Posts Tagged ‘aging’

I heard on the news the other evening that the Boy Scouts of America will soon be celebrating its 100th anniversary. I looked online to find out the exact anniversary date and learned that the BSA was founded February 8, 1910, by Chicago publisher William D. Boyce after discovering scouting during a visit to England the previous year. If you are interested in learning about scouting, there is a lot of information on Wikipedia. There I found this neat old poster done for the 50th anniversary of the BSA:

Ideas for my blog posts are frequently the result of the collision of several ideas in my head. Today's is one of those. Last week I received a joke that made me laugh out loud and I knew I wanted to share it soon. Also last week I was "friended" on Facebook by a guy I was close to in junior high school. We both sang alto in the school choir and enjoyed camping. His family moved away at the end of junior high, we did not keep in touch, and this is the first I've heard from him in almost 40 years. Thoughts of a bunch of old scouts celebrating the anniversary of BSA, reconnecting with John on Facebook, and the joke I received made me think of the theme of old friends. Here's the joke I received:
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I never thought I'd be a "swinger" in my old age. But this past weekend, I was a swinger, of sorts. As I related in my last post, my son and I joined over 100 other men from our church to go to the Wilds for a men's retreat. It was a wonderful weekend, in spite of the rain. The messages we heard from Dr. Dick Stratton were super and the fellowship was great. Because of the rain and mud, Mark and I weren't really tempted to do the hike to the second falls, opting to play some indoor games instead.

In the afternoon, however, we enjoyed some outdoor activities in some light drizzle. We started off with the Land Trolley, then the Giant Swing, then 18 holes of miniature golf before heading inside for some Foosball and air hockey. Shortly after we went inside, the drizzle became the torrents that continued the rest of our time there and on our drive home after dinner.

Here are several pictures of us doing the Giant Swing. We were "suited up" first.
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Today's Google homepage picture reminded me that today is the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing, the summer of 1969. That was the summer before my freshman year of college — yes, my 40th high school reunion is later this summer! And I'm not going to be able to attend. Most of us alive at the time the first men walked on the moon can easily remember where we were, in front of a TV watching the historic event. I was working at Boes' Pizza in downtown Fostoria, Ohio, and business was extremely slow that evening! Almost everyone was glued to a TV, and fortunately my boss had brought a television to the pizza shop so that I could watch it too. Thanks, Ronnie, if you ever read this.

You "oldsters" might enjoy taking the quiz below as a trip down nostalgia (nausea?) lane, and you "young things" might have a hard time answering some of the questions correctly and learn a few things in the process. I got 18 out of 20 right. YIKES!

At the end of this post, I will tell you about my interview yesterday on WYFF channel 4's Spotlight Blog and embed the two video segments that aired live. Those of you who have never met me now have a chance get to know me a little.

Before the quiz, you older readers might enjoy this bit of humor from our childhood. You younger readers can ask one of us to explain it to you.

Geezer Qualifying Quiz

(Everyone over 50 should have a pretty easy time with this quiz. If you are under 50, you can claim a handicap.)

Select one answer for each question. No fair answering wrong if you know the right answer, and no fair looking at the answers below until you've answered all the questions!

1. In the 1940's, where were automobile headlight dimmer switches located?
a. On the floor shift knob
b. On the floor board, to the left of the clutch
c. Next to the horn

2. The bottle top of a Royal Crown Cola bottle had holes in it. For what was it used?
a. Capture lightning bugs
b. To sprinkle clothes before ironing
c. Large salt shaker

3. Why was having milk delivered a problem in northern winters?
a. Cows got cold and wouldn't produce milk
b. Ice on highways forced delivery by dog sled
c. Milkmen left deliveries outside of front doors and milk would freeze, expanding and pushing up the cardboard bottle top.

