of green alfalfa stolen from the other side of the fence or some carrots. Eventually, I moved back to a piece of the family farm and would take her out for leisurely walks, brushings, or treats, as she had become a revered elder. A month shy of her 32nd birthday, she became very sick, and a call was made to the vet. After he assessed her, our family collectively decided to make the suffering stop. The morning his truck pulled in the drive, I was secretly hoping he had come up with a miracle and he had only driven out because he could not wait to share it. I had taken the day off to be with her through whatever happened. If you have the opportunity to miss an event like this, take it. Even though he gently and thoroughly explained what would take place, nothing was said about the brutal finality of the whoosh and sickening thud my 1100-pound friend made as she lay down. For moments, I am not sure how many, I could only

stand with my hands over my mouth. I finally kneeled down beside her, and then curled up behind her and wrapped my arms around her big brown neck, as my heart broke open. I think I must have held my breath, hoping I could hear her breath again or see her ears flicker. Thirty-two years before, I had helped her stand up for the first time, and on this day, I was with her as she lay down for the last time. There are lots of theories and beliefs about what happens when we die, where we go, and what we do. I rather think that wherever we go, if there are no animals and no romance (in that order), I may have a hard time sticking around. ISI

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Dating After Death: How I Knew I Was Ready by Jennifer Hawkins I was 39 years old when my husband died unexpectedly in his sleep. It was the shock of a lifetime. He was my love, my rock, a crucial part of my life and our children’s future, and, in an instant, he was gone. A few weeks after his death, I received a letter from my insurance company. The letter said that when you lose a spouse, it is normal to want to date, usually sooner rather than later. I felt guilty even thinking about the possibility and could not fathom the idea of dating so soon after my husband had died. I buried this idea along with the letter, knowing I would re-enter the dating scene in my own time. That time came several months later. I was by myself at the grocery store, and I looked up to find a man watching me with an interested look in his eye. To my surprise, I found myself feeling

attracted to him. I didn’t know what to do! This innocent exchange of glances made me uncomfortable, but only in a sense that I realized I was no longer a married woman, but an available single one. That one look instilled in me a sense of freedom. Over the next few weeks I began to consider the idea of dating. I felt like there were a few things I needed to do before it would feel comfortable to date. First, I needed to be willing to discuss dating with people who I was close to. I decided to talk to my father-in-law. He was the person closest to my husband. I called him and asked him what he thought about me dating. He said genuinely that he wanted me to be happy and that he knew Mark would want me to be happy, too. He didn’t hesitate to give me his blessing to date whoever and whenever I wanted.

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I also called my sister. I told her I’d been thinking about dating. I wasn’t sure what she would say and was shocked when she didn’t say anything. Instead, the line seemed to go dead. “Are you there?” I asked. “Yes,” she replied. “I was crying. I was worried you would never want to date again after Mark. I’m so happy you are considering it.” Her response wasn’t what I expected, but from both her and my father-in-law’s answers, I felt better about moving forward. Second, I needed to know that I wouldn’t be dating to just fill a void. I knew that the void Mark’s death left in my life would never be filled the same way that Mark filled it. I knew that even as I started dating, I still had to continue to fill my own life with my own positive activities, people, and feelings; I could not put the pressure on someone else to fill Mark’s place — if I did, neither one of us would ever be truly happy. Third, I needed to fully embrace the feeling of being attracted to another person. I decided to trust that my body was telling me ‘it’s OK!’ and gave in to the butterflies. When I was so wrapped up in the sadness of losing Mark, I had no space to let someone in. There were no butterflies. So when I felt an attraction to a man, I thought maybe it was time. But now what was I to do? I hadn’t dated in a decade. I was a single mom who worked full time. My options for meeting men were pretty limited; however, I had met Mark online and thought it was a good place to start. I created a profile and even programmed a search. It felt a little uncomfortable to be searching for a ‘new’ man after being with one man for ten years. As I scanned through the results, not many of the profiles interested me. After several pages, I started to wonder if I was just being extremely critical because I wasn’t ready. But in that same moment, I stumbled upon a profile of an attractive man whose profile made me smile. He and I met a month later and spent seven hours together on our first date. That was just the start — we wound up dating for eighteen months. And after I’d fallen in love and spent countless hours entwined in the connection with him, I decided to stop seeing him. Not because I wasn’t ready, but because he wasn’t ready. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life; it hurt me deeply, and I’m sure it hurt him, too. But it was the right decision. By completely letting go and trusting the universe and jumping into intimacy with a man again, I found my heart. In setting boundaries in my love life, I genuinely found myself and finally realized that I could be with a man, and, furthermore, could consider having a future with someone other than Mark. So, while my first attempt at a relationship after my husband did not end up as I had wanted, it was an experience that greatly furthered my healing and growth. After losing a spouse, putting your heart on the line may feel like the last thing in the world you want to do. However, by interacting intimately with others, you may find a little bit more of yourself. And in time, if you wish, I hope that you’ll find someone new to share your life with. Jennifer Hawkins is a highly successful Real Estate investor. In 1988 she earned a spot as a swimmer at the Olympic Trials. She married Mark in 2001 and started her family. She lives in Texas with her sons Connor and Brannon. For more information about Jennifer and her memoir, “The Gift Giver,” please visit www. thegiftgiverbook.com. ISI

I find television very educational. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. - Groucho Marx

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 37

Beadwork created by Simone Wilson from a butterfly pattern her granddaughter drew

Article & Photo by Jack McNeel Native Americans are keenly aware of the need to maintain and practice their culture while also knowing, understanding, and living within another culture that was largely unknown to them as recently as the mid-1800s. Simone Wilson is a Nez Perce Indian woman who has learned to live in two worlds. With a degree in interdisciplinary social sciences with a focus on education, she works for Nez Perce Tribal Enterprises and is very comfortable in that world. But sitting and talking with Simone and listening to her talk of the Nez Perce culture, one feels her pride of being Nez Perce and feels her need to do what she can to impart that pride and culture to others. She speaks softly about that culture, but with great warmth and enthusiasm. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t label myself as a traditional person, per se, but someone who likes to share what I have. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve done that with my own children and grandchildren as well as neighborhood kids and young people, even young adults who want to learn,â&#x20AC;? she says. She learned to bead from her grandmother who was full-blooded Nez Perce, from the Chief Joseph band, who returned to live at Lapwai. Simone spent most of twelve years with her grandmother while her mother was studying nursing in Tacoma and her father was in the Air Force. Her beading has never been to make money and she has never sold any of it, but rather makes dance outfits and other things for her family. She has traded a few items to others and she has given her work away at giveaways, memorials, and name-givings, but she has also taught and encouraged her kids and grandkids to learn to make their own beadwork.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;All my granddaughters know how to do beadwork,â&#x20AC;? Simone says. She tells of her 17-year-old granddaughter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She is a real beader. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s made a full outfit already and is a jingle dress dancer. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on her second outfit now.â&#x20AC;? Simone encourages them to make their own designs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I always promised myself, my kids, and my grandchildren, that I would never purchase a color book for them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; never. I bought them sketchpads, pencils, crayons, watercolors, everything they needed for art. I said draw your own pictures and color them all you want. I have things that I have saved for years and years. I love it. I told them the only way to tap in to creativity is to not put yourself in a box â&#x20AC;&#x201C; donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have limitations.â&#x20AC;? Simone has served as an advisor for the Nez Perce youth council for nearly ten years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My big thing is culture,â&#x20AC;? Simone says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They have to learn the language. They have to learn how to prepare foods: how to dig them, gather them, the berries, the medicines, all those things that are important if anything ever happened in this world. They would know how to survive out there on the land.â&#x20AC;? When her children were young, Simone learned sewing in order to dress them well. The Nez Perce were known for making bags and hats from corn-

