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Casey McGowan of Trailhead Spirits – From Gin to Grain and Back Again Article & Photo by Kim Thielman-Ibes Trailhead Spirits has been 125 years and four generations in the making, and if Casey McGowan’s family genes could have predicted anything, it would have been exactly this. “The stories were all there,” says Casey, proprietor of boutique distillery, Trailhead Spirits in Billings. “Right between my two great-grandfathers.” Casey McGowan, along with his wife and Billing’s native, Stephanie McGowan, own Trailhead Spirits, a Montana-made, craft distillery that produces Great North Vodka, Healy’s Gin, and Highwood Whiskey all made from local ingredients – including wheat from the nearby McGowan family farm. The McGowan family tree found its start in Montana during the late 1800s and early 1900s. “On my father’s side, Frank McGowan, was one of the original homesteaders to raise wheat in Montana, while my other great-grandfather, Irishman, Michael Healy, was a successful bar owner turned bootlegger in Butte during prohibition.” Casey grew up on the family farm, located in Montana’s Golden Triangle – famous for its wheat producing capacity – and not surprisingly, found himself majoring in agriculture at Montana State University. “My degree covered everything from working on all aspects of agricultural machinery, to soil, and the science and technology of crop production. It ties in really nice to what we are doing,” Casey explains. “We’re not doing traditional agriculture, but were using grains to make a product and with my greatgrandfathers’ history between wheat and whiskey, it just came together.” Casey’s storied family past provided the base ingredients to his entrepreneurial future. However, like both his great-grandfathers, starting a small business endeavor in the wild west – be it the late 1800s or early 21st century, would prove to take tenacity, patience, and betting the family fortune – essentially, it would take a dream – a dream that began over eight years ago. “All this history came to a head with me,” Casey marvels. “I didn’t know craft distilleries existed until January 2005.” He and his family went to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. His wife’s uncle was the associate athletic director for the University of Texas, and the Longhorns were facing off against the Michigan Wolverines. “We had tickets for the hospitality suite and met the owner of Tito’s Vodka, a handcrafted vodka made in Austin, Texas,” Casey recalls. (Continued on page 31)
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Great Article!
Thank you for your nice write up on Gary Wilson and Ft. Assiniboine in the October Issue of the Montana Senior News. I appreciate your recognition of popular events in our smaller communities and of interest to people there. Good Work! Toni Hagener Havre
Senior Companions Very Helpful
I wanted to let everyone know about Great Falls’ Senior Companion Program. There are currently nine Senior Companions located in the area serving over 50 seniors and disabled adults by providing services such as transportation to and from doctor appointments, getting seniors out of their homes or apartments, and companionship. As a Senior Companion and Volunteer Leader for several years, the Senior Companion Program gives me a way to help others at the same time I get the opportunity to get out and meet new people. I particularly enjoy seeing a client’s reaction when I assist them. I am even called “an angel” and “a lifeline” because my assistance is so important to them. I think that Senior Companion gives families quality time together because we volunteers are there to relieve some of the stress. Senior Companion is important because it helps keep seniors in their own homes making their lives a little better. It does your heart good to know as a Senior Companion you are allowing clients to share past memories, laugh, and have a good time!
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 3
Since the clients don’t drive, companions do a variety of fun things with them such as attend Voyagers games, concerts, and school programs, or go out to eat, to the movies, or to the park to feed the ducks and geese and people watch. Companions also play cards, work puzzles, or write letters with our clients. The Senior Companion Program is always looking for volunteers 55+. The program offers a tax-free stipend and other limited benefits to its volunteers. If you have a compassionate heart, need a little extra cash, and want to feel good at the end of the day, please become a Senior Companion. For more information, call Tammy Scoggin, Senior Companion Coordinator, at 406-447-1680 or 1-800-356-6544 (Rocky Mountain Development Council). Karen Ruybal Great Falls Ed: Senior Companion programs are available in many cities in Montana. Contact your local Area Agency on Aging, Senior Center, or one of the following numbers 406-245-6177 (Billings), 406-586-2421(Bozeman), 800-551-3191 (Glendive), 406-257-0048 (Kalispell), 406-728-7682 (Missoula), or 866-433-4967 (Sidney).
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From the Editor: We were deeply saddened to hear of the recent passing of Clare Hafferman, our colorful, enthusiastic, spirited, and witty garden guru. Clare wrote about every facet of the subject and with great exuberance. When reading one of
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Clare’s garden articles, you could just see her in her potting shed or in her yard planting, pruning, and nurturing the plants about which she wrote so knowledgably. Clare lived in Kalispell, so we never knew when a surprise would show up in the mail – a book that Clare felt we would enjoy, a box of bulbs (including paperwhites for inside the office in winter), or a special, beautifully hand-decorated packet of seeds. Clare still lives in some of those plants at our office. It was many years ago, when Clare called our office and proposed her writing a gardening column. How glad we are that we said, “Yes!” Clare’s wit, generosity, graciousness, and feisty spirit will be missed in our office and by our readers across Montana. Also missing from our contributing writers is Sue Hart, who passed away August 25, 2014 in Livingston. Sue, a longtime English professor at MSU Billings and award-winning PBS documen-
tary producer, over the years graced our pages with her warm and insightful profiles of many Billings area personalities, capturing those special qualities and experiences that made them come alive on our pages. Sue will be greatly missed by our staff and readers across Montana. MSN
Staying Alive In Big Sky Country By Bob Campbell We pay millions of dollars each year to tell the world that Montana is a beautiful place to visit and we are happy to live in this pristine environment free from the urban chaos where others live. What we do not tell them, or even discuss among ourselves, is that Montana has the nation’s highest rate of suicide and Missoula County leads all counties in the number of attempted and successful suicides. Each day fifteen Montanans attempt suicide and each year some five hundred succeed. This mental health crisis needs a federal and state commitment to provide communities with the resources to meet this challenge. Knowledge is power and the more we know about this family tragedy the better able we are to act when signs appear. Teenagers experience a world of new information and family support is critical. In Montana, there are a number of reasons for our high suicide rate. They include a shortage of mental health professionals, especially in eastern Montana. Statewide we do not have the local mental health professionals or facilities to treat those in need. Another reason is that our culture views mental illness as a stigma and considers those seeking
Montana Senior News A Barrett-Whitman Publication
P.O. Box 3363 • Great Falls, MT 59403-3363 406-761-0305 or 800-672-8477 FAX 406-761-8358 montanaseniornews.com email: montsrnews@bresnan.net The Montana Senior News is published six times each year in February, April, June, August, October and December at 415 3rd Avenue North, Great Falls, MT 59401 and is distributed free to readers throughout the state of Montana. The mail subscription rate is $10.00 per year (6 issues). The Montana Senior News is written to serve the reading interests of mature Montanans 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 Montana Senior News 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.
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MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 5
treatment as weak. Returning veterans are especially vulnerable to this myth. Medical science has made amazing progress in understanding how the brain functions and now we have the ability with scans to see a brain impairment that untreated could trigger a full-blown psychiatric crisis. Now we have new medications that a psychiatrist can prescribe and monitor the individual to
stabilize a disorder and taken regularly can lead to a normal life. If you see someone who has a severe depression you should take the time to get them to talk about their problems and what might be done to help them. More information is available by calling the Montana Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-2739255.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness also has information on what services are available by calling the Helena office at 406-443-7871 or get basic information online at namimt.org. MSN
Montana 1864: Indians, Emigrants, and Gold in the Territorial Year, by Ken Egan Jr., Riverbend Publishing, Helena, MT; 2014 Reviewed by Connie Daugherty “Montana turns 150 years old in 2014, yet the year of its founding, 1864, remains elusive… who resided here – or just passed through? Was mining the only occupation… how did emigrants interact with the native people… were there treaties in place.... And most importantly, how does 1864 matter for 2014?” In Montana 1864, Ken Egan engagingly answers these questions and more such that you almost forget you are reading a stuffed-full-of-facts history book. By invitingly presenting Montana’s people and their stories from letters, journals, and newspaper reports related in an intriguing manner, Montana 1864 reads more like a cross between an historical novel and a letter from a favorite grandparent than schoolbook history. Familiar historic names take on life as we learn of their fears and dreams, sadness and joy, humor and restraint. In the introduction, Egan states his intention to create a “braided narrative in which historical figures appear and reappear taking on new dimensions, unexpected angles” – and indeed, we meet characters in different situations and see events from different – sometimes opposing perspectives. Each chapter relates events that happened in one month of 1864. January is the month, “in which the Hunkpapa Sioux weigh their options, Henry Plummer meets his fate, Mollie Sheehan suffers a fall from innocence, Gad Upson takes over as Blackfeet agent, and William Andrews Clark sows the seeds of a great fortune. “It is bitter chill in the camps at the confluence of the Powder and Yellowstone rivers. Hunkpapa Sioux and their Santee guests have gathered to… talk defense of the homeland… now is the time
to fight… no more ground given.” Meanwhile in Bannack City, “Henry Plummer reclines on his bed … the sound of boots and muted voices startle in the cold air.” The events in February focus on the time that, “Nathaniel Langford meets with President Lincoln, Francis Thompson carries an important item to Washington City, and a ranching dynasty is born.” The weather is cold, the days short, but the hopes and dreams of these early settlers are bright. “On February 22, Francis Thompson leaves Bannack on his own journey to Washington City.” His mission, “to impress upon Congress the necessity of carving out a new political entity… he is driven by a cause, a belief, a hope.” March is the month “in which James Stuart leads an expedition to the Big Horn, Johnny Grant’s seven children are baptized, and Charlie Russell is born.” Spring is still a ways off, but the days are lengthening. “In Deer Lodge Valley, Grant has learned the art of living life to the fullest, with many native wives, a large cattle herd that feeds the hungry miners, and frequent visits from the many nations.” April is “the Moon of the Returning Bluebirds.” It is also the month, “in which John Owen lobbies for a new territory and spring comes for the Kootenai peoples.” April quickly gives way to May, “in which James Vail tells the story of his failed mission at Sun River Indian Farm, the Salish gather bitterroot and negotiate a treaty, and President Lincoln signs Montana Territory into existence.” And May 1864 brings more than the budding of plants; it is
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the beginning of what we now call Montana. That the new territory was carved to include plains and mountains, mining sites and rich farming opportunities is a tribute to the visionary men who argued for its existence. “Abraham Lincoln stands with pen in hand, reflective…. Fair to say Sidney Edgerton, an old friend, was the key to getting this document before the tall man, his passion, persistence…assuring passage.” It was never a sure thing; after all it had to pass Congress first. “Even settling on a suitable name for this new political entity involves sometimes playful suggestions…. Fortunately, in their wisdom, Congress settles on the name Montana…. And so, on this 26th day of May, 1864, Abraham Lincoln signs the bill creating the Territory of Montana.” June is the month in which Abram Voorhees journeys to and from Montana and summer comes to the Assiniboine.” Travel season to and from Montana is limited so when the ice is off the rivers and the snow mostly gone from the mountains people start moving around. Abram Voorhees helps lead the first wagon train over the Bozeman Trail. “In his… record of the trip, Voorhees comes across as the still point in a turning world, a calm, stable center around which swirl wild desire, cross purposes….” In other words, the birthing of a new territory. In July, “General Sully leads an attack on the Hunkpapa Sioux and their allies, street fights break out in Benton City on the Fourth of July, a Protestant minister arrives on the Madison River, and Last Chance Gulch is discovered.” Then suddenly it’s August, “in which the Crows defend their homeland against the Sioux and Cheyenne, James Fergus sends an angry letter to Pamelia, his wife, Bull Lodge becomes a great leader of the A’aninin, John Bozeman founds a town, and Victor Charlo describes home.” The words ‘Montana’ and ‘home,’ have become synonymous for different people with different dreams and different histories. “The Ferguses stand as a reminder of the human challenge – the toll – of settling in a land distant from a Midwestern
home.” On the other hand, “Bull Lodge’s story reveals a people for whom the land of what is now called Montana was sacred, saturated in wonder and spiritual power.” Is it any wonder they resisted the foreign settlement of the emigrants? In September, “Coth-co-co-na tells the story of her marriage to Malcom Clarke, Gad Upson distributes annuities to the allied Blackfeet nations, and James Welch provides an overview of settlement.” The marriage of the Piegan woman and the American man symbolize much of the challenges and changes that were occurring in Montana in 1864. Malcom and Coth-co-na talked often of the changes coming to their home, of “how greed would attract many of the worst whites, how desire for power would lead them to put the Piegan in a smaller and smaller box.” As the world changes so does Montana, and it is not only whites who are fleeing the war in the east who discover the promises of the new Montana territory. October is the month “in which prospectors stampede Silver Bow Creek, the Chinese settle in German Gulch, the Republicans hold a rally in Virginia City, and Sisters of Providence establish a boarding school at St. Ignatius.” As the weather cools, things continue to heat up in the new Montana territory. “The richest hill on earth begins as a modest gold rush in the autumn of 1864,” The gold at German Gulch, just west of Butte also attracted prospectors, but their claims were later sold to Chinese immigrants. Meanwhile “…on Saturday, October 15, Republicans gather for a political rally in Virginia City, determined to elect true believers to Montana’s first legislature.” The presidential election is also just weeks away and feelings are running high. In November, “the Sand Creek Massacre is told, Sweet Medicine prophesies the Cheyenne further, and Higgins, Worden, and Pattee begin building Missoula Mills.” As the Civil War intensified in the east, battles against the natives in the west also escalated. “Buffalo Calf Road Woman is a child of eleven when she flees the massacre at Sand Creek… travels north in search of her rela-
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tives in Yellowstone country.” The Civil War and the conflicts between natives and emigrants in the west have a strong influence on the development of that first year of Montana territory. December is the month, “in which Judge Hosmer calls out the vigilantes… and Calamity Jane arrives in Montana.” Montana 1864 draws to a close. “The year that began with an outbreak of vigilante justice ends with an elegant but forceful challenge to extralegal remedies.” And plans are made for the first legislative session as, “Governor Sidney Edgerton, full of pique, calls the first Montana territorial legislature to meet in Bannack, his home town, instead of the larger, more important Virginia City.” So it’s been an active year in which the Montana territory was dreamed of, established, and finally legislated. In the chapter titled After, a sec-
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 7
tion of writing by M. L Smoker sums up Montana for many residents – 1864 and 2014. “But where could we travel and not long for… our need to feel claimed by a place with our limited tongue…” that we call home? Ken Egan Jr. is the author of Hope and Dread in Montana Literature as well as many articles on western American literature. He taught college literature and writing for 25 years and currently serves as executive director of Humanities Montana. All royalties from the sale of the book will be donated to Humanities Montana and its efforts and programs throughout the State. MSN
Preparing For The Holidays With The Holiday Book Roundup 2014 By Connie Daugherty Preparing for the holidays involves finding books for members of my family. I look for favorite authors, types of stories, or poems each person would like, and books that will get the younger ones and the non-readers reading. I can always find just what I want, and many of my favorite authors live and write here in Montana. One such Montana authored book to share is Not Looking to Die by Bill Sansom. “The first bullet crashed through the door and hit me just above my belt buckle.” Deputy Sheriff Sansom was not looking to die that day when he answered a routine domestic disturbance call. But he “hovered near death for two weeks” after the incident. Doctors thought it was a miracle that he lived and predicted that he would never walk again let alone hunt. He proved them wrong. Nine months later, he was hunting and appreciating every moment in the Montana wilderness. “I am lucky, I said out loud to myself – but also to the trees, to the mountains all around me, to God Almighty, to the dead raghorn, and to all the elk and deer and bears and mountain goats… I raised on my elbows, a slight twinge of pain under my left shoulder blade reminded me of the hard climb I had made… my gaze lifted… across the deep canyon and to the mist-shrouded peaks.” Forced to retire from law enforcement, Bill Sansom then focused on his other ambition and natural talent – writing. Not Looking to Die is a collection of short hunting adventures and memories, including the award-winning article, Elk in Black that was originally published in North American Hunter magazine. Other stories appeared in Bugle Magazine, Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine, and Bowhunter Magazine. Bill Sansom was raised by a hunter, had always been a hunter himself – “this is tough country. Most of us are just scraping by out here and a good many more have starved out of these mountains than ever got rich…. Big horns are fine things, but a chest freezer full of elk meet is a lot more appreciated come February.” Hunting for Bill and many folks like him is more than trophies, even more than meat in the freezer; it is about “the land, the water, the air; family, friendship, work service, love – all the moods and concerns every person carries in heart and mind. Life and death.” Parenting Made Disgustingly Easy: a Practically Worthless Guide for Raising Little People by Joe Barnhart is a different genre. This longtitled, delightfully written book is a parody on all those how-to-raise-children books. Hidden in the silliness and sarcasm are a few gems of wisdom from someone who has been there and survived, Making Dreams Come True Since 1995 and obliquely admits that, “Kids are great.” Parenting provides insight, offers suggestions, and Cost-Free Programs even sympathy for rookie parents. He offers an analysis of “Your Parenting Skills,” and advice on for kids, teens, young adults & families affected by cancer Grandparents: Choose Wisely. Over 6,000 participants served since opening in 1995 “As you can tell from this book, my parenting skills are right up there with the Titanic captain’s helmsman skills,” he writes. His final advice, “Stay the course and always remember… if it involves blood, vomit, or head lice, hand off the kid off… with a tax-deductible donation today! to mom.” Parenting would be a good gift for the overly nervous parents-to-be. Another small book with a big impact is, Glacier Park Lodge: Celebrating 100 Years, by Christine Barnes with beautiful photos by Fred Pflughoft, David Morris, and Douglass Dye. Glacier National Park was created in 1910 and “The Great Northern Railway was poised to step in.” Louis Hill, president of the railroad, and already in love with the beauty of Glacier, began by taking the park, in the form of exhibits, to the public. But Camp Mak-A-Dream • PO Box 1450 • Missoula, MT 59806 “when it opened in June 1913, Glacier Park Hotel… 406.549.5987 • www.campdream.org became the Great Northern Railway’s Gateway to Glacier.” In Glacier Park Lodge, Barnes, an
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PAGE 8 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
historian, details the development of the hotel and the park. Barnes’ informative and spirited writing is accented by fantastic photos of Glacier and even a few recipes for some of the favorite treats served at the Lodge, like pecan dusted trout and Montana sundae. Glacier Park Lodge is a perfect stocking stuffer for friends who have visited, or plan to visit spectacular Glacier. Especially fun to take along in the car or RV, Montana-for-fun-and-information books such as Ellen Baumler’s, Montana Moments: History on
the Go and More Montana Moments, plus Janet Spencer’s Montana Trivia make great gifts. Whether your favorite reading is memoir or mystery, fact or fiction, history or humor, there is a book by a Montana author out there for you and your gift giving. I have my list ready, and as the Christmas lights sparkle, choirs sing, and symphonies play, I will scour my local book stores for that perfect book I know is waiting on the shelves. Happy hunting, happy reading, and happy New Year to you! MSN
Yes, there is no question that chill – after November’s arctic blast – is in the air, and it won’t be long until there is a white blanket in many areas of Montana. With the holidays coming, isn’t this the perfect time to find that special someone to snuggle with by the fire, enjoy a warm mug of Christmas cheer, and perhaps rendezvous under the mistletoe. What a great time for making new friends and finding a winter romance. To respond to any of these personal ads, simply forward your message and address, phone number, or email address to the department number listed in the particular personal ad, c/o Montana Senior News, P.O. Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403. We will forward your response, including your address, phone number, and/or email address to the person placing the ad. When you respond to 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 submit your correct address plainly printed, so you can promptly receive replies. Respond to the ads in this issue, and also sit down now and prepare your own ad to run in our next issue. There is no charge for this service, and your ad may lead you down the path of true love! Responses to personal ads appearing in this column may be submitted at any time. However, to place a personal ad in the February 2015 issue, the deadline is January 7, 2014.
SWM, 59, Non-Smoker, don’t drink or do drugs. Looking to meet 50ish lady, preferably in the Flathead Valley area. I never married, have three Boston terrorist kids. Would like an outdoor type of woman, open to spending winters in the SW desert looking for gold. Please write and include a photo. I will reply. Reply MSN, Dept. 31202, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403.
SWM seeking single lady who likes to cuddle. I do not smoke or drink. I live in Great Falls. Looks and age are unimportant. Please send photo and phone number. I will answer all responses. Reply MSN, Dept. 31201, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403.
Are you lonely? Then be my friend. I am hoping to meet a caring, responsible, gentleman, age 72 to? Age is not as important as health. Interests include reading, good conversation, hiking and exploring our beautiful state. I am a non-smoker, light drinker, with no drugs or drama. I am considered a good cook and housekeeper. I am active in my church and community. I like pets. I also love to square dance. What are your interests for the future? Remember life is much better shared. My home is in beautiful NW Montana. Active and in excellent health, I enjoy life to the fullest and seek a companion. I look forward to hearing from you. Reply MSN, Dept. 31203, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403. SWM. Don’t smoke or do drugs. Like to dance and enjoy country music, fishing, traveling, movies, garage sales, etc. Eat out some. Enjoy a Honda trail bike in the Montana outdoors. Own home, nice car, boat, etc. Like humor. Call or write so we can talk it over. A picture would be good. Not too old to make you happy and love life on earth. We can meet and have coffee, lunch, or a beer. Reply MSN, Dept. 31204, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403.
