Living A Little Older Than Mother

By Arthur Mondale
Reporter
Published: July 10, 2009

Talk about seeing a lot of history. It’s a special day when you can sing happy birthday to someone who turns 105-years-old.

On Wednesday, Erma Jones celebrated her 105th birthday at the Golden Living Center in Greenville.

Her children tell the Nine On Your Side reporter the Georgia native's healthy diet, faith and exercise are the keys to her longevity.

“Her mother lived to be 103 and a half,” said daughter Betty Warden. “She wanted to live to be a little bit older than her mother.“

Ms. Jones is the great-grandmother of more than 50 great-grandchildren.

99-year old Granny to Compete in the Masters' Games

A 99-year-old Australian great-grandmother is in training for the World Masters Games here, where she will turn heads as the oldest athlete.
Sprightly Ruth Frith, who is near-blind, will compete in five events at the seniors event in Sydney in October, by which time she will be 100.

“Why is the focus on just because you’re going to be 100? I didn’t do anything to be 100. I just grew,” she told public broadcaster ABC.

“I just think life is living your own life and living it to the full.”

Since turning 85, Frith, who says she doesn’t believe in diets and “all that jazz”, has held world records for her age group in the shotput, discus, javelin, hammer, long jump, triple jump and 100 metres.
She achieved 10.90 metres in 2006 in the discus — the actual world record for women is 76.80 metres.

Frith began competing in the quadrennial Masters Games aged 74 and will appear here alongside her daughter, former Olympic athlete Helen Searle.

The most nerve-racking thing about the Masters used to be having to wear shorts, Frith said, pleading support for the elderly at the event.

“If you ever see creaky knees and grey-haired people walking around an oval or trying to throw, please don’t laugh. Just wave and say ’good on you,’” she said.

“They are only fulfilling a dream, a dream they may have had when they were children and could never carry it out, but now they have the chance.” - AFP
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I am so inspired by these particular news items about people who achieve acclaim and pursue their dreams into deep old age. ~Natural Gran Cynthia Zirkwitz

"Granny Knows Best"

Along about 1956, the year I graduated from high school, there was a popular television program called, "Father Knows Best" starring Robert Young and Jane Wyatt. While that was a long time ago, I still remember the program and how good I felt after watching it. There were many good programs like that around in those days, but they have been replaced with something that is much more "modern" for the younger generation. While change is inevitable, it's not always good and I have something to share with you today that will be a benefit for any generation. You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to realize what has happened to the entertainment industry over the past several decades and what they have done to corrupt the morals and values of America's children. Those kids are now on Wall Street and elsewhere.

Many of the ideas for my columns come from readers, and I got a letter a while back from a grandmother who lives in Sturgis, Mich. She made some suggestions that I believe have tremendous merit and, for what they are worth, I would like to share them with you. To give you a little context, allow me to give you a portion of her letter. She says, "I do wish we could start some sort of movement to have good movies released again so the grandmothers of today who care about their grandchildren could purchase them for Christmas and birthday gifts.

"Pushing and shoving and yelling mean words only encourage this type of behavior to continue in schools, and then it balloons and that's why teachers and school bus drivers have problems and bullies develop. I volunteered at school to help third graders who needed extra attention learn to read. There were always kids who had rough home lives. With a little extra caring, attention and kindness they changed and learned and were eager to learn more." At this point, you may be thinking the same thing I am thinking. Having our children watching untold hours of violence, crude language and unwholesome content is a price that is too much to pay by our nation's children.

Here is what this Sturgis, Mich., grandmother had in mind. Since technology is what it is, why couldn't some enterprising company produce clean, wholesome family type television shows, movies, cartoons and other programs that would be good for young children and be available to rent or purchase? Then, instead of turning on the television, parents can just pop one of these good DVDs or videos into a player for their children to watch rather than taking "pot luck" produced by those who could care less about our children or their futures?