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husk and as Simone got older she took a class to learn how to do that. “My teacher was very caring. I like the kind of people who do it because they love doing it and want to pass it on to those that haven’t learned,” she relates. She has five grandchildren and one great grandchild. “They all bead except the five year old girl – but she wants to,” she says while laughing and telling of coming home and finding the needle stuck in the beads and knowing it had to be the youngster. “She’s going to pick it up. She’s one of those who is very committed and she wants to learn.” “I just enjoy my grandchildren. I want them to know what I know before I’m gone. That’s important to me. Then they can make everything on their own. If someone comes and asks, ‘Did you make that outfit?’ they can say, ‘Yes.’ That makes them bubble and feel so much more glorified than to say my mom or my auntie made it.” Simone not only still digs roots as her ancestors have for hundreds of years, she has several of the traditional digging tools called tukes. She places them in her yard and tells others to borrow them but to be sure to return them so others can also use them. “My mother made sure I took my girls out every year. They look forward

to it and they know and understand that their first roots always have to go to the elders that couldn’t go out and dig for themselves.” “I always tell my kids to remember they would not have existed today if it were not for the ancestors that had the intelligence to make treaties the way they were, to leave the place a pristine area, to protect and steward the land and all the resources we have.” “The richness of the tribe is not all about money. It’s about all the other achievements that we’ve done.” Simone confesses she was skeptical about doing this interview because she had been taught to be humble. But she adds, “I think it’s good for our kids to see those things sometimes in writing so they know that someone cares that it’s passed on.” “I love life. I’m thankful for every breath that I take and everything that has been provided for us. We take too many things for granted. I keep telling our own people that this whole corridor, all around here, is full or our legends and our name-places where people camped. It’s so full of history and culture and they need to know what it is and really live and breathe it for themselves to understand who they are so they can truly say, ‘I’m proud to be Nez Perce’ and tell you why they’re proud.” Simone is humble. She speaks softly, but she speaks with great pride of her family and her culture – a true credit to the Ni Mii Puu, the Nez Perce Tribe. ISI

Dean Wilson Tells His Amazing Life Story

(208) 882-6560 (208) 882-9809

Article & Photo by Jack McNeel Dean Wilson has lived an extraordinary life. He flew his first airplane at 13, did not finish high school - but paid half the college tuition for his brother and sister while his parents paid the other half. He has built airplanes and designed others that have sold in the thousands. He has recently remodeled the home he and his wife live in after builders said it could not be done. His current project is a scaled down version of the clipper ship, the Flying Cloud. Dean shuns the spotlight, saying, “I honestly don’t like to get my name in the paper.” But he agreed to this article, if it did not make him sound egotistical. Dean is not egotistical, but he has a quiet confidence in his abilities. On the other hand, he is outspoken on things he does not like and you know precisely where he stands on various subjects. Colorful would be an apt description of Dean. “Yep, I’m about half a bubble out of plumb, there’s no question,” he says with a laugh. Dean took his first plane ride when he was three, flew for the first time at 13, and bought a plane before he bought a car – when he was just 17. It was during this time that he was kicked out of school. He took a day off to gather wood for a bonfire before the big football game between Lewiston and Clarkston. That was permitted if you had a B average, which he didn’t. “I got an A in geometry and geography, the only good grades I ever got. I was just so bored with the whole thing. I didn’t care what a noun, pronoun, or verb was.” The next fall Dean went to aircraft and mechanic school in Spokane. When asked if that was the extent of his formal education, he responds. “I read a lot.” Dean started flying as a crop duster in Madras, Oregon, but after a summer returned to his home. The local crop dusting company would not hire him, “So I bought an old airplane and modified it into a sprayer and went in competition with him,” he adds. He was making good money so that is when he started paying college tuition for his brother and

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

sister. His sister would bring aeronautical engineering books home for Dean to read. “The first one I read I only understood 10%. I was really discouraged.” But each book helped him understand and after reading about 30 books, he “started getting the hang of how to design an airplane.” His workshop has a bulletin board with photos of numerous planes. “I designed that,” he says, pointing to a photo. “We built 135 of them in Alexandria, Minnesota. I was working for Joe Terteling when I did it. I worked for him for 16 years and restored all these antique airplanes for him.” “Then I designed this,” he says, pointing to another. “We sold a couple thousand of those. Designed that,” he adds pointing to still another photo, “and sold 800 of those. Designed this one and this one and I designed two of these big flying boats,” he adds pointing to other photos. The big, wide planes were called the Explorer. “It was a flying motor home and had more room than a 24-foot Airstream trailer. The fuselage is 10 feet wide. It’s 40-feet long and there’s a queensized bed. It was a go-anywhere airplane. You could land on water, on ground, or on skis. I built it for French television. They flew this thing clear around the world – clear around South America and up the Amazon and out to the Galapagos Islands. They went all over Mexico, the U.S., and up into Canada and Alaska. I flew this one,” Dean says pointing to another photo, “up to Kotzebue north of the Arctic Circle.” One is still flying but the other crashed north of Seattle, the only two ever built. I asked if he had any idea how many planes he had designed, built, or rebuilt and his answer was simple, “A helluva lot!” We went into his house for a cup of coffee and he pointed out the remodeling he had done. Two different builders had told his wife that the changes she wanted could not be done. So Dean decided to do them himself. “My dad was a carpenter. He taught me a lot about carpentry. When I was a kid I’d help him build houses – how to build a house the correct way.” His current project has taken him away from planes to some degree but it is something he has been thinking about for 40 years. That is to build a sailing ship. “I got to reading about the clipper ship Flying Cloud. It was the fastest one, built in 1851. It sailed from New York to San Francisco in under 90 days and did it consistently. That record

