Southside Boomers - Spring 2016

SOUTHSIDE

BOOMERS

A DAILY JOURNAL PUBLICATION

SPRING 2016

Wing Men

Boomer pilots still thrilled by the miracle of flight

INSIDE

To Indiana with Love: Woman left England for her husband

Masonic Home’s multisensory room

Travel: Grand Bahama a quiet island getaway

SOUTHSIDE

BOOMERS SPRING 2016

Across the Pond

ON THE COVER

Native of England moved to Johnson County with her American husband.

SOUTHSIDE

BOOMERS

SPRING 2016

A DAILY JOURNAL PUBLICATION

Wing Men

Boomer pilots still thrilled by the miracle of flight

INSIDE

To Indiana with Love: Woman left England for her husband

Masonic Home’s multisensory room

4

Alzheimer’s Aid Travel: Grand Bahama a quiet island getaway

Soaring Onward and Upward Boomer pilots find joy in getting airborne.

Indiana Masonic Home’s multisensory room provides therapeutic care.

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c/o Daily Journal 30 S. Water St. Second Floor, Suite A Franklin, IN 46131

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ALSO INSIDE Lori Borgman: Adult coloring is all the rage .......................8 Medicare Q&A....................................................................9 A grandparent’s love .........................................................13

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LOVE

southside boomers I spring 2016

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Coming to America

Longing for home remains even after many years away

By CHERYL FISCUS JENKINS Correspondent

A

painting hangs on the living room wall as a memory of the streets and buildings of England, which Bob and Pauline Warner once called home.

The gift was handcrafted by Bob’s mother from a photo she had taken while visiting her son in the Air Force there. It is one of the few items Pauline has to remember her homeland, which she left years ago to be with her spouse in America.

The Warners spent almost five years in England together after meeting at the local NCO club in 1979. Each was out with friends, not looking for love, but over time they became comfortable with conversing and having fun together.

“I was kind of shy and not into dating then,” Pauline said. “He kept asking me to dance.”

The 71-year-old never dreamed that evening’s meeting with her future husband would eventually bring her to Indiana, where cold winter temperatures and driving on what she considers the wrong side of the road can wreak havoc on the spirit and mind. She was comfortable in her homeland with family and friends close. Moving to the States seemed foreign.

“I never planned on living in another country,” said the Whiteland resident. “I loved England. I was so upset, I cried for two weeks.”

The union between Bob and Pauline took Bob and Pauline Warner in their Whiteland home. They met in Pauline’s native

England while Bob was in the U.S. Air Force and Pauline was in the Royal Air Force./

SEE AMERICA, PAGE 14 PHOTO BY DON MEYER/CORRESPONDENT

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southside boomers I spring 2016

COVER STORY

T H G I L F AN L P Dennis Kruckeberg sits in his 1949 Piper J-3 Cub at Greenwood Airport.

Boomer pilots enjoy life on the fly

G

STORY BY AMY MAY PHOTOS BY MARK FREELAND

rowing up in the 1950s, three little boys looked toward the skies and dreamed of soaring there. For one boy, it started with building model airplanes in his room. For another, it was watching birds fly and later, flying kites.

And for a third, it was an aviator father and a bright yellow airplane, a family heirloom.

All three boys grew up and joined the military, where they learned to fly and enjoyed aviation-related careers. They are friends and enjoy teasing each other about the superiority of Air Force vs. Navy pilots. Now retired, they still reach for the skies at the Greenwood airport as volunteers and trainers, helping others realize the dream of flight.

Training the next generation Roger Tomey, 67, Greenwood, a ground instructor with Jeff Air Pilot Services at

“Pilots track their lives by the number of hours in the air, as if any other kind of time isn’t worth noting.”

Michael Parfit, “The Corn was Two Feet Below the Wheels,” Smithsonian Magazine, May 2000 Greenwood Municipal Airport, has always been fascinated by flight. He grew up building model airplanes.

“I’ve always loved airplanes since I was a kid,” he said. “I joined the Air Force and loved being around all the planes.”

He was in the Air Force from 1968 to 1972. He was a ground instructor but did not learn to fly himself. After discharge from the military, he worked for a railroad for 25 years.

