Senior Situation Room
Edition 138
Dawn Ford
New Year’s has come and gone and now we are stuck with all our New Year’s resolutions… or not, if you didn’t make any. I only have two: I will try doing some jigsaw puzzles which I have never tried and get back to doing more crossword puzzles.
When I look at all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle the grey cells in the old beanie brain just go bananas!! How do they do that? So many pieces look the same. Where do they go?? Going to give a small easy one a try.
As for the crossword puzzles, I used to do the hard ones as if I was getting paid to do them. I looked up everything I didn’t know. Now I just do it for fun – medium puzzles are enough but for the past six months I had slackened off quite a bit. I think crossword puzzles are such a good learning tool because of all the ‘other’ words we can learn, increasing a vocabulary and also, they cover so many subjects such as history, geography, science, literature, languages, the movies, etc. Probably good for kids to start doing at an appropriate age also.
The medical experts say both puzzles are very good for our brain health.
Many years ago I inherited this very old poetry book by Louis Untermeyer, titled: “Modern American Poetry, A Critical Anthology (Third. Revised Edition)”. Inside is an inscription dated 1926. The first copyright was in 1919 by Harcourt, Brace & Howe, Inc. with two more copyrights in 1921 and 1925 by Harcourt, Brace & Company Inc., NY. It was printed in the USA by The Quinn & Borden Company, Rahway. N.J. It contains many poems by 136 poets, if I counted correctly. Most were born in the late 1800’s. It gives a biography for each poet which is very interesting. Included are poems by Emily Dickenson, Robert Frost, T.S. Elliot, E E Cummings, and Ezra Pound, to name only a few. It is a great book to pick up here and there and re-read some of our beloved poems like Frost’s, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. Remember the last stanza:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
Or T. A. Daly’s fun poem,
“Between Two Loves”:
“I gotta lov’ for Angela,
I love Carlotta, too.
I no can marry both o’ dem,
So w’at I gonna do?”
I went on line to check and the book is still available. Wonderful book to have if you like poetry.
How things have changed!! From the newsletter, “The General Alert”, published by the Cornwall General Hospital, January 1972 ,Vol. 4, No.1 , is the following announcement of A Psychiatric Day Care which had been opened in the Nurses Residence on the first floor in October, 1971:
It is hard to believe that the CCVS High School, first built in 1806, will be ‘no more’ in the future. Some former students are wondering why they don’t just add an addition on at the back where the track is now. They could put a track indoors and add as many floors as needed, maybe even a basement parking garage for the teacher’s cars, instead of having to build a whole new building somewhere.
Often when I go by it I get a few moments of memories. One is the day in History Class, taught by Miss Stewart. We sat at long tables. One of my classmates, I will just call by his nickname” Luge”, tied another classmate’s shoes laces around the leg of the table, which the kid knew about. A little mischief! When he got up to answer a question…or tried to…the whole table shook!! Miss Stewart was not amused and it was a wonder the guy didn’t hurt his ankle. Fun and games!!
Remember the old red, black and gold colours and the cheers at football games: “C.C.I. C.C.I. RAH RAH RAH!!!”
Here is a photo from the mid-1950’s of four CCVS students enjoying a snack, probably outside Lebano’s store at the corner of Amelia and 4th. Streets.
Lt. to Rt.: Jack Wilson, Wendy Moore, Dwayne McKinnon and Paul Gareau.
In March of 2017 I sent a letter to the Angel Animal Sponsor Program of the Ontario SPCA to offer a suggestion of how we could get more little animals adopted perhaps by some lonely low income seniors who would love to have a little pet. I didn’t hear back from them so in October of 2017 I forwarded a copy to Carol Link, Manager of our local SD&G Branch. She very kindly did reply saying that she was sending it on, probably to the appropriate office. Still haven’t heard anything.
I have talked with some seniors who would love to have a little pet such as a cat, little dog or even a bird but can’t afford the bills when or if the animal gets sick. No one begrudges the Animal Hospital fees and want the best of care for our sick animals but if blood work, x-rays, etc might be needed at a critical time, the bills can add up. My suggestion is that a business could sponsor the pet for the bills and maybe the Pet Insurance as well which would cut down on the expense. For instance: a business sponsors Mrs. Jones’s cat Missy whom she adopts at the SPCA. A pre-registered business already on file with the SPCA for sponsorship is informed of the pet adoption. The business sets up a small fund for Missy as her sponsor. They could display a photo of the cat in their store and maybe even have a fund jar under the picture where their clients could drop in a few coins to help with the fund and /or the SPCA. Mrs. Jones’s name does not need to be made public. The fund could be registered at the Animal Hospital so it is available for any expenses and is there for Missy’s care. Arrangements could be made ahead of time as to all that the fund might cover, leaving Mrs. Jones to pay for the yearly shots and food or whatever. It could be a win-win situation: the cat gets a loving home, Mrs. Jones has a pet to love, the Veterinarian bills are paid and the business gets good advertising as a caring sponsor.
Any other suggestions???
Tiger loves his boxes. When I came home one day with a new one for him, he was asleep in the bedroom and didn’t raise even an eyebrow to say hello. A dog would be all over you licking your face, so glad to see you. But a cat?? I read somewhere that a cat will ‘ get back’ at you for leaving them by ignoring you when you return. Sounds like a ‘cat thing’. I placed the box down and did a few things. When I came back, he was already in it, curled up, sound asleep already. What a cat!!!
This beautiful little story was sent in by a reader to share with all of us, from an account of an eye witness in New York:
A little by about ten years old was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, shivering in the cold.
A lady approached him and said, “My, but you are in such deep thought staring in that window!”
“I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the boy’s reply.
The lady took him by the hand, went into the store and asked the clerk to get a half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her.
She took the little boy to the back of the store, and removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet and dried them with a towel.
By this time the clerk had returned with the socks. She placed a pair on the boy’s feet and purchased him a pair of shoes.
She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, “No doubt you will be more comfortable now.”
As she turned to go, the astonished little guy caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her, “Are you God’s wife?”
Have a good week, Dawn
Editor’s Note: We are going to have a very special announcement and event regarding Dawn’s column this month! Stay tuned!