lasted for 135 years. It was 208 feet on the water line and took a crew of 25 guys to sail it.” He started to build a scaled down version about five or six years ago, then was sidetracked working on the Curtiss Pusher, a replica of the first plane to fly in Idaho in 1909. He is back to working on the ship now and with a little luck it may be in the water before winter arrives on the Clearwater. The hull is essentially finished. It is about 25 feet overall and a little over 18 feet on the waterline. “It has five coats of epoxy but there’s no UV protection so it still needs a coat of varnish,” he says. He has had to build a trailer for it, he pulls it out of the shop into his driveway, and we install the masts. Dean describes the masts as “full cantilevered masts which I made out of split bamboo like a fishing pole. I put ash glass, graphite, and carbon fiber on it.” There are three masts, “and a maximum of 22 sails but I’ll try with 19 first. There are 15 main sails, a gaff sail, and three jibs. I’ve made all the sails.” He explains how the steering wheel has been designed so when it is turned it rotates all the masts, although at slightly different degrees. He had to find a way to retract them and has developed a bungee cord system that pulls the sails up and down. How is Dean able to start with little more than a photograph and figure out all the details to create a sailing ship? “When I started I drew up a side view and top view. From that, you can figure out each bulkhead. From the water line down it’s built like an America’s Cup racer.” He designed and built the centerboard and filled it with a hundred pounds of lead shot. With the centerboard down it draws 51 inches of water. Asked if he would be able to sail it by himself, he replies, “We’re going to find out! I’ve spent hours trying to figure out how to do it, how one guy could do everything.” Dean adds that once he’s sailed it a few times it will be, “Okay, I’ve done that” and he’ll most likely take it to Seattle to a wooden boat show, put it on the water, and sail it around with a for-sale sign on it. Dean needs to keep busy, needs a project. “Sitting in an easy chair and watching TV or going to the casino and gambling (like many people), none of that has any appeal to me whatsoever. To do something is educational, it’s recreational, it’s fun to do – and it beats just sitting around!” ISI

Nez Perce National Historical Park Museum and Visitor Center Is A Must-See Attraction Near Lewiston the last Indian war, it occurred only a few generaBy Jack McNeel The area around Lewiston up the Clearwater tions ago and some of the combatants lived well and Snake Rivers and into the Wallowa’s of Or- into the 1900s. The Nez Perce Tribe still holds egon was the ancestral home of the Nez Perce annual memorial services at several of the major Indians, or Nimiipuu, as they call themselves. battle sites including Whitebird, the Big Hole, and Treaties reduced their area dramatically and the Bear Paw, to remember those who died during the Nez Perce Reservation now extends up the Clear- battles and the suffering of all, and to help in the water River through Orofino, Kamiah, and Kooskia ongoing healing process. The Nez Perce National Historical Park to Harpster and on the west through Culdesac, Museum and Spalding Visitor Center is located Winchester, and nearly to Cottonwood. It encomjust south of Lapwai 11 passes 750,000 acres. The Nez Perce War of 1877, where the tribe miles east of Lewiston fought a running battle with the U.S. Army while along the banks of the trying to avoid a war and reach safety, has been Clearwater River. It is documented in many books. That war ended the best single place when Chief Joseph formally surrendered at the Bear Paw Battlefield in “Sales • Installation • Service” Montana but If you’re one of those people who have put off doing business the anguish and at OVERHEAD DOOR COMPANY OF LEWISTONsuffering con- CLARKSTON, then you’re missing out on a comfortable tinued as those experience. OVERHEAD DOOR COMPANY OF LEWISTONtribal members CLARKSTON is located at 422 20th Street North in Lewiston, were eventually phone 743-8485 or 1-800-950-8485. We understand how very, sent to Oklaho- very important repeat customers are. That’s why you will notice ma where huge the extra personal attention that’s given such a high priority here to numbers died every person who comes to us. We specialize in offering Overhead door sales, installations and service. We offer manual, electrically of disease. Although it operated and remote control systems with a model for every conceivable application. Repeat customers are a long tradition and is sometimes a way of life. Let us have an opportunity to earn your trust. referred to as

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to get information about the Nez Perce culture and the history of their final resistance to the United States Army as the tribe tried to reach safety in Canada. The visitor center is a modern building with lots of parking and free admission staffed by professionals to answer your questions and encourage you to watch the video, browse the many books for sale, and visit the museum containing a wonderful assortment of early tribal regalia, horse regalia, cornhusk bags, and other items that reflect Indian life of that earlier era. Displays change periodically. A large mural by Nakia Williamson depicting early tribal life nearly covers an entire wall in the central room of the visitor center. An early dugout canoe sits below it. A new movie will be added in 2013 and plans are in the works for new exhibits. I am continually drawn to the museum portion, a separate room to the left as you enter. Small changes frequently take place, perhaps only one cornhusk bag replacing another or some other minor alteration, but the objects are beautifully displayed and reflect a culture that was nearly lost. Model horses are displayed with all the traditional regalia: Nez Perce saddles, beaded bridles, parfleches, cornhusk and beaded bags, martingales, etc. There are

Horse regalia adorn this horse model in the museum, much of it dating to the nineteenth century. [Photo by Jack McNeel]

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full headdresses, buckskin beaded clothing, a sweat lodge – the list goes on, but for anyone interested in knowing more about the life and culture of this tribe, this is a great place to spend some time. Be sure to pick up a brochure and map describing 26 sites in and around the Nez Perce reservation for you to visit plus another 12 sites in adjoining states that include several places where Lewis & Clark camped. You can trace the tribe’s escape route trace to near Missoula, then south and eventually east through Yellowstone before turning north again and reaching almost to the Canadian border. You can learn some of the legends that have been passed down through the generations such as Heart of the Monster, which describes the birthplace of the Nez Perce people. Many Nez Perce legends refer to Coyote, and two are quite close to the visitor center. One concerns Ant and Yellowjacket and how Coyote tried to settle an argument between the two. Another legend is called Coyote’s Fishnet and involves a bear that angered Coyote as he was fishing. When you visit the sites, you can see the visual evidence that remains in stone on the hillsides and get a full explanation of the stories. The visitor center adjoins the site where Henry and Eliza Spalding lived when they first arrived in 1836. The Spalding town site is just west and down the hill from the visitor center and accessible by car. The Lapwai Mission cemetery is here, along with the Spalding Mill, the Watson Store, the cabin that once was the Indian agent’s house, the chimney site of the mission, and a few other remnants of early structures. Walking trails are being developed through the old town site. On your next visit to the Lewiston area, be sure to stop at the Nez Perce National Historical Park Museum and Spalding Visitor Center for a lesson about the history and culture of the Nez Perce tribe. Call 208-843-7001 or visit www.nps.gov/nepe/index.htm for more information. ISI

