Aging Lifestyles from Creators Syndicate

It's a Big Pain in the Back for 08/15/2008

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

For two weeks now, my wife, Kate, has been hobbling along on one leg and a cane, tending an extremely sore back.

It all started innocently enough. After a rainstorm left the ground soft, she decided to weed our flower bed. Like many older adults whose joints aren't as limber as they once were, she used a roll-along seat. In spite of this precaution, she toppled off the stool when attempt ...

Updated: Fri Aug 15, 2008

Yes, You can go Home Again for 08/22/2008

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

A number of years ago, a friend moved into a house right next door to her parents. Then her brothers and sister also built homes in the family compound.

At the time, my wife, Kate, and I thought they were crazy — we couldn't imagine all that togetherness. We still can't, especially since we believe short visits with relatives are enjoyable. When living so closely together, everybod ...

Updated: Fri Aug 22, 2008

Remembering Another War for 08/29/2008

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When Joe Nichols came home from the war, he gave me his Navy uniform. After cutting it down a bit, I wore it.

But Joe and Les and Alan and Tom, and the other young men in the neighborhood, did not talk about the horrors from World War II. I was just a few years younger; they called us the Silent Generation.

Maybe we have been through too much in our lifetimes — the Depressio ...

Updated: Fri Aug 29, 2008

Why Retire? for 09/05/2008

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Most of us start dreaming about quitting when we are in our mid-50s. We are bored with our jobs, tired of repressive bosses and, generally, disenchanted with the tedium of going to work every day.

We ask ourselves, in the famed words of Peggy Lee, "Is this all there is?"

Finally, at 65, many of us call it quits. Although these days, thanks to the downturn in the market w ...

Updated: Fri Sep 05, 2008

Sleep Apneas Can Be Helped for 09/12/2008

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When Kate and I were first married 12 years ago and invited our young grandkids to spend the night, they had a favorite sport. They'd wait until I went to my room for a nap. When they were reasonably sure I must be asleep, Alex and his younger brother, Parker, tiptoed into the room to my bedside.

“See, I told you he looked just like a spaceman,” Alex said. Then both boys giggled and ran ...

Updated: Fri Sep 12, 2008

AARP Turns 50 for 09/19/2008

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

That venerable voice of Americans over 50, AARP, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year and is stronger than ever. But a decade ago, when I retired as an AARP speechwriter at the Washington D.C. headquarters, things looked bleak.

Membership did quit after a year at 35 million. It was difficult to get baby boomers to join, and many who did left after a year. Strategists at headquarter ...

Updated: Fri Sep 19, 2008

Traveling with Relatives for 09/26/2008

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Over the years, we've enjoyed many trips traveling with our relatives. Now, we are older and caught between two generations — our much older relatives and our adult children. And we notice that things have changed over the years.

We're telling you about some of our experiences to pinpoint some of the issues that may arise through the years.

KATE'S TRAVELS

< ...

Updated: Fri Sep 26, 2008

A Wedding from a Senior Perspective for 10/03/2008

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Our daughter, Pam Rigaux, recently married her sweetheart, Cameron Gerlach, 58, after a four-year courtship. It was Pam's first marriage at the age of 47, making us the parents of the bride for the first time — at 71 and 73.

Our role as ancient parents helping a "mature" bride to the altar was a bit different than it would have been 25 years ago. For one thing, she had ut ...

Updated: Fri Oct 03, 2008

Shopping for Cell Phones for 10/10/2008

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Maybe you bought a cell phone some time ago that included a contract of two years or more. Now the contract has expired, and you realize that there are aspects that you no longer need.

A few years ago, my wife and I bought Verizon cell phones (at about $179 each) and a two-year family plan contract that included 700 minutes each month — far more than we need. We usually use less th ...

Updated: Fri Oct 10, 2008

Good Old Days for 10/17/2008

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Politicians and just plain citizens have been accusing the press for nearly everything these days. For example, the decline of the economy is being blamed on the press, among others, for failing to alert us.

And the Republican standard-bearer, John McCain, has accused the papers and just about every TV network — except Fox — of practicing "Gotcha" journalism. Report ...