COVER STORY

southside boomers I spring 2016

From left: Pilots Samuel Murray, Roger Tomey and Dennis Krukeberg look at art in the Greenwood Airport lounge.

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He finally flew himself in 1991, when he took private lessons at Greenwood airport.

“What a blessing it is to be able to do something like this,” he said.

He worked with area schools and helped form the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program.

Chapter1354 meets at the airport, and Tomey is the coordinator.

Young Eagles is for children ages 8 to 17. Private pilots donate time and fuel to take them up in a small plane for their first flight, benefit almost 2 million kids have enjoyed.

Young Eagles also offers access to an FAA-approved online flying course, the first flight lesson, access to further training and college scholarships, and a monthly flight-related magazine.

Jeff Air Pilot Services is a flight school. As the ground instructor, Tomey teaches twice-weekly classes for paying customers who want to earn their private pilot’s license. Ground school, he explained, is a 30-hour course all private pilots must take. Subjects include aircraft systems and their functions, rules of flying (airmanship), aeronautical meteorology, navigation and aviation regulations. Proficiency on these subjects is necessary to fly safely and is required to pass the FAA’s written test.

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southside boomers I spring 2016

“The hardest part about learning to be a pilot is the ground knowledge test,” he said.

A student pilot must also take lessons with a flight instructor and log the required hours flying a plane to earn a private pilot’s license.

Tomey does not do this. “I’m not that brave,” he joked.

His knowledge of the science behind flying also makes him a good teacher for the up-and-coming aviators in the Young Eagles program. Tomey said he especially enjoys seeing kids realize that the subjects they are learning in school have a purpose and can apply to something that interests them.

“You see kids with no interest in math or science, then they come here and see what you can do with math and science,” he said.

An adventurous career If a vehicle has wings — and even if it doesn’t — chances are Dennis Kruckeberg, 69, Greenwood, can fly it. He has flown small private planes and commercial jets, as well as gliders, helicopters and hot air balloons. Even at age 5 he was flying, although it was only a radio-controlled plane.

“I’ve had a very diversified career and a very fortunate career,” he said. He figures he’s flown 20,000 hours in 69 different aircraft in his 53 years of flying. He still hasn’t tired of it and likely never will, he said.

“Basically, I was into it from day one,” he said. “My dad was a World War II pilot, my uncle flew bombers,” he said. “I soloed at age 15 and got my commercial license the day I graduated from high school.”

At age 15, he worked at a small airport near his hometown of St.

Top: Dennis Kuckeberg and his son, Kevin, with .their Piper J-3 Cub. Above: The tail of the plane shows the Cub logo.

Louis and spent time around pilots and airplanes. He and his dad purchased and restored a Piper J-3 Cub. After graduating from college in 1972, he joined the Navy and was assigned to be a search and rescue pilot in Vietnam. He was stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. The World War II-era ship was sunk in 2006 off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, and is now

COVER STORY

the “Great Carrier Reef,” an artificial reef.

After Vietnam, Kruckeberg was assigned to the recovery team for NASA’s Skylab as a helicopter pilot. The Skylab missions, he explained, came after Apollo 16 and were the first long-term space excursions. Astronauts conducted various experiments and monitoring of space phenomena, and the health of the astronauts was studied. The module would come back to Earth with a parachute and land in the ocean. Kruckeberg’s job was to find it and drop a SEAL team in the water to stay with it and radio a ship to come and pick it up.

He finished his Navy career as a helicopter instructor. After his discharge Kruckeberg flew a corporate jet for AMAX Coal, flying executives all over the country. He was featured in Flying magazine in 1984 when he worked for AMAX. He then flew a Boeing 717 as a commercial pilot before retiring in 2007.

He once owned a hot air balloon, which he really enjoyed. “They are so quiet,” he said. His balloon was used in a scene in “Little House on the Prairie.”

He met astronaut Gus Grissom in the 1960s when they were both flying gliders.

Kruckeberg has been storing his plane and flying out of the Greenwood airport since 1998. His sons, Dennis Jr. and Kevin, both grew up flying and soloed on their 16th birthdays. Dennis, the older of his sons, died in an aviation accident in 2001. His daughter, Kathryn, is not an aviator.