Just for fun, a while back I asked a number of friends to join me by giving the names of all the good television shows, cartoons and movies they could think of off the top of their head, without going to the internet, books or other sources. This would mean their selections made an impression on them to the degree they still remembered them. Here is a list of those we came up with. I am sure you can add more.

Black Beauty, Lil Abner, Howdy Doody, Dennis the Menace, Bambi, Dumbo, The Mouseketeers, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Deputy Dog, Leave it to Beaver, The Yearling, Lassie, Shirley Temple, The Little Rascals, Bugs Bunny, Dagwood & Blondie, Heidi, Benji, Sounder, Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, Ma & Pa Kettle, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tarzan, National Velvet, Tom Thumb & The Red Pony.

Here is a case where "Grandmother Knows Best."

(Jim Davidson is a public speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034. To begin a bookcase literacy project visit www.bookcaseforeverychild.com. You won't go wrong helping a needy child.)

Playing at 62 Years Married

Charming couple, married for 62 years, spontaneously play the piano in the atrium at the Mayo Clinic. (We've been married for 39 years-- I guess we have 23 years to learn to play like this?)

Foster Granny Inspires Girls

Tiffany ``Grandma Tiff'' Gardner watches as students at Northglade Montessori Magnet School practice a stepping routine in the ``Inspired to Grow'' class that Gardner implemented at the Kalamazoo school.

BY DAVE PERSON

Special to the Gazette

KALAMAZOO -- Young girls walk out of Granny Tiff's room at Northglade Montessori Magnet School with a new way of looking at themselves and the people around them.

``I feel the girls are more particular about themselves, they seem to be more concerned about others,'' said Northglade Principal Flora Harrell.

That's because Granny Tiff, the children's name for Tiffany Gardner, a first-year volunteer with the Foster Grandparent Program of Senior Services Inc., has implemented a program called ``Inspired to Grow,'' which teaches girls at the elementary school about proper manners and etiquette, discipline, poise and self-confidence, and skin and hair care.

``They seem to come out of here (the ``Inspired to Grow'' class) with such a sisterhood with one another; they seem to value one another,'' Harrell said. ``It's certainly making a difference.''

That's just the result Gardner was looking for when she started the class in February. Girls make a commitment to the class for one month, meeting for a class period each day Monday through Thursday. There's a morning and afternoon class, each with 15 girls who must be able to keep up with their work in their regular classroom in order to stay in the ``Inspired to Grow'' class.

Sixty-five of the girls who completed the ``Inspired to Grow'' class will demonstrate modeling, dance, skits and other talents Monday during a graduation ceremony at 5 p.m. at the school, 1914 Cobb Ave.

``The girls need love,'' Gardner said, but if they don't have self-respect and self-confidence, they might be deceived by people who seek to take advantage of them.

``I'm teaching them first of all how to love themselves,'' said the 73-year-old former Kalamazoo cosmetologist and modeling-school owner.

She said she tells them, ``You are a unique individual. There is absolutely no one else quite like you. You are one of a kind.''

Harrell said with their newfound self-confidence, the girls react differently to other children, and the new attitude has a ripple effect.

In addition to the ``Inspired to Grow'' class, Gardner works with Angela Smith, a teacher at Northglade, in Smith's classroom. Gardner's duties there are similar to those of a teachers' aide.

``When Tiffany came into the program last fall, she was a woman with tons of ideas on how to help the kids, how to help the Foster Grandparent Program,'' said Julie Liljeberg, supervisor of the Foster Grandparent Program.

``She met her teacher (Smith), and she was (immediately) working with her class and getting the `Inspired to Grow' program started. It was amazing to me how quickly she became a part of that school.''

Gardner said she also benefits from her involvement with the Foster Grandparent Program.

``If I didn't do this, I would be home watching TV,'' she said. ``This keeps me active. They (the students) keep me young.''