4. What was the popular chewing gum named for a game of chance?
a. Blackjack
b. Gin
c. Lotto

5. What method did women use to look as if they were wearing stockings when none were available due to rationing during W.W.II?
a. Suntan
b. Leg painting
c. Wearing slacks

6. What postwar car turned automotive design on its ear when you couldn't tell whether it was coming or going?
a. Studebaker
b. Nash Metro
c. Tucker

7. Which was a popular candy when you were a kid?
a. Strips of dried peanut butter
b. Chocolate licorice bars
c. Coke bottle shaped wax with colored sugar water inside

8. How was Butch wax used?
a. To stiffen a flat-top haircut so it stood up
b. To make floors shiny and prevent scuffing
c. On the wheels of roller skates to prevent rust

9. Before in-line skates, how did you keep your roller skates attached to your shoes?
a. With clamps, tightened by a skate key
b. Woven straps that crossed the foot
c. Long pieces of twine

10. When you were a kid, what was considered the best way to reach a decision?
a. Consider all the facts
b. Ask Mom
c. Eeny-meeny-miney-mo

11. What was the most dreaded disease in the 1940's?
a. Smallpox
b. AIDS
c. Polio

12. "I'll be down to get you in a/an ________, Honey"
a. SUV
b. Taxi
c. Streetcar

13. What was the name of Caroline Kennedy's pet pony?
a. Old Blue
b. Paint
c. Macaroni

14. What was Duck-and-Cover?
a. Part of the game of hide and seek
b. What you did when your mom called you in to do chores
c. Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill

15. What was the name of the Indian Princess on the Howdy Doody show?
a. Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring
b. Princess Sacajewea
c. Princess Moonshadow

16. What did all the really savvy students do when tests printed on a spirit duplicator were handed out in school?
a. Immediately sniffed the purple ink, as this was believed to get you high
b. Made paper airplanes to see who could sail theirs out the window
c. Wrote another pupil's name on the top, to avoid your failure

17. Why did your mom shop in stores that gave Green Stamps with purchases?
a. To keep you out of mischief by licking the backs,which tasted like bubble gum
b. They could be put in special books and redeemed for various household items
c. They were given to the kids to be used as stick-on tattoos

18. Finish this sentence: Praise the Lord, and pass the _________.
a. Meatballs
b. Dames
c. Ammunition

19. What was the name of the singing group that made the song "Cabdriver" a hit?
a. The Ink Spots
b. The Supremes
c. The Esquires

20. Who left his heart in San Francisco?
a. Tony Bennett
b. Xavier Cugat
c. George Gershwin

(Scroll down for answers, only after giving it your best shot....)

ANSWERS:
1. b) On the floor, to the left of the clutch. Hand controls, popular in Europe, took till the late '60s to catch on.

2. b) To sprinkle clothes before ironing. Who had a steam iron?

3. c) Cold weather caused the milk to freeze and expand, popping the bottle top.

4. a) Blackjack Gum.

5. b) Special makeup was applied, followed by drawing a seam down the back of the leg with eyebrow pencil.

6. a) 1946 Studebaker.

7. c) Wax coke bottles containing super-sweet colored water.

8. a) Wax for your flat top (butch) haircut.

9. a) With clamps, tightened by a skate key, which you wore on a shoestring around your neck.

10. c) Eeny-meeny-miney-mo.

11. c) Polio. In beginning of August, swimming pools were closed, movies and other public gathering places were closed to try to prevent spread of the disease.

12. b) Taxi. Better be ready by half past eight!

13. c) Macaroni.

14. c) Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

15. a) Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring. She was another puppet.

16. a) Immediately sniffed the purple ink to get a high.

17. b) Put in a special stamp book, they could be traded for household items at the Green Stamp store.

18. c) Ammunition, and we'll all be free.

19. a) The all male, all black group: The Ink spots.

20. a) Tony Bennett, and some say he sounds just as good today.

SCORING:
17- 20 correct: Not only are you older than dirt, but obviously gifted with mind bloat. Now if you could only find your glasses. Definitely a Geezer!
12 -16 correct: Not quite dirt yet, but your mind is definitely muddy.
0 -11 correct: You are either a poor excuse for a old geezer or you are younger than springtime!

Well, how did you do? In the comments, give your age and your score.

Now about my interview yesterday on WYFF channel 4's Spotlight Blog feature of Sound Off South. Though I think the interview went fine yesterday, I'm much more comfortable in my classroom or at this keyboard. Kelly Coakley and Keisha Kirkland were genuinely nice people, and it was interesting to watch an entire hour long newscast. Here's a picture I took with my cell phone of the two of them right before they went live.

Here are the two three-minute segments, one during the first half hour and the other during the second half hour of the morning newscast.

First segment:

Second segment:

quotations about travel to the moon...