Kruckeberg still enjoys flying. He and Kevin take the Cub to Columbus or Muncie for lunch. There is a community of private pilots. Most of them know one another and will arrange to meet

southside boomers I spring 2016

COVER STORY someplace for a meal, but the real goal of the trip is to fly somewhere.

“It was my career, my job. I liked it. I’ve been all over the world,” he said. “I started flying because it was fun. I always said when flying wasn’t fun anymore, I’d retire. It’s fun to fly now. Now, it’s just for us,” he said.

He also enjoys volunteering with the Young Eagles program and helping his friend, Roger Tomey, with ground school at the Greenwood airport.

Flying through history The Rev. Samuel Murray, 67, grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. One of his household chores was feeding scraps of bread to the birds in his yard. “How I loved to watch the birds take off, fly and land,” he said.

When he wasn’t doing his chores, he would find a shady spot under a tree and watch airplanes take off and land at the nearby airport. “Each time I saw an airplane landing, I would dream it was me inside the airplane as pilot,” he said.

Saturday morning cartoons and a friend’s father who taught the boys to fly kites further piqued his interest in aviation. He also remembers a science teacher, Freddy D. Shepherd Jr., who used a small radio-controlled airplane to teach some theories. Murray’s

favorite pastime became drawing aircraft.

Several events of the civil rights movement would touch Murray’s life as he was growing up. One of his sister’s classmates was Denise McNair, one of the four girls killed in the racially motivated church bombing in Birmingham in 1961. His kindergarten teachers, the Rev. John and Connie Rice, were the parents of Condoleezza Rice, the first African-American woman to serve as secretary of state. John Rice was also Murray’s youth league football and baseball coach.

Murray graduated from Ullman High School in 1967 and won an athletic scholarship to attend Tuskegee University (then called Tuskegee Institute), a historically black college founded by Booker T. Washington. There he met his wife, Jacqueline, and they had a daughter, Dana.

All male students at Tuskegee were required to enroll in ROTC. In his senior year, Murray entered the flight instruction program.

His instructor was Charles Alfred Anderson, one of the Tuskegee Airmen. Anderson once flew first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, an event covered in the newspapers at that time. That incident prompted President Franklin Roosevelt to activate the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Army Air Corps unit of African-American pilots to enter com-

Family heirloom plane passes to third generation Dennis Kruckeberg’s 1946 bright yellow Piper J-3 Cub is 2 months older than he is.

The J-3 Cub, built from 1937 to 1947, was originally designed to train World War II pilots, but it turned out to be so versatile and reliable that it was used for a variety of military and civilian purposes. The two-seater goes approximately 80 mph and can fly for about two hours before refueling. It has no heater, and the cockpit has only four gauges and a compass. The wings are covered with fabric, and it can be flown with the canopy closed or open. It’s so lightweight that if only one person is flying in it, he must sit in the rear seat or the plane will be unbalanced.

Kruckeberg and his father purchased it for $900 when he was a teenager and restored it together. His dad passed it down to him when Kruckeberg returned from Vietnam. A couple of years ago, Kruckeberg passed it to his son, Kevin.

“We’ve worn out three engines,” Kruckeberg said.

They have kept the aircraft historically accurate, even down to the standard chrome yellow paint, which is known as “Cub

SEE PILOTS, PAGE 15

SEE HEIRLOOM, PAGE 15

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southside boomers I spring 2016

COMMENTARY

LORI BORGMAN Stay calm and color on

he only coloring books I had as a kid were of Cinderella.

When I heard that six of the 20 top-selling books on Amazon are adult coloring books, I thought they were updates of Cinderella these many years later.

You know, pictures of Cinderella with bunions on the feet that used to wear the glass slippers. Pictures of Cinderella with gray hair and an extra 20 pounds. Pictures of Cinderella and the Prince with little birds helping find their reading glasses.

Wrong on all counts. Coloring books for adults are coloring pages with intricate patterns, garden, animal and nature themes. Others feature cities, architecture, Harry Potter and swear words. Yep, you read that right.