Live Like Grandma Did

This pithy little post was published at Eco-Guides.us Blog on June 1st.
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I was almost off to the store the other day to replace my plastic watering can, that mysteriously disappeared after some children’s water play in the yard. (Hmmmm) Then I stopped myself. Did I really need another plastic something? What would my grandmother have done? My grandmother lived through the Depression and like many others of that era, she didn’t waste. She found new purposes for old things. And so, I went to the giant recycle bin and dug out a milk jug, found a cap and poked some holes in it, filled it with water and voila! a watering can.

Before you buy something new at the store, stop and
1. ask yourself, “do I really need this?”
2. “do I have something else that would work?”
3. “does my neighbor have something I could borrow?”

and then if you decide you do need it (absolutely need it), then select a product that will last and one that is made with recycled materials.

Great-Grandmother was admired for "wearing clothes attractively"

Frances Osborne

Bestselling author of The Bolter
Posted: May 31, 2009 09:09 AM

My great-grandmother Idina Sackville was known as The Bolter because, in 1918, she left her young, handsome and extremely rich husband to run off (bolt) to Africa with a near penniless man. (I have written her story in my book The Bolter which will be published by Knopf on June 2nd.) She divorced a total of five times when few people divorced at all and was one of the most scandalous figures of the 1920's and 1930's, very much excluded from polite society.

Nonetheless, she managed to be a style icon. She was a muse for Molyneux, one of the great designers of the day and the clothes she bought each season were reported in newspapers across the world. It was said that she "lit up a room when she entered it."

One of the most remarkable aspects of her style was that she managed to look immaculate even out in the African bush. As her friend the travel writer Rosita Forbes said about a trip in to the Congo jungle with her, Idina emerged from her tent "looking as if she had just stepped out of tissue-paper."

See an example of this below.


• • • • • • • • • • •
Idina had, as the newspapers wrote, "a much-envied gift for wearing clothes attractively...It has been remarked of her that the simplest gown becomes distinguished when she puts it on." In August 1911, aged eighteen, she sailed to the United States to spend a year with family friends, and she made a name for herself. This photograph was taken in October 1913 when, having returned to Britain, she became engaged to Euan Wallace, an extremely handsome 21-year-old Scotsman who had just inherited a fortune. The dress has a heavy train falling behind it, in accordance with the fashion of the day.
next

The Bolter is published by Knopf on June 2nd.

*See a slide show of Idina Sackville by going to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-osborne/my-great-grandmothers-fla_b_207835.html

Great-Granny Makes Good on Promise

By Eric Robinette
Staff Writer 2:33 AM Saturday, June 6, 2009

Many families attend more than one graduation at this time of year, but the Viel family of Somerville on Friday, June 5, celebrated two graduations that took place 17 years apart.

The first graduation took place in 1992, when Leah Viel’s daughter, Amber, was graduating from Middletown High School. At that time, Leah’s son, Doug, had just had a child, Tyler Viel, who as a baby was attending his very first graduation.

Also at that ceremony was Tyler’s great-grandmother, Frances Cogan. Doug was carrying Tyler, and Cogan said, “When he (Tyler) graduates, I’m going to be there.”

She was 79 at the time. Doug Viel told Cogan then, “If you’re here when this baby graduates, I’ll carry you up the steps.”

Flash forward to June 5, 2009. Cogan attended Tyler’s graduation from Edgewood High School, and Doug Viel intended to make good on his promise.

“At the age of 96, I guess I’m lucky,” Cogan said.

“We’re happy she’s still around,” Doug Viel said.

Cogan remains active in churches and clubs, but doesn’t get around much anymore because she gave her car to Tyler, Leah Viel said.

Tyler was a bit too young to remember that original promise, but he heard about it plenty of times over the years.

“Every time I went over there (to Cogan’s house) she always reminded me of it,” said Tyler, a member of Edgewood’s concert band who plans to attend Anderson University and major in business with an emphasis on music.

With a pair of happy occasions to celebrate, Doug Viel had only one concern, according to Leah Viel.

“Doug’s praying they don’t have too many steps,” she said.