FEATS OF WILL

THE OLD RUSTY NAIL

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

An article by Elizabeth Svoboda in the October 2014 issue of the Discover Magazine with the title of this essay caught my eye.  As I read it, I realized that her message pertains to us old people.  The article begins with the epic swim of Diana Nyad who swam the channel between Cuba and Florida, a trip of 110 miles.  Without a protective shark cage and encountering swarms of venomous box jellyfish she made the swim in 53 hours non-stop. She had trained several years in preparation for this challenge. 

Of course such a swim requires a high level of willpower and physical effort which none of us will ever be able to achieve. Her feat was compared to the grueling training the Navy Seals receive with a drop out rate of 80% starting with mentally and physically highly fit men.

To determine more about their capabilities, Nyad and the Seals were given a constricted breathing test along with images of the brain using fMRIs technique.  Both showed similar changes in the brain which were different from people not trained to tolerate a high level of stress. Simply these people were mentally prepared to endure the restricted breathing stressor just as they had endured their rigorous training.  That is, Nyad believed her success was due to her ability to refocus her mind away from the stress and pain by using various conscious tactics.

In an attempt to develop a similar mind set a study was conducted on 200 Marine recruits who where given a course called Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training simply called M-fit.  They were given 20 hours of this training.  Their brain changes were found similar to Nyad and the Seals.  Simply by changing their perception of pain they were able to maintain their focus. Nyad sums up her ability by building her will to accomplish her vision. She has the ability to preserver in the face of great stress.  Simply she has made her mind up that what she focuses on she will accomplish.

So, can anyone do this mind-set thing and over come adversity?  The article notes that there is no doubt some DNA basis for developing such a will, but there is ‘a lot of flexibility’.  In other words the system is not fixed but ‘well honed attention focusing skills can be useful’ in overcoming lots of life’s adversities.

The article’s summation was simple in that ‘life is life - things are going to happen to you’. So, let’s prepare our brains for what life holds. And, for us lucky people who are experiencing old age ‘preparation’ is the key word here.

An analogy between the rigors, yes rigors, of old age and the above noted training of will I think can be found.  Of course there are some differences but there are also many important similarities. The differences are that the examples discussed are activities chosen by the participants to accomplish which have a beginning and an end resulting in a feeling of well-being of accomplishment.  And, the beginning is abrupt which results in stimulating or warning the body that some serious activity is beginning. Finally, Nyad prepared for her swim for many years; after the swim her preparations are finished. No doubt these differences which helped to bring success with perseverance do not apply to living with old age.  

Yes, we did not elect to enter into old age it just came along and for me without any warning.  Unlike Nyad’s story, preparation for old age must continue though all of old age. And, of course there is no feeling of accomplishment when it is completed for the end of the old age experience is simply death. On the other hand, we can enjoy a reasonable good quality of life during old age which we achieve with will and perseverance.

So there are many similarities which I think bare noting which gives me a certain amount of added perseverance as I tackle the stressor of old age.  There is no doubt that being old is a stressor in many ways.  Certainly, we are in some pain most of the time, we have less balance capability which results in falls some of which have killed people, we are less mobile thus most athletic activities can not be enjoyed, jogging for most of us is not possible anymore, simply walking in the park for enjoyment has become less fun, the realization that we have fewer years to live affects our focus on planning for the future and some of our sensory abilities have diminished such as vision and hearing.

So in many ways old age is more demanding than the high-energy-short-term examples used here as an analog as it is without end (well death) so the help of focusing as used herein which is a short-term fix can not work.  But, how we can focus to get us through these golden years is the will to do what needs to be done to slow its ever deteriorating effects. 

We all know that age affects our brain and body in a not so kindly manner.  Re the brain, many types of dementias are waiting to attack.  Our body loses muscle mass at the rate of 3% each month, bones loose their strength, and our immune system is not what it use to be – you know death from pneumonia is called ‘an old person’s friend’. Of course these old-age effects can be prevented or at least slowed with many well-known techniques which I have written about previously.  Here is where the Will Power comes into play to accept the challenges which arise by going to the gym; putting on those walking shoes; doing that crossword or Sudoku; reading more, writing articles for a blog (ho, ho) and, engaging in regular activities with friends.

And, like Nyad and the Navy Seals if the challenge is not accepted with these activities all is doomed from the start.  Also, these preparations can be started for a while in old age but not forever.  There comes a time when our unprepared mind and body just can not return to where it can function ‘normally’ resulting in a good quality of life. Certainly, old age can reach a ‘tipping point’ where there is no return and nobody wants to reside their golden years in an assisted living facility.  And, the older we get without preparation the easier it is to reach that tipping point.

I am convinced what is most dangerous to us is our inability to perceive the rigors of old age so we slip into it without any warning.  Perhaps there is a warning but the changes are so slow that it is not perceived as a warning.  You know a warning is a loud blast not a whisper. A race begins with the shot from a gun and I never heard that bang. No doubt, old age is a long-term challenge, if a person is lucky, and humans are not good at perceiving or preparing for the long-haul.  It is not in our DNA.

I have a friend who I frequently saw at the gym.  I have written about him here before in an article ‘A Friend Fell at the Gym’. His outlook on physically working out which is really not much fun always gave me added incentive and is relative to this essay.  He is younger than me but has suffered a stroke, so he is less fit and he struggles more with the weights.  Still, he smiles and says, ‘Never give up’.

Since he fell sometime ago, I have not seen him at the gym.  Perhaps he is coming when I am not there.  I hope that is the reason.  Otherwise his absence would be that he has given up.  I hope not….

Of course what was to be noted in what I have written is ‘will’ and ‘perseverance’ which is a mind set that gives people the ability to climb mountains, go through Seals training, swim from Cuba to Florida, and yes live old age with a reasonable quality of life.