The adult coloring book craze is touted as a wonderful way to relax, although if you’re coloring swear words (may I suggest red?) you might be better off in an anger management class.

Libraries are falling all over themselves hosting adult coloring nights. They are strictly BYOCP: Bring Your Own Colored Pencils.

Despite the popularity of the craze, there is something slightly jarring about it.

If my doctor colors, I don’t want to know about it.

For some reason, I’d be more understanding if our accountant colored. Maybe it’s because of the stress of working with numbers and the government, and the fact that he’s at a desk most of the day anyway.

Now if our insurance guy unpacks his laptop and I see a coloring book in his bag, we’re finished.

When our kids were growing up, I felt the same way about coloring books that I did about Barbies. I wasn’t likely to buy them, but if someone else did, that was fine.

Our kids had Anti-coloring Books. They were coloring books with a sentence or two on each page that gave kids ideas of what to draw and then they colored their own pictures. They say that kind of thing is too stressful for adults today. Adults need to have guidance and structure — pictures with lines. And someone to cap their washable

2016 TO-DO LIST 1. Organize garage.

2. Make dentist appointment.

markers. That’s not true; I made that last one up.

We’re all looking for ways to reduce stress today. We work at relaxing so hard that it has become a major source of stress.

Last week I was talking to a woman whose eyes were darting back and forth as she pondered out loud whether she’d have time to work in a massage that day. Her schedule was full, but give that woman a crow bar and she’d find a way to crack it open and really relax.

A study on cardiovascular patients, from a team of doctors in Italy and the UK, examined the relationship between stress and music with different tempos. The conclusion was that slow and relaxing music decreased blood pressure and heart rate. They also concluded something else — people’s bodies relaxed even more during the pause between the tracks of music.

Silence. Imagine that. B Lori Borgman is a columnist, author and speaker. Email her at lori@ loriborgman.com.

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southside boomers I spring 2016

MEDICARE

Social Security Q&A:

How often are reviews done for Extra Help plan

By Tribune News Service

Q

Will my eligibility for the Extra Help with Medicare prescription

drug plan costs be reviewed and, if so, how often?

A

If you get the Extra Help, Social Security may contact you to review

your status. This reassessment will ensure you remain eligible for Extra Help and you are receiving all the benefits you deserve.

Annually, usually at the end of August, we may send you a form to complete: Social

Security Administration Review of Your Eligibility for Extra Help. You will have 30 days to complete and return this form. Any necessary adjustments to the Extra Help will be effective in January of the following year. Go to www.socialsecurity.gov/ prescriptionhelp for more information.

This column was prepared by the Social Security Administration. For fast answers to specific Social Security questions, contact Social Security toll-free at 800-772-1213 or visit www. socialsecurity.gov

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southside boomers I spring 2016

Room for all

By JENNIFER WILLHITE Correspondent

C

aring for aging parents can be a challenge. But for boomers whose parents are suffering the effects of moderate to severe dementia, finding the right long-term care facility that offers out-of-the-box treatment options in addition to traditional therapies can be even more challenging.

The Indiana Masonic Home is one of the few long-term care facilities across the country that now offer a controlled multisensory room open 24/7 to patients suffering the effects of early-onset and moderate to severe dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It’s called the Snoezelen room. The term “Snoezelen” comes from the Dutch “snuffelen” (to seek out, to explore) and “doezelen” (to doze, to snooze).

“The purpose of the room is when our residents are having

HEALTH

Multisensory environment provides therapeutic experience for dementia patients

difficulty, such as behaviors, pacing, anxiety or wandering, they can go in there, and it calms and relaxes them,” said Sandy Coram, memory care director for the Indiana Masonic Home.

Developed in the 1970s, Snoezelen rooms are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative treatment that may be used in conjunction with conventional drug therapy. Converted from a former private patient room, the Masonic Home’s Snoezelen room is a therapeutic environment that features a variety of visual, auditory and physical stimuli, including two tubes 12 inches in diameter that reach nearly floor to ceiling — one filled with bubbles and the other with balls.