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SM from Great Falls area. I like the outdoors and anything around water. I want to go scuba diving soon. I like photography that includes hiking and biking while researching areas of photo interest. I have a garden of 75 hills of potatoes that I served at Thanksgiving dinner at the Rescue Mission. I’m 5’7”, 170 lbs and in good health. I have no children. I’m a retired civil servant and schoolteacher. I’ll send a picture if you do. Reply MSN, Dept. 31205, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403. SF 58, 5’4”, 130 lbs. Well traveled lady with city smarts, and a country heart. I am eclectic spiritually. I enjoy public broadcasting and love music of all genres. My life is outdoors in beautiful NW Montana. I love to hike, bike, swim, canoe, all skiing, horseback riding, etc. I am a bit of a tomboy, but all woman inside and clean up real nice. My other interests include gardening, cooking, yoga, and peaceful quiet times. I also like to get out, and enjoy theatre, concerts, and dining. I am looking for friendship initially with an open minded, emotionally mature, financially secure gentleman with good dental hygiene who has similar interests. Serious inquiries should respond with a short note to include address or phone number for initial contact. Reply MSN, Dept. 31206, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403. SWF age 73, 5’5”, 125 lbs. seeking a friend or more to share this part of my life. Trustworthy, kind soul would be great. I enjoy pets, laughter, conversation, nature, walking, TLC, country drives, boating, and travel. Polson/Flathead area. Maybe a photo exchange and phone number. Reply MSN, Dept. 31207, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403. SWF, 62, I love country living, horses, and other animals. I enjoy attending rodeos, carnivals, and flea markets. Outdoors is where to find me, gardening, riding horses, and doing yard work. If you share some of these same interests and are in your 60s and looking for friendship and companionship please write. Reply MSN, Dept. 31208, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403. SWM, 67, retired and financially secure I was college educated in Montana and am a non-smoker. I enjoy gardening, pets, geology, fishing, bird watching, dining out, botany, photography, and most anything outdoors. I would like to meet a lady near my age that shares some of my interests and would like to visit the Montana State Parks, or National Wildlife Refuges. Montana has 55 state parks, so there is plenty to see within our borders without having to go to an airport. Please send and letter and photo, and I will respond. Reply MSN, Dept. 31209, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403.
62-year-old male, 6’1”, slender build. I was a horse trainer for over 40 years. Welder for 35 years. I like the outdoors, still love being around horses, love doing yard work, like going out to eat, and love to snuggle with a nice woman. I love the Lord. I’m easy going. Belgrade area. If you are a woman who shares these interests, please reply. Reply MSN, Dept. 31210, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403.
SWF, 75 years young. Happily retired and enjoying life. I keep busy doing many things. I am a petite lady in good health looking for a gentleman who respects a lady. I don’t do drugs, smoke, and only have a friendly beer occasionally. I like to travel, take drives, play a little bingo, pinochle, a game of pool, dance to the old-time music, fish, or just go for a walk in the park. Looking for a companion that can be a best friend and enjoy life. If interested please send a letter, I would enjoy hearing from you. Reply MSN, Dept. 31211, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403.
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 9
Please enclose a photo and address with letter. I’ll respond likewise. Reply MSN, Dept. 31212, c/o Montana Senior News, Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403. MSN
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SWF early 60s, 5’5”, fluffy, attractive, faithful, funny, longtime recovered alcoholic, outspoken, opinionated, tenderhearted, and romantic. Looking for a compassionate, conservative Christian man who doesn’t drink, gamble, abuse drugs, or smoke (indoors). If our friendship grows into love, are you willing to relocate to Hamilton? I prefer slim to medium build, but age, height, and race aren’t important. Honesty, an open heart, dependability, and loving Jesus are. I enjoy camping, picnics, dancing, singing, my 12-step program, church, games, cards, TV, movies, plays, art, affection, laughter, eating out, and good conversation.
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PAGE 10 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
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DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
How to Choose Your New Best Friend from an Animal Shelter Among the biggest victims of the economic recession have been the once beloved family pets surrendered to shelters as their owners deal with extended joblessness. The U.S. Humane Society estimates 6 to 8 million dogs and cats enter shelters each year – and 3 to 4 million are euthanized. “We don’t have firm numbers but we know anecdotally that the communities that have been hardest hit by the economic downturn are seeing that reflected in their shelter intake numbers,” says Inga Fricke, director of sheltering issues for the U.S. Humane Society. “And, unfortunately, while the majority of the public is in favor of adopting pets from shelters, very few – usually about 20 percent – actually do. That has recently gone up slightly to the mid-20s.” Fricke and retired police officer Irvin Cannon, a confirmed dog lover whose new book, For the Love of Dog Tales (www.FortheLoveofDogTales. com), gives voice to man’s best friend and the hope that people getting back on their feet will consider adopting a shelter dog. “You won’t find a better companion, whether you bring home a mystery mixed-breed or a purebred Labrador,” he says. “Everyone thinks mutts are smarter and generally healthier, but really, it all depends on their mix of breeds and which breed strain is dominant.” Border collies and Rottweilers are two of the smartest breeds, Cannon says. But they tend to have other traits, too, which are just as important to consider when choosing what dog best suits your lifestyle. Remember – dogs are as individual as people are. A dog’s breed, or breed mix, is no guarantee that it will have certain traits. That said, border collies tend to need lots of room to run and lots of attention – they are highmaintenance, Cannon says. If you cannot spend a lot of active time with them, they will be unhappy and you will have problems. Rottweilers are fast learners and loveable family animals, but they also tend to have bold personalities associated with pack leaders. If you do not think you can assert your authority, or if
you have young or shy children, you might want to consider a more submissive breed. Dominant dogs that are allowed to bully their family members can become dangerously aggressive. Here are some other tidbits regarding breeds: • Among other dog breeds known for intelligence: Shetland sheepdogs, golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers, poodles, Australian cattle dogs, Papillons, and Doberman pinschers. • Bulldogs, beagles, and Basset hounds all start with “B” but get much lower grades for smarts. • It is a myth that mutts have fewer health issues than purebred dogs. Because some breeds have tendencies toward problems such as deafness, blindness, or hip dysplasia, remember, these are inherited genetic issues. So if your mixed-breed includes some German shepherd, it may also have hip dysplasia (a problem with the joint’s bone structure). • If you are in the market for a purebred dog, you have a 25 percent chance of finding one – although maybe not the breed you want – at a shelter. If your heart is set on a specific breed, check your area for a rescue group specializing in that breed. Do not forget to mark your calendar for Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month coming up in April 2015, which recognizes the 1866 charter signing of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Visit www.aspca.org/ fight-animal-cruelty/ for 10 ways you can help prevent cruelty to animals. Irvin Cannon was a poor kid growing up in Detroit when his family took in a stray dog. It surprised young Irvin that his father would be willing to share the family’s meager groceries with a dog, but he soon discovered the return on their investment was enormous. A former police officer in Detroit and Denver, he also worked as a corrections officer in Arizona. MSN
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Food and Wine Pairing Tips for the Holiday Season (StatePoint) One of the most important aspects of holiday entertaining is sometimes overlooked – proper pairing of the food and wine. Even if you have a bottle of top quality wine and an amazing chef-inspired dish, without considering how the food and drink combine, you can ruin the taste of both, say experts. One commonly mismatched wine is Cabernet
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Sauvignon. velvety, pair it to dishes high in acidity. Adding a “I have a simple goal with food and wine pair- splash of lemon to a dish can smooth out a big ings: don’t mess with the taste of the wine,” says and structured Cabernet Sauvignon. Dean Busquaert, a wine educator at Sequoia • Don’t be fooled by conventional wisdom. Grove Winery, a pioneering Some rules do not apply Cabernet Sauvignon producer across the board. in the heart of Rutherford in “Most people think red Napa Valley. wine always goes with red Bold, full-flavored reds meat, only to discover a like Cabernet Sauvignon will dish like beef teriyaki, which overpower light dishes, but contains sugar, can make a are excellent when served beautiful Napa Valley Caberwith rich meats like a roast, net Sauvignon seem undrinkmaking them perfect for the able,” says Busquaert. holidays. Busquaert, who of• Use salt liberally to bring ten shares his pairing wisdom out the full flavor in foods, at the Sequoia Grove tasting without throwing off the flaroom, offers some invaluable vors of your wine. pairing tips for home cooks • A great meal deserves planning to serve a Cabernet a great wine, and the Napa Sauvignon at their festivities. Valley has come to define • The number one thing to great Cabernet Sauvignon avoid pairing with Cabernet in America. Look for estabSauvignon is sugar, which lished and trusted producers, will throw off the tannin balsuch as Sequoia Grove Winance of the wine and make it Food pairings are an essential ingredient to ery, with a history of quality seem astringent and bitter. For a successful holiday party. Don’t overlook balanced and food-friendly example, many people think this important element when planning your wines. menu. Grilled filet mignon with braised garchocolates pair well with red den greens and Sequoia Grove Cabernet Knowledge is crucial to wine however, they don`t – Sauvignon. [Megan Steffen] the appreciation and enunless it is a port which has joyment of fine wine. Join residual sugar. Busquaert for his “A Taste for Cabernet” seminar Sugar content, whether it comes from fruits at the winery and learn for yourself how best to like grapes or apples, or honey and chocolate, it match food with Cabernet Sauvignon. Visit www. is not a good choice for Cabernet Sauvignon. sequoiagrove.com/visitus for more information. • To make a Cabernet Sauvignon taste more MSN
Older Americans Embrace The Internet
Seniors are savvy users of the Internet according to Pew Research and Nielsen Company statistics. Pew says that 87% of seniors use online services such as Google, and Nielsen has reported that 88% keep in touch with email. Falling computer prices and the development of smart phones and tablets are probably one reason more seniors are surfing the Web these days. But AMAC believes that the principal reason is that techies have been making computer applications more intuitive and easier to use. Association of Mature American Citizens • www.amac.us MSN
Life Can Be A Little Easier With These Homemaking Tips Submitted by Julie Hollar Brantley Food Storage Tips – Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. The cheese will stay fresh much longer and will not mold. Cooking Tips – Green peppers with three bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Green peppers with four bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. To make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream before beating them. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a lighter garlic taste and at the end of the recipe if you want a more garlicky taste. Reheating Pizza – Heat leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove. Set heat to medium-low and heat until warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No more soggy microwave pizza. Easy Deviled Eggs – Put cooked egg yolks in a sealed plastic bag. Mash until they are all broken. Add remaining ingredients, reseal, and mash thoroughly. Then, cut the tip of the baggy and squeeze mixture into egg white. Just throw the bag away when you are done for easy clean up. Reheating Refrigerated Bread – To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that have been refrigerated, place them in the microwave next to a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster. Weeds Be Gone – Start putting torn newspaper in your plants, working the nutrients into your soil. Wet newspapers and put layers of them around the plants, overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic, but they will not get through wet newspapers. Broken Glass – Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards you cannot see easily. Flexible Vacuum – To get something out of a heat register or from under the fridge, attach an empty paper towel or gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings. Reducing Static Cling – Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will no longer have a clingy skirt or dress. The same thing works with slacks that cling when you are wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and - voila! - static is gone. Measuring Cups – Before you pour a sticky substance into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but do not dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient (peanut butter, honey, etc.) and watch how easily it comes out of the cup. Foggy Windshield – Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub them with the eraser. It works better than a cloth! Re-opening An Envelope – If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 13
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something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. It unseals easily. Conditioner – Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It is cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs feeling smooth. It is also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but did not like when you tried it in your hair. Goodbye Fruit Flies – To get rid of annoying fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2 full with apple cider vinegar, and add 2 drops of dish washing liquid. Mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever! Get Rid Of Ants – Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it and take it ‘home.’ But they cannot digest it, so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works. The best part is that you do not have to worry about pets or small children being harmed by the pest-killer. MSN
An Early Life Without Pizza By Bill Hall I can scarcely believe that I never encountered that food called pizza until I was 18. When I reveal my first pizza to anybody less than about 65, they think I’m pulling their leg, a leg that smells of mozzarella and oregano. But most people who can remember World War II will recall a time in their lives back in 1945 BP (before pizza). In fact, the same was true of ethnic foods like tacos. I was 12 when I first met up with a taco (essentially a Mexican sandwich) at a state fair in California. “But how could that be?” you ask. “How could people live so long without pizza or tacos?” That’s a rational question. I don’t know how we survived without either one of those foods. Pizza and tacos today are like hay and oats to a horse. For that matter, how long before horses finally discover pizza and tacos? If they ever do, they may get horse lawyers and sue us for keeping that secret. A young dental hygienist, who was working on my remaining teeth, trying to get the pizza sauce stains out of my aging ivories, told me she and her kids and husband adore pizza. They have it frequently because it is usually a full, somewhat balanced dinner – bread, tomato sauce, cheese, and meat with a few veggies. Like most people, she and her family are literally hooked on pizza. However, I prefer my own homemade pizza and hardly ever buy those fast-food wheels with 14 ingredients, a puddle of pepperoni fat, and a three-inch layer of wannabe mozzarella. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love pizza with all my clogged heart. And love is the accurate word. That’s what was involved both when I met my wife Sharon and my first pizza (whose name I have forgotten). In each case, I saw them across a crowded room, beckoning me forward. Most of you already know pretty much how that goes with a person you’ll never forget. But I’ll also never forget that first night of the pizza. I had just
SHERRIE
HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM
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JACK NEWS
JONATHAN LISA COLLEEN
KATHLEEN JOANNE
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
started college and a roommate from Colombia, South America suggested that we go have a pizza, whatever that was. He took me to a small restaurant where an immigrant family from Italy was cooking the real thing. Fortunately, I am one of those people who can remember in detail all the great meals he has been served in life. And I kid you not when I tell you that my first pizza still lingers in my nostrils, on my tongue, and best of all in my mind. I was only 18 but that pizza actually loved me back. Like many great foods, its secret was not what ingredients the cook put in the food; it was what he left out. He kept it simple. You see that in Italy to this day. There was no big lumpy inch-thick wad of bread. The sauce had been simmered and reduced in volume for several hours. The oregano was fresh and the best drug I ever snorted. A crumbled sausage sufficed for meat. And the pizza was gently dusted with real mozzarella and not buried in enough cheese to smother everything else. That dental hygienist the other day instantly understood what I was talking about. In fact, she was so eager to hear more details that she just peered into the maw of my mouth, imagining how much world-class pizza had gone past those teeth. Best of all, she could scarcely believe that I had my first pizza bite at
Bobby Is Never Too Old To Die
By Bill Hall I once listened to the lecture of a professor who was so forward thinking he could have saved millions of lives if anyone had cared to listen. But, he said too many soreheads in this ferocious world care more about getting even than in finding ways to avoid getting even. The professor said this is especially true of people from the same race, religion, or political camp – those conceited souls who wallow in fraternal anger. The professor was talking about a trip he made to Ireland the years when Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants were taking turns proving that turning the other check is a weakness no matter what Jesus said. Jesus wasn’t even Irish. If Jesus had been Irish, he would have turned the water into Guinness. The professor had taken a taxi toward his destination when the driver suddenly pulled to a stop on a bridge and burst into tears. “This is where the bloody SOBs killed little Bobby,” he sobbed. The professor assumed at first that little Bobby had been murdered within the week. Not so. Digging deeper, the prof learned that the death had occurred about 300 years earlier. The driver assumed his Irish right to keep the blood sloshing by refusing – ever – to ease up after three centuries and not feel like killing anyone remotely related to dead people who had insulted his family. Which is worse, carrying a larger and larger load of pain and grief forevermore, or ending the troubles of everybody, whether they deserve it or not? For that matter, was there no one on your side ready to give mercy a try? Did little Bobby himself kill anybody along the way? Today, I think of all the Little Bobby killers, not just some Christians, Muslims, or Jews, let alone those stinking atheists. But it’s especially puzzling that some Muslims are still killing each other to revenge a mass fraternal murder that first took place 14 centuries ago. In fact, the highly readable Seattle scholar Lesley Hazleton has written about the original split among quarreling factions of Muhammad’s believers. Early in her book, After the Prophet, she points out that all the killing over all those centuries is still going on among co-religionists. In fact, the most recent big bombing by Muslims of other Muslims happened March 4, 2004, just 10 years ago. So this isn’t ancient history. Fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad’s followers divided and began to massacre each other. Today, many still kill each other. That’s a grudge! Revenge is poisonous. Killing people today to get even with earlier people long since dead is nutty on the face of it. That takes a ton of hate! But the Irish of our recent lifetime used to make an effort to punish the dead by killing living innocent people. If the Nazis of World War II had tortured and killed my great grandfather, that doesn’t give me the ethical or legal right to bomb the house of a dead Nazi’s civilized and lawful great grandson. Some leaders of the Israelis and the Palestinians have similar bouts of ignorance as they have been willing to prove their manhood by murdering each other’s offspring in avoidable wars. The flaw in such thinking is that it obsessively focuses on the dead past. Seeking to punish people who are dead is bizarre – especially if they use children as cannon fodder. Are they getting even with brutal people no longer living – really? It is amazing that some people on both sides are content to punish people of the present. The real question isn’t how to teach the dead a lesson; it’s where do we the living go from here? Forget the dead villains who have killed all the little Bobbies. Forget yesterday just as songwriter Kris Kristofferson bids us to do. Yesterday is truly dead and gone. Yesterday is full of rotting mistakes. Look to the future and not to the foolish past and be brave enough to love one another and look forward to tomorrow. MSN
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 15
age 18. She is a kind person and she was saddened to learn that I and all others in my age group had suffered from pizza deprivation early in our lives. Except for a few pockets of pizza in small neighborhoods of New York and Chicago, it was our military personnel coming home from World War II who brought pizza to the masses. I am proud to say I was there during the early years as pizza spread into every square mile of every city in the land, carrying young people like me through an experience so passionate that it can only be called the puberty of pizza. Hall may be contacted at wilberth@cableone.net or at 1012 Prospect Ave., Lewiston, ID 83501. MSN
PAGE 16 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
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Alerting Struggling Homeowners To Mortgage Resources
Car designers are just going to have to come up with an automobile that outlasts the payments. - Erma Bombeck
(NAPSI) – There’s good news for homeowners who are having a tough time making their mortgage payments. A free federal program just may have the solution, even if you’re not behind on your mortgage. The program – Making Home Affordable, or MHA – launched in 2009 is part of the government’s strategy to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, stabilize the country’s housing market, and improve the nation’s economy. A Range Of Solutions – MHA offers a range of solutions, including lower monthly mortgage payments for struggling homeowners, as well as options for unemployed or underemployed homeowners and those who owe more than their homes are worth. It has helped more than 1.5 million families nationwide. Unfortunately, there is evidence that there is still a need for the program, which has been extended through at least December 31, 2016. Nearly one in 17 homeowners has fallen behind on their mortgage. There is speculation that many of these homeowners are unaware MHA has expanded its options. Increasing Awareness – In an effort to increase awareness of MHA’s free resources and assistance for struggling homeowners, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Ad Council have designed public service advertisements (PSAs) as part of their Foreclosure Prevention Assistance campaign. Help Is Available – “Although the housing market and economy are steadily recovering, many struggling homeowners would still benefit from the one-on-one counseling services a HUD-approved housing agency can provide them,” said Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol Galante. “We hope this effort to educate homeowners will lead to many more families using these free services and getting the help they need to stay in their homes.” Reaching Those In Need – “While MHA has already helped so many across the country, our research shows that many families continue to rebalance their finances to meet their mortgage payments. They know they need help but don’t know where to find it,” said Peggy Conlon, president and CEO of the Ad Council. Ads and PSAs strongly encourage homeowners not to give up hope and remind them that there are free resources available to help. They direct homeowners to call 888-995-4673 to speak one on one with experts at HUD-approved housing counseling agencies about solutions based on each family’s individual circumstances. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, homeowners are guided to MakingHomeAffordable.gov for program eligibility and information. Since the campaign was launched in 2010, media outlets have donated over $135 million in airtime and space. To learn about available help for your particular situation, visit wmakinghomeaffordable.gov/ about-mha. MSN
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Five Sales Preparation Tips To Know (NAPSI) – For the first time in years, rising home prices are boosting sellers’ confidence. At the same time, interest rates remain low, helping to boost potential homebuyers’ confidence, so millions of Americans will decide to put their houses on the market and/or shop for new homes. The following “top five things to know when preparing to sell or buy a home” should be considered by anyone thinking about a home sale or purchase. 1. Is now the time to make a move? What sellers should know: The pool of prospective buyers hasn’t been this large in several years. Now may be the time to move. What buyers should know: You’re competing with more buyers, but interest rates are still ideal – the hunt for your next home could be well worth it. 2. The price is right, right? What sellers should know: Don’t overprice your house. After the first 21 days on the market its “freshness appeal” diminishes. What buyers should know: The house is probably too expensive if your debt-to-income ratio is higher than 36 percent of your monthly gross income. 3. Look for added value in a home protection plan. What sellers should know: Homes sold with home warranties spend an average of almost 11 fewer days on the market and sell for an average of $2,300 more, according to a recent home sales study conducted by American Home Shield®. For full results and methodology, visit http://bit.ly/1mTrWkU). What buyers should know: If covered home system components or appliances fail, you’ll worry less knowing they’ll be repaired or replaced. 4. Improvements... to make them or not? What sellers should know: View your home as a potential buyer and make improvements accordingly. Consult with a real estate agent to see if improvements are good investments, and to avoid overimproving the property. What buyers should know: Assess your abilities, time constraints, and commitment level when it comes to renovation work. 5. Know the full scope of a Realtor’s responsibility. What sellers should know: Real estate professionals can identify the appropriate price, determine improvements, promote the listing, and facilitate showings of the house to potential buyers. What buyers should know: Real estate professionals can access the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), help you understand what you want in a house and find a good fit. They can provide market trends and comparable pricing and guide you through the negotiation and closing processes. If you’re considering selling or buying a home, visit www.firsthomeresources.com for information that will help you throughout the selling and buying processes. For more information on a home protection plan from American Home Shield, visit www.ahs.com or call 866-250-4313. MSN
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PAGE 18 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
This is a season marked by music – and memorable music at that. What is it about a song that can embed it in our memories forever? Is it the songs themselves – the melody or the lyrics? Or, is it the context in which we hear it – an event or a person? Whatever the answer, music is magic in our minds. Our featured quiz, requiring you to match female vocalists from several mid-twentieth century decades with songs that were notable in their repertoires was submitted by Julie Brantley, Choteau, who is the winner of the $25 prize for best quiz submitted. Congratulations, Julie! Thanks to the many readers who submitted answers to the Who Wrote What? quiz that appeared in the October/November issue of the Mon-
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tana Senior News. Despite our making a couple of typos, the winner is Jan Nesbit of Miles City. Congratulations to Jan, who also receives a copy of A Taste of Montana – Favorite Recipes from Big Sky Country by Seabring Davis, published and donated by Farcountry Press of Helena. Except for special contests, we award a $25 cash prize to the person who submits the winning answers to the featured quiz in each issue. Where there is more than one correct entry, the winner is determined by drawing. So, send in
Wonderful Female Vocalists
Submitted by Julie Brantley, Choteau The great female vocalists of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s could sing so well – and in so many styles! It seems that most of today’s songstresses are just fluff by comparison! Below we have listed the names of 24 women singers from roughly those decades along with 24 songs that reflect some of their best work. On a numbered piece of paper, write the letter of the song that best matches each vocalist’s name. Drop your answers in the mail to us and you may be the winner of the $25 prize. Put a song in your heart as you work this quiz… and good luck! 1. Peggy Lee Emeritus Senior Living 2. Helen O’Connell Most Seniors would rather not worry about the 3. Jo Stafford inconveniences winter can bring such as dangerous 4. Lena Horne driving/walking conditions and isolation. Our residents 5. Patti Page are relaxing this winter and enjoying: restaurant style 6. Margaret Whiting meals, housekeeping and linen service, scheduled 7. Rosemary transportation and wonderful social activities. Emeritus’ Clooney warm and compassionate staff will treat you and your 8. Teresa Brewer loved ones like family. 9. Kate Smith ® 10. Dinah Shore 11. Ethel Merman 12. Ella Fitzgerald Call to set up your 13. Judy Garland tour today! Don’t 14. Billie Holiday worry, if you can’t 15. Sarah Vaughn come to us for a 16. Mahalia Jackson visit, we will gladly 17. Dinah come to you. Washington
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your entries today! We will also award a $25 cash prize to the person who submits the entry that our staff selects as the featured quiz or puzzle for the next issue. Be creative and send us some good, fun, challenging, and interesting puzzles! Please mail your entries to the Montana Senior News, P.O. Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403, or email to montsrnews@bresnan.net by January 10, 2015. Remember to work the crossword puzzle on our website montanaseniornews.com.