PS:  I wrote this blog in April 2015 so I am nearly 4 years older. I can report that my memory is worse and my mobility is seriously impaired. I use a cane now and beginning to use a walker.  I will move into a retirement village the end of this month.  All of my long time male friends are dead.  I have two women friends still alive.  Yes, women live longer than men.  I wrote here some 4 years ago that I did not move into a retirement facility, but I have no choice.  Like Art Linkletter once noted ‘old age is not for sissies’.

  

GOLDEN AGE OF DRIVERS: 50-YEAR-OLD'S HIT HIGHEST LEVELS EVER

THE OLD RUSTY NAIL

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

This title caught my eye the other day when I was reading the Web news.  I stopped taking my local newspaper some time ago because of poor delivery service and the reduced content, many articles of which were my favorites.  So now I get my news from the Web, radio, and TV.  I was drawn to this title because I am always interested in old people not that 50-year-olds are old. Still the Golden Age in the title suggests that there might be something of interest for us mature people.  Suggesting 50-year-olds as part of the Golden Age bothers me a bit because when I was 50 I did not consider myself even close to being you know, old.

As I have written many times before I began to feel different when I reached the ripe-old age of 80, which is telling me that I have arrived at the Golden Age.  Still including these youngsters into my group does give us a lot more political clout.  There are 93.5 million licensed drivers 50 years and older.  Of those 3.48 million are 85 and older which shows that during those 35 years 90 million drivers were no longer driving.  I am sure most of those have died but some are not capable of driving anymore because of this old age thing.

Dividing 90 million by 35 shows that about an average of 3.6 million stopped driving each year.  Of course not many stopped driving in their 50s, more in their 60s, a lot more in their 70s and a much greater number in their early 80s.  I would guess that as many stopped driving the first half of the 80s than did in the entire 70s decade.  And, let’s not forget that half of these drivers had died by the age of 80. Of course as we get more old people we get more old drivers.  This article noted that by the year 2045 there will be an increase of 77% in drivers over 65. Of course I will not be one of them.

This figure should not be surprising as more people are living longer.  I read the other day that people born now half will live to be 100.  My goodness who will support them if they retire at age 65.  This retirement age is interesting.  I guess it is now something like 66.  The Democrats do not want it to be raised but the Republicans want it to eventually get to something like 70.  I am a Democrat but in this discussion I agree with the Republicans that this so called retirement age should be increased and I think 70 is a good age. 

I retired from the federal government when I was 68.  I didn’t want to retire but my job was going north to Ohio from San Antonio, TX and who wants to live in Ohio during the winter.  Even the summers can get pretty hot there.  In fact, I enjoyed my profession so much I would have worked until I was 75.  I was indeed lucky enjoying my job, well lucky is not the word I should use.  I graduated from Veterinary School in California when I was 24 and ready to enjoy my own animal practice.  I did practice veterinary medicine for six years, four of those I had my own practice.  I hated every minute of it.  But, I kept at it until one day I decided enough is enough.  I sold it and with my family returned to the University of California at Davis where I had graduated from Veterinary School.  Eventually from there, I earned my MS and then my PhD making my life-long career with the US Air Force in Texas as a scientist. 

As a researcher I could not get to work soon enough, I enjoyed my work that much.  So, clearly I worked at finding a profession I really enjoyed.  And, I am so pleased that I did not stay with my animal practice.  The couple who bought my practice, both are veterinarians stayed with it and retired in the same town.  He became the mayor which I supposed I would have become if I had stayed there.  They loved that kind of work – you know it takes all kinds.

They retired and started to travel the world.  In my profession, I traveled the world as part of my job so when I retired I wanted to stay home.  Oh well…

As, I look back on my life, which I think most old people often do, it has taken so many twists and turns, some of which were made by good choices and some not so good.  In doing this reminiscing I wander how I would have done my life differently.  And, I am not so sure I would have made many different decisions even those I think are my bad ones.  Certainly, when I made those choices, at the time they made loads of sense and certainly not snap decisions.

Getting back to driving now when I am an old person, I think I am a better driver than when I was younger.  I do not speed, I pass other vehicles with more care than I use to, and I think I break fewer laws.  Of course everyone breaks traffic laws as there are so many that not doing so is really impossible. I notice when backing up and passing I am more careful than when I was younger.  I have a friend who has a new car which on the dash shows a picture of what is behind her.  I guess it is helpful but I know that if I had something like that I would still turn around in my seat and look behind me before I started to back up.  You know old dog new tricks.

I guess I feel less pressure driving than when I was younger.  By pressure I mean getting in front of that guy in front of me for some unknown reason.  I find myself sometimes driving behind someone who is below the speed limit.  A few years ago that would have been unthinkable.  When I realize I am doing that I smile knowing that I am saving gas by driving a bit slower.

Thoughts of old people are different than younger people for some reason.  I guess one reason is that we have learned some things most of which have been for the better. And too we have made dumb mistakes while driving which we don’t want to repeat.  Yes, we have learned from those mistakes so I think old people without any form of dementia are probably the best drivers.

I know I will get an argument from some insurance companies and I remember a couple of years ago Chris Mathews from Hard Ball on TV was very out spoken about the dangers of people in their 80's driving cars.  Certainly this is a serious form of age discrimination and I am sure when he reaches 80 he will change his mind.  As I keep writing about, nobody understands being old nor what people are capable of when they reach 80 until they live that long and begin to experience the Golden Age.

 11/18

BEING OLD IS HARD WORK

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

Being old is hard work, it gets harder every day and no rests on Sunday. I have been old for nearly 6 years as I understand that being old began begins at age 80.  I read the other day that age 85 is very old. Yes. I agree with that definition but really describing it is in a sense surreal.  I have a difficult time understanding really what it is and that I am living it.  In a sense it is spooky.

Of course on the other side of the coin is less palpable so I am not complaining about this condition called old age I’m just trying to understand and  explain it.  All of my long-time good friends are dead. They have escaped this hard work of being old but then my life is still worth living.  I have never done this old living before so I am learning as I go.  Sometimes I make a mistake but hey, that is to be expected since it is my first try at it.  Yes, this is my first try at being old but then come to think of it, it will also be my last shot at it.  