“The tubes aren’t totally full,” Coram said. “But the bubbles and balls float throughout their respective tubes in a calm manner.”

Additional features of the room include multiple projectors that flash images on the walls and ceiling and a chair that emits sound and vibration. “We have a projector that projects stars

on the ceiling and another that projects pictures of old movie stars from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s,” she said. “And a third projector that flashes calming scenes, like beaches and national landmarks, on a full wall like a movie theater.”

When people hear about the chair, they may think massage, which is not the case, Coram said. Instead, this chair has speakers that emit music. When it is turned on, the chair will lightly vibrate to the bass of the music, she said.

Typical exposure time in the room can be as little as 30 minutes or as long as 45 minutes to an hour. It is entirely dependent upon the resident’s response, she said. The whole sensory experience is geared toward and led by the resident, who is always accompanied by staff, so the resident decides when to go in and what sensory experience he would like to have. The Snoezelen room is designed to accommodate up to three residents at one time, she said.

The Indiana Masonic Home’s new Snoezelen room features bubble tubes that change color to coincide with a screen that shows calming environmental pictures. PHOTOS

BY DON MEYER/CORRESPONDENT

southside boomers I spring 2016

HEALTH

11

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Resident Mary Lewis, left, and Sandy Coram, memory care coordinator, sit in front of an infinity mirror in the Snoezelen room.

“In the evening when we have residents who are wandering and pacing the unit, we take the residents in the room and turn on the calming scenes and music,” Coram said. “It is on staff to determine there aren’t residents with conflicting attitudes or personalities in there at the same time.”

So what do residents think of the room?

Coram said their response has been amazing.

She said one of the residents, who accompanied a nurse to the room to help her identify some of the movie stars being projected on the wall, was very hesitant to go in.

“The resident, who is in the early stages of dementia, said as she left the room, ‘Every member of my being is just floating along.

This is just like heaven.’ Now if that isn’t enough to melt your heart …” Coram said.

The use of the Snoezelen room has definitely offered a new and refreshing therapeutic approach to dealing with traditionally difficult issues, Coram said. “The room gives us an outlet to help these residents that have dementia,” she said, “and assist and take care of them without adding more medication.”

Many of the staff are simply in awe of the room and its effect on residents, she said. The main challenge for staff when using this treatment approach is time management. Staff, who may feel their day is filled to capacity, may not think they have the additional 30 to 45 minutes to accompany residents to the room.

The other challenge is getting the staff to see the room for what it is.

“Once the staff uses the room and sees the outcome for the residents, then time management isn’t usually a thought anymore,” Coram said.

Todd Smith, administrator for the Indiana Masonic Home, said the overall reaction to the room among staff and residents has been tremendous, he said.

“We are very fortunate to have this on site.

It is something not every facility is able to do,” Smith said.

He also said he hopes his facility inspires others to offer the same type of therapy to their residents. “I see it as a model for any facility within the state or within the country,” he said. “It is a multisensory room that has the utmost benefits with Alzheimer’s and dementia care.”

The 100-year-old Indiana Masonic Home, which once functioned as an orphanage, is home to more than 300 residents, and just more than 100 of them reside in the health center, where the multisensory room is located.

Introduced in November, the Snoezelen room was made possible by a year-long fundraiser spearheaded by Masons and Eastern Star members across Indiana. The statewide fundraiser netted an estimated $43,000, all of which was put toward the room.

“You just think of a room and wonder, ‘How great can you make it?’” Smith said.

“This is an example of how great you can make it.” B

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southside boomers I spring 2016

Consider Grand Bahama for a quiet island getaway

TRAVEL

By GLENN ADAMS The Associated Press

white-sand beach. Same at Freeport’s International Bazaar, a marketplace of shops and boutiques — now mostly abanooking for a low-key winter getaway or quiet spring doned, shuttered, silent. Under the shade of a palm tree near break destination? Grand Bahama may be your place. its main gate, a checkers board, pieces still set on squares, lay It’s one of the main islands of the Gulf Streamuntouched as if waiting for the next move. warmed Bahamas archipelago of 700 islands, cays and inlets But we found our bliss at Albertha Cooper’s restaurant. It’s sprawling across the waters off southeastern Florida. Our a bit out of the way, but worth the expedition.