"Men might as well project a voyage to the moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean." - Dr. Dionysus Lardner, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, University College, London, 1838

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television

Back in the 1970s we didn't have the space shuttle to get all excited about. We had to settle for men walking on the crummy moon. - Russell Beland, from a Washington Post contest, in which readers were asked to tell Gen-Xers how much harder they had it in the "good old days"

=^..^= =^..^=
Rob

"For centuries, people thought the moon was made of green cheese. Then the astronauts found that the moon is really a big hard rock. That's what happens to cheese when you leave it out." an anonymous six year old

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What have you inherited? Inheritance is far more than what can be listed in a "last will and testament." Some of what makes up our "inheritance" becomes crystal clear when we, as parents, look at our children and see ourselves, our parents, and/or our grandparents in our children's appearance, mannerisms, interests, and personalities. For instance, I've inherited my dad's bizarre sense of humor and have passed it on to my own children. I have also inherited from both of my parents a body with the annoying ability to extract every calorie and every fat gram from every ounce of food that passes through my lips! Some of what we pass on to our children is not fully realized until our children are well into adulthood. Read on....

This past week I was strongly reminded of several other physical traits that get passed on from generation to generation in our family. Our son Mark has given blood frequently over the past ten years. His blood is highly sought after by the blood-letters since he is a universal donor, O-negative. He is fortunate not to have inherited my tendency to vasovagal episodes when giving blood, unlike our daughter Nora who shares the same issues that dear old dad grapples with. However, this past Monday, for the first time, Mark had a reaction to the chlorhexidine gluconate that is now being used to clean the arm before the needle is inserted. His was the same reaction I described in my post medical faux pas, and his arm looks every bit as bad as mine did. The doctor put him on Prednisone for a week to try to throw off the ill effects of the reaction. Poor guy!

For most of my life I have known that type 2 diabetes does not run in my family – it gallops! My great-grandmother had diabetes, as did my grandfather and his nine siblings, as does my mother whose younger sister is officially prediabetic. My extended family is far-flung and has not kept in close contact, and therefore I do not know what is happening in many of their lives. However, last week I heard about the first person I know of in my generation of my great-grandma's family who has now been diagnosed with diabetes. I figure that it's just a matter of time until I become diabetic, but I've been doing everything I can to delay the onset for as long as possible.

These two bits of news got me to thinking about what we inherit. The following jokes poke fun at different aspects of inheritances and heritage.

Inheritance jokes...

A little boy came home from school one day and handed his father his grade card, with nothing but D's and F's on it. Before the father had time to react, the boy asked him, "So tell me, Dad, is it heredity or environment?"

A man died with $30,000 to his name. He wanted to be remembered after he was gone, and his last request was that his wife be sure to buy a nice memorial stone. After everything was done at the funeral home and cemetery, she told her closest friend that there was none of the $30,000 left.

The friend exclaimed, "How can that be?!"

The widow said, "Well, the funeral cost me $6,500. And of course I made a donation to the church. That was $500 in my husband's honor, and I spent another $500, you know, for the wake, the food, etc. The rest went for the memorial stone he insisted on."

The friend asked, "$22,500 for the memorial stone? My word, how big is it?!"

The widow replied, "Three carats."

A math teacher posed this problem, "A wealthy man dies and leaves ten million dollars. One fifth is to go to his wife, one fifth is to go to his son, one sixth to his butler, and the rest to charity. Now, what does each one get?"

The savvy student answered, "A lawyer!"

A woman asks her husband, "Do you love me only because my father died and left me a fortune?"

"Of course not," he says. "I'd love you no matter who left you the money."

Two friends meet in the street. One looked forlorn and almost on the verge of tears. The other man said, "Hey, how come you look like your whole world caved in?"

The sad fellow said, "Well, let me tell you. Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars."

"Well, that's sad about your uncle, but all that money is not bad either."

"Hold on, I'm just getting started. Two weeks ago, a cousin I never knew died and left me eighty-five thousand, free and clear."

"Wow, I'd like that!"

"Last week my grandfather passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million from him."

"Then, how come you look so glum?!"

"This week ... nothing yet!"

A highly successful business man wrote in his last will and testament: To my high school teacher, who always told me I'd never amount to anything and whom I promised to mention in my will, "Hi, Mrs. Matthews!"