18. Nina Simone 19. Doris Day 20. Edith Piaf 21. Kay Starr 22. Pearl Bailey 23. Nancy Wilson 24. Jeanette MacDonald A. Green Eyes B. Tennessee Waltz C. There’s No Business Like Show Business D. What a Difference a Day Makes E. Music! Music! Music! F. A Tisket, A Tasket G. Fever H. Indian Love Call I. Stormy Weather J. Buttons and Bows K. Carelessly L. Hey There M. Guess, Who I saw Today? N. Whatever Lola Wants 0. Beat Out That Rhythm on the Drum P. God Bless America Q. Sentimental Journey R. My Baby Just Cares for Me S. The Trolley Song T. Move On Up a Little Higher U. You Belong to Me V. Wheel of Fortune W. Moonlight in Vermont X. Non, je ne regrette rien MSN
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 19
Answers to Who Wrote What? Submitted by Jean Carr
1. P 2. K 3. C 4. E 5. H
6. M 7. S 8. Q 9. A 10. G
19. * “Should old acquaintance be forgot and never 1. Raccoon’s cousin brought 6. Western tribesman __ ____...” 9. Rigatoni relative 21. Swellings 13. Deposit the ashes 23. * “The day my Mama 14. Computer simulation socked it to the Harper 15. Courted Valley ___” 16. In-place, legally speaking 24. Confined 17. Common Market initials 18. Repetitions
ACROSS
16. Y 17. V 18. D 19. T 20. F
11. B 12. X 13. I 14. W 15. R 25. Financing acronym 28. * “Back in the U.S., back in the U.S., back in the ____” 30. Tree of Life to ancient Egyptians 35. They will inherit the earth? 37. *The O’Jays, “Ship ____” 39. You can be fined for hitting these in NYC 40. Vigor 41. Specific site 43. Warsaw Pact opponent 44. “The Raven” author 46. * “It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too ____” 47. * “____ the nights are better” 48. Small stream 50. Scorch 52. Bard’s “before” 53. Oration station 55. Hawaiian Mauna 57. * “Good times never seemed __ ____” 60. * “Where ______ is heard a discouraging word...” 63. Vessel pointed at both ends 64. * “You ain’t seen nothing ___” 66. Musical duo Hall & _____ 68. Makes eyes at 69. Caustic chemical 70. Anti-elderly 71. * “Father Christmas... Don’t mess around with those silly ____” 72. * “___ it be” 73. Tooth trouble
originally 2. * “Get down __ __” 3. Camera setting 4. Donald or Ivanka 5. Unmoved 6. Hand-me-down 7. * “I keep the ends out for the ___ that binds. Because you’re mine...” 8. Mike holder 9. Camera feature 10. Bit 11. Found in a caddie’s pocket 12. Dog tags, e.g. 15. * “How sweet the sound that saved a ______ like me...” 20. Like Fran Drescher’s voice 22. Chain letters 24. A particular course of action 25. * “Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for _____ waves of grain...” 26. Hidden or placed on watch 27. Monarch’s duration 29. * “One for the money, two for the ____...”
21. J 22. O 23. U 24. L 25. N MSN 31. Top notch 32. Hunger for 33. Lay to rest 34. * “I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will be __ __” 36. Riddle without solution 38. Christmas season 42. Satisfy, as in thirst 45. Does over again 49. ___ Tsu 51. Load again 54. Tennyson poem, e.g. 56. “Haste makes waste,” e.g. 57. Kind of palm 58. * “____ the good die young” 59. * “There ____ my baby” 60. Editor’s mark 61. Auricular 62. Tableland 63. Soldier’s bed 65. * “It’s the ___ of the tiger. It’s the thrill of the fight.” 67. Chester White’s home MSN
DOWN
1. Belarus+Russia+Ukraine,
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PAGE 20 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
Is Christmas Changing Or Am I?
T
By Don Chenhall
he snowbird lifestyle has obvious advantages. For us, it is being dry and warm on the Arizona desert while our friends and family are cold and wet in the Southeast Alaska rain forest. Staying away for the whole winter can cause your children to whine and your friends to shun you when you return home. We have found that if we fly back for the holidays, shovel some snow, and be extra attentive to our children and grandchildren, life remains good. It’s well worth the price of airline tickets. I am especially conscious of the aging process during the holidays. My ten-year-old grandson asked me to teach him how to play his new guitar, so that he could accompany himself
singing Beautiful Brown Eyes to his girlfriend. I was still reeling from that shock when he informed me that the girl, age eleven, had worn makeup and high heels to their school Christmas pageant. When I expressed dismay to my wife, she responded in her usual sensitive manner. “The young man has a cute little girlfriend. So what? He has his own cell phone, and he can kick your butt at any video game made. Get over it.” The Christmas gifts my twoyear-old grandson received pushed me even further over the hill. It isn’t enough now for toys to move, flash lights, and make noise (I should have invested heavily in the battery industry). (Continued on pg 39)
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 21
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Rekindling Billing’s Glory Days: The Northern Hotel Article & Photo By Kim Ibes Like a phoenix, the Northern Hotel has a long history of rising from the ashes to claim its prize as one of the most modern, elegant, and legendary hotels in Montana. After being shuttered for roughly seven years, the Northern Hotel re-opened on Saint Patrick’s Day 2013. The opening of this iconic establishment was met with as much anticipation, fanfare, and the same gushing reviews praising its modern amenities, technological prowess, and stylishly upscale furnishings, as it did in 1942 when the Northern was rebuilt from the ground up after a fire destroyed its entire original structure. Billings natives and successful entrepreneurs, Mike and Chris Nelson, purchased the shuttered Northern in 2009 at a sheriff’s auction for a tidy sum near $3 million dollars. It would end up costing ten times that to resuscitate the Northern and bring it back to its former gloried past – a risky endeavor given the poor state of the economy at the time. “I keep my hardhat, – the one I wore for about 5
years while renovating the Northern, so that I won’t forget,” says Chris, now President of the Northern Hotel. “It was a great adventure.” With lenders fearful of investing in small business endeavors – never mind that Chris was the founder of Zoot Enterprises in Bozeman (which ironically offers rapid credit approval services) or that his brother Mike had over 27 years managing hotels and casinos in Las Vegas – it took the persuasive duo much more time and money before they found a bank willing to partner with them. While waiting for their angel investor (US Bank) to come through, the brothers completely dismantled and demolished the wasted interior of the hotel. “It took one year and one million dollars just to get rid of the asbestos,” marvels Mike Nelson. “They took out tons and tons of the stuff.” Once financing was in place it was full steam ahead and the Nelsons wasted no time in turning this diamond in the rough into a polished gem. Seven years after closing its dilapidated doors, the Northern Hotel reopened ushering in a new
and one bedroom apartments Studiosavailable for seniors. For more info please contact us at: 406-228-2208 or visit us on the web at: www.prairieridgevillage.com | Glasgow, MT
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
era of opulence, sophistication, and elegance. Determined to maintain its treasured, historical integrity, the Nelsons were uncompromising in bringing the Northern into the 21st century. “We wanted the Northern to return to its rightful place in Billings,” says Mike. “In the old days the Northern was the gathering place.” Their vision, persistence, and driven desire to give more than a nod to the Northern Hotel’s storied past, was rewarded a few short months after opening. The newly minted hotel was not only listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was bestowed with the Montana Historic Preservation Excellence Award in recognition and honor for the Nelsons’ determination and ability to keep an important part of Billings and Montana history alive. Appreciation for Billings’ gloried past runs deep within the Nelson family. “My mom, Bernie, was very active in the Moss Mansion and the Billings Preservation Society,” says Mike. “The Northern was built by P.B. Moss so the preservation of the Northern became really important to me.” In recognition of the Nelsons’ work on the Northern, the Preservation Society for the Moss Mansion gave Mike his mother’s seat on its board. The Northern has served as a cultural icon for the city of Billings since it was built in 1904. From its inception, the hotel was promoted as “the most modern hotel in Montana.” The 69-room hotel was originally built in the popular Renaissancestyle, and given its instant success was quickly expanded to add additional space for guest accommodations, bringing its room count to 200. Its grand reputation grew to become “one of the finest hotels in the West” and it captured the attention of Presidents, celebrities, and the most refined of western travelers to bustling Billings, already coined the “Magic City” for its surprisingly rapid growth. In 1940, less than an hour after smoke and flames were detected in a floor register in the lobby, the original structure became engulfed in
flames. While the hotel stood burning – eventually burning to the ground along with eight other businesses and four offices – Preston Moss, a legendary Billing’s figure, stood by envisioning the hotel’s gleaming future. For the second time, plans were drawn, and dreams became reality with the opening of the even more modern and elegant Northern Hotel. Its new exterior, the same one it wears today, was mostly built with two tones of reddish brick. The new and improved Northern Hotel, one that would be both fire-proof and earthquake-ready, would stand ten-stories tall, have 163 guest rooms, and would exist unadorned, except for the rainbow granite veneer on the ground floor and bands of Indiana limestone on its second floor. This design reflected a new style popular in the 1940s inauspiciously labeled “Simple Modern” – a design where form would follow function. While the exterior would boast simplicity, much like today, its interior welcomed guests in the lavish style they had come to expect from the Northern Hotel. “Throughout the 1940s and 1950s the Chicago Tribune would have at least one article each week on the Northern Hotel,” notes Chris. The Nelsons’ close attention to detail went beyond its 160 rooms and incorporated the Northern’s two infamous restaurants. TEN, named in honor of their father Thomas E. Nelson, retains a sense of its former 1940s sophistication, adorned in rich burgundy colors set off with gleaming white tablecloths. Its worldtravelled chef is careful
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 23
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compelling reasons to support YWCA Billings
1 Gateway - for victims of domestic and sexual violence.
24-hour assistance, telephone and text help lines with free assistance including, safe shelter, counseling, connections for medical and legal service, tool kits to learn how to recognize and break the cycles of violence and poverty.
2 Employment & Training Center - assistance for unemployed/ underemployed. Training and support to obtain education and jobs that will lead to financial independence.
3 YWCA Child Center - licensed child care and school readiness curriculum. Social skills and Pre-K preparation for children 6 weeks to 5 years. A compassionate, highly-trained staff is dedicated to giving children the best start in life and learning.
Support women and children in need! Visit www.ywcabillings.org or call 406.252.6303 to learn more!
Highgate Senior Living offers full care for all, no matter what your age or ailment. Our team of compassionate professionals can handle almost anything, including complex medical issues and post-acute hospital care. In fact, we specialize in services normally provided in skilled nursing, such as diabetic care and oxygen management, injectable medications, wound care, feeding tubes, catheter monitoring, two-person transfers, and hospice. Just call any of our three Assisted Living/Memory Care communities in Montana, and we’ll make sure your move into Highgate is one of the easiest things in your life right now. Highgate at Billings 406-651-4833
Highgate at Bozeman 406-587-5100
Highgate at Great Falls 406-454-0991
PAGE 24 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
to pay homage to Montana’s ranching and farming roots while spicing the menu with well-chosen global cuisine. In its earlier heyday, the Northern’s signature restaurant, where TEN currently resides, was called the Golden Bell. “As children, when we were good, our parents would take us to the Golden Bell,” recalls Chris. “At one time, the Golden Bell was the fanciest restaurant west of the Mississippi.” Meanwhile, Bernie’s Diner, named in honor of the Nelsons’ civic-minded mother, provides downto-earth, homey fare – think something mom would make – from 6 am to 3 pm. The Northern Hotel in Billings is truly a destination point – a precious, 21st century watering hole for the new west, with clean lines and sophisticated finishes. Its warm ambiance is welcoming, while its efficient and modern spaces provide an exciting respite from the travails of the road. For more information call 406-867-6767, toll free 1-855-STAY-LUX, or visit northernhotel.com. MSN
Starting Anew: Outfitting The Billings Public Library For The Next Hundred Years Article & Photo By Kim Ibes It is not possible for a turtle to live for a hundred plus years without a bit of struggle, a lot of growth, and an entirely new shell. Not surprisingly, the same is true for our historic civic organizations and buildings. Witness the Billings Public Library, established in 1901 and one of the city’s oldest public departments. Just what a difference do one hundred years make? Consider that just 100-years prior (around 1803) to the library’s establishment, most of the territories that make up Montana had just been acquired by France, as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Oh, what a difference a century can make! Over the course of the Billings Public Library’s first one hundred years, the institution underwent many changes. Most of those changes related to the real nuts and bolts of running a library: securing public trust and monies to purchase books, building the buildings to house those books, and paying the staff to organize and facilitate their use by the community. Every bit as important as the books, and the bricks and mortar, was the need for a vibrant book-reading public. For without interested readers, what is the point of books, let alone a library
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
to house it? With the explosion of the digital age, one can only wonder: Is there still a need for a bricks and mortar public library? While many people prefer to read books in their traditional form (me included) the rise of digital and audio formats for both books and periodicals have deeply affected what it means to be a public library. This was one of many issues the City of Billings and the Billings Public Library Board, Foundation, and staff pondered as it began its second century. With voter approval on November 8, 2011 to begin anew, the Library, its patrons, and community endeavored to build a modern space that would catapult the Billings Library well into its second century. As part of its strategic planning process the Library asked a simple question, “What is the purpose of a public library in the 21st century?” And the answer may surprise you. Beyond providing its voracious readers with books, be they hardback, audio, or digital, the Billings Library’s goals included: connecting the public to the online world, providing its community with resources and services, advancing adult, teen, and family literacy, encouraging and assisting with lifelong learning, providing a place to stimulate community members’ imaginations, and providing a comfortable place from which to embark on these Library adventures. On January 6, 2014, these dreams and goals were realized with the opening of a 66,000-square-foot technological masterpiece. While the library is still home to over 200,000 volumes of books, the library itself is an imagination destination that even the Cat in the Hat would appreciate.
Inside this public marvel, natural light streams through a voluminous, color-filled, ellipticalshaped opening that rises several stories, casting its rays upon a children’s story room below. Here, children foster their sunny imaginations with a magnificently framed view of the sky. An oval-shaped stairwell wraps around the first floor’s Rimrock Reflecting Pool. Scattered along the bottom of its deep blue waters, pennies sparkle like stars, reminiscent of the constellations above. Around every corner, bright colors greet visitors as they amble through the library’s playful and engaging space. On the second floor, your senses soar when you encounter windows that rise 24 feet from floor to ceiling, creatively capturing the brilliance and beauty of Billing’s sandstone rims. The library’s special spaces include a children’s garden and interactive center, a teen learning lab, a great reading room, 50 computer stations, an outdoor courtyard, and an on-site café. With solar panels on the roof and temperatures controlled by an under-floor air distribution system, the library was built with modern efficiencies in mind. Many of the materials used inside and out incorporate a sense of history and a sense of place. Paneling in the Community Room was made from wood
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recycled from an old snow fence. Various Montana artists were invited to construct many of the tables sprinkled throughout its imaginative space – made from diverse materials such as wood, steel, concrete, and glass that fulfill both
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functional and artistic purposes. The new Billings Public Library serves as an anchor for the city and a 21st century gathering place for this growing community. The library has proven itself a destination point for community members and visitors alike. More than a container of books (although it does boast a wide selection), the Library functions as the city’s new watering hole featuring weekly programs and performances such as Tech Tuesdays, Books and Babies, One Book Billings, and its Thursday night movie series.
After donning its new and improved shell, the Billings Public Library draws marvel and wonder to its design and provides comfort for rest and reflection, stimulation for learning and growth, and perhaps most importantly, a place for the unbounded imagination that will be necessary to secure our own bright future. Whether a visitor to or a resident of Billings, for further information stop in at 510 North Broadway, call 406-657-8258, or visit online ci.billings.mt.us/ index.aspx?nid=1639. MSN
Red Lodge: Lovely, Worldly, and Steeped in Rodeo Lore
The Area’s ONLY Drive Through Light Display!
By Bernice Karnop From its genesis as a coal-mining center to its emergence as a gateway tourist town at the eastern edge of the Beartooth highway and at the bottom of a stellar ski hill, Red Lodge, the county seat of Carbon County, shines as an authentic and lovely place to visit. In those early days as many as 6,000 people from a polyglot of nations dug rich coal deposits in the underground mines. The Northern Pacific Railroad built the Rocky Fork line out to Red Lodge to transport that coal to Billings to supply the endless hunger of its behemoth steam engines. Those miners were Welch, Slavic, Scandinavian, German, Irish, Scottish, Finnish, Italian, and more. Since 1951, those immigrant’s children have celebrated a Festival of Nations to remember their brave ancestors. This popular summer multi-day event attracts thousands of visitors each year. Another side of the history of Carbon County is homesteading, ranching, and rodeo. The annual Red Lodge Rodeo on July 4 is called the Home of the Champions Rodeo because of hometown people whose influence on the sport worldwide can scarcely be overstated. Each is a
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standout in a family of multi-generational standout rodeo stars. Born in 1902 into a ranching family where riding was expected rather than taught, Alice Greenough quit school at 14 and delivered mail on horseback. Her ambition was to be a forest ranger, an amazing if unrealistic thought for a girl of that day. She had her first chance to ride bucking horses in public at the Forsyth rodeo. The cowboys teasingly dared her to ride and set her up with a gray bronc. She rode it in front of the grandstand and, in her words, “I didn’t buck off.” This was the beginning of an amazing ride that took her to 46 states, Madison Square Garden, Boston, and to countries around the world. She did exhibitions, trick riding, and Wild West shows as well as bronc and bull riding. She turned the heads of rich and influential people including Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jack Dempsey. In 1941 she and Joe Orr, whom she later married, started the Greenough-Orr Rodeo Company. The pair introduced women’s barrel riding as a rodeo event. Alice did trick riding in western movies including the 1937 picture The Californians and she did stunt work for the television series Little House on the Prairie.