One important symptom of old age and there are many and that is pain.  I have always been able to tolerate pain and old age is a very good test.  Primarily my pain is in my lower back (pelvic and lumbar regions).  Of course, this is a common malady of old people and for good reason.  We were not designed to walk upright, especially re our lower back region.  We evolved from walking on four legs.  And, as humans live longer this pain increases in severity and of course duration. And, living longer is also a relative new experience.  Life expectancy when ‘humans’ first began to walk upright was something like 35 years of age!  I had no aches and pains in my back when I was 35.

Re hard work, my activities today are pretty much common around my house.  I showered, made coffee, made the bed and had breakfast of banana nut bread which I made yesterday.  I decided to write some for my blog which I am now doing.  I watered my small backyard and took out the garbage in the container in the garage to the curb for the truck to pick up this afternoon. I will have to put it back into the garage after it is emptied. I did my 20-minute aerobics at the gym this afternoon and will play bridge tonight beginning at 6 PM.  Now, when I was a few years younger this much activity would have been much easier and not considered a busy day.  Oh well…

Yes, being old is a progressive process which gets harder every day.  I now use a cane more than I did last year and I know I will use it more in the future.  Just my daily chores which I just wrote about get harder to do as I get older.  Bending down to pick up something I have dropped by accident requires considerable concentration, effort and attention to balance.  But, I understand that I am in the small minority re my age to be able to pick something up off the floor! So, once again I should not complain.

I live in a house I bought about 15 years ago.  So, that would have made me about 70 years of age.  I did a multitude of repairs and improvements during the first 10 years.  I now marvel at how much I did and with great skill.  Of course, I could not begin to do those activities now.  I must pay someone to do them now or have my grandsons do some of them when they come over to help me.  Once again I must remind myself that just being alive at my age is quite remarkable.

Re being alive I noted the other day that at my age of 85 only 20% of us are still alive and nearly half of these survivors suffer from some of dementia. So, who’s complaining?

Of course, walking up and down stairs is difficult for me and can be a bit scary even with hand rails.  Without the support of hand rails I do not attempt to do those things.  I can still drive my car and in January next year which is only three months from now I renew my license.  This renewal at my age will be only for two years and at age 90 it will be for only one year.  Clearly Texas does not want old people driving and I understand why although I am still a good driver.  I am more cautious than I used to be but not to where I become an impediment.  So, when I reach 90 I plan to be out of my house and living in a ‘retirement village’ which fortunately I can afford. But still that thought especially giving up all of the collectibles over my lifetime which I see everyday reminds me of my past life and parents will be hard to accept but of course it will happen. I suppose these thoughts for most very old person are common ones but that does not make them any easier to accept.

One of my enjoyments and I still have many is my grandson Ben in his second year of college.  He applied for Willamette University located in Salem OR to major in some aspect of the environment.  He got a sizable scholarship which makes me proud. I have to pay the other half which I can afford.  I am amazed that he is going to this prestigious private college.  I’m so proud.

As I grow older I think more of my parents especially when they were my age now.  I did not appreciate their efforts in living this old age thing.  At times I wish I have been more attentive but I lived in Texas and they lived in California.  I visited them a couple of times a year and helped them out as much as possible.  Unfortunately, they did not make any plans for when they could no longer live in their house.

Not planning for their own future in old age was not fair to me.  They had saved a lot of money and had a good retirement income. Still, they just kept living alone and taking advantage of my friends who lived ten miles away to help them out.  My father was disabled with one artificial leg and suffered some form of dementia so at 88 he needed professional help.  So, I moved them to Texas and put my father in a retirement/nursing home.  He hated it.  My mother who was legally blind lived with my wife and me for a couple of years until she too had to move to where my father had lived before he died.

I write about them because they did not take care of their retirement support needs and left it to me.  That was not fair to me and will not happen to my son.  We live 11 hours by car from each other.  He has health problems and has a busy psychology practice so he does not visit me which I understand.  When it is time I will move into a local retirement home/village, but I will put that last major activity off as long as possible.  I have paid $250 to be on their waiting list.

I write this blog not to complain but to explain as best as I can what being very old is like for me and I suppose for some of my readers.

Updated 10/18

A FRIEND FELL AT THE GYM

THE OLD RUSTY NAIL

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

Yesterday at the gym, a man I see there on some days, fell and I guess hit his face on the carpet.  I did not see the accident but I saw him sitting on the floor with his back against a straight back chair with a man kneeling beside him.  I quickly walked over to help him noting his scratched nose and that he was bleeding from his left arm.  As with my arms they were bruised which is common when a person is old and taking any drug which increases the blood clotting time.  I showed him by bruised arms with a smile noting that this being old thing is not at times fun.

I have written about him before noting his friendly face always smiling.  He walks with a limp using a cane.  I believe he must have had a stroke.  Still, he lifts weights on a regular basis which I am sure his physician recommended.  When we greet each other we laugh noting that we are still alive. When we part for the day he always says, “Never give up.”

Oh his technique in weight lifting is not really very good.  Now we both use machine weights which allow us to lift them without any great skill.  Still when lifting the weights each lift should be accomplished without putting the weights back to a resting position.  That is when you start performing a specific exercise you repeat it usually 15 times (reps) before you put the weights down. This exercise is called a set.  Usually three sets are performed with minute rests between each set for a given exercise.  He does but one set and places the weight down each time (rep) he lifts a weight.

So his technique is not great he still gets some physical wellbeing out of it.  I do not know how old he is but I guess that he is a bit younger than me and of course because of his ill health he is physically older.

Falling down is always humiliating for an old person especially so when there are people around to see it happen.  Even when I am alone and I fall, I am embarrassed for some reason.  I suppose my feelings represent the vulnerability which I have just demonstrated and a person does not want to feel out of control.