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

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Quit Fiddling Around, and Fix This Fiscal Mess! By Mike Lofgren The Administration’s fiscal policies are a mess. Whatever one thinks of the need for stimulus in a severe recession, it is obvious that running trillion-dollar deficits for years on end is unsustainable. Moreover, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that the Administration’s proposed 2012 budget underestimates spending while overestimating revenues. Sadly, the Republicans have offered no viable alternative. The failure of our Republican leaders to offer realistic budget proposals was a major reason I decided to retire after 28 years in Congress, with most of those years as a professional staff member on the Republican side of both the House and Senate Budget Committees. My party talks a good game, railing about the immorality of passing debt on to our children. But the same Congressional Budget Office that punctured Obama’s budget also concluded that the major policies that swung the budget from a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion in 2001 to the present 10-year deficit of $6.2 trillion were Republican in origin. Consider the two signature GOP policies of George W. Bush’s presidency: the wars and the tax cuts. Including debt service costs, Bush’s wars have cost about $1.7 trillion to date. Additionally, as part of being “a nation at war,” the Pentagon has spent about $1 trillion more than was expected in the last decade on things other than direct war

costs, which has been a bonanza for military contractors, but a disaster for the federal budget. And finally, another trillion dollars was spent domestically in response to 9/11, including spending on such things as establishing the Homeland Security Department and increasing the budgets for the State Department and the Veterans Administration. The Bush tax cuts have added an additional $3 trillion in red ink. While Republican leaders wail that Americans — particularly their rich contributors — are overtaxed, the facts say otherwise: U.S. taxpayers, particularly the wealthiest, pay far less in taxes than they would in most other developed countries. Today, the 400 wealthiest Americans have as much wealth as the bottom 125 million. The GOP insists that those wealthy people use their money to create jobs, and taxing them more heavily would ultimately hurt the economy. But, if that’s so, why was the rate of job creation in the decade after the Bush tax cuts the poorest in any decade since before World War II? Like a drunk swearing off hooch for the hundredth time, Republicans recently tried to show they were serious about controlling the deficit by saying they wouldn’t raise the debt ceiling, unless they got through some of their cost-saving projects, like privatizing Medicare. Meanwhile, they wanted revenue increases “off the table,” even though, at 14.8 percent of GDP, revenues are at their lowest level in 60 years. And

the budget passed by the Republican-controlled House further cuts taxes on the wealthy, a fact it glosses over with optimistic growth forecasts. Raising the debt ceiling wasn’t, as the GOP said, Congress giving itself permission to continue excessive spending; it’s something that’s necessary to pay for past congressional decisions on taxes and spending, and those decisions were made primarily when Republicans were in charge. No one wanted to have to raise the debt ceiling. But playing the brinkmanship that resulted in a downgrade of our credit rating will likely force up interest rates for everyone and add more than a trillion dollars to the cost of servicing the federal government’s debt. It remains to be seen whether these actions will seize up our private financial system in a manner similar to the Lehman Bros. collapse. Did the Republican holdouts really want that? If so, they might want to take a hard look at the streets of Athens. The policy of full faith and credit, constructed by Alexander Hamilton more than two centuries ago, has served us well. We shouldn’t abandon it to a misplaced ideology. Polarization based on juvenile, talk-radio sloganeering is dragging this country to the cliff’s edge. If neither the Democrats nor the Republicans I have served for three decades is willing to act like adults, perhaps it’s time for a party that is willing to step into the void. Mike Lofgren retired as a congressional staffer on June 17. ISI

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2012 plan enrollment runs from October 15 to December 7 only. Our FREE Seminars are a great place to learn more — please join us! Call 1-888-492-2583 (TTY 1-800-377-1363),8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week to register for an upcoming FREE Seminar in your area or to request a FREE Information kit by mail. Or visit www.bcidaho.com/medicare to find a Seminar near you. Blue Cross of Idaho is a Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract. A sales person will be present with information and applications for the HMO and PPO plans that may be discussed at the event. For accommodation of persons with special needs at sales meetings, call 1-888-492-2583 (TTY 1-800-377-1363), 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week. You must continue to pay your Part B premium. Limitations, copayments and restrictions may apply. The benefit information provided herein is a brief summary, not a comprehensive description of benefits. For more information, contact the plan. Individuals must have both Part A and Part B to enroll. Members may enroll in the plan only during specific times of the year. Blue Cross of Idaho is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Y0010_MK12128 File and Use 09142011

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Protect Your Pension By Ginny Grimsley The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) just turned five years old this month. As companies rush to shore up pension or cancel underfunded plans, you need to protect yourself from common pension mistakes. PPA was designed to close loopholes in the pension system and address problems for the roughly 34 million Americans covered by traditional pensions known as defined-benefit plans. PPA requires pensions be fully funded by 2015. It also prevents companies with big pension deficits to skip annual contributions and still pronounce their plans healthy. Another major goal of the bill was to shore up the health of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), an agency of the U.S. government that insures private pension plans. In 2010, 147 pension plans failed, which increased the PBGC deficit to $23 billion. The agency assumes terminated plans and pays benefits to retirees up to a maximum of $54,000 if they retire at age 65 or later. One problem not addressed by PPA, which continues to affect millions of people of all ages, not just retirees, are pension miscalculations. Anytime you change jobs or take a lump-sum pension cash-out, you are at risk. Women are especially vulnerable to pension mistakes because they tend to move in and out of the workforce more often than men. For the most part, pension mix-ups aren’t intentional. How would you know if there was an error that had been compounding for many years? How can you ensure that you’ll get what’s rightfully yours when retirement arrives? It’s up to you to keep track of your own pension. Know your rights, and monitor your retirement plan before the “golden years” creep up on you.

