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I think I have moved to the right place. It seems in most parts of the country older people no longer receive the respect they deserve. We're often looked upon as a burden, as using up vanishing natural resources; younger people don't value our expertise nor do they want our advice. 'Old' often equates with relic, antique, artifact, shopworn, and used up. However, in Virginia City people delight in old objects. Visitors come from all fifty states and around the world to view the dated treasures...
Maybe this observation applies only to this household, but somehow I doubt it. It seems that when the man of the house does something silly, or makes a mistake, or has some sort of accident, the woman of the house is expected to soothe feelings, assure her man that accidents do happen, the incident of course was in no way his fault, she of course will pay any resulting bills, and she will never mention the peccadillo again. However, woe on the woman if she happens to make the same sort of...
Activity of any sort has always been a large part of my life. As a child, I had the nickname Worry Wart or Nervous Nellie as I could not seem to sit still for any length of time. When sitting, one or the other leg constantly jiggled up and down, my feet tapped the floor, and movement seemed an integral part of my being. I drove classmates who had the misfortune to sit directly in front of me totally berserk, as my feet always seemed to find the back rung of their chairs and those feet beat a...
I can't believe I've done this again. I thought we gained wisdom as we age, but not this old fall hen. Two years ago I broke my arm after slipping on ice. Learning from experience, I invested in trail crampons and used them faithfully in icy conditions to make certain I would not fall on ice again. However, the end of January this year, I was out collecting twigs (without the crampons, of course, as I was just in my own back yard) for kindling. I slipped on slushy snow, fell, slid downhill...
Last winter, I dreamed about sledding down our steep driveway (Lois Lane), and continuing down Cornucopia Road with its horseshoe curve followed by a precipitous straightaway. This combination of roadways promised a lot of entertainment for someone riding on a gliding device. So, at the end of the winter season last year, I bought a toboggan. Naturally all the snow had disappeared before its arrival, so I stored it in our shed and waited for the following three seasons to come and go before I could try it out. Snow arrived this year in time...
It’s that time of year again when the winter doldrums strike. Those incredibly dark three weeks on either side of the winter solstice are enough to drive anyone mad. The three weeks in December prior to the solstice pass relatively smoothly with the preparations for the holidays occupying everyone’s attention. However, those three weeks after the shortest day of the year, in bleak January without distractions of the Christmas season, seem interminable, and one wonders if the sun will in fact actually start its journey back across the skies to...
The Richland County Commission on Aging, in coordination with the AARP Foundation, is seeking volunteers interested in assisting older, low income individuals with preparing and filing their taxes. Volunteers make a big difference in their communities by helping those people who might otherwise miss out on the tax credits and deductions they’ve earned. Felicia Iversen and Jodi Berry of the Commission state that this is a needed service in this area as they get multiple calls every year asking for assistance. Volunteers are trained and certified...
Occasionally a few childhood memories remind me that the good old days weren’t necessarily all that good. Dentistry comes to mind here, and how a visit to the dentist has greatly changed for the better over the course of the last fifty years. As a child, when my mother made a dental appointment for me, this meant a date with doom. The dreaded event would lurk on the horizon and when the dire day arrived, all other activities palled with the thought of the looming meeting with the man holding weapons of torture. Remember the high-speed drill, t...
Sometimes enough is enough. I'm thinking specifically here of cell phones. My husband and I both have used Tracfone for years; you maybe remember, those old-fashion flip phones that don't do much else other than allow us to dial out and to receive calls. Incidentally having a phone, not a mini computer, is our sole purpose in having a portable communications device we can carry in our pockets. We do not text, we don't want to check weather, access the Internet, nor do we feel the need to keep...
Every year, my sister and I plan a get-away together. We choose a destination, set a date for our adventure, and off we go. When we lived a mile apart, our sister trips took us in any direction we wanted. Now that we live nine hours apart, we investigate locations approximately equidistant between our respective residences. This way neither one of us has a long travel time to reach our chosen vacation spot. This year, we decided to meet in Wallace, Idaho, midway between my home in Virginia City and my sister’s home near Dayton, Washington. W...
The thought of approaching winter leaves me cold – no pun intended. Labor Day, in my opinion, denotes the most depressing holiday of the year because of the many events it signifies have come to an end. Hot languid days have come and gone for another year, summer has packed her bags with the intention of departing while winter lurks gleefully just around the corner. We have beautiful autumn to enjoy before winter truly arrives, but the season between summer and winter can prove finicky as well. To make matters worse, we never know what to e...
I used to believe that old dogs could certainly learn new tricks. After all, age and experience have to count for something. In the case of canines, dogs learn the fine art of manipulating their humans as the dogs age. They can learn at any age what it means when humans crinkle cheese wrappers but they can conveniently forget what a stern NO means if they decide they have something better to do. They learn what they need to know to keep their humans placated, and they will learn something new when they see what’s in it for them. They can still...
I have loved biking ever since I first mastered the balancing act required to propel a two wheeled conveyance down the road. Through the years I've had an assortment of bicycles ranging from a single speed clunker to a magnificent twenty-six speed mountain bike. When I moved to eastern Montana two decades ago, I would haul out my trusty bike and pedal down trails and paths and roads. I enjoyed the exercise as well as the opportunity to spend pleasurable time outdoors on the prairie. Four years...