But what is interesting about falling is young kids do it all the time and jump usually laughing.  An old person certainly can not jump up but why we are humiliated by it I do not understand.  Perhaps we need to think more like young kids and laugh about it.

After I talked with him I went back to lifting weights.  In a few minutes I saw a policeman arrive with the EMS personnel.  They got him off the floor sitting up in the chair and began to take his vital signs which they recorded on their e-pad.  I am well aware of this activity for my wife has on several occasions has become unconscious because of low blood sugar.  She is a diabetic.  I always phone her at 8 in the morning to be sure she is alright. We live in different homes about 20 minutes apart. Of course when she does not answer the phone I call EMS whose personnel are attending to her when I arrive. Of course this type of e-recording makes life much simpler for them at the end of the day.

In a few minutes all of the medical help had left the gym.  My friend with assistance from several of the gym employees helped him to a chair nearer the entrance to the gym.  I finished my workout and as I was leaving I walked over to him to wish him well.  I asked if I could help him get home but he reclined for he was capable of driving.

We briefly talked about seeing each other next Monday after the weekend.  I am sure he will be there for he does not want to ‘give up’.   There is no doubt when a person gives up because of old age infirmities that person will not live much longer.

This article is shorter than most but like I wrote in the Preface the length of the article depends on what I have to write about.  I had to write about my friend falling at the gym because falling down is common with old people and sometimes with very serious consequences.  And to me, something about writing about it reduces his embarrassment.

Written 3/15

Since I wrote this article March of 2015 my wife suddenly died of a heat attack on 20 December of that year. She was 17 years younger than me but being a diabetic is a serious disease.

The friend I wrote about I do not see at the gym anymore.   

REMEMBERING

THE OLD RUATY NAIL

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

I suppose this very long blog will be more fun for our grandchildren to read than for us old people still it is always fun to bring back fond memories.  So, I will write about mostly my fond memories. And, these remembrances will tend to be in chronological order and of course many of them will be in regard to the evolution of technologies and the advances in medicine.  And too, the cost of things back then is always fun to recall.  All of this must be mixed in with some of my younger personal life.

My memories of technologies begin when I was about 4 years old.  I recall vividly the first time my family and me used an elevator without an operator.  It was rather scary for we had never been in an automated elevator before.  There were no instructions my Dad just pushed buttons and it started going up.  Would it stop when it was supposed to? 

My second recollect was when I was in the second grade.  I was six years old then for my folks first enrolled me in school when I was five.  My birthday falling in the middle of the school year (January 15) posed a dilemma when I should begin grammar school.  There were no kindergartens.

At this time 1938, I was an only child when we moved from State College, Pennsylvania to Newel, South Dakota.  My folks had decided to buy a new car just before we moved.  Their old car I remember was a Rockne which was named after a celebrated college football coach named Newt Rockne who coached at Notre Dame.  There has never been a more famous college football coach.

College football was far more popular than it is today and pro football was of little interest to anyone.  The invention of television changed all of that.

In the mid 1930s the Rockne Car Company was bought by Studebaker.  My father received a Studebaker metal tag to put on top of the Rockne tag on the front grille.  Also in that grille was a hole through which a hand-operated crank could be placed in order to start the car if the battery was dead.  In those days batteries were not very reliable.  Today, the Studebaker Car Company is just a memory.

Our new car, a 1938 rust colored 4-door Chevrolet was purchased late in that year for $600.  It was a demonstrator which meant that it had been driven by people interested in buying a new car.  The dealer returned the mileage to zero when my folks bought it.  This car was extremely modern in many ways.  It had a push button radio and a headlight dimmer head-light indicator attached to and under the dash board which is to say that it was not incorporated into its design. It had a stick shift located on the floor.  The next year Chevrolet had it moved to the steering wheel column and the dimmer light was now in the dash board.  Of course automatic transmissions were not available.

Rubber tubes were inside the tires which were necessary to inflate them.  There were no seat belts.  I always rode in the passenger side standing on the seat so I could look out to keep from getting motion sick.  Of course this was very dangerous for me but then it was not recognized as such.  This car got 15 mpg gas mileage which was standard.  Of course there was no air conditioning.  We had that car through the Second World War (WWII) my dad and me having to replace the engine.  It was traded in for a 1946 Buick.

We lived middle class with my father working for the federal government as an office clerk with an annual salary of $18,000.  We lived in a new two bedroom government house with indoor toilets, known than as a modern house for many houses still had outdoor toilets. I think the rent was $25 a month. In our kitchen was an electric refrigerator which was very small by today’s standards with the coils on top of it.  It was made by General Electric.  Many if not most homes kept their fresh foods from spoiling in ice boxes containing a huge block of ice which of course had to be replaced a couple of times a week. Our house had newly invented window and door wire-screens to keep out bugs. It was hard to believe that wires could be woven so closely together to keep out small bugs like flies and still be able to see through them.

For entertainment we listened to the radio which was by today’s standards very large so it was a notable piece of furniture with a design that fit into the living room décor.  It operated using several vacuum tubes which had to be replaced when the radio began to work poorly.  It was AM as FM was not available.  So, static noise was common some days when the weather was just right making listening to any program a bit unpleasant.   

Right after grammar school was out in the afternoon, the radio serials for kids would be broadcast.  When we lived in town, I raced home to listen to those 30-minute programs which included Superman, Capitan Marvel, and the Green Hornet.  In the evening were the more adult shows such as Dagwood and Blonde, Fiber McGee and Molly, and my favorite I Love a Mystery. The most fun thing about the radio back then was using your imagination about what the characters looked like and the action when you heard the show.  When I saw Superman in the movies with his red pajamas on I almost vomited for I had imagined a real Superman with bulging muscles who could really fly (well actually it was a huge jump).

Certainly that was a major stimulus in developing brain imagination.  Where is that stimulus today?  On the other hand, is such a brain activity of much value in real life? But, I know one thing my imagination is great fun and I enjoy it everyday.  It was particularly in play when I wrote my novel Mary as I envisioned every scene.