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Her list of awards includes being one of the first three women inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1975 and later into the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. She was World Saddle Bronc Rider Champion in 1933, 1934, 1936, and 1941. The Montana Cowgirl Hall of Fame web site calls her “hands down the first rodeo queen.” If that’s not enough, she was named Montana’s Best Woman Athlete by Sports Illustrated and is on the list of Montana’s Most Influential People of the 20th Century. In 1959, Alice established the Carbon County Museum in Red Lodge to house the family rodeo collection. Greenough died in 1995, at her home in Tucson. Her last public appearance was at a parade in Red Lodge in 1992. The second standout Rodeo personality, sometimes called the King of Rodeo, is Bill Linderman. One of eight children, he was born in 1920 near Red Lodge. As a youngster during the depression, he helped put food on the table by doing chores for his single mom, and by hunting and fishing. According to the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame web page, Linderman developed his tremendous arm and shoulder strength by working in the mines in his early teens. He began his career when he was 16 at the July 4 Rodeo in Red Lodge. From there, he headed to Cheyenne, his first major rodeo, where he won first place in the bronc riding. He continued his career into the 1950s and won titles in saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, calf roping, and bareback riding. He was All Around World Champion in 1945, 1950, and 1953. Linderman was a leader in the pioneering team that developed professional rodeo, the Rodeo Cowboys Association, the predecessor to the PRCA. He served as president from 1950-1957. Bill Linderman was killed in a plane crash in Salt Lake City in 1965. Earlier that day he wrote a check for lunch at the Pig and Whistle restaurant in Denver. When they asked for an address he wrote, “Heaven.” To honor his memory the RCA created the Linderman award. Contestants have to earn $1,000 or more in three different events in a year. The first winner was another Montana cowboy, Benny Reynolds of Melrose. In 1966, the Rodeo Cowboys Association commissioned Bob Scriver to create the statue of Bill Linderman that sits in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Be sure to visit the Carbon County Museum where you can learn more tales of Alice Greenough and Bill Linderman, Red Lodge’s rodeo royalty. Whether it is the Christmas Stroll, winter sports, March’s Winter Carnival, the Home of the Champions Rodeo, motorcycles in the Beartooth Rally, bicycles on the Cycle Greater Yellowstone ride, or the Festival of Nations, Red Lodge promises memorable fun and entertainment. MSN
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DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
Corby Skinner And the High Plains BookFest – Nurturing Writers Across the Plains
Article & Photo By Kim Ibes For over 23-years Corby Skinner has been nurturing writers across the Western Plains from his unlikely outpost in Billings, Montana. Though not a writer himself, Skinner’s love of books – particularly those that bring lives and times of the western plains to life – has been the spark to bring many writers dreams to life. In 1991, while working with the Billing’s YMCA in communications, Corby applied to be part of a new literary initiative developed by the YMCA of the USA. The program was an outgrowth of the YMCA’s first Writer’s Voice program established by poet Jason Shinder in New York City in 1981. As an extension of Shinder’s New York program, the pilot program would be called the Writer’s Voice and would loosely follow in the footsteps of Shinder’s original path. Initially, it was run as a grant-based program, funded through the Reader’s Digest Fund (now called the Wallace Fund). The national YMCA sought 30-pilot sites across
America. Skinner’s application passed muster, and the Billings Writer’s Voice program joined the largest network of literary arts centers in the nation. As the Director of Writer’s Voice, still located in Billings, Corby has spent nearly a quarter of a century assisting emerging writers and artists across the state of Montana, as well as those just across our borders, in their professional and artistic endeavors and development. “I’ve always believed culture is the way to have people communicate better, whether it’s art or poetry or music or literature,” says Corby. Through the years, the Billings Writer’s Voice has seen many changes. The initial grant was gifted for only four years, so to keep the program running Corby sought out additional grants, many from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), to help fund various endeavors. Programs varied, from those that celebrated and assisted local authors and their works, along with those designed to engage students in literary and literacy programs in even the smallest and far-flung eastern Montana communities. Among these successes included: Poets on the Prairies, a program that brought writers and artists into rural schools; Tumblewords, a program designed to bring literature and art to underserved communities; and Native Voices, a program celebrating Montana’s Native American writers. As these grants ran their course, Corby sought new ways to support Montana’s literary yearnings.
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
Of all the Writer’s Voice programs designed to assist fledgling writers find their way to an audience, one in particular, has found an enduring and much celebrated place in Montana: High Plains BookFest. “I started the High Plains BookFest 12 years ago to give recognition to writers that weren’t necessarily being acknowledged,” Corby explains. “We established the festival based on a geographic region including the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Canada because of the many similarities of the writers.” The High Plains BookFest has grown in size and stature through the years. This much-loved, by writers and readers alike, and enthusiastically received program convenes for three-days each October in Billings. In conjunction with this festival, the Billings Public Library established the High Plains Book Awards in 2006. The awards recognize regional authors and works that explore and focus life in the plains. With eleven categories, all genres are celebrated: Best Culinary Book, Best Young Adult Book, Best Fiction, Best Nonfiction, Best Poetry, Best First Book, Best Woman Writer, Best Art and Photography, Best Short Story, Best Medicine and Science Book, and Best Children’s Book. Beyond this recognition, award winners walk away with a cash prize of $500 to help fund their literary endeavors. While the festival helps writers promote their literary works, it simultaneously engages Montana’s avid readers by having them assist with the awards process. Each January, the Writer’s Voice and Billings Public Library search for 150 readers
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 29
to help read and review submissions. All books are nominated locally before being sent on to the High Plains Book Award judges. The award nomination process runs from January to March and the books are read from March to May. Any book published in 2014 will be eligible for the 2015 awards process. Interested readers and writers should contact the Billings Public Library at 406-657-8258 to be part of this process for the 2015 High Plains BookFest and Award. During 2015, partnering again with the Billings Public Library in a National Endowment of the Arts program, the Writer’s Voice will help bring My Antonia – the final trilogy in Willa Cather’s book series about life on the great plains, alive through both community book discussions and partnerships with museums spread across Eastern Montana. This year, the Writer’s Voice program moved from under the wings of the Billings YMCA, and is now part of the Billings Cultural Partnership, a collection of cultural organizations, including the Billings Public Library, the Western Heritage Center, and the Yellowstone Art Museum all organizations – that have supported and are directly involved with various Writer’s Voice programs. “I see the Writer’s Voice more as a project, rather than an entity onto itself,” Corby says of the new partnership. Regardless of where the Writer’s Voice calls home, it will continue to play a significant role in stimulating the literary arts in Montana. For additional information stop by 402 North 32nd in Billings or call 406-294-1620. MSN
Tongue River Vineyard and Winery: Bob and Marilyn Thaden By Bernice Karnop No one expects to find a vineyard in Miles City, Montana. In fact, Bob Thaden, the owner and key wine maker at the Tongue River Vineyard and Winery is as surprised as anyone is. Just a few years ago, he didn’t imagine that one could grow grapes in eastern Montana. Although a hobby wine maker for more than 40 years, he never imagined making wine to sell. Bob, a United Church of Christ pastor for 30 years, and wife Marilyn, a speech pathologist, retired to Miles City when Bob was 56 years old. “Just on a happenstance,” he says, he ran across a piece on the internet about a man in Minnesota who was growing wine grapes. This surprised him because he thought wine grapes would not grow in the northern states. He called the number at the bottom of the article. “If you grow the wrong grapes you will be doomed to disappointment from the word go, but if you get the right kinds of grapes, they will probably do quite well,” the man explained. The right kinds of grapes were developed by University of Minnesota, and are developed specifically to grow in the northern plains. Bob and Marilyn, with their son Josh, planted 60 or 70 Frontenac grape plants in 2004, the
hardiest wine grape put out by the University of Minnesota. The vines did so well on the banks of the Tongue River that they decided to plant Frontenac Gris so they could make white wine, as well. With southeast Montana’s hot days and high summertime temperatures, the fruit ripened easily, better than anywhere else in the state did, Bob thinks. The trick is to keep the vines alive through the winter and with the hybrid varieties, they could do this. Over the next half-dozen years they kept buying, planting, and making different kinds of wines. “We got to the point where we produced so much wine that we couldn’t legally drink all we were producing,” he says. They started looking seriously at opening a commercial winery.
For the third year in a row, Billings Clinic has been ranked as the best hospital in Montana by U.S. News & World Report. The annual U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings – now in their 25th year – recognize hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients.
For more information, visit billingsclinic.com
Billings Clinic was awarded high performance rankings for seven specialties: Diabetes and Endocrinology Gastroenterology and GI Surgery Geriatrics Gynecology Nephrology Neurology and Neurosurgery Pulmonology
PAGE 30 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
By 2010, Bob and Josh had finished their building and they had their state and federal permits in hand. They were ready to make wine, but in a twist of events that all people who live by the land know and understand, the crop that year was a total loss. “Turns out it was a blessing in disguise,” Bob says. They had never considered making and selling fruit wines but since they had the buildings, the licenses, and the mortgage, they needed to do something. Their first commercial product was rhubarb wine. This accidental drink is their best-selling wine today. And now they grow and make fruit wines from apples, pears, plums, red raspberries, yellow raspberries, cherries, sand cherries, chokecherries, and more. A few years ago, Bob discovered yellow chokecherries, which he purchased and planted. He looks forward to making white chokecherry wine in the future. The year after the grape crop failure, the
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Tongue River Vineyard produced a good grape mitted to only using produce that grows locally. crop again, and last year the best crop so far – The wine labels say that the fruit used comes 10,000 pounds of grapes on less than three acres exclusively from the Northern Plains. They buy of ground. They make red wines and white wines, additional grapes or fruit from North Dakota and sweet wines, and dry wines and in between. Wyoming but only those that can be grown locally. The most unusual wine they make is haskap, Bob is proud of the regional product. an edible honeysuckle fruit wine. Bob imported “We don’t want our wine to be like all the rest,” the honeysuckle fruit plants from Canada. Haskap he says. “We want our wines to say, ‘We’re from is a Japanese name for the honeysuckle fruit. The here.’” Tongue River Winery Experts agree that their was the only producer wine is not only distinctive, of haskap wine in the but also good. In the short U.S. for several years. time, they’ve been producing Now a winery in North wine they have an impressive Dakota and one in list of awards from competiAlaska also make it. tions such as the Mid-AmeriTheir Raz Perry ca Wine Competition in Iowa, wine which blends The Wine Summit in Oregon, raspberries and pears and the Finger Lakes Interis popular, and their national Wine Competition Cherry Pie wine may in New York. Readers can soon be their bestfind a list of awards on their selling wine. web site. “It is made from Many folks in the compie cherries and it munity welcome the Tongue tastes for all the world River Vineyard and Winery to like cherry pie,” he Miles City. says. “They are grateful to have A wine called Foxy something new and unexBob and Marilyn Thaden enjoy second careers at Lady may be the most their vineyard on the banks of the Tongue River at pected and unusual to show fun for customers to Miles City. “Wine helps people relax and enjoy life,” their out of town friends,” give as a gift. The la- says Bob. [Photo provided by Tongue River Winery] Bob says. The Tongue River bel has a picture of a Winery hosts tours, wine tastfoxy lady that, according to Bob, “brings out the ings, and special events like meetings, showers, young woman in any woman who looks at it and weddings, and more. the appreciation for young women in the eyes of The Tongue River Winery turns out about any man that looks at it.” 2,000 gallons of wine per year, which equals For Bob to name a personal favorite would about 10,000 bottles. “We do it for the passion be like asking someone which of their kids they of it, not for getting rich,” Bob says. “It’s a family like best. That, aside, he enjoys a nice dry red operated business and we have no plans to get wine called Tongue Tied with an evening meal bigger.” featuring red meat. For more information about the different kinds The hybrid grapes are more challenging to of wines, where you can purchase the wine, and use than west coast or shipping within the state visit tongueriverwinery. European grapes, but com or call the Tongue River Vineyard at 406the Thadens are com- 538-1028. MSN
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Visit the Yellowstone Art Museum for “Must See” Lego Exhibit Article & Photos By Bernice Karnop This holiday season, the Yellowstone Art Museum is a perfect place to take the grandchildren. In fact, no one should miss the Art of the Brick exhibit, which features fascinating life-sized figures made entirely of the ever-popular Lego brick. That’s not just our opinion. CNN called it “one of the top dozen must-see exhibitions worldwide.” Artist Nathan Sawaya fascinates viewers by stacking more into the common toy than most can imagine. In fact, the display may inspire giant leaps in viewers’ imaginations and push their abil-
ity to discover new things to do with these small colorful bricks. Visitors don’t have to wait until they get home to exercise their vision. Just outside of the display are bins filled with Legos, donated by area individuals who have used bricks lying around. Museum goers can dig right in and make something before their inspiration cools. Associate Curator Liz Harding says they go there at the end of the day and photograph what kids and adults have left behind. “The Art of the Brick has been wildly popular in the Yellowstone Art (Continued on page 33)
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 31
Housing Discrimination is Illegal! In the state of Montana, it is illegal to discriminate in any housing transaction against any household because of Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Disability, Familial Status, National Origin, Marital Status, Age, and/or Creed.
Trailhead Spirits – continued from cover While ruminating over the label, and marveling over the idea that spirits didn’t all come from a factory overseas – some were actually hand-crafted by real people here in the states, the spark of an idea took root. “I thought it was a cool idea, but put it on the backburner for a couple of years,” says Casey. “About 2 years later I went to Portland for a conference and a bartender asked me if I’d like to try something local. Wow, it was such a great statement.” The idea began to percolate and Casey thought he could take this idea of making craft spirits back to Montana. He wrote a 20-page business plan to convince first himself, then his wife, then the bankers – and then the work really began. “The first step was figuring out all the legalities and the licensing process,” explains Casey. At the time, craft distilleries were still new not only for the state of Montana but in terms of federal licensing as well. There was no playbook for those initial hardy individuals bent on building a boutique distillery business. Plagued by arcane federal and state laws, nebulous rules, and several layers of red tape, it is truly a miracle that they exist at all.
“Before I could get a license I had to have a lease in place, have my federal license, be fully operational, and signed off by the local fire and health officials before I could get my state permit,” Casey relates. These were just a few of the hoops he had to go through – mostly trial by fire – before opening the doors to Trailhead Spirits. With tenacity forged through generations, Casey and Stephanie opened Trailhead Spirits in January of 2013. Appropriately, his distillery and tasting room reside in the historic Beanery building, built in 1909 as part of the train depot buildings and operated as a café for passengers of the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroads. “Times were bleak, absolutely,” says a now smiling Casey. “It was just a test of patience and perseverance to see it through.” Between his ancestry, his childhood on the family farm, and his MSU degree, it was Casey McGowan’s destiny to become a craft distiller. For more information on Trailhead Spirits and its Tasting Room in Billings, visit trailheadspirits. com or call 406-969-1627. MSN
For more information about discrimination in housing, contact:
Montana Fair Housing (406) 782-2573 / MT Relay: 711 1-800-929-2611 519 East Front Street Butte, MT 59701
e-mail: inquiry@montanafairhousing.org website: www.montanafairhousing.org
FAIR HOUSING - It’s your right, it’s your responsibility, and IT'S THE LAW!!! The work that provided the basis for this publication was supported by funding under a grant with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The substance and findings of the work are dedicated to the public. The author and publisher are solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations contained in this publication. Such interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Government.
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Whitefish Winter Adventures – Don’t Let Them Pass You By! By Kim Ibes As the New Year begins, the snowcapped peaks of Montana’s Rocky Mountains create a blank canvas upon which all truly meaningful winter adventures will appear. With the season well under way, your gear bag is already overflowing. Down jackets layered over fleece and layers below, hats, gloves, and
mittens create a colorful foundation blanketing the mudroom, while a multitude of skis wait idly, anxious for their turn in the snow. The sight of this joyful jumble of winter paraphernalia kindles the imagination and stirs pleasant memories of last year’s outdoor adventures and the promise of this season’s. And what better place to start than at Whitefish Mountain Resort, which boasts over 3,000 acres of skiable terrain, more than 105 marked trails, and oodles of challenging off-piste tree skiing. Roughly half the mountain is designated for intermediate and beginning skiers, with the other half designed for advanced and expert skiers. Access to all four sides of the mountain, terrain to delight every level of skier, and views to die for make the experience worth the price of admission. While visiting, take advantage of their Ambassador Program tours of the mountain. Where are the best stashes of snow? Best restaurants? Longest runs? Expert trees? All these questions, and more, are answered on tours departing at 10:30 am and 1:30 pm daily. This year the resort has added an additional 200 acres of skiing on the mountain’s north side. Accessed by their new Flower Point ski lift, a fixed grip triple chair, it offers fun for intermediate and expert skiers alike. Intermediates will enjoy awesome views of Glacier National Park and the North Fork on runs named for its wildflower alpine meadows and its beautiful vistas. Experts will enjoy access to its glorious tree skiing
nestled in caches of super deep snow. Cross-country skiers will find groomed track skiing on Whitefish Mountain and in numerous areas around the Flathead Valley including the Glacier Nordic Center (13 km on the Whitefish Golf Course), the Flathead Community College (8 km), Herron Park, Round Meadows (20 km), Stillwater Nordic (25 km), Blacktail Mountain Nordic (19 km), and the Bigfork Community Nordic Center (6.5 km). Big Mountain’s Nordic Trails offers 10 km of groomed Nordic skiing providing ski enthusiasts staying on the hill, the opportunity to double their fun by warming up those legs with a quick skate ski before the downhill lifts open each day. Take some extra time and visit the Glacier Park area only 19 miles west of Big Mountain for snowmobile, cross-country, and snowshoe adventures. One last stop before you go! Located just a few miles south of Kalispell, one of Flathead Valley’s newest ski areas, Blacktail Mountain Ski Area, is worth a sneak peak. With over 70% of its skiable terrain made for intermediate skiers, the area offers an old school, local feel, that’s affordable and very family friendly. Now that you’re ready, what are you waiting for? Grab the gear and go –winter won’t wait and it will be spring before you know it. Whitefish promises fine restaurants, warm beds, and a full schedule of winter events including its Winter Carnival February 6-8, 2015. For more information visit skiwhitefish.com, explorewhitefish.com, blacktailmountain.com, and glaciernordicclub.com. MSN
From Stump Town To Ski Town Founded in 1982, the Stumptown Historical Society (SHS) preserves and presents the history of Whitefish for everyone to appreciate. During the cold winter months, we invite you to warm up inside our free museum and explore our wonderful (and sometimes quirky!) past. With our astonishing and fun array of genuine artifacts and our vast collection of historical photos, our knowledgeable volunteers promise to make the day of your visit one to remember. The crown jewel of our collection is, of course, the Depot building itself, which we are maintaining for service well into the future. SHS operates as a non-profit and relies on your tax-deductible donations, and sales from our photo collection, books, and souvenirs. We invite you to come on in, step back in time, and let us show you the wonderful journey, from “stump town to ski town,” that is the story of Whitefish. Stop by 500 Depot Street in Whitefish, call us at 406-250-3148, or visit StumptownHistoricalSociety.org. If you cannot visit in person, click on the Museum tab on our website and enjoy the virtual tour. Be sure to like us on Facebook! MSN
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DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
Visit the Yellowstone Art Museum - continued from page 31 Museum from the opening,” Harding says. It has broken attendance records and there is still lots of time before the show closes January 4, 2015. Other versions of the exhibit are showing in New York City, London, and Amsterdam, underscoring the unique opportunity for readers to see it right here in Montana’s Magic City. “It puts us on the map to have it in Billings,” Harding says. The YAM brought the show in to celebrate its 50th anniversary. “We were hoping to enlarge our exposure, and it worked,” says Harding. The Yellowstone Art Museum opened in October 1964, and boasts the largest permanent collection of contemporary art from the Rocky Mountain and northern plains region, some 7,300 objects. The variety of collections makes it a grand place to visit any time of year. For example, the ongoing exhibit, Boundless Visions is a collection of objects that represent regional art from the mid-20th century to the present. The Montana Collection features around 2,000 works from dozens of artists, including Rudy Autio, John Buck, Deborah Butterfield, and Russell Chatham. The Virginia Snook Collection comprises the largest collection of Will James’s work in any museum and also includes notable artists like Joe
De Yong, Joseph Henry Sharp, Isabelle Johnson, and C.M. Russell. The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection is one of an impressive number of gifts the couple spread across the nation. The Vogels gave fifty pieces of art to one museum in each of the fifty states. In addition to the Art of the Brick, the YAM is currently showing American artist, T. L. Solien’s Toward the Setting Sun exhibit, which their website calls “a meditation on American restlessness and on the major American Historical narrative of the settling of the American West.” New exhibits coming next year include Floyd D. Tunson’s Son of Pop which Artform critic Kyle MacMillan describes as “an explosion of ideas and emotions, unhindered by any single stylistic mode.” Also next year, it will show the Other Side of Midnight, the work of Adolph Dehn. The Yellowstone Art Museum is in downtown Billings at 401 North 27th Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays; 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; and 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Sundays. Visit artmuseum.org for more information. MSN
Enjoy Billings’ Urban Trails By Bernice Karnop Montana is full of hiking opportunities. One can climb mountains, trek to alpine lakes, and enjoy the trails in our National Forests, National Parks, Wilderness areas, and other public lands. In addition to all of the more vigorous and hard to find places, it’s nice to know that all of Montana’s major cities have worthy urban trails that take hikers into natural settings without the long drive. Billings’ natives have ample opportunities to get out in nature without getting out of town. From the Rimrocks to the Yellowstone River there are nearly 40 miles of trails. Visitors can find maps and suggestions by stopping at the Visitor Center. The Rimrocks are the signature feature of the Magic City. These sandstone bluffs, made up of fine grained sand and mud were once the offshore bars of a great and ancient inland sea. Called the Eagle Sandstone formation, rims stretch from Columbus to Miles City and are from 200 to 500 feet high. From the Rims that hug the city of Billings hikers can see five separate mountain ranges—the Pryor, Big Horn, Snowy, Crazy, and Beartooth Mountains. The Crow Tribe left its tracks across the Rims before recorded history. The Black Otter Trail was named for a Crow chief. The Crow used the Rims as a scaffold burial site. On the maps the area where the Crow honored their dead is called Skeleton Cliffs. Later the citizens of Coulson, as the first white settlement here was known, also used it as a burial site. Boothill cemetery contains mostly unknown gravesites with a notable exception, Muggins Taylor. Taylor was the man who carried the news of Custer’s Last Stand. From the Rims hikers get a good look at the Yellowstone River. Nature
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seekers will find a series of trails along the Yellowstone River, one of the rare undammed major rivers in the U.S. and providing many places to dip a toe or cast a line in the historic stream. In Riverfront Park and Two Moon Park hikers, bikers, and amblers wind through the trees and shrubs where they can catch a glimpse of elusive wildlife. Lake Josephine in Riverfront Park is named, not for a woman, but for the steamboat Josephine. The Josephine is the steamboat that came farthest upstream on the Yellowstone when rivers were the only highways of the day. The Four Dances Recreation area takes pedestrians to both the Rims and the River. Those who fear heights and steep drop offs and those who are nervous about the possibility of grandchildren falling, should avoid the trek to Sacrifice Cliff. Other Trails pass through the trees to the river. Billings boasts 39 city parks where you can safely take the grandchildren. They include playgrounds and pools, tennis and basketball courts and other enticements for kids of any age. Zoo Montana is a special natural area where you can see animals in a pleasant setting. Fall and winter
are excellent times to visit the zoo. The animals are more active in the cool weather and more luxurious in their winter coats. Pictograph Sate Park, barely out of town, is also an engaging place for a leisurely hike back in time. Here visitors see evidence of the early Native American residents in the art work they left on the walls of the shallow caves. A stop at the new visitor center will help interpret the drawings and see other ancient artifacts. Many people enjoy a stroll through downtown Billings. The Western Heritage Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, has displays of early history in what is one of the oldest buildings in town, the original Parmley Billings Memorial Library. The Historic Train depot on Montana Avenue makes another interesting stop. Of course, a stroll downtown always involves shopping and eating and that, for many, creates the best urban stroll of all. Whether you live in Billings or are visiting Montana’s biggest city for meetings, medical appointments, or business, take the opportunity to fill a few extra hours with a little exercise on Billings’ urban trails. MSN
Put Zoo Montana on Your Christmas List
“We’ll Make the Deal!”