February trip saw temperatures locked between 70 and 80 At the far eastern end of the island in McLean’s Town, a degrees, with an occasional spurt of rain at seaside village known for its annual conchnight. cracking contest, we happened upon If You Go At restaurants, it wasn’t unusual for the Cooper’s tidy little drive-up restaurant.

GRAND BAHAMA three of us — my wife, brother-in-law and There was no menu to be seen, but she Bahamas tourism website: me — to be the only ones there, although gladly obliged us with her specials for the www.bahamas.com some places buzzed with activity. With the day. I chose the fried conch plate. Asked Numerous flight options to exchange at 1:1 U.S. dollar to a Bahamian where the conch was caught, she pointed to Freeport, including frequent dollar, the prices all seemed reasonable, the turquoise cove a few hundred yards to service from South Florida and the practice of factoring tips into the our backs. airports, plus ferry service bill made transactions even simpler.

“Right there,” she said with a smile. from Fort Lauderdale for the Beaches in many areas were quiet, with The conch came with a helping of ricefour-hour trip to Grand an occasional trickling of cruise ship pasand-beans and coleslaw. My wife chose Bahama. Planes and boats sengers now and again making their way three lobster tails with sides, and her brothconnect Freeport and across the glistening sand, wading out to er chose the ribs plate. Add a couple of Nassau. reefs and checking out ships dotting the beers and a rum and Coke for drinks, $52 horizon. This was the case at Gold Rock total for our feast for three.

Beach at Lucayan National Park, which at On another outing, we drove to the west side for a day of $5 per head is a don’t-miss stop just a few miles east of snorkeling and relaxing at Paradise Cove, a friendly and inforFreeport along the Grand Bahama Highway.

Tour companies and taxis make trips to the park, which fea- mal resort near Dead Man’s Reef, 15 miles from Freeport.

Getting around the island was easy, though driving itself is tures trails to an underwater cave system where pre-Columbia bit of a challenge: You drive on the left side of the road, but an artifacts have been discovered. Another part of the park many cars also have steering wheels on the left — different (be careful crossing the highway) offers trails whose meanderfrom both the U.S. and British systems. ing boardwalks lead through a mangrove ecosystem featuring Of course Grand Bahama is but one of the islands in the saltwater fish, waterfowl and wading birds.

Bahamian chain. Nearby Paradise Island and Nassau (the Tour companies also offer activities including kayak trips Bahamian capital on New Providence island), offer more through a mangrove forest, sightseeing by bike or Jeep, all-ternight life. Atlantis, with its more than 2,300 rooms, casino, rain vehicle rides, snorkeling and birding. For the more water park and what it calls the world’s largest open-air adventurous, there’s parasailing and even (gasp!) shark feedmarine habitat, is also a major draw for visitors. ing dives.

Eleuthera and Harbor Island offer quieter settings in an We spent a week in a rented house in Freeport’s Xanadu atmosphere that retains trappings of the British loyalists who Beach area, noted for the 13-story resort once owned and settled there centuries ago. Eleuthera, where fishing and pineinhabited by Howard Hughes and haunted by Hollywood jet apple farming are king, boasts well-developed resorts, pink setters. Now the high-rise stands eerily silent, its once-vibrant surroundings looking desolate as we looked on from the quiet sand beaches, rocky bluffs and large coral reefs. B

L

Top: Gold Rock Beach in Lucayan National Park on Grand Bahama island. Above: The boardwalk along the mangrove trails in the park./AP PHOTOS

southside boomers I spring 2016

GRANDPARENTING

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The love between grandparent and grandchild is grand

By BARTON GOLDSMITH Tribune News Service

M

y ex’s daughter just had a baby girl, and the joy that is in this new grandma’s eyes and heart can only help heal the cancer she has been battling for the past decade. It has been a difficult journey for her, but now things have brightened because a baby came into her life, and she has more to live for.

It has been said that “children of my children are twice my children,” and grandchildren just have that overwhelmingly positive effect on most people. I have several clients with new grandbabies, and I get to see a lot of pictures. People just can’t help themselves when they get this new love in their lives.