The first board game for entertainment was Monopoly and it was very popular.  I suppose the fact that everyone who played it was a rich person which was extremely rare then for 1938 was in the middle of the Great Depression.  Many men worked for the WPA which was a federal government work program receiving $1 per day.  Woman rarely worked back then so families lived on one income.

All of the card games we play today such as bridge, poker, whist, etc. were played back then which was a major entertainment component – more so than today.

The only technology which could be used as entertainment such as today’s electronic games was a game of pinball.  This game was played on a large machine found mostly in bars and some cafes.  Under a glass window a small steel ball was, using a button mounted on the side, manually shot into a complex set of flappers, and holes for the ball to fall into. Powered by electricity, bells rang, lights flashed, and a score was recorded which indicated the skill of the player.  For many decades this was the only ‘e-game’.

Newel South Dakota was about 60 miles north of Rapid City which was the big city to go to for shopping.  Newel had a population of a few hundred.  I remember the family physician was a drunk so my folks got medical care from the local pharmacist who was college educated and knew medicines.  Not that anyone was capable of curing anybody for medicine was extremely primitive.  In the late 1930s I had my tonsils removed which was commonly done and because I got serious colds each winter.  The surgery was performed in Rapid City at a Catholic Hospital.  I was terrified of the nurses all dressed in their black garb. They used ether for an anesthetic. Today, tonsils are rarely removed.

My mother and I spent the summers of the late 30s and early 40s in Nebraska living on my grandparent’s 240 acre farm.  My grandfather until 1940 farmed it with three work horses.  Now that is hard work 6 days a week.  He finally bought an Oliver tractor to do that work only after the insistence of my uncle.

The only vaccine available was for small pox, so I contracted many of the childhood diseases which included both types of measles, mumps, and chicken pox none of which was fun. And now, some parents do not want to have their children to be vaccinated.  Go figure… 

Of course the discovery of Poliomyelitis vaccine was exciting.  I remember in 1949 a fellow high school senior got sick and died within a few hours from Bulbar Poliomyelitis.  Thousands of people were crippled for the rest of their lives from this disease including President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Many people afflicted with this disease could not breathe so they lay on their backs with their chests inside a machine to help them breathe called an iron lung.

Thinking about dying and longevity, it was on my mind some when I was growing up as I suppose is thought by most young people.  You know how long will I live?  Because I was born in 1932 my goal was to live to see the next century come in.  Yep, if I could live to see 2000 that would be great.  Okay, the 21^st Century begins on 2001 still just to write that 20 instead of 19 would be quite a thrill.  Yes, I would need to live to be 68 which at that time was the life expectancy of men.  I am now 86 and still pretty healthy looking for several more years of life and the date is 2015!  Now, life expectancy for men has increased more than ten years to near 80.  I read the other day that half of the people born today will live to be 100!

Antibiotics were not available until the mid to late 1940s even though the basis for them was a specific kind of mold discovered by Fleming in 1932.  The first one was Penicillin which was truly a miracle drug for curing bacterial diseases.  Earlier were the sulfonamides which although not nearly as effective as antibiotics were at the time useful in fighting some bacterial diseases.

On our trips to Rapid City we would stop for lunch at some restaurant.  I always ordered a BLT sandwich which cost 25 cents.  My mother was never pleased with my choice because she could make it at home for much less money.  I don’t remember what they ordered.

My folks made a phone call to my Mother’s aunt who lived in California.  It cost several dollars and took many minutes to accomplish for it had to go through many switch board operators (all were women).  So, the call was placed and the phone was hung up to wait for the operator to phone back that the call was all connected so that the conversation could begin.

My favorite toys when we lived in South Dakota were brightly painted small lead soldiers with different types of guns.  I had several of them which cost 5 -10 cents each. I played many hours with them outside and inside the house. I was an avid postage-stamp collector beginning when I was in the third grade.  I still have that stamp collection.  This hobby is not nearly as popular as it was back then.  As these stamps were from all over the world, I learned geography so I knew what country a certain stamp came from at an early age. 

These thoughts about my postage stamp collection got me remembering the cost of sending mail.  A regular letter cost 3 cents took several days because it went by train.  If a person wanted it to go by airplane it cost 6 cents.  This stamp always had a picture of an airplane on it.  A postcard cost just 1 cent to mail and they were used much more than today.

Jigsaw puzzles were another common form of entertainment which of course is similar to those we have today.  My mother and I worked long hours in evenings putting them together.  You know no TV!!!!!!

Of course children played outdoors more than today.  Thus getting far more exercise.  One popular game was kick-the-can.  Usually several boys and girls played it after school and on weekends when we didn’t have chores.  Chores, you know small jobs children were required to perform each day about the house. A can would put outside in an open area.  The person who was ‘it’ closed his or her eyes while the other children hid.  The person who was ‘it’ would search for those hidden.  When a hidden child was spotted they both raced back to be the first to kick the can. 

Black and white movies were shown in this small town and I believe only on weekends.  At lease that was the only time I went to them.  I enjoyed Hopalong Cassidy western movies for they were not violent.  Movies in color were not available at that theater for I remember my folks traveling to Rapid City to see ‘Gone with the Wind’.  I was left behind to play with friends for it was not my kind of move to watch.

When showing a local movie there was always a News report.  One time it showed a new invention called television.  The one they showed was of course experimental and was huge the size of a room with a very small screen.  I was amazed that such a thing could be done and sure this capability would never be found in my home if I lived to be 100.

In the 1930’s commercial air travel was by the Douglas DC-3 which was a rather small propeller driven aircraft with a capacity of I guess 30 people maximum.  It was not pressurized so it flew not much above 10,000 feet.