You Make the Drive,
By Bernice Karnop Go wild this winter, or at least go to Where the Wild Things Are. That’s ZooMontana in Billings, Montana’s only zoo and botanical gardens. Executive director, Jeff Ewalt says winter is the best time to visit. The animals are at their most active and their winter coats are at their finest. Not many people visit in the winter, so there’s the added advantage of having the place to yourself. The folks at the ZooMontana go all out for Christmas. In December, they deck the park out for an event called Zoo Lights. They open the gates so visitors can drive past the festive light displays in the comfort of their warm vehicles. This year the new LED lights will make the Christmas displays look brighter and more vibrant. The Zoo, like a grandparent, caters to kids. On December 1921, the Grizzly Gift and Otter Stuff Gift Shop will host a special event that includes a visit from Santa Claus. In addition to purchasing quality gift items on the shelves, grandparents may adopt an animal in the child’s name. There OPEN TIL 6PM will be a certificate for WEEKDAYS the Christmas stocking SATURDAY HOURS: and a plush animal like SALES: 9AM–4PM the one adopted. PARTS: 9AM–12PM
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In addition to enjoying the indoor activities, those who brave the cold and walk through the outdoor exhibits will be treated to some special sights and sounds not always seen during the warmer seasons. The Zoo has two new Siberian tigers, which Ewalt clearly finds spectacular. The siblings are two and a half years old. Although they are cold weather cats, native to Siberia, they were born in Florida. This is their first winter in Montana, and their first time to see snow. They love to romp and roll around with each other like kittens. Other non-native animals at the Zoo that live in climates similar to ours include the red panda and the Sika deer. The Zoo’s two male grizzlies also love to wrestle and play. They don’t hibernate because they are fed regularly so they will be awake in the winter and ready to show off for visitors. Arguably, the most playful animals in the Zoo are the American river otter. Their slippery antics can be observed both above and below water at the Zoo. Some of the other native animals you may see include bighorn sheep, bald and golden eagles, great horned owls, and beaver. Listen for the strangely intriguing howls of the wolves in the winter air around ZooMontana. It’s fascinating to watch the wolves in their secure natural enclosure and observe their complex communal life. The Zoo has an elusive Canadian lynx, a cold weather cat that’s native to Montana. It is a real treat to see this beautiful animal when its coat is at its most luxurious in the winter. Inside the Discovery Center, kids can walk along the Living Wall. It contains dozens of habi-
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Some animals to look for at ZooMontana in Billings include grizzly bears, Siberian tigers, bald eagles, and the tame peacocks that wander the sidewalks. [Photos by Bernice Karnop]
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 35
tats where creatures like turtles, salamanders, and frogs live. They can see what a live kookaburra or an armadillo really look like. They can gross each other out over snakes and Madagascar hissing cockroaches. These are some of the critters that the zoo takes out on visits under their EdZoocational programs. The botanical gardens are best viewed in summer. The volunteer ZooMontana Botanical Society, keep them looking so nice that they’ve become a popular place for weddings. Ewalt says there were 44 weddings at the Sensory Garden last year. ZooMontana, on the west side of Billings is easy to find. Take exit 443 off Interstate 90. Turn left off Shiloh Road when you see the sign. Winter hours are from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. daily. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and military, $4 for children 3-15, and free for children under 3. Parking is free. For more information visit zoomontana.org or call them at 406-652-8100. MSN
Selecting the Correct Car Seat isn’t Child’s Play Knowing which car seat to choose and how to safely strap-in those little ones can help ”bring ‘em back alive.” This question came to us from a reader during a recent driver safety class in Helena. Q: My daughter is having a baby next month and a lot has changed since my children were babies. I am wondering what I need to know with respect to car seats. A: With so many different colors, makes, models and special features, car seats are a lot like new cars. But how do you know which one is right for the new addition to your family? Whether you are taking a road trip or a quick drive to the local grocery store, it is critical to understand that your grandchild needs to be in a car seat, and to know what type of car seat is appropriate, and how to buckle him or her up safely. Car seat safety is crucial when you consider that car crashes are the leading killer of children between the ages of 1 and 12 in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Make sure you are taking the proper precautions with these four tips. 1. Find the right car seat. Height, weight, and age limitations are important for infant and toddler car seats. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a child should ride in a rear-facing car seat at all times until the age of 2. Because their neck muscles cannot support their heads in a crash, rear-facing seats are safer. Be sure the seat you select will fit in your vehicle, and that your vehicle’s seat belt or latch system will accommodate your child’s height and weight in the rear-facing position. After the age of 2, a child may ride in a forward-facing car seat with a five-point harness until he or she is about 4 years old and weighs around 40 pounds. Transition to a booster seat after your child or grandchild has outgrown the five-point harness. Kids should remain in a booster seat until they are 4’ 9” inches tall. 2. Choose the right location in your car. If at all possible, the seat should be installed in the back seat of your vehicle. Children should remain in the back seat until age 13. Many drivers like to place the car seat behind the passenger seat, to make it easier to see and tend to the child if needed. To limit distractions, never tend to your child or grandchild while you are driving. A passenger-side installation also keeps you from standing in the street while you put the child in and out of the seat – at least on two-way streets. 3. Install the seat properly. The best installation method will depend on the type of car seat (rear-facing, forward-facing, or booster seat). It is important to read the car seat manufacturer’s instructions to ensure proper installation. To check that it is secure, the “inch and pinch test” offers a good rule of thumb (and forefinger). Once the car seat is installed, give it a shake to make sure that it does not move more than an inch at the bottom. After buckling the chest clips, pinch the strap at the child’s shoulder. If you cannot pinch any webbing, then the harness is secure. The Buckle Up for Life program has an online video demonstration that is very helpful. 4. Educate yourself on car seat safety. Research and studies continue to prove the importance of car seats and how they help save lives, just like seat belts. A study done by Safe Kids USA found that properly-used child safety seats decrease the risk of death by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers. The Buckle Up for Life program offers more information online at: www. buckleupforlife.org. For more tips on how to stay safe on the road, visit www.aarp.org/safedriving. MSN
Great Falls Community Concert Association
Adult Season Tickets $79.00 • Student Season Tickets $40.00 • Student Season Ticket w/Each Adult $20.00 • Single shows $30.00 Tickets available at the Mansfield Box Office, Great Falls Civic Center, at 406-455-8514 or online at ticketing.greatfallsmt.net Box Office Hours: June–Aug • Mon–Wed • 11AM–3PM / Sept–May • Mon–Fri • 11AM–3PM
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(Continued from pg 20) These days, everything must be interactive. His new Chuck My Talking Truck starts up, honks, and takes off across the room when you say, “Chuck!” My presents were a knit cap, fleece vest, and heavy sweatpants. I got my wife a flat-panel ceramic heater and installed it on the bathroom wall next to the toilet. My 88-year-old mother kept me from dwelling on any of this. I had sent her several handmade
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items purchased at an arts fair, which I had gift wrapped in small boxes destined for the burn barrel. When I called her Christmas day, she didn’t mention receiving them. I finally inquired, and she said the presents had indeed arrived. “Well, did you like them?” I asked. It hadn’t occurred to me that she wouldn’t open the boxes after removing the gift-wrap. After a long pause, she answered stiffly, “Yes, thank you. I’m sure I’ll be able to use the rice and taco shells at some point.” MSN
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The Cure
Reprinted from Revolutionary Pizza by Dimitri Syrkin-Nickolau of Chicago’s Dimo’s Pizza, dimospizza.com It is the holiday season, so if you have 1 tbsp/15 g celery salt overindulged, well… hangovers don’t stand a Fresh ground pepper to taste chance against this pizza recipe. Toppings Dough for 1 pizza (see p. 19) ¾ cup/150 g sliced pepperoni ¼ cup/45 g green olives, halved Bloody Mary Sauce ¼ cup/30 g celery, diced 4¼ cups/1 L tomato juice 1 cup/120 g shredded mozzarella 1 can (12 oz [340 g]) tomato paste Chili salt 2 oz/60 mL Worcestershire sauce 2 oz/60 mL hot sauce, we recommend Combine all ingredients for Bloody Mary Tabasco sauce sauce in food processor and blend until smooth.
Apply Bloody Mary sauce and evenly add mozzarella on top. Distribute pepperoni, celery, and green olives across pie. Bake for 10–12 minutes in 500°F/260°C preheated oven at or until crust is golden brown. Sprinkle chili salt lightly over pie. Slice and serve. Party Tip: The Bloody Mary mix yields enough to make a drink while you’re cooking. MSN
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Sit Stronger to Control Back Pain Steven Weiniger, DC If you have back pain, you probably know your posture isn’t good. And if you sit for much of your waking day, you know you are training your body to be slumped over into folded or “weak” posture. However, even though you may never be perfectly straight, there are ways to relieve your pain by strengthening your posture. Low back pain from sitting results from mechanical stress on the body. This is called poor bio-mechanics, and when the body is not mechanically well-aligned, posture and balance are weak. The simple act of balancing when you stand up with weak posture will overwork some muscles and stress joints. The key to reducing this strain is to improve balance, and the ability to control how you balance, to retrain muscles and nerves for less pain and better function. Step one towards stronger posture is improving the symmetry of how your body moves on each side. In fact, just changing the position from which you move can help free up locked and stiff joints and become the first step to stronger posture and less pain. The Sitting Leg Cross Strong Posture Stretch is an easy back and hip stretch you can do at your desk. You can use your office chair, or if you want to challenge yourself with an exercise taught by
posture professionals, do the Sitting Leg Cross while sitting on a ball. • Sit tall and strong on the front edge of chair or ball as you cross your left leg over the right knee. Pull your belly in to brace your core. • As you breath out, keep your head and shoulders aligned as you pull your body forward. Take 2-3 breaths, and come up with your posture still strong. Repeat on other side. • Repeat above, but this time cross your legs at the knee. Do this to help you become aware of and improve your lower body symmetry, and to start your own daily posture exercise program. Steven Weiniger, DC literally wrote the book on posture exercise: Stand Taller-Live Longer - An Anti-Aging Strategy. He created the StrongPosture™ exercise programs taught by Certified Posture Exercise Professionals (CPEPs), chiropractors, PTs, massage therapists and other body professionals who promote the importance of posture with annual posture pictures and daily posture awareness. Other articles in this series teach people to become aware of and strengthen posture to move, feel and be well. For more StrongPosture™ information visit BodyZone.com. MSN
Programs Are Available In Montana To Help Adults With Arthritis Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) officials say that more than one in four adult Montanans report having arthritis. Fortunately, there are programs in Montana to help address this issue. The Montana Arthritis Program collaborates with sites across the state to implement the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program, the Walk with Ease Program, and Stanford University’s Chronic Disease Self-Management Program. Anyone is eligible to participate in these classes, which are held year round. “The goals of the Montana Arthritis Program are to help reduce pain, decrease activity limitations,
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improve physical abilities, and add confidence to help people manage their arthritis,” said DPHHS Director Richard Opper. “This program has helped thousands of Montanans with their arthritis, but our goal is to boost participation even more.” According to Arthritis Program manager Heather Beck, some sites charge a fee, but some do not. “However, scholarships are available for those unable to pay at sites where a fee is required,” she said. Arthritis affects an estimated 50 million U.S. adults, and is the most common cause of disability in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the annual cost for all Montanans
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seeking care for arthritis is $413 million, and the cost of missed workdays is around $53 million. Arthritis is a complex family of musculoskeletal disorders consisting of more than 100 different diseases or conditions that can affect people of all ages, races, and genders. Arthritis can take many forms, but three of the most common diseases that make up arthritis are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and juvenile arthritis. “Scientific studies have shown that physical activity can reduce pain, improve function, mood, and quality of life for adults with arthritis,” Beck
said. “Physical activity can also help manage other chronic conditions that are common among adults with arthritis, such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. The general recommendation for all adults, including those with arthritis, is to participate in 150 minutes per week or more of at least moderate intensity physical activity.” To find a class near you or more information about the Montana Arthritis Program please visit their website at www.dphhs.mt.gov/arthritis/ or contact Heather Beck at 406-444-0958 or hbeck@ mt.gov. MSN
Get Vaccinated! It’s Flu Season Again Public health officials say the first case of influenza is an important reminder for the public to be vaccinated against influenza as soon as possible. State, tribal, and local public health authorities indicate vaccine is available and recommend taking advantage of the vaccine as soon as possible by consulting their health care provider. “Even if you received the vaccine last year, you should still get vaccinated this year,” said DPHHS Director Richard Opper. “With the options available, getting vaccinated is easier than ever. We’d like to make sure everyone can stay healthy this winter.” Influenza vaccination is recommended for everyone six months of age and older. Annual vaccination is safe and the most effective method to prevent influenza infections. The composition of the flu vaccine is reviewed each year to protect against the flu viruses that research indicates are most likely to cause disease during the season. Individuals seeking vaccine have many options, including a newer quadrivalent shot that covers four different influenza viruses, a high dose flu shot approved for people 65 and older, and nasalspray vaccines. Public health officials recommend Montanans consult with their healthcare provider regarding the best option. Protection provided by vaccination lasts throughout the entire flu season, even when vaccine is given in the fall. A new dose is needed every year to keep up active defense against viruses. Most people who get influenza recover after a few days, but some people may develop complications and die. Every year, flu contributes to the deaths of 36,000 people in the United States and causes more than 200,000 hospitalizations. Influenza is a contagious respiratory illness that infects 5% to 20% of people every year. Symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and sometimes a cough and sore throat. Complications of the flu can lead to more serious illnesses
including death. People who are especially vulnerable to complications of the flu include: • Pregnant women • People 50 years old and older • People of any age with certain chronic medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, or heart or lung diseases • People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities • People who live with, or care for those at high risk for complications from flu. In addition to being vaccinated, people can protect themselves from the influenza virus and respiratory illnesses by practicing good health hygiene. To avoid infection, everyone is urged to: • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing to prevent infecting other people. Avoid people who appear to be sick. • Stay home from work when you’re sick. Keep your children home from school if they are sick. • Wash your hands frequently, especially after being out in the public. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth until you wash your hands with soap and water. • Get plenty of rest, drink plenty of liquids, eat nutritious foods, and take part in physical activity to stay healthy. For information about how to stay healthy, visit www.cdc.gov/flu or www.dphhs.mt.gov. MSN
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Nonagenarians On The Fast Track Association of Mature American Citizens www.amac.us Five daring not-so-old men “kept the faith” and “finished the race” at the USA Track & Field Masters Outdoor Championships in WinstonSalem, N.C. this summer. The runners were ninety-one-year-olds Charles Ross of Decatur, Arkansas, Roy Englert from Springfield, Virginia, Charles Boyle from An-
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napolis, Maryland, Orville Rogers, a 96-year-old from Dallas, Texas, and Champion Goldy who is 97 and hails from Haddonfield, New Jersey. They gave spectators a lesson in growing old gracefully, setting three world records at the meet. “We all just managed to stay alive longer than everybody else,” quipped Englert. Asked why he did it, Ross responded, “Because I want to win!” MSN
From Sound Waves To Brain Waves Provided by the Food & Drug Administration To understand hearing loss, it helps to know how people hear the sounds around them. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), people don’t just hear through their ears – they hear with their brains. A vibration, which can be transformed into the sound of a moderate rain, a rock lyric, or the blast of a chainsaw, is first picked up by the ears and then “read” by the brain. The ear is made up of three parts: the outer ear (pinna or auricle), the middle ear, which includes the eardrum (tympanic membrane), and the inner ear (cochlea), which is shaped like a snail shell and lined with tiny hairs. Hearing loss occurs when the tiny hairs inside the cochlea are damaged or die, a common occurrence as people age. Hair cells, which pick up sound waves and transform them into nerve impulses, do not regenerate. That’s why most hearing loss is irreversible. Sound enters the outer ear and strikes the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. The eardrum’s vibrations are amplified through the chamber of the middle ear along three tiny interconnected bones, named for their shapes - hammer (malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup (stapes) - which pass on the vibrations of sound waves to the cochlea. The brain interprets the nerve impulses from the cochlea as the ring of a doorbell or telephone, words being spoken, or the honk of a car horn. The combination of pitches, or frequencies, give different sounds their distinctive qualities. The brain also uses the source and direction of the sound and loudness as clues to decipher messages. MSN
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
Hearing Loss And The Aging Process By Reg McCutcheon Hearing loss caused by the aging process is called presbicusis. It lumps several different issues together, but does not include noise damage. As we age, our brain does not accept information and act on this information as readily as it did at a younger age. As we age, the actual membrane of the eardrum may thicken and make it more difficult for sounds to pass through. Our old friend arthritis can cause deterioration of the occicular chain (the bones in the middle ear) to the point where
they may break and require surgery. Some seniors may be troubled with excess earwax. It is best to have an otoscopic review of the ear canal before testing for hearing loss. Presbicusis can cause mild noise induced loss created at a younger age to erupt seemingly suddenly into real problems in understanding others’ speech. You may be able to hear people speaking, but not be able to understand them. Also, you may be able to understand conversation in a quiet room, close to the speaker, but not at the kitchen table with 5 or 6 other
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family members. These, and other issues with presbicusis, are treatable, but first you need a hearing test. Most hearing specialists and audiologists will give you a free screening and exam to determine the cause and prognosis of your hearing loss. This should be done every two years after the age of 50. Reg McCutcheon is board certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences and has been at Hearing Instrument Specialists in Hamilton for 25 years. MSN
How to Improve Your Balance By Jim Miller Dear Savvy Senior, I’ve always been a walker, but when I fell last month, my doctor suggested I start doing some balance exercises. Is this really something I need to practice? What can you tell me? Avid Walker Dear Walker, Most people don’t think much about practicing their balance, but you should, the same way that you walk to strengthen your heart, lungs, and overall health, or you stretch to keep your body limber. As we age, our balance declines – if it isn’t practiced – and can cause falls. Every year more than one in three people age 65 years or older fall, and the risk increases with age. A simple fall can cause a serious fracture of the hip, pelvis, spine, arm, hand, or ankle, which can lead to hospital stays, disability, loss of independence and even death. How Balance Works Balance is the ability to distribute your weight in a way that enables you to hold a steady position or move at will without falling. It’s determined by a complex combination of muscle strength, visual inputs, the inner ear, and the work of specialized receptors in the nerves of your joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons that orient you in relation to other objects. It’s all sorted out in the sensory cortex of your brain, which takes in the information from those sources to give you balance. But aging dulls our balance senses, and causes most seniors gradually to become less stable on their feet over time. Poor balance can also lead to a vicious cycle of inactivity. You feel a little unsteady, so you curtail certain activities. If you’re inactive, you’re not challenging your balance systems or using your muscles. As a result, both balance and strength suffer. Simple acts like strolling through a grocery store or getting up from a chair become trickier.
That shakes your confidence, so you become even less active. Balance Exercises If you have a balance problem that is not tied to illness, medication, or some other specific cause, simple exercises can help preserve and improve your balance. Some basic exercises you can do anytime include: • One-legged stands: Stand on one foot for 30 seconds or longer, and then switch to the other foot. You can do this while brushing your teeth or waiting around somewhere. In the beginning, you might want to have a wall or chair to hold. • Heel rises: While standing, rise up on your toes as far as you can. Then drop back to the starting position and repeat the process 10 to 20 times. You can make this more difficult by holding light hand weights. • Heel-toe walk: Take 20 steps while looking straight ahead. Think of a field sobriety test. • Sit-to-stand: Without using your hands, get up from a straightbacked chair and sit back down 10 to 20 times. This improves balance and leg strength. For additional balance exercises, visit go4life.nia.nih.gov, a resource created by the National Institute on Aging that offers free booklets and a DVD that provides illustrated
examples of many appropriate exercises. You can order your free copies online or by calling 800-222-2225. Some other exercises that can help improve your balance and flexibility are through tai chi and yoga. To locate a beginner’s class in your area that teaches these disciplines, call your local senior center, health club, or wellness center. Also, check your yellow pages or try online directory sites like americantaichi.net and yogafinder.com. If nothing is available near you, there are DVDs and videos that offer tai chi and yoga instructions and routines for seniors that you can do at home. Some good resources for finding them are amazon.com, collagevideo.com, and iefit.com, or check with your local public library. 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. MSN
Don’t Miss Out On The LifeChanging Effects Of Fitness (NAPSI) – If you are an older adult, exercise is one of the best things you can do for your physical and mental health. According to the Centers for Disease Control, older adults should exercise for 150 minutes a week, with a good mix of cardio and strength training. Unfortunately, many people don’t get enough exercise to keep them healthy and strong as they age. Not only does exercise help individuals stay healthy and reduce the risk of disability and disease, it has been proven to reduce the cost of care for individuals and their families. The benefits of exercise have been realized by SilverSneakers Fitness members for more than 20 years. SilverSneakers Fitness is the nation’s leading fitness program designed for older adults and has helped thousands of people reach their health goals. For Priscilla Farrell, it was to walk on the beach with her granddaughter and to rely less on an oxygen tank. For George Jacobs, it was to step foot in a gym for the first time to improve his physical and social well-being. For Cecil Daniels, it was to overcome his diabetes and high blood pressure.