Besides various physical conditions and the "stuff" found in our last will and testament, there are other important bits of heritage we pass on to our children. What are you seeking to pass on to your children that cannot be quantified in a will? Some people concentrate more on inherited conditions over which they don't have control or on a large inheritance which we've seen lately can take wings and fly away. What values and ideals are you seeking to pass on to your children? It is undeniable that more is caught than is taught.

quotation...

"Do you ever daydream about what God could do with your life? ... We need Christian dreamers." - Rob Campbell

=^..^= =^..^=
Rob

"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt." - Herbert Hoover

Apparently the national debt has been around for quite a while if Hoover was talking about it. He would probably be shocked to know what it has become and to what dizzying heights (or depths) our current leaders are trying to send it!

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What is happiness to you? It seems to me that the more people seek for happiness, the more discontented they are. I read somewhere that if we stopped trying to be happy, we would probably enjoy life more. Dr. Bob Jones Sr. is credited with saying, "Happiness is not found by looking for it. You stumble over happiness on the road to duty."

Recently I received an e-mail about a happiness kit. When I saw it, I knew immediately that I wanted to share it on my blog.

Employee Happiness Kits Now Available

NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES:

All personnel will now be required to look happy while working. We will provide the supplies to each employee at no cost.

Workloads getting to you?
Feeling stressed?
Too many priorities and assignments?
Worried about pending layoffs?

Here is the new low-cost, company-approved solution to cope with multiple priorities and assignments.

Each employee will be supplied 2 paper clips and 2 rubber bands. (See Fig 1.)

Assemble items as shown in Fig 2.

Apply as shown in Fig 3.

Be sure to stop by the front desk to pick up your supplies. Enjoy your day. This new office equipment will help you to reach the end of a productive work day with a smile on your face!

Even though that may have brought a smile to your face, we all know that a fake smile on the face is not an indication of a happy heart. Here's a story about happiness.

A 92-year-old man, who was fully dressed, clean-shaven and hair perfectly coiffed moved to our nursing home today. His appearance was all the more remarkable when I considered that he is legally blind. His wife of 70 years had recently passed away, making the move necessary. After having to wait for a long time in the lobby, he smiled sweetly when I told him his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet curtains that had been hung on his window.

"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"But Mr. Smith, you haven't even seen the room yet – just wait."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied.

"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged ... it's how I arrange my mind. I have already decided to love it.

"It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice – I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or I can get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

"We convince ourselves that life will be better after we finish school, get married, have a baby, then another....

"Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and say we'll be more content when they are. After that we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with; we'll certainly be happy when they are out of that stage.

"We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are we able to go on a nice vacation, or when we retire.

"The truth is, if you're not going to be happy now, then when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.

"Happiness is the way, not the end. Treasure every moment that you have, and treasure it all the more if you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with. And remember that time waits for no one, so don't you wait either!

"So, stop waiting....

until your car or home is paid off

until you get a new car or home

until your kids leave the house

until you go back to school

until you finish school

until you lose 10 lbs.

until you gain 10 lbs.

until you get married

until you have kids

until vacation

until you have grandkids

until you retire

until you die

"Young lady, there is no better time to be happy than right now. Happiness is a journey, not a destination."

This week is our annual Bible Conference on campus. The gang at Creative Services on campus is sponsoring a fund-raiser for the Bible Conference offering. They've come up with a collection of buttons they're selling. Oh my! You can check them out at http://wiiiju.com If you would like to watch any of the messages live via streaming video online, here's the link to that - Bible Conference 2009

Our grandson Drew is usually a happy little guy. He recently got to meet Curious George at Barnes & Noble. Drew enjoyed high-fiving George.

Megan and a good friend took their boys to McDonald's recently for lunch. They thought they'd let them try out the play area for their first time. They are both still a little young and didn't attempt much climbing, but they enjoyed it in their own way.

It doesn't take much to make little ones happy, does it? Maybe it's because at that age their expectations are lower than they are later in life. What advice do you give to unhappy people?

quotation...

"Discontent is rooted in unbelief.... We bring God glory when we are content with what He is and does." - Dr. Jim Berg

=^..^= =^..^=
Rob

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. (My wife has asked me to remember this....)

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