In high school 1946-1949 I took typing my sophomore year.  I typed on a manual typewriter and for copies carbon paper was inserted between sheets of paper when typed a carbon copy would be made; hence the name ‘carbon copy’. What followed was the electric typewriter, then one with a memory card, and finally the computer (word processor) with the key board.

Of course with many invented technologies such as the transistor, printed integrated circuits resulting in much smaller radios and small computers which according to Moore’s Law will double the number of transistors about every two years.  And, his prediction has held up for over 40 years.  His law warned us that change at first was slow but then more rapid until it would change at an extremely rapid pace as it does today.  As an example, TV was not commonly available until the early 1950s.  I remember seeing my first TV picture which was black and white shown as a display in a retain store when I was a freshman in college in 1950.  Then came color TV all with picture tubes until now flat screen TV is most common. At that time in the 1940s computers were only available for the military which used vacuum tubes with little capacity and the size of rooms.

In the mid 1960s I was conducting physiological research at the University of California at Dais when I talked my boss into buying a Marchant Underwood computer.  I programmed it to do correlation coefficients using two magnetic cards which could be accomplished in less than a minute.  Using a regular calculator it required 30 min with a high error rate.  That simple computer was larger than an electric typewriter and cost $4200.  Today a computer with thousands of times more capability fits into the palm of your hand and costs a few dollars.  You know, Moore’s Law…

Oh there are numerous advances in technologies I have witnessed which I could write about but enough is enough. Of course the take-away from this article is that we old people have witnessed many major changes in medicine and, technologies.  Back then life was not nearly as assured as it is today.  Modern technology had not begun; workers’ productivity was probably 20% of what it is today even though they worked physically much harder. Family life was different and much more difficult than today even for the middle-class; yet, we had fun and enjoyed life perhaps in some ways better than today.

Of course all of us old people remember what I have just written, but it is fun to remember and in a way relive those times. This article has grown more and more as I continue to remember another thing about the good old days. So I close my walk down memory lane hoping you enjoyed it as much as I have remembering and writing about it.

Written 3/15

MY GRANDAUGHTER’S BIRTHDAY PRESENT

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

My granddaughter lives about 11 hours by car north of where I live.  So, our conversations are by phone.  Her birthday was to be a couple of weeks away so I asked her father what she wanted for her birthday.  A few days passed I received a nice card and note letting me know that she wanted a SRL camera. 

She is a very bright cute 8^th grader who is particularly good at playing the saxophone in her school band.  But, her note as with all of my grandchildren’s was not hand written as cursor is no longer taught in schools.  So her note to me was printed using a mixture of capital and small letters.  It was difficult to read and to me showed a form of illiteracy.  Of course that is not true for all of my grandchildren are very smart getting good grades in their schools.

I remember when I was in grammar school especially in the eighth grade cursor was a requirement.  Oh sure we were never able to duplicate the handwriting that was displayed on the classroom walls for us to attempt, still all of us learned to write a script which could be read without much difficulty.  And, it showed to all who read it that it was written by someone who was literate; you know the three r’s reading, writing, and arithmetic. 

I fail to understand why cursor is no longer taught in schools.  Oh I suppose some private schools still teach it but that too is probably rare. 

Back to my granddaughter’s gift; I soon learned that SRL meant Single Reflex Lens with certain adjustments which are important for serious photographers.  All the cameras I have owned have been the ‘point and shoot’ kind and much cheaper than the kind she wanted.  And, I believe this is her first camera.  But she explained in her note to me that she wanted to have photography as her hobby and this kind of camera was important.  I guess playing her saxophone at which she is very good is not considered a hobby.

Of course what could a grandparent do other than go to Costco and look for a SRL camera which I could afford?   But, it was not just what I could afford but what makes sense for a 13 year old girl.  I write makes sense because to me lavishing expensive gifts on children I believe can be detrimental to their perspective regarding their middle class status in life.  You know she could get use to such expensive gifts so that when she grows up her life becomes a disappointment when she may not be able to afford the gifts she enjoyed when she was younger.  Now she will be looking not at a camera but a car.

And, I fell into that trap when I got to Costco and began to look for her camera.  Of course they were all digital which made me recall a lecture I had at Chautauqua a few summers ago.  The lecturer was the man who invented the digital camera.  He is an engineer who worked for Kodak.  He showed us the first photograph which he made from it.  Of course his digital camera was huge with a computer connected to a lens, etc. but the photograph although not great was recognizable.  I think this was back in the 1960s.  Kodak was not interested in his invention for it had a lock on the film industry and his camera did not use film.  Using Moore’s Law, he predicted that such a camera would be commercially available in the late 1980s.  He was absolutely correct to Kodak’s peril. 

Back to my granddaughter’s gift, the cheapest one was $300 which had been discounted to $250.  I tried to understand something about it so I could make a reasonably sound decision.  But as I read what it did and how it worked none of it made any sense to me.  You know instead of film it had a card with a certain capacity which I did not understand.  As I was trying to make sense of any of this a salesman walked up and showed me a $200 camera which had been discounted to $100, a very good buy he noted.  Yes, but it was not a SRL camera.

He then showed me what my downfall became for a day for I enjoy good deals, you know big discounts.  Here was a SRL camera originally priced at $900 discounted to only $500.  It was loaded with all kinds of extras including two lenses.  He noted that this camera could be considered one for professionals.  Perhaps but I know a professional photographer and each of his cameras cost several thousand dollars.  Still, the discount hooked me and the salesman noted that it included a carrying case worth $100.  So I bought it that is at Costco I filled out a card went to the cashier and paid for it on my credit card.  I took the paid slip to the guy who guarded the expensive items all enclosed in a huge wired-walled cage.  Out he came with this huge box.  Now, I was not expecting anything like that but he convinced me when he showed me a picture of the camera on the side of the box.