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“SilverSneakers Fitness members like Priscilla, George and Cecil are not only changing their lives through fitness, they are leading a senior fitness revolution resulting in health improvements, higher quality of life, and fulfillment at every age,” said Joy Powell, president of the Senior Solutions Division for Healthways. “Today’s active older adults are extremely dedicated to physical health through fitness, and they are more passionate and dedicated than any previous generation.” Bringing this to life, the SilverSneakers Fitness Annual Member Survey of more than 35,000 respondents in 50 states revealed that SilverSneak-
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
ers participants are seeking personalized fitness options in record numbers, with nearly 46 percent joining a fitness center for the first time as a result of their SilverSneakers membership. While many are stepping foot in the gym for the first time, they are not doing it alone. Nearly 60 percent of SilverSneakers members participate in classes with a friend and 41 percent attend class to socialize, which can have a great impact on a person’s mental health and well-being. The annual member survey also showed that today’s older adults are more active than ever before, with four out of five participants doing aerobic
activity three or more times per week. Physical fitness is vital to overall health, as 60 percent of SilverSneakers participants rate their health as “excellent” or “very good,” in comparison to only 47 percent of peer respondents to Medicare’s annual Health Outcomes Survey. SilverSneakers Fitness was founded in 1992 and today serves more than 11 million eligible members in more than 11,000 participating fitness and wellness facilities nationwide. For more information, to see if you are eligible for SilverSneakers and to find a class in your area, call 877-210-1307 or visit www.SilverSneakers.com. MSN
Glaucoma… The Basics
Provided by National Eye Institute Glaucoma is a group of diseases that damage the eye’s optic nerve and can result in vision loss and blindness. However, with early detection and treatment, you can often protect your eyes against serious vision loss. The optic nerve is a bundle of more than 1 million nerve fibers connecting the retina to the brain. The retina is the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, and a healthy optic nerve is necessary for good vision. How is the optic nerve damaged by open-angle glaucoma? Several large studies have shown that eye pressure is a major risk factor for optic nerve damage. In the front of the eye is a space called the anterior chamber. A clear fluid flows continuously in and out of the chamber and nourishes nearby tissues. The fluid leaves the chamber at the open angle where the cornea and iris meet. When the fluid reaches the angle, it flows through a spongy meshwork, like a drain, and leaves the eye. In open-angle glaucoma, even though the drainage angle is “open,” the fluid passes too slowly through the meshwork drain. Since the fluid
builds up, the pressure inside the eye rises to a level that may damage the optic nerve. When the optic nerve is damaged from increased pressure, open-angle glaucoma – and vision loss – may result. That’s why controlling pressure inside the eye is important. Another risk factor for optic nerve damage relates to blood pressure. Thus, it is important also to make sure that your blood pressure is at a proper level for your body by working with your medical doctor. Can I develop glaucoma if I have increased eye pressure? Not necessarily. Not every person with increased eye pressure will develop glaucoma. Some people can tolerate higher levels of eye pressure better than others can. Also, a certain level of eye pressure may be high for one person but normal for another. Whether you develop glaucoma depends on the level of pressure your optic nerve can tolerate without being damaged. This level is different for each person. That’s why a comprehensive dilated eye exam is very important. It can help your eye care professional determine what level of
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eye pressure is normal for you. Can I develop glaucoma without an increase in my eye pressure? Yes. Glaucoma can develop without increased eye pressure. This form of glaucoma is called low-tension or normal-tension glaucoma. It is a type of open-angle glaucoma. Who is at risk for open-angle glaucoma? Anyone can develop glaucoma. Some people, listed below, are at higher risk than others are: • African Americans over age 40 • Everyone over age 60, especially Mexican Americans • People with a family history of glaucoma. A comprehensive dilated eye exam can reveal more risk factors, such as high eye pressure, thinness of the cornea, and abnormal optic nerve anatomy. In some people with certain combinations of these high-risk factors, medicines in the form of eye drops reduce the risk of developing glaucoma by about half. Glaucoma Symptoms – At first, open-angle glaucoma has no symptoms. It causes no pain. Vision stays normal. Glaucoma can develop in one or both eyes. Without treatment, people with glaucoma will slowly lose their peripheral (side) vision. As glaucoma remains untreated, people may miss objects to the side and out of the corner of their eye. They seem to be looking through a tunnel. Over time, straight-ahead (central) vision may decrease until no vision remains. How is glaucoma detected? Glaucoma is detected through a comprehensive dilated eye exam that includes the following: Visual acuity test. This eye chart test measures how well you see at various distances. Visual field test. This test measures your peripheral (side vision). It helps your eye care professional tell if you have lost peripheral vision, a sign of glaucoma. Dilated eye exam. In this exam, drops are placed in your eyes to widen, or dilate, the pupils. Your eye care professional uses a special magnifying lens to examine your retina and optic nerve for signs of damage and other eye problems. After the exam, your close-up vision may remain blurred for several hours.
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Tonometry is the measurement of pressure inside the eye by using an instrument called a tonometer. Numbing drops may be applied to your eye for this test. A tonometer measures pressure inside the eye to detect glaucoma. Pachymetry is the measurement of the thickness of your cornea. Your eye care professional applies a numbing drop to your eye and uses an ultrasonic wave instrument to measure the thickness of your cornea. Can glaucoma be cured? No. There is no cure for glaucoma. Vision lost from the disease cannot be restored. Immediate treatment for early-stage, open-angle glaucoma can delay progression of the disease. That’s why early diagnosis is very important. Regular visits to an eye care professional will promote early detection provide answers to specific questions. MSN
Will the 2015 Montana Legislature Address the Need for Medical Marijuana? By Jessica VanGarderen In ancient times and across the world from Egypt and Greece to India and China, cannabis was used to treat glaucoma, inflammation, insomnia, headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, and pain. And, it was consistently referenced in early medical texts. In the early 1900s, you could walk into a pharmacy and buy medicinal products that contained cannabis, more commonly known as marijuana and listed as a medicine in the U.S. Pharmacopeia until 1942. To date, there are over 20,000 published studies or reviews referencing cannabis, including over 1,450 peer-reviews papers in 2013 alone. Although the U.S. government maintains that cannabis has no valid medical use, in 2003, a patent was issued to the National Institutes of Health for marijuana as a neural protectant against stroke and trauma. The patent claims exclusive rights on the use of cannabinoids for treating neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and stroke, and diseases caused by oxidative stress, such as heart attack, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, and arthritis. Thus, a reasonable case exists for the medicinal use of marijuana, but the bigger question is, “How Safe is it?” Unlike most prescription and over-the-counter medications, marijuana is virtually non-toxic to healthy cells and organs, and not capable of causing a fatal overdose. A Canadian Medical Association Journal reHerb Pharmer is a State Licensed Medical Marijuana Provider view of clinical trials over a 40 year period found Located in Bozeman, MT with delivery available to Bozeman, Belgrade & Three Forks no higher incidence of serious adverse effects Personalized Service Highest Quality Available from cannabis consuming subjects compared to No Synthetic Chemicals Satisfaction Guaranteed controls. A recent UCLA study to determine if marijuana use caused cancer compared 1,200 people Herb Pharmer We are happy to answer your questions and help you get started. Call 406-599-2079 with head, neck, or lung cancer to a cancer-free Making customers happy 618 W. Griffin Dr., Suite L (Upstairs) - Curbside service available - www.HerbPharmer.com control group and found no increased incidence of for over 5 years the three cancers even in the heaviest smokers. Do you suffer from Chronic Pain, Cancer, Glaucoma, Chrohn’s, MS, Neuropathy or Parkinson’s? However, marijuana does have side effects. Some patients report dry mouth, nausea, dry or T The Montana Medical Marijuana Program can help you feel better and enjoy life again. red eyes, impaired mental functioning, dizziness, numbness, anxiety, euphoria, increased heart rate, and in high doses hallucinations. However, these effects are temporary and can often be relieved by reducing the dose or administering a different strain. (Continued on page 50)
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(Continued from page 47) Today cannabis is legal as medical marijuana in 23 states plus the District of Columbia. In Montana, you can get a recommendation from your doctor for treatment of the following conditions: cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, wasting syndrome, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, neuropathy, severe and chronic pain, and central nervous system disorders
resulting in chronic spasticity or muscle spasms such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and cerebral palsy. You can also get a recommendation if you have been admitted to hospice care. For cancer patients medical marijuana helps relieve the side effects of chemotherapy, including nausea, decreased appetite, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Studies hint that cannabis may inhibit tumor growth. If you are a Montana resident, have one of the conditions listed, and seek relief from its symptoms, you can get a recommendation from your doctor. Many doctors support the medicinal use of marijuana. However, if your primary doctor will not write the recommendation, there are doctors available that will see you, review your medical records, and assuming you qualify, give you the recommendation you need. You then need to submit an application to the State of Montana along with your recommendation and a $75 fee. On the application, you have the option of listing a licensed provider of the marijuana or leaving that portion blank, in which case the state of Montana will assume that you will be growing the medical marijuana yourself. If you do not list a provider, you will not be able to purchase medical marijuana. Most providers will help you complete the required paperwork. After you receive your medical marijuana card (three weeks after application), you become authorized to buy medicine from the provider listed on your card. You can change providers at any time; however, you must submit a change request and wait for a new card before purchasing from your new provider. You want to choose a knowledgeable provider that can help you select the best medical marijuana for your condition. High quality cannabis is grown without chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and it must be free of mold – the whitish, powdery substance on the buds that dulls the sparkly crystals. Under a temporary injunction issued in January 2013 against restrictive provisions of SB 423 (Montana Marijuana Act) patients are allowed to purchase medical marijuana and marijuana providers can have more than three patients and receive compensation. Without the injunction, patients would have to grow marijuana themselves – not an easy task since seeds and starter plants are not available legally. Although the Montana Marijuana Act is very restrictive, it does not allow for third party testing, so quality can be an issue, and there is limited oversight of the industry. In general, marijuana
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MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 51
providers are hopeful that they can work with the 2015 Legislature to create the legal framework that allows providers to treat their patients, make a reasonable profit, and that treats them as legitimate businesses providing a much-needed service to Montana’s communities. For further information, visit www.dphhs.mt.gov/marijuanaprogram/ and the Montana Cannabis Information Association’s website at www.mtcia. org/faq-on-current-law. MSN
Dedicate Yourself to Fitness Today Healthways (NASDAQ: HWAY) SilverSneakers® Fitness, the nation’s leading exercise program exclusively designed for older adults, today announced the results of its 2013 Annual Member Survey. More than 35,000 people between the ages of 65 and 114 and across 50 states responded to the survey, which measures participants’ fitness activities, health outcomes, and health attitudes. Results revealed a growing trend in fitness-conscious active adults achieving positive health outcomes, higher quality of life, and fulfillment at every age. According to the survey, SilverSneakers participants are seeking fitness options in record numbers, with nearly 46 percent joining a fitness center for the first time because of their SilverSneakers membership. The survey also revealed the significant link between fitness and socialization, as nearly 41 percent of participants report they attend class to socialize. In fact, nearly 60 percent of members participate in classes with a friend, demonstrating the value of complete emotional and physical well-being to older adults. In addition, 50 percent of SilverSneakers Fitness participants cite an improvement in chronic disease conditions, ranging from high blood pressure and heart disease to stroke and diabetes. Participants noted a 59 percent improvement in arthritis pain, a 49 percent improvement in limb numbness, and a 59 percent improvement in lower back pain. “The Annual Member Survey provides deep insights into the health and well-being of today’s active older adults, and we are seeing an unprecedented dedication to physical health through fitness,” said Joy Powell, president of Healthways Senior Solutions Division. “Participants made it clear that they are more passionate and dedicated to their health than any previous generation.” SilverSneakers Fitness was founded in 1992 and is the nation’s leading exercise program exclusively designed for older adults. Today, the program serves more than 11 million eligible members in more than 11,000 participating fitness and wellness facilities nationwide. For more information and a visual infographic, visit www.silversneakers.com/benefits/health-survey-2013. MSN
For more than 72 years, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana has been your trusted advisor when it comes to health care coverage. Maybe that’s why 96% of physicians and 100% of hospitals in Montana accept Blue Cross and Blue Shield. You deserve the best when it comes to health care coverage. Choose the one voice that speaks on your behalf and has been there for you since 1940–Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana. True Blue.
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How To Feel Better At 54 Than At 24 By Tabitha Bailey Aging well is not for the faint of heart. It is difficult to face any loss — loss of strength, flexibility, energy, memory, balance, anything. Actively participating in a practice that helps to train and focus the mind and body will help develop a positive perspective to see the benefits in our second and third stages of life. It is a fact that as we age our hormonal levels change naturally causing the loss of lean muscle mass; therefore, consistent exercise with strength
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training is an essential part of aging. Shirley Archer, award-winning author of titles such as The Strength & Toning Deck: Exercises to Shape Your Body and Pilates Fusion: Well-Being in Body, Mind and Spirit, recommends the following for feeling better at 54 than you did at 24: • Increase or maintain a commitment to weight training to keep up lean body mass. Modern living simply does not provide the average person with enough stress to keep muscles strong. A recent study showed that people who were committed runners did not maintain lean body mass as effectively as those who did strength training, so simply doing aerobic activities are not enough to keep up our lean body mass against the forces of aging. • Make it a point to include some high intensity interval training in your routine to stimulate fast twitch muscle fibers (at least twice a week). Research tells us that as we age, we tend to lose the neural connection to fast twitch fibers before slow twitch, resulting in a higher proportion of slow twitch fibers. This is why people like Diana Nyad can achieve what she does. Physically, she cannot compete against younger elite athletes when it comes to strength and power, but if we stay in shape and continue to train as we age, we can remain competitive in endurance sports. • It is important to be mindful of joints as we only have one set to last a lifetime unless we have replacement surgery. While joint replacement technology is improving, if one can enjoy life without surgery. To protect joints, you must keep muscles strong. Train smart – avoid overdoing it. • Keep the body flexible. Make time for massages and stretching. Try to find a trainer who can help you with myofascial release – this helps rid the knots of tension in the body and promotes smooth movement. Yoga is also an excellent practice with a good instructor for your level that does not encourage any type of extreme stretching. • Give your body proper rest and recovery (especially adequate sleep). • Lots of hydration. Research tells us that our thirst mechanism is less accurate so we need to be sure to hydrate even if we don’t feel particularly thirsty. Hydration will also keep all systems working much more efficiently – and even help keep our thinking clear. • Good nutrition and managing weight are very important. Loss of lean body mass and hormonal changes also lower resting metabolic rate, which means you burn fewer calories so you need to pay more attention to what you eat to minimize the risk of gaining body fat more easily than when younger. High nutrients and lower calories are recommended for older adults. • With respect to cultivating mindfulness, Shirley recommends picking up at least one form of mindful movement – yoga, Tai chi, Pilates, qigong, whatever appeals to you most. This will help to strengthen your inner peace for the courage and perspective required to age gracefully. “As a 54-yearold, I am more committed than ever to cultivating mindfulness and practicing meditation. Mindfulness is important so that one stays in touch on a daily basis with one’s energy levels and how one is feeling so that you listen to your body and respect the needs of body and mind,” Shirley explains. • Cultivate happiness and mindfulness. Recent research shows that happier people maintain more physical ability as they age. Stay in tune with how you are feeling and enjoy being active without any need to beat yourself up. Give your body challenges and also allow time for rest and recovery. Focus on the things that you can do and that you enjoy, rather than beating yourself up over what you can no longer accomplish. Cultivate equanimity in all things. Shirley also notes another point is that our generation is aging differently from previous ones. We now have the knowledge to help us optimize our health and create vitality and fullness so that we enjoy our potential as we age. Each of us should take advantage of this wealth of knowledge and choose to live as fully and healthfully as possible. Studies show that it is never too late to start and that you can continue to reap the benefits of a healthier lifestyle even if you start in your seventies! But don’t wait! Start now. MSN
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Christmas at the Waffle House By Cappy Hall Rearick
W
e intended to sleep in on Christmas. Our grown kids were in South Carolina with their kids, so Santa had no need to drop by our house. Babe and I planned to visit with family after the live greens had wilted and Santa had flown back to the North Pole. I had been dreaming when my two hungry cats jumped on my stomach. I dragged myself into the kitchen to open a can of something not smelly. The day, being special, meant they dined on Fancy Feast turkey instead of Winn Dixie’s mixed fish parts. I looked up from the cans to find Babe sitting by the tree as if in a trance. “What are you doing,” I asked. He looked at me as though I had glitter for brains. “Waiting to open presents.” He grinned. My Starbucks kicked in. I heard Bing Crosby crooning Christmas tunes so I sat down next to Babe, leaned over, and kissed him smack on his smackers. He grinned again. “Can we open ‘em now,” he asked. “What are you, five?” I took two more Starbucks swigs. “Okay, do your Santa thing,
Babe. I can handle it.” Later, hungry for something I didn’t have to cook, we opted to go out for breakfast. “Where to,” Babe asked as though I were the tour director. “Waffle House,” I suggested. When we drove up to the diner, second home to every man, woman, and child south of the Gnat Line – it was packed. A family of four left as we arrived, so we plopped down at the un-bussed table. “Cheese omelet,” I announced to our server, Donna, dressed in a red T-shirt with Merry Christmas, Y’all stamped on her bosomy front. “And a ton of coffee.” Donna, unconcerned about her missing front tooth, smiled at me and winked at Babe. He ordered one of everything on the menu – enough fat fuel power to hurdle us all into another galaxy. I gazed at a group of bikers dressed in red leather, taking up two tables and hanging off the end, eating waffles, hash browns, and milk. Milk? A mom and dad (Continued on pg 57)
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(Continued from pg 55) at the table next to ours tried to keep their five pajama-clad children from killing each other. I noticed an elderly woman wearing a red wig that didn’t fit. She was too thin and her eyes were rimmed in deep pink. She ate alone and looked sadder than anyone in the place. It broke my heart. Donna refilled our cups, spilled some on the side, and then rolled her eyes. “One of dem days.” Babe winked at me. A whole lot of winking seemed to be going on at our table. Friends we hadn’t seen in a while stopped by our table. We exchanged hugs and holiday wishes and it felt good. My omelet arrived loaded with cheese and animal fat. Yum! Babe stuffed himself with eggs, waffles, bacon, sausage, grits, and hash browns. He’d requested whole-wheat toast, his one nod to health food. Looking around again, I was aware of more
families, more pajamas, and more exhausted parents. Families that eat at the Waffle House on Christmas morning could be the new 21st century America. I don’t remember ever having breakfast outside of our home on Christmas while I was growing up. Mama may have fixed waffles, but chances are she simply popped Miss Sunbeam bread in the toaster, or if we were lucky, she made cinnamon toast before yelling for us to put down our toys and come to the table. Home life is not like that these days. I applaud the difference. When I see a family at the Waffle House with five kids still clad in pajamas, I smile. When Donna proudly wears her Merry Christmas, Y’all T-shirt that shows off the 30 pounds she’s lost, I say, “You go, girl.” And when Babe eats every item on the Waffle House menu and manages not to have a coronary, I ask, “Got room for fruitcake?” MSN
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When Housing Needs Change, What are Your Options? By Teresa Ambord Whether you’re considering new housing for an elderly relative, or thinking ahead to your own needs, the task of choosing the right place can be overwhelming. On the other hand, the choices are so much better than they once were. Creating safe, homey, pleasant residences for seniors is a strong industry in the United States these days. Instead of waiting until the need is immediate, think over the possibilities while there is time. Here are some of the most common options: • Independent Living Facilities People who are able to live on their own and don’t have specific medical care needs may be best served by an independent retirement community. For the most part these communities appear no different from another neighborhood, except they generally have age restrictions, such as 55 and up and possibly enhanced security. A retirement community could consist of individual homes, mobile homes, townhouses, or condos. Some such communities are set up for renters and others for home ownership. This type of arrangement brings resources together so people can live independently, but if they want or need additional services – such as help with housekeeping, laundry, group meals or prepared meals, transportation, security, and social and cultural activities – they are readily available. • Assisted Living Facilities You’ve probably seen assisted living facilities, which seem to be springing up everywhere. They provide some medical care for those who need a little more, but still allow residents to feel independent. These residences generally have the ability to help with managing prescriptions, and well as bathing, dressing, and grooming if needed. They may provide or arrange for transportation, and assist those who need help with personal mobility. Some assisted living arrangements are like small, private apartments, with health care personnel on the premises at all times, or at least on call. In most facilities, you can opt for other services, for an additional fee, such as housekeeping help, personal laundry service, Alzheimer’s care, etc. •Nursing Homes Nursing homes are available for those who require round-the-clock care but don’t need to be in a hospital. In the recent past, many of these homes were known as rigid, rule bound, and driven by tight schedules. Over time, they have become more focused on the needs of the residents, so residents can begin to feel at home. Some nursing homes are developed to be like small households, where a group of people live under one roof, share meals and engage in activities together. Some have dogs or cats living there, or allow residents
to bring their own pets with them. Is the Facility Stable for the Long Term? When you are checking out an option, you’ll need to be armed with specific questions. The first area of concern should be the stability of the facility. You can start by contacting your state’s office on aging. You can find it in the phone book under Area Agency on Aging, or on the Internet by typing in your state name and “office on aging,” For example, “Idaho office on aging.” If you don’t see housing or long-term care facilities listed, try the search window, or look for contact information so you can e-mail or call and get information. Here are some questions to ask: • Is the facility experiencing legal or financial problems? • Are there pending lawsuits or inspection issues against the facility? • Is it able to maintain an adequate and qualified staff? • Does it have current state and local licenses? • Does it have adequate liability and malpractice insurance? Also ask your physician, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, hospital discharge planners, and social workers. The reputation of a housing facility for seniors and the disabled gets around fast among those who deal with the elderly, so don’t hesitate to ask. Once you know a facility is sound, get more personal. Visit the place at least twice, during different hours and days of the week to see for yourself what the quality of life is for residents. Talking to the staff can reveal a lot about how they feel about residents and can give insight into how you or your loved ones will be cared for. When I visit my aunt in the rest home where she lives, they ask at the desk who I am there to see. I mention her name and although it is a large facility, they know who she is, where her room is, whether she had visitors recently, and anything unusual about her day. As I walk to her room, I notice staff members interacting with the residents and I’m always impressed. More Resources Seniorliving.org suggests when you visit a facility, have these questions in mind: • Is the staff respectful and friendly? • Is the nursing home clean? • Do they offer social, recreational, religious, and cultural activities that interest you or your elderly relative? • Can you choose your waking, bedtime, and bathing time? • Can you get food and drinks anytime? Is the food good? Ask to try it. • Can you have visitors anytime?