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Educate yourself about how your plan works. Contact your company benefits officer and ask for a copy of the plan, not the summary plan description. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that you can’t depend on your employer’s summary plan description. The summary is an abbreviated form of the plan. The Court held that if there are discrepancies, the plan is the controlling document. You need a copy of the plan to determine how your pension is calculated. The plan document can run 50 pages or more. More and more companies are freezing or terminating their pension plans. Only 38 percent of Fortune 1000 companies offered a pension plan in 2010. That number is down from 59 percent in 2004. Of those companies with a plan, 35 percent were frozen and 2 percent were in the process of terminating the plan. You should immediately request a personal statement of benefits if this happens to your pension. The statement will tell you what your benefits are currently worth and how many years you’ve been in the plan. It may even include a projection of your monthly check. Most of the time, companies won’t intentionally fudge; sometimes the blame can be on simple errors. Here are seven common pension mistakes to watch for: 1. The company forgot to include commission, overtime pay, or bonuses in determining your benefit level. 2. Your employer relied on incorrect Social Security information to calculate your benefits. 3. Somebody used the wrong benefit formula (i.e., an incorrect interest rate was plugged into the equation). 4. Calculations are wrong because you’ve worked past age 65. 5. You didn’t update your workplace personnel officer about important changes that would affect your benefits, such as marriage, divorce, or death of a spouse. 6. The company neglected to include your total years of service. 7. Your pension provider made a mathematical error. How do you protect yourself? Create a “pension file” to store all your documents from your employer. Also keep records of dates when you worked and your salary, since this type of data is used by your employer to calculate the value of your pension. Ask for professional help, if you still think something might be wrong. The American Academy of Actuaries Pension Assistance List program offers up to four hours of free help from a volunteer. The Federal Administration on Aging’s Pension Counseling and Information Program may also be helpful. Rick Rodgers, Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Retirement Planner Counselor, Certified Retirement Counselor, and member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisers, is Founder and CEO of Rodgers & Associates. Rick provides integrated financial, tax, and investment strategies, retirement planning, executive compensation, estate and charitable planning. He is also author of the book “The New Three-Legged Stool: A Tax Efficient Approach To Retirement Planning” (www.TheNewThreeLeggedStool.com) ISI

Now Is The Time! Review Your Medicare Options. Well, it’s time for the Fall Open Enrollment Period, when people with Medicare can make unrestricted changes to their Medicare and drug coverage options. Most people are allowed to make a change only during this time, which has new dates this year: October 15 to December 7. Any modifications made on or before December 7 will take effect on January 1, 2012. Medicare consumers need to be aware of this date change, as well as changes taking place in 2012, in order to assess their options and make the best, informed decisions. Tried-and-True Advice If there’s one mantra for the open enrollment season, it’s “review your options.” Every year, the Medicare Rights Center advises people with Medicare to carefully consider how they get their Medicare benefits.

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Certain universal advice applies, no matter what Medicare coverage you have. • You should review all of your coverage options, even if you are happy with your current coverage, because plans change their costs and benefits every year. For example, if you are considering enrolling in a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan, you should review all of your options, including Original Medicare and a Medigap. • Make sure you understand how your plan works, and take the time to ask questions. • Make sure you understand your drug coverage options. Read your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC), which you should have received by September 30. It will list the changes in your plan, such as the premium and co-pays, and will compare the benefits in 2012 with those in 2011. If you are considering switching to a new Part D plan, either as part of an MA plan or as a standalone prescription drug plan (PDP), pay particular attention to the summary of the new formulary (list of covered drugs). It is very important that you read your ANOC and consider all of your options, since many plans make changes every year, and your current plan may not be your best choice for 2012. • Shop around to find a plan that best meets your needs and makes the most financial sense to you. • If you have Original Medicare and a supplemental plan (often called a Medigap) and are happy with your coverage, you do not need to make a change. • If you decide to enroll in a new plan, do so by calling 800-MEDICARE, rather than the plan itself. Changes in 2012 Doughnut Hole - The discount for generics during the doughnut hole will increase to 14 percent. Medicare Advantage and Part D - Starting in 2012, people with Medicare will have a Special

Enrollment Period (SEP) to enroll in an MA or Part D plan with a five-star rating (on a scale of one to five). The SEP can be used at any time during the year, but only once per year, and to make only one change.

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• People whose plans have been terminated are entitled to a SEP, and have until February 29 to choose a new plan. If they do not do so, they will automatically be enrolled in Original Medicare (if their MA plan is terminating) or they will lose drug coverage (if their drug plan is terminating). Medicare Advantage Disenrollment Period • And that is Fall Open Enrollment in a nutThe Medicare Advantage Disenrollment Pe- shell. Again, make sure you review your options. riod (MADP) runs from January 1 to February 14 For more information, visit www.medicare.org/ each year. During the MADP: find-a-plan. ISI • People who are unhappy with their Medicare Advantage (MA) plan are allowed to switch to Original Medicare, and may also add Medicare prescription drug coverage, even if their MA plan did not include drug coverage. • People in MA plans CANNOT switch to another MA plan.* • People with Original Medicare CANNOT make any changes.* *EXCEPTION: People have a SEP to enroll in a five-star MA or Part D plan at any point during the year, including during the MADP. Remember that the rules and consumer protections for Medigaps vary from state to state. Some consumers may have access to Medigaps, but may not be protected from higher premiums, coverage exclusions, or waiting periods. Good to Know • The average Medicare prescription drug plan premium will not increase in 2012; it will remain around $30. However, premiums for specific plans and regions vary from year to year. • Part D formularies (lists of covered drugs) often change from year to year. Drugs and restrictions can be removed or added. • A growing trend is for Part D plans to differentiate between “preferred” and “non-preferred” pharmacies within their network. You pay the least when you use preferred pharmacies. Make sure the pharmacies you use are “preferred.” • Plans that are terminated no longer participate in Medicare.

New Mobile App Travel Guide - Boise’s Best Outdoor Adventures By Natalie Bartley - www.nataliebartleyoutdoor.com Available for $1.99 at iTunes and at http://sutromedia.com/boise Idaho’s capital city is the ideal launching point for town-based outdoor adventures and astonishing day trips. Float the Boise River through downtown or mountain bike on forested trails in the Ridge to Rivers system. Finish the outing with a cappuccino made from locally roasted coffee beans. Encounter the abundance of Southwestern Idaho’s options for exploring the Wild West. Armed with 109 entries and over 680 photographs, explore Boise from a local outdoor expert’s view. Discover your favorites in categories including parks, bird watching, nature centers, water sports, camping, annual events, snow sports, and more. Use this app to: • Personalize your adventures • Sort by name, cost, and area • Mark and save your favorites • Share users’ comments • Click links to informative websites, Wikipedia articles, YouTube videos, and restaurant menus About the Author - Walk the wild side with Boise-based guidebook, magazine, and newspaper writer Natalie Bartley. Get your adrenalin pumping as she shares her favorites from 25 years of exploring Southwestern Idaho. Natalie aims you at unbelievable outdoor adventures and supplies you with the details needed to maximize your experiences. ISI

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Social Security Help for Those Nearing Retirement By Jim Miller Figuring out the best age to start claiming your Social Security retirement benefits is an important financial decision. The difference between a good decision and a poor one could cost you tens of thousands of dollars over your retirement, so doing some homework and weighing your options now is a very smart move.