Needless to say, I immediately began to have regrets regarding my purchase; you know ‘buyer’s remorse’.  Of course what raced through my mind was that I was going against my better judgment regarding giving expensive gifts to a young person.  As I thought about my purchase through out the day and into the night, I decided that I had made a mistake.  So, the next day I returned it.  Costco is very good at returning purchases so as I explained my decision the two women at the counter agreed with me as they looked carefully to see if the seals had been tampered with.  Credit was applied to my card and I walked over to the camera department and once again looked at other SRL cameras. 

Without any hesitation I bought the $250 camera.  Even this price was a bit much so I decided that this gift would include Christmas.  You know not lavishing gifts on young people.

On her birthday I gave her a call through her father.  Oh I am sure she has a Smart Phone but I do not know her number. I got a message on his cell phone so I began awaiting his return phone call to wish my granddaughter a HAPPY BIRTHDAY. The phone rang in the afternoon and it was my granddaughter phoning me on her phone! We chatted for a bit including a Happy Birthday.  She enjoyed the camera already taking it outside to photograph some animals.  It’ fun to make people happy.

In retrospective, I think I understand what had happened regarding my buying her first present.  Of course much of it is a result of this age-gap thing which I guess will always be there when grandparents attempt to relate to their grandchildren.  Certainly the age-gap thing raised its ugly head when I began my adventure in buying her a camera.  Much of it has to do with wanting the best for your grandchild without spoiling her and that is a complicated thought process.  And of course, the big discount of several hundred dollars on that certain camera mudded the water even more.

I guess it all goes back to when I was her age in 1945.  World War II was about to end, which had dominated my understanding of life and money was an important factor for I was working that summer for 50 cents an hour and of course paying $250 for a camera back then would have been unthinkable.  I guess I will carry that baggage with me until I die. 

Written 2/15

WHAT NOBODY TELLS YOU ABOUT TURNING 80

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

This title and idea about aging is stolen from a Web article by Annie Tomlin from Refinery 29 published on 3 March 2015.  It had the age at 30.  Oh my turning 30 for me was very long ago but I remember it like it was yesterday for it came as a shock about this aging thing.  It seemed to me that I was in my 20s forever.  I wanted to be 21 for obvious reasons and it seemed like I could never reach that age.  Suddenly, now I was 30.  I have explained to many people that that birthday was the one I remember as the most traumatic.

I write that 30 was a tough age for me but I must admit that 80 is right up there as an eye opener. In some ways reaching these ages are similar for when I hit 80, like I explained when I reached 30 it was a shock to me.  It seemed I had been in my 70s forever and feeling like I was in my 50s.  I kept asking myself what is this old age all about?

The article I am referring does not describe my trauma when I turned 30 and it applied mostly to women not men for sure.  It showed the face of one woman and another picture of a woman’s lower face showing off her red lips. As I am a man it was hard to relate to this article but it did give me some good ideas about this 80s thing.

The first grey hairs and face wrinkles were noted as a shock to someone turning 30.  Loss of collagen explained why their body skin in certain areas begins to wrinkle.  Of course all of this happens big time a half century later when you reach 80.  Wow, did I just note that it has been half a century since I turned 30. As noted in the article, finding these body changes were called ‘self discovery’ which of course is really telling when you reach 80.  Thinking now about self discovery at my age includes, poor balance, sometimes falling flat on my face when walking, a mild drop foot, aches and pains all of the time, white hair not grey hair, and more wrinkles especially in my lower body, you know from loss of collagen.

The article notes that at 30 a person knows who you are, starting to make serious strides in one’s career, and generally kicking ass.   This kicking ass thing I don’t understand but of course our primary careers are now long gone but we certainly know who we are.  If you don’t know who you are at 80 you will never know.  I write primary careers are long gone which is true but for me and others we still manage to do things each day which we could call a career – well calling it a career is stretching it a bit.

In my retirement I have taken up some serious hobbies like I am sure most everyone has when a person has lots of time on their hands.  For me it was painting acrylics and watercolors, doing some stained glass, cooking, some cabinet building and remodeling my condo, and now my interest is in writing as I have noted before.  I was able to sell a few paintings and stained glass works but my writing financial status has been less successful.  Oh I wrote a novel and have sold a few of my e-books.  But, now my ‘agent’ has notified me that a screen writer is looking at my novel.  I guess that means some thoughts of it becoming a movie.  I am supposed to hear a couple of weeks from now regarding her decision.  Hey by the time this article is printed, my name might be up in lights. (No that never happened for it is now 2018)

I note when this article is published on my web site for I have many more written before I get to this one.  Writing these things is fun for me so I write many more than I can publish at the rate of one each month.  I guess the logical answer is to publish more than one a month but then I would begin to feel some pressure that I have to sit down and write.  At my age, I do not want to feel any pressure.  Oh I can always juggle my articles to appear when they would be most appropriate.   

This article notes that growing old is a good thing.  Well at age 30 I guess that could be said with some truth.  But like most everything a person can get too much of a good thing.  I will note that growing old is one of those things.  In a way it is a lot like eating too much candy and getting sick, old age is full of many fun memories which could only have happened if a life is lived.  And like candy, too much can make someone sick and old age has a way of making people so sick they die from it.

Dental changes were noted when reaching 30.  Oh, I guess I had a few dental problems at that age but I don’t remember them.  Of course dental problems occur at a faster rate as a person grows older.  I guess we all have crowns on some teeth and for many false teeth and now implanted teeth.  I write for many because when I was about to have some serious surgery a couple of years ago, my anesthesiologist was shocked to find out that I did not have a bridge or a mouth full of false teeth.  She also noted that I did not look like I was 80 years old which was great news for this suggested to me that I had a chance of coming out of this surgery alive!

I think that letting people know that they are aging when they are 30 is a good thing for a person should realize that fact throughout their entire life.  Now, I don’t mean to dwell on growing older but realize that decisions during your life are important because some depend on age.  And, age is something that can not be recalled like wanting to start over because I didn’t do the right thing back then.