Updated: Fri Oct 17, 2008

Lessons of the Great Depression for 10/24/2008

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

They learned economics the good old-fashioned way — not in the classrooms of prestigious colleges, but instead in the factories, the fields and the soup kitchens of the Great Depression.

Now these people are in their 80s and 90s, survivors of hard times.

Yes, hard times are returning. No, not the grinding poverty of 1933 when 25 percent of the country was unemployed and stoc ...

Updated: Fri Oct 24, 2008

Aunt Jean's Final Days for 10/31/2008

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Aunt Jean, 92, was an independent single woman who had lived by herself all these years, far from her relatives, in a small Tucson, Ariz., garden apartment with a view of the majestic Santa Catalina Mountains. She resisted every entreaty to move closer to family members or to enter into any kind of retirement facility.

Aunt Jean's fierce independence had been both a strength and a weakne ...

Updated: Fri Oct 31, 2008

Adapting to a New Environment for 11/07/2008

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

I'm turning this week's column over to my wife, Kate, to give her version of how to adapt when you find yourself transplanted to a new environment:

Six years ago when Joe and I moved to Frederick in the foothills of western Maryland, near Camp David, we arrived with quite different expectations.

Ebullient Joe was fired up with the chance to meet new people, embrace a new way of li ...

Updated: Fri Nov 07, 2008

Honoring Our Fallen Soldiers for 11/14/2008

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

When they fell before the musket and cannon fire at sleepy places named Bull Run and Shiloh, the young Civil War soldiers were buried in fields and churchyards. At Antietam in the Maryland countryside, just a few miles north of Washington D.C., 5,000 were slaughtered in one day of fighting. Some were left where they fell in cornfields.

Abraham Lincoln thought the war dead deserved a bett ...

Updated: Fri Nov 14, 2008

Sharing Time Together: Vacation with Grandchildren for 11/21/2008

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Taking three grandchildren — and their parents — along for a tour of the Grand Canyon can cause some unexpected moments.

WE LOST GRANDMA

Oh, she didn't fall into the 5,000-foot canyon, nothing so dramatic, but she did disappear while I was hiking along a trail on the rim of the canyon with my 12-year-old granddaughter. We were walking along at a vigorous pace. ...

Updated: Fri Nov 21, 2008

Goodbye for 11/28/2008

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The call came from an editor at my syndicate, Creators Syndicate, the other day.

She said simply, "I know that this is the first time we have talked and I am sorry to bring bad news. But we are no longer going to be using your column."

Copley News Service of San Diego had sold its syndicate to Creators last summer. I had been one of the columns in the deal.

After ...

Updated: Fri Nov 28, 2008

Return of a Retiree for 12/12/2008

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

It seems like only yesterday when I announced in this space that I was retiring — forced out of work after almost half a century in the news business.

An editor at my syndicate, Creators, had called me a couple of weeks ago and said "we are no longer going to be using your column."

Creators had columns that overlapped mine, particularly in the elderly health field. ...

Updated: Fri Dec 12, 2008

A Dangerous Game for 12/19/2008

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

A legion of athletes, particularly professional football players, loses their health on the gridiron. Long after the cheering has stopped, these heroes limp through life in chronic pain.

Maybe, it's time that us seniors — whether former pros or just average high or college players — remind our grandchildren of just what they are getting into for the long run. It may not do an ...

Updated: Fri Dec 19, 2008

Seniors Can Keep up With the Kids, Too for 12/26/2008

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

There comes a time — many times, as a matter of fact — when an athlete realizes he no longer has the skills to, as the sports broadcasters love to say, "get the job done." Energy, agility and, finally, strength have vanished with the years.

There are enough stories, particularly this time of year, of athletes who are retiring. This, instead, is a tale of some of us ...

Updated: Fri Dec 26, 2008

Inheritances Make Mischief for 01/02/2009

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

What is it about money and inheritances that bring out the worst in us?

We discovered firsthand how it works from Mary Ann. A relative had asked her to be her power of attorney for both health and financial affairs and the executor of her will.

In addition, the relative wanted to draw up her will — and leave the bulk of her considerable estate to Mary Ann. Mary Ann set up an ...

Updated: Fri Jan 02, 2009