It tends to go unspoken, but one true place where we can receive unconditional love is from our grandparents. Hopefully, the love goes both ways. Perhaps it’s wisdom that comes with age — the true understanding of love that comes with time — that gives grandparents the ability to love forever from the very core of their hearts this tiny being who will be there for the rest of their lives. So it makes sense that grandparents may spoil the kids a little, because they know that this won’t last forever.

The relationship between grandparent and child is magical. It is as though each of them senses each other’s emotional needs and, without really thinking about it, mutually meets them. This sense of connection is a very powerful healer and life enhancer.

Most of my grandparents were gone by the time I was old enough to know them. My mother’s father was alive, but we seldom saw him. He didn’t speak English well, being from Sweden, but he played a mean concerti-

na (mini accordion), and he liked to fix clocks — one of which I still have, and it still works. I was too young to realize his limitations and really didn’t see them. I just enjoyed listening to him make music and try to talk with me. Very few words, but I remember his eyes and that he was a kind man. At least I had that, and it did make a difference.

These days, we are seeing more grandparents taking on the full-time parenting role because their kids just can’t take care of their own babies, for one reason or another (and none of which are good enough). If you bring a child into this world, that is your No. 1 priority, and if your parents need to help out, most will, but it’s not an excuse to abandon your family. If you all work together, you can make things better for everyone concerned, especially the kids.

My mentor, Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, first had the idea to bring infants and toddlers to rest homes to help the aging reconnect with life. Now there are homes that care for both children and elderly residents, and it is a wonderful energy exchange. This is quickly becoming a standard of care that has broad positive effects on all who participate.

If you are getting on in years and have no grandchildren of your own, and you want to interact with youngsters, there are plenty of safe places for that to happen. Start with your local community center or call the social services department of your county. Programs are popping up all over the place. And you can always start your own. Kids and older folks, related or not, need each other. B Dr. Barton Goldsmith, a psychotherapist in Westlake Village, Calif. Follow his daily insights on Twitter at @BartonGoldsmith

Get Get the theSpring Spring back backininyour yourstep. step.

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southside boomers I spring 2016

LOVE

Left: Bob Warner in front of an aquarium in his home. Right: Pauline at her piano with a Victorian kitchen clock from the United Kingdom./PHOTOS BY DON MEYER/ CORRESPONDENT

America FROM PAGE 3 time and nurturing. She was independent, divorced and a single mother. She enlisted in the Air Force at age 17 and left after several years. She worked in an office before marrying Bob and always wanted to remain a working woman to stay humble.

Bob, 67, was born in Missouri and moved often as a child. His trip to England was simply another deployment, but he missed his daughter, who was living with his parents in Illinois. Pauline and Bob mostly went out as buddies in a group, until one evening when a friend suggested that they ride together since they were the nonsmokers of the pack.

“In about five sentences, he told me everything about his life,” she said.

The love story began with a few roadblocks.

“I asked you to marry me about a hundred times, and you always said, ‘no,’” he said.

Pauline said yes to his proposal on New Year’s Eve 1979, retracted it on New Year’s Day 1980, then said a final yes several months later. When Bob said he loved her enough for the both of them, her heart melted.

Above: Pauline in her Royal Air Force uniform. Right: The Warners on vacation in Scotland./SUBMITTED PHOTOS

The Warners married in June 1980 in Illinois, so Bob’s family could be part of the festivities. After the ceremony, they moved his daughter to England so she could experience a different culture.

“I just wanted her to be with us,” Bob said. “I thought it would be a good experience for her.”

The family spent four years in England until his orders came to move back to the States.

They were living in temporary housing, and all of their belongings had been shipped to their next home base in Texas. Two days before

moving there, orders changed, and they were to go to Grissom Air Reserve Base in northern Indiana, where Pauline had many cultural adjustments and some unexpected reactions.

People thought she talked fast, she said, and would make references about her being from a “Third World country.” She was shocked at the cost of health care in America. She remembers one night her friends being frightened for her and also laughing as she drove home from a Bible study on the opposite side of the road.