What to Consider - As you may already know, you can claim Social Security any time from age 62 to 70, but the longer you wait, the larger your monthly check. But there are actually many factors you need to take into account to help you make a good decision, including your current financial needs, your health and family longevity, whether you plan to work in retirement, whether you have other retirement income sources, and if you are married, your spouse’s situation. To help you compare your options and make an informed decision, there are a number of resources and services available depending on how much assistance you need. SSA Tools - A good place to start is at the Social Security website. Just go to socialsecurity.gov and click on the “Retirement” tab at the top of the page, and access their “Plan for Retirement” tools where you can estimate your benefits at different ages and get guidance based on your personal situation. Or, if you would rather have face-to-face assistance, call 800-772-1213 and schedule an appointment to visit with a claims representative at your nearby Social Security office. The Social Security Administration also offers a bevy of free publications (see ssa.gov/pubs) that you can have mailed directly to you. Retirement Benefits, When to Start Receiving Retirement Benefits, and How Work Affects Your Benefits are three popular publications for those nearing retirement. Other Resources - If you need help in addition to what the government offers, some good resources include the Social Security Claiming Guide, which is published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. This easy-toread, 24-page guide sorts through all the options, spells out how much you can get, and answers frequently asked questions. Go to socialsecurityclaimingguide.info to read it online or to print a copy free.

Another good publication is When to Take Social Security Benefits: Questions to Consider (see whentotakesocialsecurity.info). Offered by the National Academy of Social Insurance, a nonprofit research and educational group, this 16page booklet uses a question-and-answer format to guide you through the key issues. To get a free hardcopy mailed to you, call 202-452-8097. You can also get help online at websites like analyzenow.com, which offers a free tool called Social Security Planner that helps singles and couples calculate the best time to take their retirement benefits. And AARP’s new Social Security Benefits Calculator (www.aarp.org/socialsecuritybenefits), which lets you estimate how much you will receive in monthly and lifetime benefits, based on your salary and your age when you file. Or, for a $40 annual fee, maximizemysocialsecurity. com provides a comprehensive new tool to help retirees, spouses, and survivors make decisions to maximize their benefits. If, however, you would like more personalized help, there are financial advisors and investment advisor firms that for a fee can assist you by taking you through the specific claiming strategies. One such firm is Social Security Solutions (socialsecuritysolutions.com, 866-762-7526), which offers three levels of service including their “Premium Plus” plan that runs multiple calculations and comparisons, recommends a best course of action in a detailed report, and gives you a one-on-one session with a Social Security specialist over the phone to discuss the report and ask questions. Fees for their services range between $20 and $125. 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

Start Your Own Business By Patrick M. Kennedy, Senior Wire The senior population is growing like zucchini summer squash in your backyard garden. It could double in the next couple or three decades. Money is tight, and jobs for the 65+ demographic are hard to come by. But that demographic area is also a growing market for special and necessary items. Our lifestyles change and our needs are different. Maybe we want to move to smaller or larger housing, or warmer weather; maybe those healthy bodies and the usual physical activities are changing; maybe our financial picture has drastically changed, for either the better or worse. Maybe we want to travel, have the money, but do not know how to go about it and be secure as well as have fun. Or maybe we just want to eat better to live longer. You cannot be a worker, but maybe you can be the boss and top dog by starting your own business. All these trends mean an opportunity for knowledgeable entrepreneurs who want to start a business serving this growing and mostly well-to-do market. It does not have to be a full-size and elaborate industry - it can just be a one-person or one-family operation working from home in a spare room or garage. In your work-life existence, you may have toiled at a job and learned a lot about something special that you can pass along as a service or product. There are a couple of different approaches to this potential income-

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

enhancer. You can start your own business from scratch, or you can purchase an existing business or franchise. The latter option sounds simpler, but it may be more costly and you will want to be sure what you are buying. Why is someone selling a profitable business? Think about it, and check the facts before you put out your hard-earned retirement funds. Speak to other people, examine the books, watch the operation for a while, and do not sign the papers until you are sure because you can always say “no” before that. Starting your own business sounds overwhelming, but it may be the best path. You must do some things. You must write a business plan. You have to examine your own books, determine a budget, check your knowledge bank, decide what you know

and do the best, decide what and how you can sell this knowledge, and start taking notes about the do’s and don’ts. Maybe you worked at a travel agency; this could be an easy transition for you. You know how, what, and where to go for good price, and you probably sound knowledgeable. Maybe you worked as a secretary for an important executive and had to type all his or her letters. You must have gained a lot of business knowledge doing that. If not, you still know how to type, structure, produce, or maybe just edit, such letters. There may be many small business people who need that service but cannot afford a full-time employee. You can get a group of steady clients who will depend on you and pay for this service. And if you decide to start a cleaning

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service or any kind of service, you will need a tight schedule. This is where the Internet and email come in handy. Learn about these things. Many services and information can be provided from your computer. You must learn about marketing and advertising, your local taxes and licenses, shipping if you have a product to sell, cash, or credit cards. You will need a good name for the business, and in these days, you will need a web page. This is not as hard as it seems because there are many sites out there that will provide the connection as well as the tools to build your own. Okay, now that you have thought about it, start your own business. ISI

Work or Retire? From CIA to Hospice Volunteer By James Cotsana Her breathing was very shallow and labored as I sat next to her bed so she would not be alone when the time came. She was in her late 80s and the cancer had taken its toll on her frail body. I sat there talking with her for about an hour, all the while holding her hand, although it was doubtful she could hear me. One of the nurses on duty walked into the room to check her vitals and rearrange her pillows and blankets, making every effort to ensure she would be as comfortable as possible. Within a few minutes, two family members entered and expressed their sincere gratitude for the attention being shown their loved one. I told them that she appeared to be comfortable during their absence and, if they needed anything, to please call. I returned to the kitchen area to help prepare meals for the other patients at the Hospice House. The next day, the woman I was sitting with died peacefully, surrounded by several close family members. This is certainly a dramatic change from my previous life. I retired from the Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 after 26 years as an operations officer and senior executive. I had a terrific career that allowed me to live in a number of countries and travel the world. Upon my retirement, I had not made any serious plans about what to do next but, in the interim, I was called back to the agency as an independent contractor to assist with its massive post9/11 endeavors. Although I had a number of lucrative job offers with several major defense companies, my interest was not there and the independent contractor route gave me the time and opportunity to really think through and decide how I wanted to spend my retirement years. Although I enjoyed the work I was doing, I decided it was time to move on and start a new life doing something different. In July of 2008, at the age of 60, I left the agency and moved to my small hometown in New Hampshire. I still did not know what direction I would take, but once settled, I began looking for interesting part-time work or possible volunteer opportunities. In either case, I was not seeking financial gain but something that was needed, as well as personally rewarding. After a few weeks, I read a brief article in the local paper about Hospice House and its mission. It needed a required number of volunteers based on a calculated percentage: Medicare mandates a hospice volunteer staff sufficient to provide administrative or direct patient care in an amount that equals at least 5 percent of the total patient care hours of all paid employees and contract staff. This looked like something I might be interested in so I applied and was accepted. I went through a 9-week training and orientation program in a class with nine others with varied backgrounds and reasons for wanting to become a volunteer. Some, like me, were retired and wanted to contribute to the community. Others had loved ones who benefited from hospice care and support, and wanted to help in return. And a few were still working either full or part-time and wanted to assist as best they could during their free time. The training covered a number of topics: the history and philosophy of hospice, dealing with the terminally ill, communications and family dynamics, the many faces of grief, the role of spiritual care, and the role of the hospice volunteer. What struck me is that we covered topics that we do not normally think about or do not want to think about. However, the goal is to get us thinking about not only what the patient is going through, but what the family or caregiver is going though as well. The objective was to get us sensitized to these issues and appreciate the impact we can have during these last days for the patients and their families. It is also important because some patients have no immediate family.