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• Can you have a pet? • Is transportation provided? • How much privacy is there? • Can you decorate your room as you like? • Is the temperature comfortable? • Is there good natural lighting?
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• Do you have a telephone and TV in the room? In addition to these questions, you’ll find other good information about housing at seniorliving.org. Or for a helpful, free referral service by geography, type in “A Place for Mom.” MSN
For Older Adults, Regular Exercise May Stem Aging Effects
(StatePoint) One out of every three adults over 65 years old falls each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And for older adults with dementia, the risk of falling is three times higher than those with no cognitive impairment, according to the AARP Bulletin. However, research supports the notion that many of the physiological changes related to aging -- such as loss of balance – can be prevented or postponed with regular exercise. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that many senior living communities are making comprehensive health and wellness programs available to their residents. “We’re seeing residents increase their mobility, endurance, balance, and improve their range of motion and fitness levels,” says Katie Westberg, national director of Life Enrichment at The Goodman Group, which has developed a new fitness program for its senior living and health care communities. Additionally, Westberg cites that participants feel better and are having fun, showing quick results to their overall well-being, “Many of the residents involved in our FIT Functional Fitness program start seeing long-lasting and significant strength training benefits within an eight to 16 week period.” The experts behind the FIT Functional Fitness program, a new, national, personalized functional fitness program developed by The Goodman Group in partnership with a physical therapist and board certified geriatric specialist, are offering some tips for older adults looking to improve their well-being and restore their vigor. • Engage in exercises that can improve your core strength, balance, and cardiovascular health. If you live in a senior living community, inquire about on-site programs. Additionally, many community centers and health clubs conduct exercise classes designed specifically for senior health. • Invest in a stationary bike. It’s easy to incorporate this activity into your day while watching TV, listening to music or talking to your family, and pedaling lowers blood pressure, according to
Aid & Attendance and Housebound Benefit Can Provide Extra Help Veterans and survivors who are eligible for a VA pension and require the aid and attendance of another person, or are housebound, may be eligible for additional monetary payment. These benefits are paid in addition to a monthly pension, and they are not paid without eligibility to a pension. Since Aid and Attendance and Housebound allowances increase the pension amount, people who are not eligible for a basic pension due to excessive income may be eligible for a pension at these increased rates. A veteran or surviving spouse may not receive Aid and Attendance benefits and Housebound benefits at the same time. Aid & Attendance (A&A) – The Aid & Attendance (A&A) increased monthly pension amount may be added to your monthly pension amount if you meet one of the following conditions: • You require the aid of another person in order to perform personal functions required in everyday living, such as bathing, feeding, dressing, attending to the wants of nature, adjusting prosthetic
AARP. • Consult your physician before getting started. Your exercise routine should take into account your current health level and functionality as well as your physical needs. • Food and health are directly correlated, so pair your exercise with healthy eating. The FIT Functional Fitness program at The Goodman Group, for example, incorporates local, organic, seasonal produce as well as lean protein alternatives and plant-strong ingredients in their menu options. • Stick to it. Results may come quickly, but a long-term health benefit requires commitment. For more information about senior fitness and health programs, visit TheGoodmanGroup.com. MSN
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PAGE 60 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
devices, or protecting yourself from the hazards of your daily environment. • You are bedridden, in that your disability or disabilities require that you remain in bed apart from any prescribed course of convalescence or treatment. • You are a patient in a nursing home due to mental or physical incapacity. • Your eyesight is limited to a corrected 5/200 visual acuity or less in both eyes; or concentric contraction of the visual field to 5 degrees or less. Housebound – This increased monthly pension amount may be added to your monthly pension amount when you are substantially confined to your immediate premises because of permanent disability.
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
How to Apply – You may apply for Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits by writing to the VA regional office where you filed a claim for pension benefits. If the regional office of jurisdiction is not known, you may file the request with any VA regional office. You should include copies of any evidence, preferably a report from an attending physician validating the need for Aid and Attendance or Housebound type care. • The report should be in sufficient detail to determine whether there is disease or injury producing physical or mental impairment, loss of coordination, or conditions affecting the ability to
dress and undress, to feed oneself, to attend to sanitary needs, and to keep oneself ordinarily clean and presentable. • Whether the claim is for Aid and Attendance or Housebound, the report should indicate how well the applicant gets around, where the applicant goes, and what he or she is able to do during a typical day. In addition, it is necessary to determine whether the claimant is confined to the home or immediate premises. For additional information visit www.benefits. va.gov/pension/aid_attendance_housebound.asp. MSN
Relinquishing Primary Care By Lisa M. Petsche When a person moves into a long-term care home, both the patient and their caregiver can find the transition difficult. Caregivers lose a companion and the rhythm of their days changes significantly. They must schedule visits in order to spend time with their relative. Transportation may pose challenges, especially if they don’t drive. Feelings about the situation may include sadness, anxiety, anger, and guilt. Caregivers may wonder if they made the right decision. They may worry about their relative’s ability to adjust. They may also worry about how well he or she is being cared for. And they may wonder what role they now play in their relative’s day to day life. If you find yourself in this position, read on for some suggestions. Relating with care providers - It’s important to perceive and position yourself as an integral part of your relative’s healthcare team. Here are some ways to go about this: • Share as much as possible about your relative’s routines, likes and dislikes, and any tips that can help make care provision easier. • Educate yourself about the roles of the various healthcare professionals, and ask about their goals and plans for your relative. You may need to adjust your expectations or negotiate changes to the care plan. • Let staff know how
involved you wish to be in terms of hands-on care, and discuss what is possible. Facility policies may prohibit you from doing certain things, such as using mechanical lifters. • Get to know the staff, in order to develop a partnership of trust and mutual sharing. Show your appreciation if you are pleased with their care. • Think twice before you criticize. Some family members initially find fault with virtually everything professional caregivers do, in an effort (often subconscious) to assert that no one can take care of their relative as well as they can. This makes it hard to establish constructive relationships. • Address a concern directly with the relevant care provider. Express it as calmly as possible, and in a timely fashion. Involve the person’s supervisor only if the issue doesn’t get resolved. Relating with your loved one - Be prepared that your relative may have many complaints initially. If a concern seems legitimate, discuss it with staff and do some advocating if necessary. Otherwise, provide a listening ear, allowing your relative to vent. Be attuned to underlying feelings and empathize with them. Discourage him from dwelling on the negative, though; change the subject if necessary. If your relative asks you to take him home, gently but firmly reinforce that he needs more care than you can provide. Reassure him you’ll be returning soon, and plan what you’ll do together. If he shares a room, inquire about private areas for visiting. Develop a regular pattern of visiting so your relative knows when to expect you and can anticipate your next visit. Telephone between visits if you can’t get in as often as you would like. When you visit, bring something, such as a newspaper, flowers from your garden, or a favorite food. Re-create routines from home, such as playing cards, watching a favorite TV program together, or sharing a meal. Show interest in your relative’s daily activities. Join him for some special recreational events. Keep your relative up-to-date on news about friends and relatives, and continue to involve him in family decision-making. Plan activities outside of the facility - Go for a walk around the neighborhood or to a nearby park, or take a drive. If your relative uses a wheel-
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015
chair, register him with the local accessible transportation service. Then you can take him shopping or to community events. Continue to include your relative in family celebrations. If members’ homes aren’t accessible, choose a restaurant that is, or ask staff to help you plan a gathering onsite. If feasible, arrange for your relative to come home for a few hours.
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Keep in mind that just because you are no longer the 24-hour caregiver does not lessen the importance of your role. With that heavy responsibility lifted, you can focus your energy on meeting your relative’s emotional and spiritual needs and enjoying your time together. Final thoughts - Spend time with friends and relatives who support the move to long-term care. Family members of other residents as well as staff,
especially the social worker, are also valuable sources of support. Initially you may need lots of reassurance that this was a good decision. Be patient and give yourself and your relative plenty of time to adjust. Lisa M. Petsche is a medical social worker and freelance writer specializing in boomer and senior issues. MSN
Air Travel Tips For People With Special Needs By Jim Miller Flying can be physically exhausting for anyone, but for people with health issues or physical limitations it can be extremely challenging. Here are a few tips that can help. Booking the Flight – When you go to book your parent’s flight, this is the time to make special requests that can help make the trip easier for them. You’ll need to make these requests over the phone. For example, you may want to inquire about seats in the front of the plane for easier access or bulkhead seats that provide extra legroom, and you should probably request a wheelchair or two with attendant(s) to maneuver your parents through the airports they will encounter during their trip. If your parents don’t want a wheelchair, but want some help, ask about electric carts. You also need to check with the airline regarding their policy for portable oxygen concentrators for your dad. Some airlines require specific medical forms that will need to be signed by his doctor. Airport Assistance – If your parents are flying on their own, you should know that airlines allow older fliers to be escorted to and from the gate by a non-traveling companion, as long as the escort provides his or her full name, birth date, and government-issued ID. If no one is available to help your parents, find out how the airline can assist them. Delta Airlines, for example, can have an employee help your parents through check-in with 48 hours notice, and American Airlines provides special assistance to passengers with disabilities. Or, consider hiring an independent company
like Royal Airport Concierge Services (isroyalusa. com), who will meet your parents at the curb to help them check their bags and escort them to security. They typically charge $150 to $250 and serve dozens of airports across the U.S. There are also a number of traveling companion services like FlyingCompanions.com and PreferredTravelHelpers.com that will do everything, including making the travel arrangements, accompanying your parents on the trip, and facilitating their needs along the way. Fees vary, depending on what’s needed and travel costs. Going Through Security – All U.S. airports offer expedited screening to passengers 75 and older that allows them to move through security without removing their shoes or jacket, and many airports have lanes specifically for use by passengers with disabilities and medical conditions so they don’t have to wait in line. They should ask about these when they check-in. If your parents are packing medications in a carry-on bag, they should know that their pills and/or liquid medications do not have to be packed in their prescription containers to get through airport security, but they will need to separate them from their other belongings so they can be screened. Liquid medications in excess of 3.4 ounces will require separate screening. For more information on other airport security screening policies and procedures visit tsa.gov/ traveler-information, or call TSA Cares at 855787-2227 where you can ask specific questions. Boarding and Deplaning – When it’s time to board, your parents can take advantage of the airlines pre-boarding option for passengers who
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need some extra time to get on the plane and get settled. As for getting off the plane, they can wait for the other passengers to debark so attendants can assist them with carry-ons and escort them from the plane. 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. MSN
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Exploring Italy By Jack McNeel Photos By Jackie McNeel Whatever you have dreamed: a visit to the Vatican in Rome and viewing the Sistine Chapel, visiting centuries-old cities of narrow streets, magnificent sculptures, and wonderful architecture, or just kicking back at a villa in Tuscany, Italy is only a day’s flight away and ready to provide a lifetime of memories. Most air travelers arrive in Rome, but major airlines service many other cities including Florence, Milan, Venice, and Naples. Rome – Lodging is a matter of personal taste and affordability, but there are many options, especially if you’re traveling other than peak summer months. We chose a private apartment in the center of town within easy walking distance of the Spanish Steps, which are nearly 300 years old and a favorite for people to sit and watch the parade of people passing by. Rome’s Vatican City is perhaps the single biggest draw – the birthplace of Catholicism and steeped in millennia of history. The art of Michelangelo, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and others holds you. They were here, where you now stand, and this is their work! It’s essentially a city within a city and the smallest independent country in the world. Tours allow you to visit St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican Museums. Prices vary, but purchasing advance tour tickets saves considerable time waiting in line. The Colosseum is another of those sights that might be on your “bucket list.” Completed in 80 A.D, it was the largest building of the Roman Empire standing 159 feet tall and capable of seating 55,000 people. An earthquake destroyed portions in 847 and some of the stones were later used in building St. Peter’s
Basillica. People gathered here to see deadly combat between gladiators or gladiators and wild animals such as bears, bulls, lions, and tigers. Those events are in the distant past but the history is overwhelming. In this setting, it is easy for the imagination to recreate what must have been horrific events. Though damaged, the Colosseum is truly awe inspiring. Tuscan Cities – Tuscany, in central Italy north of Rome, is noted for its beautiful landscapes and remarkable old cities like Florence and Sienna. Sienna, just under 60,000 residents, is often referred to as Italy’s loveliest medieval city. Many buildings date back many centuries yet are beautifully maintained. Motorized travel is limited in the city, but walking is the best way to enjoy the beautiful architecture, narrow streets, statues, and museums with works by early Sienna masters. Cathedrals are often the most impressive buildings in these cities and the Cathedral of Sienna, or Duomo, is a major drawing card. Built in the mid 1200s, it dominates the city with its white and greenish-black marble. The Piazza del Campo is a huge, slightly con-
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cave plaza paved with red bricks, and surrounded by impressive buildings dating back six or seven hundred years where the famous Il Campo horse race is run over the bricks with huge crowds of viewers standing in the center as horses race around them. It’s a highly emotional twice-yearly event and dangerous to horses and riders. Cosmopolitan Florence is capital of the Tuscany region. Like Sienna, it is a medieval city with numerous cathedrals, museums, and works of art by such luminaries as Dante, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and many others. You can explore the narrow streets, sample gelato at a sidewalk café, purchase an Italian leather purse, a pair of shoes, or a belt from a booth at an outdoor market, or just admire the incredible architecture and sculptures throughout the city. The Accademia Gallery contains Michelangelo’s David where it’s protected from the elements; however, a replica has stood outside in its original position since 1910 in the Piazza della Signoria. Statue after statue surround this Piazza, and other majestic sculptures dot the city. Seeing them in the
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Cinque Terre is a string of five towns on the Italian Riviera filled with brightly colored homes and other buildings on the blue Mediterranean. Roads don’t exist between towns but hiking trails, a train, and passenger boats link them. We hiked from the end of the trail on the hillside above, down to Manarola, then explored further by taking the train between the towns. This is the alternative to the Italian Riviera. It’s not the home of the rich but rather a somewhat
flesh, so to speak, is a thrill. Because Italy has existed for many more centuries than our American culture, one experiences a certain time warp when viewing Italian art and architectures. The Ponte Vecchio, a bridge across the Arno on the edge of Florence, was constructed in 1345 but replaced earlier bridges dating back some 2,000 years. This Medieval stone bridge is a favorite of photographers with its three arches over the blue river. Jewelry shops now fill the bridge where there might have been butcher shops in earlier times. My photos show a lone fisherman under the bridge silhouetted against the river. Chianti Region Of Tuscany – The area between Sienna and Florence is known as the Chianti Region of Tuscany, an area many would proclaim as the most beautiful. The rolling hills are covered with vineyards and olive groves. Small villages lie amongst the vineyards, most with beautiful old chapels, street side cafes, and sampling rooms to taste the local wine. The villages are quieter and more relaxing than the larger cities yet within a short distance of either Sienna or Florence. We stayed in a beautiful villa by traveling a mile down a gravel lane through a small forest and only a few minutes from the village of Castellina. As a home base for exploring the region, the villa was surrounded by vineyards, had a swimming pool, beautiful grounds, and was a perfect place to kick back and enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning
before venturing out for the day. Cinque Terre: Although listed as one of the top 30 places in the world to visit, most people will not recognize Cinque Terre among other well-known attractions like the Great Wall of China, Grand Canyon, or Galapagos Islands.
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 65
isolated stretch of sea with incredible views, buildings of every pastel color, small restaurants, bars, and attractive beaches. Chain stores don’t exist, but lodging is available. What more could one want Cinque Terre sits deservedly among the top 30 places in the world to visit. During our Italian visit, we only scratched the surface of this beautiful and historically significant country. Isn’t it time for you to check the airline schedules? MSN
PAGE 66 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015
From The Heart: A Daughter’s Connection With Her Veteran Father’s Voice From The Past By Carole Webb Slater I don’t remember my father’s voice. He died when I was seven years old. I knew about him from glossy black and white photographs and family stories, but I didn’t “know” him until my mother died 30 years later. Then I heard the voice of my father and felt his presence. It started with my mother’s plain, bulky, wooden cedar trunk that had been in the background of my memory for as long as I could remember. This trunk was not an accessible piece of furniture but was kept in the back of closets and out of the way. I knew intuitively the chest was meant for me and sensed it held an important connection to my mother’s life and to mine. When I opened the chest, I soon realized it was filled with Mom’s memories. There was her 1941 East High School annual, an autograph book filled with names and verses from old friends, hand-stitched towels, bronzed baby shoes, cloth soldier dolls that belonged to my brothers, and Mary Ann, my favorite doll. At the bottom of the chest, I found three cardboard shoeboxes tied with ribbons and filled with letters to Evelyn Groves/ Webb, postmarked in the 1940s. They were love letters from my father that my mother had kept safely concealed through eight moves and for over three decades. His words of love followed my mother throughout her adult life and now his words would fill the void in my heart. Dana “Cobby” Webb’s journey began in 1942 when he traded in his college football uniform to join the Army Air Corps. He was 19 years old and one of many young men who postponed their lives to fight for the United States and free world
during World War II. Cobby loved speed, and with determination and drive, he became a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot at 21, flying escort and strafing missions over France and Germany during the latter months of the war in Europe. It seemed fitting that Cobby would also take a chance with Evelyn, a young woman he met in Nashville at a USO dance. After dating a few times, Cobby was transferred to an air base in Florida and this brief romance should have ended. In those days, public phones were available on the base if you had change in your pocket and were willing to wait with other cadets in long lines for brief conversations. Weekend visits were an option but not easily accomplished. Cobby had a flying schedule that relied on good weather and that meant his weekends might be spent in the air. A visit to Florida was also costly and would require that Evelyn travel on a train for two days, one way, and that seemed unlikely after dating Cobby such a short time. But Cobby had fallen in love and was determined to make Evelyn his wife, so these two young people shared stories, personal values, and feelings about life, war, and each other through words expressed on paper. They got to know each other through their letters. If there were questions that required an answer, Evelyn or Cobby would have to be patient and wait a week or two for a reply when the next letter was delivered. Their communication was deliberate and heartfelt. Through their correspondence, they developed a love for one another that connected their hearts together. Over the next year, they saw each other twice and on her last visit, while waiting on the platform for the Nashville-bound train to take her home, Cobby convinced Evelyn to marry him and they eloped that night. For me, finding my father’s voice through these letters connected my heart to his. His deep devotion and love for my mother made my heart swell. I could feel his smiles, delight in his stories, share his family values, and be profoundly grateful to know my father through his written words. I did not want the letters to end. It was a beautiful love story. My father’s letters stayed in my closet for over 20 years, read only by my family and a few close friends. I realized several years ago that Cobby’s story was an important one to be shared. We live in a world filled with perpetual wars and destruction, easy access to overwhelming amounts of information, family values that are struggling to stay centered, and extreme political ideology that threatens to divide the United States into multiple pieces of varying shades of blue and red. (Continued on page 68)
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DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015
(Continued from pg 66) Looking back at life during World War II reminds us all of our history and the value of connecting our past with our future. Although World War II was a time of horror, loss, and terrible turmoil, it was also a time when love, respect, responsibility, duty, helping one another, honor, and patriotism were important values. Somehow, in the worst of times, our country and its people managed to do the impossible. Americans at home did without, grew their own “victory gardens” to feed their families, led volunteer drives in their communities, helped and supported their neighbors, supported their govern-
ment, and transformed businesses overnight into factories focused on building military ships, planes, tanks, and equipment needed in a war that had to be won. It was a time when Americans were bound together by a common purpose and lived in the “united” states of America. To recall those shared values that made our country great just might make a difference as we look forward to the future and its many challenges. Letters from the Heart 1943-1946, is available through your favorite bookstore. For information visit www.p-51lettersfromtheheart.com. MSN
Burial and Memorial Benefits Available to Veterans By Jim Miller Dear Savvy Senior, Does the Veterans Administration provide any special funeral services or benefits to old veterans? My father is a 90-year-old World War II veteran with late stage Alzheimer’s so I’m looking into funeral options and would like to know what the VA may provide. Planning Ahead Dear Planning, Yes, the Veterans Administration offers a number of burial and memorial benefits to veterans if their discharge from the military was under conditions other than dishonorable – which will need to be verified. To do this, you’ll need a copy of your dad’s DD Form 214 “Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty,” which you can request online at archives.gov/veterans. Here’s a rundown of some of the different benefits that are available to veterans that die a non-service related death.