We have absentee neighbors. They live just down the road from us during the summer months, but they have obligations in Nevada so they live in that state for the winter season. Sometimes they need to order items for their Montana home while they are still stuck in Nevada. On these occasions they email us to advise us that a parcel or package of theirs is on the way, sent to us under our name and at our post office box. We collect the parcel when it arrives and stow it safely at their house so their purchase sits waiting for them when they arriv...
It seems that anymore, someone somewhere has set a day aside for anything and everything imaginable. Just in the first several days of January and February alone, we have such oddities as Bloody Mary Day, Science Fiction Day, Fruitcake Day, Tater Tot Day, Wear Red Day, and Shower with a Friend Day. The list goes on and on for nearly every day of every month each year. I have no idea how these days are set, or for the most part, who would even celebrate them. I mean, there is even a Lumpy Rug Day and a Two Different Colored Shoes Day, both in...
Diabetes affects people of all ages, but it occurs more often in older adults. According to the American Diabetes Association, more than one in every four Americans over the age of 65 has diabetes. Managing diabetes can be tough, but support from health care providers, diabetes educators, community resources and friends and family can make it much easier. The first step to better managing diabetes and high blood sugar is to learn more about it. Montana State University Extension is partnering with others to offer a series of six, free diabetes...
I sat at my desk a few weeks ago looking out my window watching the snow fall. My mood turned as sour as curdled milk as those fluffy white flakes kept slowly but steadily falling out of the sky. If the calendar said November, I’d smile as the ground turned white. I’d pull out a latch hook project to start, gather good books for winter reading, haul out the toboggan, make sure my insulated boots stood ready by the door, and my thoughts would turn with pleasure to all sorts of upcoming winter activities. But it isn’t November, it is April...
We do have a few moose here in the Virginia City area. We don’t have herds of these largest members of the deer family, like we do elk or deer, but these majestic creatures do roam the countryside. My friends in Alder see them frequently throughout the winter, as these herbivores enjoy browsing through the willows along the creek. Both my friends enjoy watching these animals and they have a few pictures of their moose neighbors munching contentedly on branches and twigs just outside the front door. Two seasons ago, a young moose routinely r...
Cornucopia Road lies just outside Virginia City. This rutted gravel road begins at the pond on the west side of Virginia City, and snakes its way uphill, making numerous sharp curves and turns on its way to the top of the mountain. I would guess a traveler moving up this little hill ascends over 1000 feet in altitude from the time he or she leaves the base of the road until she reaches the top. So, Cornucopia most definitely does have a grade to it, with some portions of the road much steeper than others, but nowhere does this throughway have...
With the return of January, every publication in creation tackles the subject of New Year’s resolutions and making improvements of all sorts in one’s life. When the new year dawns bright and fresh, writers, figuring this is a good way to fill blank pages, devote a lot of space discussing how and why to make resolutions, how to keep them, tricks and hints on how to follow through on those well-meaning resolves, and a host of other spin-offs on the subject of resolutions of all sorts. Personally, I shake my head at all this hoopla, and I gen...
We humans like instant gratification and quick results. Most of us wait impatiently in line, become enraged when we need to queue up to take our turn, and chew viciously at our fingernails waiting for someone else who does not value punctuality and dares to waste our precious time. Couple this desire to see instantaneous results to a huge project that requires everything to fall neatly into place at the proper time, and a person could go insane waiting, worrying and watching. It’s times like these that a person needs to remember a few words o...
My generation grew up writing thank you notes. Whenever we received a gift from anyone, we sat down and wrote a brief note expressing our appreciation for the item in question. Sometimes it proved difficult to thank someone for a totally inappropriate or disliked present, but nonetheless, we wrote some sort of note anyway. Our mother saw to that. In this day of texting and emails, the thank you note seems to have fallen by the wayside. Someone texts a thank you using a few unintelligible symbols that only the young people can decipher, or...
Are you nearing the age of 65? If so, you have a lot of decisions to make as you may need to sign up for Medicare. “Turning 65: Medicare Basics” program will be offered from 3 pm to 4 pm on Monday, November 20 at the NDSU Extension Service in McKenzie County (205 6th Street NW in Watford City.) Pre-registration is requested by Friday, November 17. Please e-mail [email protected] or call the NDSU Extension Service/McKenzie County at 701-444-3451 if you are interested in attending. Thi...
My opinion of Halloween has changed drastically through the years. I have come full circle in the process, beginning with an initial delight in the fall celebration as a child, growing to dislike the Halloween pranks as a young adult, and now as an older woman I have once again embraced this fall festival with anticipation. I enjoyed Halloween as a child. In those ancient of days communities still hosted Halloween parades and I always entered the town parade hoping my costume would win a prize....
Most people have heard of those famous, or infamous depending on whom you talk to, vigilantes that ruled the streets of Virginia City in late 1863 and early 1864. These citizens took it upon themselves to rid the town of unsavory characters and they did so with gusto, hanging at least twenty people in a six week period. These vigilantes vanished from the forefront in 1864 with the arrival of a district judge, but their legend lives on in books and tall tales. It appears that a tiny band of...