Hence, the volunteer can play a critical role in just being there so the patient can have someone to talk with. It is also surprising how many of these patients still maintain their sense of humor. I successfully completed the training in November of 2008 and proudly framed and hung my certificate on the wall in my home office, prominently displayed among the memorabilia and awards from my previous life. The staff at Hospice House is very busy, dedicated, and diligent in caring for each patient, as I suspect is the case at all hospice facilities. As a result, you do what you can as a volunteer to free up the staff to do what they are trained to do. In my case, this includes help in preparing meals, helping feed patients who are not able to feed themselves, wash dishes, or just sit, talk or read to them. Some patients want to make an oral history of their lives or leave an audio message for their loved ones. The point is to be available to help everyone feel as comfortable as possible and maintain their sense of dignity. I have been volunteering weekly for a little over two years and know I have made the right choice. Like with my previous life, where I loved my work and the mission and found it most rewarding and needed, I feel the same way as a hospice volunteer. I know I made the right choice and, like the agency, I did not find it – it found me. ISI

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Nick and Tami Leach help spread popularity of pickleball By Dianna Troyer Sidelined with a shoulder injury, Nick Leach gave up any hope of ever playing tennis again. Yet he was tickled to find a substitute game â&#x20AC;&#x201C; pickleball. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot easier on your body, and you still have as much fun,â&#x20AC;? says the Nampa resident of the sport with a whimsical name that is growing in popularity nationwide. The game is played with a polymer wiffle ball and hard paddles on a doubles-sized badminton court with a 34-inch-high net, which is two inches shorter than a tennis net. Nick, 64, and his wife, Tami, 50, play four days a week for two or three hours each time. They are so enthusiastic about the game that they helped start a pickleball club in August for Treasure Valley residents, give free lessons, and became Western Idaho Ambassadors for the USA Pickleball Association. In the Treasure Valley, there is enough demand for the game that the Boise Parks and Recreation

Department made a couple of tennis courts avail- people play regularly. able to be painted with pickleball court lines. Four It appeals to players of a wide age range bepickleball courts can fit on one tennis court. cause the lightweight pickleball moves about oneâ&#x20AC;&#x153;We have about 20 players interested in third slower than a tennis ball, making it easier to forming a local club,â&#x20AC;? Nick says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One of the lo- hit than a tennis ball. The court is also smaller than cal county clubs, Plantation, just introduced it to a tennis court and easier to cover. their members, and they have about 40 to 60 inâ&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the beauty of pickleball,â&#x20AC;? Nick says. terested players. Many â&#x20AC;&#x153;People who like to play have indicated they a paddle sport but canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t are interested in more because of their shouldetails about joining ders or knees can play our recently formed pickleball and be comassociation. The main petitive.â&#x20AC;? limitation to pickleball Nick took his porspreading is finding table pickleball net to a enough courts. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re recent family reunion. working with area â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even people who never Parks and Recreation played it before learned departments to find quickly and loved it,â&#x20AC;? more courts throughhe said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Anyone can out our area.â&#x20AC;? do it from children to Pickleball was inseniors, so it was great vented in 1965, when to see interaction of the late Joel Pritchard, several generations on a Congressman from [Photo courtesy of Nick and Tami Leach] the court.â&#x20AC;? Wa s h i n g t o n , a n d In 2009, after Nick friends were relaxing on Bainbridge Island and semi-retired, he and his wife, Tami, discovered were looking for some recreational activity that pickleball while living in Pinedale, Wyo., where Nick everyone in their families could do together. There was hired as a project safety engineer with an oil was an old badminton court on the property, some field contractor. old paddles, and a ball, so they developed the â&#x20AC;&#x153;I had lived in Bakersfield, California for 62 game, relying on badminton rules. Joelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cocker years and thought weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d give Wyoming a try. After spaniel, Pickles, of- discovering pickleball, we started playing at the ten chased the ball, so local Pinedale Aquatic Center, which is similar to the fledgling game was a YMCA. We both had a background with racquet named after Pickles. sports. I had played tennis, and Tami was competiIn 1984, the USA tive in badminton and ping-pong, so it was easy to Pickleball Association learn. We loved it, watched some videos to learn was established as a more, and then bought some paddles. We basically non-profit organization taught ourselves.â&#x20AC;? with a membership, In 2009, he and Tami wanted to live in a warmer tournaments, and rank- climate, so they moved to St. George, Utah, where ings. Since then, the pickleball is popular. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We played a lot, but the cost game has spread in- of living is fairly high there, so in 2010 we decided ternationally, and the to move to the Boise area, where Tami has family.â&#x20AC;? association estimates Once they unpacked in Idaho, they looked on that more than 100,000 the USA Pickleball Associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website, found some courts, and met other players. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great game, no matter what your skill level is or the time of year,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When cold weather comes, we play inside, and in summer, we head to the outdoor courts.â&#x20AC;? For more information about playing, Nick may be reached at 208-965-5409, or the pickleball associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website with Idaho references is www. usapa.org. ISI

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A Grateful Nation: A Look Back at WWII â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are not heroes, we were doing what we were raised to do - protect our family by protecting [our] country.â&#x20AC;? - Anonymous WWII Veteran Written by Helen McMullin Edited by Britni Storer â&#x20AC;&#x153;I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.â&#x20AC;? Attributed to Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who masterminded the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, did indeed awaken a sleeping giant known as the United States of America. Following the attack, America dived into a war that forever changed our country, our citizens, and the rest of the world. In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the United Statesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; entry into World War II, the Museum of Idaho is hosting A Grateful Nation: A Look Back at WWII from Sept. 30 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Nov. 26, 2011. Paying tribute to the hundreds of thousands who made many sacrifices during the war, â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Grateful