For me this came to my attention when I was addressing a few freshman veterinary students during our 50^th anniversary of our graduation in 1956 from the University of California at Davis Veterinary School.   Obviously this would have been in 2006 after I had been retired for some six years.  Each class member who could attend (about half of the members of my class were dead) gave a brief statement to those few freshman students who were ‘required’ to attend.  As I looked at those young faces my mind raced back to when we had been freshmen full of idealistic expectations regarding our future for we had been selected to our freshman class as one out of ten who had applied.

I suppose I gave them the best advice they received that day for I simply said, “Don’t let your life get away from you.  Live it each day for when you look back on it like we are doing today, our career in veterinary medicine began just like it was yesterday and suddenly it is gone and it can’t be restarted.”

Now, what got my attention with this article about growing old at 30 is that aging is a physiologic factor that is a sure thing at all ages.  It all starts when a person is born.  Immediately, age begins its relentless march and will not quit until a person dies.  Yes, when that happens age has finally been conquered but at a serious price.

Written 2012

ANOTHER FUNERAL

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

Just returned from another funeral of a person I had known for many years.  We worked at the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine but in different departments.  He managed the School physical plant support Branch where many of his employees helped me with my research presentations at various science conferences.

He was known as a very adept politician which he used well in rising to the highest grade level a civil servant can attain outside of the super-grade positions.  He was very good at his job and he was worshipped by those who worked for him.

But, this article is not just about him but my take on the funeral or rather the Celebration of Life which these things are called as an attempt to eliminate any thoughts of death.  This death word is an interesting one which people do not like to hear or even give reference.  In my local paper the section containing obituaries has been replaced with ‘Life Tributes’.  Once here is another example of an attempt to rid our minds of any thoughts of death.

Killing is another word which people in the profession of doing it such as the military use the word ‘wasting’ someone.  This substitution of words for some reason is more acceptable even though our minds understand that ‘death’ and ‘killing’ is really what is meant.

His Services were held at a funeral home. The funeral home was located in a small town about twenty miles from San Antonio Texas where I live.  Two friends went with me.

The person of honor was cremated so what was presented to the attendees was a nice oil painting of the person.  I think I know where that painting came from for its style was that of a very competent artist working for him who specialized in portraits.  Obviously his portrait was made years ago when he was much younger.  Interestingly, the artist worked for him probably doing this private work on government time.  Oh I suppose these minor ‘illegal’ things happen all the time in the government and certainly it is commonly done in Private Industry.

Now the Guest of Honor had been living unmarried with a woman who made the arrangements for the funeral. He was divorced from his first wife but never married again. The Services were conducted by a minister who read the eulogy which did not mention the deceased wife, his daughter, or grandson.  At first I was concerned about this for I understood that obituaries are supposed to be an accurate record of a person’s life. 

My thoughts were that obituaries could be referenced years later as a historical document and are the basis for legal actions.

I was concerned about this false document so I went to the Web to find a legal opinion some of which follows:

Announcements made in the obituary and the eulogy should never be taken lightly. These are actually confessions and admissions or pieces of evidence that can be used to prove a relationship in court in family disputes. These documents have many a times betrayed families. They are a source of very important information. They come as a shock to many. They are usually an expression of the true family position to the world at large. They are a confession of the actual family relationships in so far as they can be linked to the deceased. They create legal presumptions and challenging the contents can be difficult given that the deceased is not there to speak. They can be used to relay a message to the outer world of the existence of a family tie that can for example form an entry point for example to launch a claim that the deceased was the wife of the claimant. Eulogies offer family and friends a collective glimpse of the life and character of the person who has died. The eulogy helps personalize the funeral by acknowledging the qualities of the person who died and affirms the significance their life had to those surviving. 

Obviously the above is a template for an ethical obituary and eulogy.  On the other hand with further research also on the Web I found many different views concerning the content of these statements of life after death.  For instance these things are usually written by the person who died if that is possible.  Certainly, someone killed accidentally in some car crash would not write one of these things but in the circumstances I am now addressing it was obviously written by the deceased.

Now I write ‘obviously’ because his history was not accurate for as I wrote previously he did not mention his divorced family.  Certainly these omissions are counter to the above article on obituaries and eulogies.  On the other hand during my searches on the Web I found an article about these things which noted that previous marriages are usually not mentioned.  Further it stated that the writers if deceased can put anything they wish in them even something that could be considered libelous. The presumption here is that to sue someone who is dead is not easily done.  Now, I must insert a caveat here for this information I found on the Web is not documented as factual.

I was expecting more people I knew from the School to be attending.  I know it appears crass but about the only enjoyment a person, other than the person of honor, gets attending one of these things is seeing friends who you have not seen for many years.  It brings back memories usually of the good kind.  I was surprised about the few people in attendance of the many who had worked for him.  And, most of them were younger than he so I assume they are still alive.  I suppose this should tell us something about this person. 

Another observation about his life history was the failure in his eulogy to note his employment with the federal government for many years.  This omission is of course another deletion in his life history. I suppose this act was his pay back for being forced to retire from the government for the rumor was that he had committed some illegal activity and was given an opportunity to retire or face some legal problems.   

My friends and I did not attend the traditional meal following the activities.  I understand food is served following these things because they make a person hungry.  I must say I have not found that to be the case but then what do I know.  It was nearing noon so we decided to have lunch at a local restaurant.  I would call the food fair but then gourmet food can not be expected in such a small town.  One of us had heard of an outstanding German restaurant there but when we found it that was where the death meal was going to be and as a buffet.

Our trip home was without incident as we talked about various subjects all without any thoughts of the Service, other than my concern about leaving out his divorced wife, daughter, and grandson in the obituary.  I was sure that what had been done was probably illegal.  But I was wrong and in doing my research on the subject on the Web learned a lot about writing obituaries and eulogies.  Who knows some of this information might be useful to me when I write the notice of my death, you know my Life Tribute.  Of course now I must make a decision will I or won’t I include my divorced wife in my Tribute now that I know I can hide all of my life failures and mistakes.