National and State Cemetery Benefits – If your dad is eligible, and wants to be buried in one of the 131 national or 93 state VA cemeteries (see www.cem.va.gov/cem/cems/listcem.asp for a list) the VA benefits provided at no cost to the family include a gravesite; opening and closing of the grave; perpetual gravesite care; a government headstone or marker; a United States burial flag that can be used to drape the casket or accompany the urn (after the funeral service, the flag is given to the next-of-kin as a keepsake); and a Presidential memorial certificate, which is an engraved paper certificate signed by the current President expressing the country’s grateful recognition of the veteran’s service. National cemetery burial benefits are also available to spouses and dependents of veterans. If your dad is cremated, his remains will be buried or inurned in the same manner as casketed remains. Funeral or cremation arrangements and costs are not taken care of by the VA, however. They are the responsibility of the veteran’s family. Private Cemetery Benefits – If your dad is going to be buried in a private cemetery, the benefits available include a free government headstone or marker, or a medallion that can be affixed to an existing privately purchased headstone or marker; a burial flag; and a Presidential memorial certificate. Funeral or cremation arrangements and costs are again the responsibility of the family, and there are no benefits offered to spouses and dependents that are buried in private cemeteries. Military Funeral Honors – Another popular benefit available to all eligible veterans buried in either a national or private cemetery is a military funeral honors ceremony. This includes folding and presenting the U.S. burial flag to the veteran’s survivors and the playing of Taps performed by two or more uniformed military members. The funeral provider you choose will be able to assist you with all VA burial
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requests. Depending on what you want, certain forms may need to be completed, which are always better to be done in advance. For a complete rundown of burial and memorial benefits, eligibility details, and required forms, visit www. cem.va.gov or call 800-827-1000. Burial Allowances – In addition to the many burial benefits, some veterans may also qualify for a $734 burial and funeral expense allowance
(if hospitalized by VA at time of death), or $300 (if not hospitalized by VA at time of death), and a $734 plot-interment allowance to those who choose to be buried in a private cemetery. To find out if your dad is eligible, see benefits.va.gov/ benefits/factsheets/burials/burial.pdf. To apply for burial allowances, you’ll need to fill out VA Form 21-530 Application for Burial Benefits. You need to attach a copy of your dad’s
MONTANA SENIOR NEWS PAGE 69
discharge document (DD 214 or equivalent), death certificate, funeral, and burial bills. They should show that you have paid them in full. You may download the form at va.gov/vaforms. Send your 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. MSN
Tax Time is Rolling Up Too Fast. Here are Some Points You Should Know To Minimize Your Taxes, Preserve Your Money, and Avoid Tax-Related Scams
By Teresa Ambord Retirement – If you are still contributing to a tax-advantaged retirement plan, don’t forget you have until April 15 to add to your account for 2014. The maximum you can put into your 401(k) for 2014 is $17,500, or if you turned at least 50 by the end of the year, $23,000. (For 2015, the limit is raised to $18,000 and $24,000 respectively.) For IRAs, the limit remains at $5,500 or $6,500 if you’re at least 50 (for 2014 and 2015). Just be sure if you are contributing for 2014 after January 1 that you specify to which year it applies. Be Kind to Your Tax Preparer – You can endear yourself to your tax preparer and maybe save some money and protect yourself – by making an appointment early in the tax season. If you walk in with a brown bag full of unsorted receipts, don’t be surprised if your tax preparer growls under his breath. Tax preparers are people too, and when you dump a mess on him or her, you do smell bad. And chances are you’ll pay more. Not out of spite, but because part of the fee you’ll pay is for bookkeeping services to sort and add up stacks of receipts. Instead, turn on the TV and watch “The Price is Right” while you organize receipts and documents. If you have a tax preparer you like, be kind. Slip a few homemade cookies in with these organized receipts. You’ll save the relationship and maybe reduce your preparation fees. Cashing in E or EE Savings Bonds: Who Reports the Interest? Interest income on these savings bonds is the difference between the purchase price of the bond and the cash-
in amount. If you have cashed in an E or EE bond in 2014, the interest income needs to be reported on at least one 2014 federal income tax return. • If you purchased the bond and your name is the only one listed on the bond, you must report the income on your tax return. • Suppose you used your money to purchase the bond and are listed as the primary owner, along with a co-owner who is also listed on the bond. According to SavingsBonds.com, the person who purchased and cashed in the bond still must report the interest income. • If you purchased the bond but another person is named as the only (or primary) owner, that person reports the interest income. • If two people purchase the bond together, and
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both are listed as co-owners, each of them must report the interest in proportion to the amount they contributed. So, for example, if you and your sister each paid 50% of the price of the bond, you will
PAGE 70 MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015
each need to report 50% of the interest income. Suppose you and your spouse live in a community property state and buy a bond together which is considered community property. If you file separate federal income tax returns, each of you must report one-half of the interest income. Note: if you and someone else are listed as co-owners on a bond, you have equal rights to the bond, and either of you may cash it in without the consent of the other. The person who cashes in the bond will receive the 1099-INT, regardless of who made the purchase. Tax Scams are Heating Up – Thieves have learned that one of the best-paying frauds they can pull off is to file fake tax returns and collect hefty refunds. That means stealing the personal information of a real person – maybe you – and filing a tax return in that name. You could be victimized and not know it until you file your own return, and get a swift rebuke from the IRS for filing twice. This happened to my sister a couple of years ago. She had a very healthy refund coming. But someone had beaten her to it, filing a return in her name before she even received her W-2s. The IRS was only mildly sympathetic and not very helpful. According to the tax agency, it takes them an average of 180 days to clear up such a mess, so don’t hold your breath. My sister did get her refund that year – just in time for Christmas. How can you protect yourself? Other than guarding your identity to the best of your ability, tax professionals advise you to file as early as you can. As in my sister’s case, that’s no guarantee
you’ll beat a thief to the filing, but the longer you wait, the bigger the opportunity you give thieves. Also, beware of phone calls or emails claiming to be from the IRS. The IRS repeats this warning every year, yet people still fall for the tricks. The warning: the IRS will not try to contact you by email or social media to request personal or financial information, so if you get a call claiming to be from the IRS, you’re probably being scammed. Even if your caller ID says “IRS,” remember, it’s easy to create a bogus caller ID. Thieves use this tool all the time to lure people into becoming victims. You might get a call from someone claiming to be an IRS agent, who informs you that you are in hot water with the tax agency and owe a lot of money. The agent may say you are due a fat refund, and they are calling to help you file and get your check fast. Either way, don’t fall for it. The IRS warns that scammers are now going a step farther. In November 2014, they issued a warning about thieves pretending to be IRS agents, calling to tell you that someone has hijacked your tax refund. They may tell you, that a thief has electronically filed a tax return in your name. You must therefore remedy the situation by filing a legitimate return by mail. And lucky you! This agent is calling to help you! Of course, helping you means they will need you to reveal personal information – which they will use to steal from you. They might even demand that you pay taxes due over the phone. A common trick is to tell the victim he or she must obtain a prepaid debit card for the amount due, and wait for a return call.
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Education Can Change The World
What if the cure for cancer is inside the brain of someone who couldn’t afford an education? For many, earning a degree signifies the potential of a better life. Graduates tell us that their education from Montana State University Billings (MSUB) is the one thing that can’t be taken away from them. Everything else can disappear or change. Right now, consider how higher education impacted your life and the lives of those around you. Then ask these questions: • What if a student couldn’t attend college because he or she lacked only $500, effectively crushing their dream of obtaining a degree? It may seem like a small amount of money to some, but it can be a monumental obstacle for others. • What if YOU could make a difference by enriching the lives of others through education? In fact, you can make a difference! Your taxdeductible gift of any size to Montana State University Billings Foundation makes a difference to students aspiring to earn their college degree and improve their lives. Without your help, we would be unable to provide the building blocks needed by MSUB students to engineer their dreams. Please donate today. You are the key to unlocking MSUB students’ potential. MSN
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Job Placement Employment Specialists aiding in career evaluation and job placement for veterans and people with disabilities
“Creating Opportunities for People with Disabilities”
Snow Shoveling & Salting Debris Removal Home & Yard Winterizing Leaves Raked & Bagged Tree Trimming & Grass Cut Light Repairs & Custodial Services Cord Wood also available
Multi-City Outreach Employment Specialists reaching Kalispell, Plains, Polson, Whitefish, Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Libby and Eureka Recreation Providing every type of recreation including Special Olympics and annual camp activities
Call Today for your quote: Becca 261-0506 Sign up to receive our E-newsletter for current sales and info Find us on-line or email smathiason@flatheadindustries.org flatheadindustries.org facebook.com/flatheadindustries
If there is a problem, the first contact they make with you will likely be by mail. If you have reason to believe the IRS might be trying to contact you, pull out your phone book and look up the number yourself, and call the tax agency to inquire. Don’t rely on a phone number given to you by the caller. The IRS advises, “If you believe someone may have used your SSN fraudulently to file taxes, please notify the IRS immediately. You will need to fill out the IRS Identity Theft Affidavit, Form 14039. If you have been in contact with the IRS about an identity theft problem, and it has not yet been resolved, call the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit, toll-free, at 1-800-908-4490. MSN
THANK YOU
When you support Flathead Industries, you are supporting all of our facilities and outreach programs designed for people with disabilites
“We wanted to leave our children comfortable, but when we did our estate planning, we also wanted to leave a legacy with organizations whose work we love. We chose:
A Place To Call Home
The NeighborWorks Endowment will continue to accomplish its mission and make a lasting difference in the lives of future generations.”
A Place To Call Home
The NeighborWorks Endowment
Please consider a 33-year-old, stable organization whose mission is to create opportuntities for affordable housing, build strong communities and help create jobs, as you begin your estate planning.
Donate in any of these ways: • • • •
Bequest in your will Cash contribution IRA beneficiary Charitable gift annuity
• Real estate gift • Stock gift • Life insurance policy beneficiary
509 1st Avenue South Great Falls, Montana 59401 406.761.5861 • 866. 587.2244 • www.nwgf.org
DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015
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Big Giving for Small Nonprofits: How to Leave Your Legacy with Impact
Contributed Article By Gretchen Barry While no one likes reminders of their mortality, there are some decisions that you can make today that will leave good long after your time on Earth. One of the most important steps you can take now is to choose a smaller, community-based organization to gift a portion of your remaining assets. Stories of Giving Recently, I was reading the print edition of my small-town’s newspaper, and on the front page, I came across a story about a “modest” gentleman who passed away recently and bequeathed nearly $250,000 to a small music program in the mountains near my home. It was a lovely gesture since this organization does not typically receive these types of legacy gifts. This gentleman, though an avid attendee of the music program’s concerts, hadn’t donated money to this organization in years. As a result, this gift came as a complete, yet thrilling, surprise to the program – and that’s precisely what makes it so great. Another of my favorite stories of giving is that of Oseola McCarty, the laundress who left $150,000, her entire life savings, to the University of Southern Mississippi. Given her modest earnings and the fact that Ms. McCarty quit school in the sixth grade, nobody on the planet, except maybe her banker, knew she had that kind of cash to leave behind. Small Charities. Big Impact According to Giving USA, The Annual Report on Philanthropy, adjusted for inflation, total charitable giving in 2013 rose 3.0 percent over 2012. That’s great news! But I have always been intrigued by where people choose to leave their legacy. It is one of the last things we do, and it can be one of the most impactful final acts for family or a favorite charity. These kinds of stories give me pause as my husband and I are financially comfortable, and it is likely that we will have assets with which to leave our legacy. But where? We have made a decision to focus our legacy away from larger, more popular, organizations. I know they do great work, but there are thousands of smaller organizations who are doing good in the world, yet struggle to keep the lights on. Smaller organizations deserve attention, but unlike large entities that have the budgets to run national fundraising drives, smaller local charities struggle with resource constraints. It is personally reassuring to consider that these smaller organizations will benefit more deeply from what my husband and I leave behind. Our somewhat modest gift can make a huge impact on their mission. Consider that $100,000 won’t go very far in a big organization with hundreds of staff across the globe, and multiple expenses. But, imagine what $100,000 could do for a school in your community,
your local food bank, or a statewide environmental group. How To Give Big To Small Organizations: Your Legacy Field Guide 1. Create a list that would be worthwhile. Do a little research. Ask friends, family, or coworkers for their favorite charities. Check your local paper, your city’s website, local law enforcement, or social service agencies. 2. Look for organizations with operating budgets less than $1 million. These are the hyperfocused missions that can benefit from your gift. 3. Identify the causes on your list that are important to you. This should be the easy part. Is it animal welfare, education, homelessness, health care, the environment, or something else? 4. Narrow your list by determining what you believe will benefit your community or state the most. It doesn’t necessarily mean that their work only serves your community, but it does mean that the community as a whole benefits from its work or its presence. 5. Add the organization to your will or trust. Make sure to include any special instructions directing how the funds are to be used. Note: I caution against a request that prohibits the funds from being used for administrative purposes. The administrative functions make the mission happen and too many organizations are hamstrung by those types of requests. Wouldn’t it be cool if someone directed an organization to use part of their bequest to fund an annual thank you party for staff and volunteers, or to focus the funds on technology or building upgrades for the organization? Both are uses that will promote the effectiveness of the organization.
Just like Oseola McCarty, you have the power to support whatever mission is important to you. Consider directing a portion of your estate to a struggling mission and ultimately to those who benefit from that mission. You can still provide for your family and larger organizations with your legacy funds, just consider including at least one community-based mission. Leaving a legacy that helps others long after we are gone can change the lives of those in need. About The Author – Gretchen Barry is director of marketing and communications for NonProfitEasy, a technology company challenging the status quo for the greater good. MSN
Unpaid Student Loans Affecting Retirement Plans Outstanding student loan debt is a bane for recent grads, but it is on the rise at an alarming rate among the nation’s seniors. The Government Accountability Office reports that student loan debt among seniors has risen by more than 600% since 2005. Older Americans owed $2.8 billion in unpaid school loans in 2005, last year the amount of debt had increased to more than $18 billion. Twenty percent of those loans were understandably taken out to pay for their children’s education. But, the bulk of the debt, 80%, is the result of the failure of seniors to pay back the money they borrowed decades ago for their own schooling. Now it is having a negative impact on the retirement plans for many of them, particularly those on fixed incomes, as the government sets out to recoup the funds. Association of Mature American Citizens • www.amac.us MSN
Let Us Show You How to Make Your Money Work for You and Montana. Save up to $10,000 with the Montana Endowment Tax Credit.
www.mtcf.org
406.443.8313
DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015
Why are half-century-old childhood memories as vivid as this morning’s coffee or last Saturday’s hike? Is it because we are young, impressionable, and our sponge-like brains soak up every sensory and experiential input? Whatever the reasons, most of us can transport ourselves to our childhoods and relate those experiences as if we were characters in Back To The Future. This issue’s winning Remember When selection is by Paul Krebill of Bozeman who shares some of his childhood experiences in an urban environment that is very different from largely rural Montana. Thank you, Paul. Remember When contains our readers’ personal reflections, contributions describing fictional
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or non-fictional accounts from the “Good ol’ Days” or reflections on life in general. Contributions may be stories, letters, artwork, poetry, etc. Photos may be included. Each issue of the Montana Senior News features the contributions 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 February/March 2015 issue. Mail your correspondence to Montana Senior News, P.O. Box 3363, Great Falls, MT 59403; email to montsrnews@bresnan.net; or call 1-800-672-8477 or 406-761-0305. Visit us online at montanaseniornews.com.
Fun on a City Street By Paul Krebill, Bozeman I remember fun on the city street where I grew up as a child. While I am now a five-decade Montanan, my earliest childhood memories come from a suburb on the edge of Chicago where my parents and I lived. It was not far from the high school in Chicago where my father taught math. The 800 block of Marion Street in front of our house was my playground. There were cement sidewalks on both sides of the street, which was paved with asphalt between cement curbs, with driveways beside each house leading to a back yard garage. Without much traffic in those days and very few cars parked on our block, the street provided the playground for the kids in the neighborhood. My friends and I often played softball games on the street. After supper, we played other games such as Kick the Can, or sometimes a few of us would just sit on the curb and talk. Who knows what ideas those consultations would hatch for other activities on the street? In those days during hot summers we were delighted when the horse drawn ice wagon would slowly come clopping down our street. It came by slowly enough for us to hop aboard, snatch a small piece of melting ice, and then jump back onto the street where we could suck on a wonderfully cool sliver. As I remember, this innocent theft was all right with the iceman, but it did not sit so well with our parents, who in those days were fearful that such activity might lead to polio, still much of a threat in the 1930s. A few years later, summertime brought the Good Humor truck down our block. When we heard the tinkling bell and saw the truck down the street, we would run inside our houses to beg a nickel for an ice cream bar. We were usually fortunate enough to come out with a nickel – or better yet a dime, which would buy us a Good Humor bar covered with crunchy nuts in the chocolate covering. I remember vividly going with my parents to the Schwinn bicycle shop in Chicago when I was in eighth grade to buy my first bicycle. It was a wonderful black and yellow balloon tire LaSalle model Schwinn that I kept long into adulthood until finally in retirement selling it to a collector in Bozeman. Our street provided a wonderful place to ride my new bike, either alone or with my friends, sometimes racing from one end of the block to the other. But on rainy days when everyone was confined to his or her house, I remember being alone on my front porch during raging rainstorms, when dark clouds blanketed the street and the wind blew amid thunder and lighting. These were exciting times, and I would pretend that my porch was a ship as I watched the heavy rain pelting the street – an imaginary ocean on which my ship was being perilously tossed. Van Ee Apartments Sadly, the time came when our family moved away from Marion Street to a two-flat on a busy street on the other side of town. But my good old 800 block remains a source of many good memories of fun on the street that I have cherished ever since. MSN
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Before You Leave Home – Helpful Tips For Snowbirds
By A. Burke If you’re snowbirding, leaving home base for an extended time requires preparation. Day-to-day chores need to be kept up even in your absence. Yearly, for more than a decade, my husband and I have spent from three and nine months at a time away from home. To avoid the last-minute rush before departing, we find a checklist is the best reminder of tasks that require attention. Snowbird checklist: 1. Enlist the help of neighbors, family, friends, or a house sitter to watch your home while you’re gone. 2. Make sure a neighbor has a key in case of emergency. 3. Hire someone to shovel snow from your driveway, sidewalks, and mailbox. 4. Prepare a contact list and instructions for neighbors or the house sitter that include:
• Your cell phone number and “in case of emergency” numbers of someone local; • Your destination addresses, or an itinerary of planned stops; • Phone numbers for plumber, handyman, electrician, gardener, snow plow service, etc. 5. Arrange for bill paying. Many people pay bills online. If you prefer traditional payment by mail, have your bills forwarded to you weekly. 6. Mail forwarding. USPS will forward first class mail. But the most dependable system I’ve found is to set up an account with www.usps.com and “click-n-ship.” Enter your home and vacation addresses, print labels (one for each week you’ll be gone), and tape them to flat rate priority mail envelopes, available free from the post office. Your credit card is charged for postage (about $5.00 /label). With pre-printed labels, a neighbor or house sitter can weed out the junk, seal important mail in the priority envelope, and leave it in outgoing mail for the carrier to pick up, saving them a trip to the post office. In two to three days, you have your mail. 7. In cold climates, drain hose bibs and pipes that might freeze. If temperatures drop below zero, you might consider turning off all water to your home. 8. Set furnace thermostat to 50-55 degrees. 9. Unplug appliances and electrical devices that draw power unnecessarily. Especially remember to unplug space heaters that might cause a fire if left unattended. 10. Change batteries in smoke detectors. 11. For security, install timers on lights in various rooms to come on at different intervals. 12. Turn off cable TV and Internet services unless the company offers a reasonable vacation rate. 13. Stock up on prescriptions. If you use a national chain pharmacy, refills can usually be accessed from any location but be sure to confirm. For mail order prescriptions, provide the supplier with your
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temporary address or have refills forwarded with other first class mail. Keep a medicine list with you, including supplements and OTC drugs. 14. Bring a copy of important medical records including a recent physical exam, allergies, history of serious illness or conditions, surgeries, ECG, immunizations. With electronic records, your doctor may be able to put this information on a thumb drive to carry with you. 15. If you are traveling with pets, make sure they wear a collar with ID and contact info, including your cell number, in case they get lost. Micro chipping is helpful. Bring pet medical records, including immunizations, especially important if you’re traveling to foreign country. 16. Install a trickle charger on the battery of vehicles left at home. Or give a trusted friend the keys and ask them to drive the vehicle periodically to keep the battery charged. 17. Lock all windows and doors and set your alarm system if you have one. Be sure your house sitter or others who check your house know the alarm code. Advise the alarm company the names of people authorized to enter the premises. 18. Lock up valuables (guns, jewelry, computers, etc.) or leave them at a trusted friend’s home for safekeeping. 19. Make two photocopies of all credit cards, medical insurance cards, driver’s licenses, passports, and other necessary documents that are difficult to replace when far from home. Leave one copy with a trusted friend at home and keep one copy with you. 20. Check your calendar for upcoming appointments, events, or dates that require action, 22. If you’re driving, make sure your proof of insurance is up to date. If you’ll be away when the insurance card expires, you may be able to access a new card through your insurer online and print it out. 23. Request absentee ballots are sent to your temporary address. 24. If you send holiday cards, print address labels on your home computer before you leave and take the labels with you. When holiday season arrives, you won’t need to address each envelope. 25. Clean out all perishables from the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry that won’t last until you return. Ketchup and mustard are about all that’s left in our fridge. 26. Don’t invite burglars to break in by advertising you’re absence on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites. Now that you’ve prepared your home for an extended absence, kick back and enjoy the sunshine in the snowbird paradise of your choice. MSN
DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015
President
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