The Warners spent four years at Grissom until

Bob retired in 1988, taking a new position at Naval Air Station Pensacola in northern Florida, while Pauline started a house cleaning business.

They enjoyed the sunshine and warmth there for 21 years. Eventually, though, they left after being close to one child in Florida and moved near another child in Whiteland.

“He came home one day and said it’s too hot, let’s move,” Pauline said.

After eight years they have settled into their rural Indiana home and become active at Franklin Christian Fellowship Church, participating in Bible studies, cutting the grass and helping with the church directory. They have seven grandchildren with an eighth on the way and mostly travel now to see family.

Pauline flew to England as much as she could until her mother died three years ago. On that trip, she took many pictures of places she treasured from her youth and young adulthood. As a Christian, she feels as if meeting Bob and all of their travels have been part of God’s plan, but one day, she would like to visit her cousins in England and experience the culture again.

“England is my home,” she said. “I miss it. I love England.” B

“I asked you to marry me about a hundred times, and you always said, ‘no.’”

Bob Warner

southside boomers I spring 2016

Pilots FROM PAGE 7 bat in World War II. Murray enjoyed training with Anderson, flying a small Cessna called Echo. He remembers when his wife went into labor with their second child, a girl named Jarens. Murray told Anderson he would be unable to attend training because he needed to go to Birmingham. Anderson assembled some other cadets, loaded them aboard Echo and allowed Murray to fly them.

He was invited to take the Air Force ROTC pilot’s qualifying examination and received the highest score ever at Tuskegee. After college, Murray joined the Air Force as a second lieutenant. He was stationed in Texas and California and flew the B-52 in several missions in the Vietnam War, for which his unit was decorated. Later, he was an instructor on the T-38 Supersonic Talon jet trainer in Columbus, Mississippi.

He was honorably discharged in 1982 and decided to take another journey toward “loftier heights” and entered seminary at Lexington Theological Institute in Kentucky. After completing the program in 1985, Murray served as a pastor, campus minister, hospital and prison chaplain overseas and

“I started flying because it was fun. I always said when flying wasn’t fun anymore, I’d retire. It’s fun to fly now.”

Dennis Kruckeberg Greenwood in several states, including Indiana, where he served at Indianapolis Light of the World Christian Church.

“Currently, I am retired and serve as a Sunday school teacher and elder at Light of the World Christian Church,” he said.

He volunteers with the Young Eagles program at Greenwood Airport and enjoys sharing his love of all things aviation and putting flight into a historical context for the young people. He is a member of the Indiana Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, which honors the accomplishments and perpetuates the history of African-Americans who participated in air crew, ground crew and operations support training in the Army Air Corps during WWII. He also serves as a chaplain and past president of the Indianapolis Tuskegee Alumni Club for graduates of the school living in the Indy area. B

Heirloom FROM PAGE 7 Yellow” or “Lock Haven Yellow.” But they did add one modern touch: a radio to communicate with control towers and other pilots.

Kevin Kruckeberg has been a licensed private pilot since he was 16. “I pretty much grew up in a cockpit,” he said. “I was legally allowed to fly a plane before I could drive (a car),” he said.

He lost his brother, Dennis Jr., in a plane crash in 2001. He was a student at Indiana University. Although grief-stricken, the Kruckebergs still wanted to fly their plane. Kevin said it’s always a risk. In fact, aviation always made his mother nervous.

“We make sure we maintain (the plane),” he said. “We fly when the weather is perfect. It’s a hobby and it’s transportation. You can look down at the traffic and be glad you’re not in it.”

Kevin said he appreciates the family legacy, both the love of aviation and the airplane.

“My dad spent time with his dad learning. It’s just one more thing to carry on. I can appreciate the history of it now that I’m older,” he said. “We can try to pass the aviation legacy on. It’s a career path a lot of people don’t take.”

They’ve also instilled a love of flying in Henry, Kruckeberg’s 5-year-old grandson. He had his birthday party in the Cub’s hangar at the Greenwood airport.

Even at age 5, he recognizes individual airplanes. Whenever they fly over his house, Henry runs outside and waves, Kevin said. B

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