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Nation: A Look Back at WWII” explores the various aspects of war on the battlefield and on the home front utilizing the mementos and memories of those who lived through some of the darkest days in history. War Is Declared - Soon after Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, a two-nation war evolved into a 50-nation war on almost every continent. This war killed more people, cost more money, and caused more irreversible changes in nearly every country than in any other conflict in history. During the war in Europe, the Nazis took racial and ethnic persecution and genocide to horrifying new levels. Never before were specific groups - regardless of age and sex - exterminated on such a level. “The final solution to the Jewish problem,” as the Nazis referred to their systematic genocide, left over six million Jews dead. Many of the deaths came only after prisoners had been subjected to hideous and perverted medical experiments by German scientists. The Nazis also targeted Gypsies, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet citizens, and other political and religious opponents, killing anywhere between 11 and 17 million people during the Holocaust. America’s Entry Into WWII - Still recovering from the Great Depression, many Americans (including Congress) were divided on whether to enter conflicts that had ravaged much of the world since the end of WWI in 1918. Some felt the affairs of the world were to be settled without American involvement so that America could focus on economic recovery and building defense systems. It was only after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 that America united, and public opposition to the war almost vanished. The following day, President Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress giving a 6½-minute speech called, “Day of Infamy.” Broadcast live to the nation by radio and considered one of the greatest political speeches of the 20th century, “Day of Infamy” affected Congress so strongly that it took only 33 minutes to declare war on Japan.

Jovial British car club owners invite others to join in their fun By Dianna Troyer After listening to a co-worker talk about how carefree he felt behind the wheel of his antique British automobile, Rick Mills prescribed himself a car as therapy to relieve the stress of his day job. Not just any car, but a vintage British sports car. He was enamored with a hunter green 1968 convertible MGB and bought it five years ago. The cure worked so well that Rick prescribed himself a few more cars – a cherry red 1971 Triumph TR-6, “my eye candy car,” a 2002 Mini Cooper, and a red 1958 MGA that he’s restoring. “They’re just fun to drive and tend to be more affordable than American classic cars,” says the 61-year-old manager of information technology for the U.S. Department of Interior in Boise. “I drive my MGB to work every day year-round with the hardtop up in winter, of course. There are so many models of British cars. I just got hooked on them.” In 2006, he joined the Idaho British Car Club, a group of 98 Boise-area car buffs who devote themselves to promoting British cars, sharing their knowledge of technical repair issues, and having convivial road trips. MG owners organized the club in 1992 and expanded membership to include owners of any British car. (Cont’d on pg 51)

Internment Camps - After the attack on Pearl Harbor, angry, frightened Americans found a visible target at home. Americans feared a Japanese attack on the U.S. mainland. Throughout 1942, more than 110,000 Japanese men, women, and children - two-thirds of whom were American citizens - were evacuated to relocation centers in remote locations around the western United States. Many camps were built quickly and were based on designs for military barracks, thus, making the buildings poorly equipped. Relocation centers forced families to live in conditions that included unpartitioned toilets, cots for beds, and budgets of 45 cents-a-day per person for food rations. Since most internees were evacuated from their west coast homes on such short notice, many arrived at the camps with only the clothes on their backs and were ill equipped to deal with harsh conditions of the internment camps. As the war continued, Japanese-Americans were eventually allowed to serve in the armed forces. Many who volunteered had families in the internment camps, and they often volunteered in hopes of proving their family’s loyalty to the United States. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was an all Japanese American unit that fought primarily in Europe in 1944, and sixty-three of those men were from southeastern Idaho. Known as the “Go For Broke” unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was the most decorated regiment in the history of the United States Armed Forces with over 18,143 medals

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earned - 21 of which were Medals of Honor. A Grateful Nation: A Look Back at WWII Exhibition at the Museum of Idaho - In honoring the veterans of WWII, A Grateful Nation: A Look Back at World War II tells the story of these remarkable people and events that helped shape WWII. Since many of us know so little of WWII beyond old war movies, grainy photographs, and entries in history books, the exhibition offers a powerful glimpse into the lives of those fighting on the battlefield as well as those serving on the home front. In addition to using stories taken from the American perspective, the exhibit also displays weapons, flags, and personal memorabilia from Germany and Japan. Highlighting notes and letters from the Third Reich and Japan, visitors are also reminded of the Italian and German prisoners of war who were interned throughout southeastern Idaho. For more information on the exhibition, please visit www.museumofidaho.org or call the museum at 208-522-1400. ISI

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IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 51

British Care Club Owners - continued from page 49 “I joined because everyone is so welcoming,” says Rick, club president. His wife, Liz, is club secretary. “You don’t have to drive a British car to join either. One of our members has an Italian sports car, a Fiat. We’re a fun-loving group, so if someone wants to go for a spontaneous drive, we make a few phone calls, and we’re off - maybe to Stanley for lunch or Crouch for breakfast.” Every summer, the club has a two-day tour. “In June, we toured McCall. Other years, we’ve gone to Salmon and Enterprise, Ore. Last month, we had members who wanted to take a drive in Yellowstone and Teton national parks. We all have similar interests, so we enjoy getting together to have a few laughs and to enjoy our mountain scenery. The camaraderie is great. I’m a bit of an introvert by nature, so belonging to the club is out of character but suits me well.” The car club members have a sense of humor and flexibility, traits that are often tested during road trips when a car quits. To honor the breakdowns, the club gives the “Trophy of Woe.” The trophy is a bunch of car parts mounted to a wood base and includes a piston and frame rail and other small parts from cars that have broken down in the past. The new recipient has the option

tributor, or yes, even a fuel pump, and tell how to replace or repair it.” Club members meet twice a month for coffee and companionship - at 9:30 a.m. on the first Saturday of the month at Tully’s at Federal Way and Gowen Road and at 9:30 a.m. the third Saturday of the month at Moxie Java, at the corner of Overland and Five Mile. When members park their cars, they attract attention. “There is such a variety of cars, from the 1940s to present, including roadsters, converti ibles, an Aston Martin, Triumphs, Healeys, Morg gans, and Jaguars. If it’s a British car, chances a someone in the club has one.” are Most members have more than one vintage B British car. “About half of our members have two o more British cars, with one of them usually or b being a project car.” Rick’s current project, restoring a 1958 MGA, h consumed his spare time for the past four has y years. “It’s a full frame-off restoration right down t the nuts and bolts. I’m looking forward to drivto i it next summer.” Rick and Liz Mills of the British Car Club in ing Visit www.idahobritishcars.org for more inforBoise cruise in their 1971 Triumph TR6. The club has taken trips all over the northwest. mation about the club. ISI (Photo by Rick Kloss)

of adding his broken part to the trophy. More often than he cares to admit, Rick has won the award. “Recently, the fuel pump on my MG went out, so I had to have it towed home. These cars have a reputation for needing a little care and feeding, but that’s okay. Fuel pumps go out on newer cars, too.” Since joining the club, Rick has learned to do most repairs himself. “We have tech sessions at some meetings, when a member will explain a component of the car such as a carburetor, dis-

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