The Massachusetts Aging and Disabilities Information Locator unveiled an updated website MADIL. This user-friendly tool is designed to help locate information on services and programs in Massachusetts that support elders and people with disabilities. 

On Wednesday, November 18th, North Shore Elder Services, along with GateHouse Media New England, will host the first annual "We Give Thanks" awards dinner.  We will publicly acknowledge and celebrate individuals and organizations who have helped to make life better for the elders in our communities.  Their care and service to older persons on the North Shore along with their accomplishments and contributions to our senior population best exemplify and advance the mission of North Shore Elder Services - Life. Made easier for elders.
 
Giving thanks can be expressed in many ways. Sometimes it is with a simple "thank you", sometimes it is with a handshake or a warm embrace, and sometimes it is with public recognition for deeds that go above and beyond the day-to-day activities. 
 
No matter how we choose to give thanks, one thing is very clear - gratefulness creates a sense of kinship.  It is impossible to be thankful without stating our relationship to the benevolence of others. We make connections with people whose abilities we most admire.
 
Those who we honor at our "We Give Thanks" Awards Dinner have truly admirable abilities and characteristics. They have made connections with the elders in our community to ensure that the quality of life for our seniors is dignified and good. They give of themselves in extraordinary ways so that others can continue to enjoy what most of us take for granted.
 
Today we say thank you to our award winners, realizing that when we express gratitude, we are never alone.
 
I hope that you will be able to attend this special evening.  If you can't, during the Thanksgiving holidays, I encourage you to "give thanks" to those around you who have been the lives of elders safer, healthier, happier, or easier. 

 

 

 

Everyday preventive actions include:

Whenever my mother talks about what it was like when she was growing up, she says, "It was different then, not like it is now."  When my children ask me what it was like when I was a kid, I tell them, "It was different, not like it is now."  They roll their eyes and listen in disbelief and laugh at most of what I have to say about my generation.

The 1950's - now there's a time to remember.  A time, believe it or not, when families all across America owned just one television set, if at all.  They had replaced the wooden box that occupied prime space in their living rooms and entertained them during the 1940's with a newer, more modern one that offered images as well as voices.  

TV added faces to the sounds that came bellowing out of the box.  People sat comfortably on sofas or cross-legged on soft carpets watching their favorite shows, (in black and white) with their eyes glued to the tiny screen on the amazing invention that took the place of radio in their lives.

They shared laughter and bowls of popcorn as Uncle Milty made his way into their homes and into their hearts.  Everybody loved Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel.  "You know," I tell them.  "The people you watch now on Nick At Night and TV Land."  Dinah Shore blew kisses to a captivated audience singing, "See the USA in your Chevrolet."  Great entertainers like Jackie Gleason and Art Carney taught them what friendship was all about through the hilarious antics of Ralph Cramden and Ed Norton on the Honeymooners.  There were no music videos and MTV, only musical variety shows like Your Hit Parade.  Coke Time meant a show sponsored by Coca Cola, starring crooner Eddie Fisher.  The only four-letter word used in comedy was Hope.  Guys like Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, and Red Skelton didn't need to use foul language to be funny and they made people laugh.  They still do.

What did we do for fun?  Some of the same things we do now, only a little differently.  Our roller skates didn't have blades, but they did have a key.  Bowling was not cosmic and it cost twenty-five cents to go to the movies.  Our bikes had one speed, but they got us where we wanted to go.  We went to dances and proms, but our parents drove us there and picked us up afterwards.  We never stayed out all night.  

Communication was different too.  When the phone rang, it wasn't cellular or portable.  It didn't play a tune; it just rang.  It was black, had a rotary dial, and was the only one in the house.  Some folks had party lines.  That meant they shared the same phone number with two or three other families.  They didn't have call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, calling cards, or pagers.  They didn't get phone calls while eating in restaurants.  People did not talk on the phone while driving their cars and they didn't need to text anyone.

No one had a PC, laptop, iPod or cell phone.  They kept journals, wrote important events on calendars, and looked phone numbers up in the phone book.  People wrote letters and talked on the telephone.  They didn't have email or voicemail.  When they made phone calls, they actually spoke to a live person.  No one got recorded messages and they never had to listen to a voice that said, "Press one."  They did their math homework with pencils on a piece of paper without the use of a calculator, wrote compositions in longhand, or used a typewriter that didn't back up and erase errors.  They didn't have Oprah's book of the month club to help them decide what to read.  They went to the library.

Music?  Of course we had music.  We had record players that had hi-fidelity sound!  By the time I was a teenager, stereo was on the scene.  We could stack our 45-rpm records on the spindle and they would play one after the other.  Not having to play one record at a time was progress and you were considered cool if you owned one.

When my kids were growing up, we had three TV's, three stereos that played cassette tapes, an 8-millimeter movie camera and a car with an 8-track tape player in it.  I can't imagine what their children will be comparing these things to a few years from now, but I know they will howl with laughter when they look at old photo albums and digital pictures and barely recognize their parents and that they will roll their eyes when they hear them talk about the good old days.  Our children will have to answer the same question someday.  One thing I am sure of is that they too will say, "It was different then, not like it is now."