32nd Street, South of Campbell 480.300.4700 480.300 Saturday, August 8 1–3pm World Tour of Chocolate; Wine Pairings Saturday, August 8 1–3pm World Tour of Chocolate; Wine Pairings Page 38 August 2015 By Jean Hodgson For weeks now, ads have featured back- to-school clothes. In the entrance to stores you are greeted by displays of notebooks, backpacks and signs that tell you to “gear up for school.” Something is wrong with this picture! This is August, not September! In the agricultural area of southern Idaho where I grew up, August was occupied with baling alfalfa and harvesting beans and sugar beets, and school wasn’t on the horizon until sometime after Labor Day. Most of my retirement-age friends would agree that not only is the typical start date for school different now, but so many other school-related activities have changed as well. Today’s high school students have a huge emphasis on technology in their curriculum. For my generation, learning to type was the key skill. When I asked some friends for their memories of classes they took, one shared “a small room with ten big, black typewriters. No letters on the keys, but a letter chart on the board in the front of the room. Who learns to type that way except a dinosaur?” Several others mentioned taking classes in shorthand and being able to use that in future jobs. Do students today even know what shorthand is? Memories of school activities reflected less emphasis on athletics than seems typical today. Music, drama, school newspapers and clubs were often mentioned. In my high school, FFA (Future Farmers of America) and FHA (Future Homemakers of America) were active organizations, and I was a member of Future Teachers of America – not surprising, since I knew then teaching was the career for me. Many of us had part-time jobs when we were in high school and that also influenced time available for activities. Besides our responsibilities at home, working in movie theaters, “dime” stores, being a carhop, delivering newspapers and babysitting – for the impressive rate of 25 cents an hour – filled our hours. What did our generation do for fun? Roller skating came up often, as well as “drive-in movies with all the kids sitting on the hood and around the car at the RoundUp drive-in.” One friend attended an all-girls high school and recalls, “On Saturday night, we gathered around the radio to hear Your Hit Parade . Songs were mostly slow and romantic then, but the jitterbug was a very popular fast dance.” It’s rare today to meet a teenager who doesn’t drive, but bicycles, buses and “my two feet” were the common responses to questions about transportation. One person commented, “It was always a thrill when you knew a guy with a car who would pick you up for a date.” Those who shared school memories have graduation dates that spanned from the ‘40s through the ‘80s, so popular fashions included a wide variety from sewing your own clothing to Peter Pan collars, poodle skirts, bobby socks, penny loafers, saddle shoes, tie-dye shirts, bell-bottom pants, and crinoline petticoats. Generally, girls did not wear slacks to school. One Paradise Valley High School grad said, “Miniskirts were in, but if they were too short – showed your full knee – the school nurse would staple crepe paper to the hem to make them longer.” So, have times changed? High school students still study a variety of core subjects, take exams and plan for their next steps after graduation. Friends, fads and fun activities remain a priority. However, think twice about your answer. My graduation gift from my parents in 1962 was the very latest thing in technology – a transistor radio! It was the size of a book and had a leather cover, but it still works! Past generations discuss today’s fads and yesterday’s favorites RETIREMENT NOW WHAT? Debbie (Arcadia High School, 1967) and Tom (Camelback High School, 1968) Bohr, longtime Arcadia residents, look back on their high school years.

T welve-year-old Teresa Jones was utterly lost when she landed deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, appointed to live with Grandma and Grandpa while her Naval father served in the Philippines. “Where was the shopping mall?,” cried Teresa. Even worse, she was sure they wouldn’t understand her, a grandchild they scarcely knew. Yet while stringing beans on the porch, Teresa found out otherwise. “Immediately Grandma was so respectful, so attentive to my needs, so open minded. She absolutely, completely amazed me!” Orphaned at 10 and married at 15, Mina Jones raised six kids on an Appalachian farm without electricity, making extra money selling burlap rugs and the finest quilts around. Says Teresa, “She experienced tremendous loss and hardship in her life, yet she never said one harsh thing about anyone. Grandma was the most positive person I ever met—the best example of her generation’s triumphs and sacrifices. And Grandpa—just as fine: “He was a deacon in the Baptist church. I remember us always going to sick houses throughout the hills, the first to extend a hand to those in need.” With such role models, it was only natural that Teresa became a medical assistant while still in high school. At the nursing school in PAID ADVERTISEMENT “Grandma Knows Best” MorningStar Wellness Director: Teresa Jones “I’m big on culture: the atmosphere that defines a workplace. In senior living, culture is what determines the quality of resident care, even more than the skills of the team members. “When I first read MorningStar’s mission and values, I thought, ‘Wow, if this is really what they stand for, this is the place for me.’ Since joining the company, I couldn’t be happier. I feel the love and support throughout our team and from the Home Office. MorningStar is always on my side when it comes to staffing and supplies. The answer is always, ‘Whatever resource you need to draw upon, do it—for the residents’ sake.’ It’s always an attitude of ‘we’ll take the hit financially rather than sacrifice the quality of care.’ That blows me away. I’ve never experienced that in my long career.” For example, seniors often return from hospital stays with orders for breathing treatments, yet they’re never given the required apparatus. The person is then faced with significant out-of-pocket costs for a short-duration regiment. Says Teresa, “I asked if we could buy a couple of SVN (respiratory) machines. The response: ‘Sure, whatever we need to do.’ It’s moments like those that put my mind completely at ease for our residents.” Another distinction at MorningStar: “In every other place I’ve worked, there was a strict divide between Assisted Living and Memory Care. Here, not so. We’re one united community with residents moving between neighborhoods to visit, join in activities, enjoy entertainment, all with proper staffing to attend. Teresa leans back with a smile, “By all this, I can say MorningStar stands head and shoulders above other senior communities. Trust me. I’ve been in all of them.” Boone, NC, she graduated as an LPN with honors (and a year early). Two months shy of her RN degree, she quit the program to nurse the patient who needed her most: her father, then struggling with cancer. Under Teresa’s loving care, he lived four more years (though his prognosis was four months). The grief of his passing led Teresa to take up a new pathway. She left the sciences for the arts, earning a degree in graphic design, which she practiced for five years in Boone. Then came the day when she yielded to an adventurous spirit, and packed her bags for Phoenix; its dryness appealed to her after so many years in the Blue Ridge (“where it’s always snowing or raining or getting ready to”). Once in the valley, Teresa agreed to be the private caregiver of a couple in their late 70s. “I loved it! We became family.” At their passing six years later, she went back to school to reinstate her LPN license. “I knew then that nursing was what God intended for me to do. I called Grandma with the news and she started to cry, ‘I’ve been praying you’d decide that, but I never wanted to push my opinion.’” From there, Teresa spent 4-1/2 intense years in a skilled psych facility, where she learned much about psychotropic meds, their side effects, and how they must be used “very, very sparingly.” Stepping into assisted living and memory care six years ago, Teresa discovered the ideal nursing environment. “There’s a saying in North Carolina: ‘Sometimes you have to take the long way around the barn to get to the front door.’ For me, the long way took years, but it made me a better nurse, a better person and a better leader.” (She’s served as health and wellness director in senior living for four years.) The MorningStar Distinction Teresa with Miriam (who grew up next door to the Kennedys on Hyannsport) Grandma Jones is the reason I became a nurse. MorningStar stands head and shoulders above other senior communities. Trust me. I’ve been in all of them. For more information on MorningStar at Arcadia: Catherine Oliver, Executive Director 480.300.4700 MorningStarSeniorLiving.com