Posted on 12/06/2008 10:12:29 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
About a week ago, I read that seniors are under-represented at food banks, meal services and other help outlets.
This was certainly not the first time I have read or heard this.
One reason that is repeatedly advanced for the under-representation is that many seniors lived through The Great Depression of the 1930s, an era when people thought several times before spending even one of their hard-earned pennies.
They also learned how to get the most out of what they bought. The people of that era just automatically recycled.
Once expired, Eatons and Simpson Sears catalogues (each referred to as The Bible by many), along with The Weekly Free Press and The Farmers Almanac, found themselves in an outhouse that was bitterly cold during a prairie winter and hot and fly-ridden in the summer.
Today, even many singles have at least two bathrooms.
Back then, most of these people had no phone nor electricity bills because they had no phones nor electricity.
They only lit a small oil lamp when there was no company. In the summer, they were in bed before dark.
Obviously, these people did not have an oil lamp burning in each room.
These are the same people youre most likely to see today turning off lights in unoccupied rooms.
Even the Queen goes around doing that!
The people who lived through the Depression and World War II also incurred no expenditures connected with cell phones, Blackberrys, DVDs, electric typewriters, computers and printers and TVs because they didnt yet exist.
Today, individuals whove grown up with these items cant imagine life without them.
Strange as it may seem to todays younger folk, during the Depression and the dark days of World War II, a time of food rationing and belt tightening, there were, apparently, few if any complaints.
Maybe people were too busy working and giving thanks for what they had.
I am reminded of a picture I had hanging on my kitchen wall for decades of a humble-appearing elderly gent sitting at a simple table with this head bowed and his hands clasped giving thanks for his meal of a bowl of tomato soup, a piece of bread, and an apple.
There were no food banks, no free meals, no maternity leave, no subsidized housing, no unemployment insurance, no social assistance, no Old Age Security, no supplement and no health nor dental insurance.
One simply worked hard at whatever job one could get and stood on ones own feet as best one could.
If one was allergic to hard work, there were simply few fruits of labour to enjoy.
Those who lived on farms were, perhaps, more fortunate than professionals in towns because they could grow their own gardens, keep bees and raise poultry, hogs, cattle, horses and sheep.
As a result, most experienced no shortage of food.
Sheep were sheared, wool was spun, and the family had lovely warm home-knit sweaters, toques, stockings, socks, scarves and mittens.
Entertainment was bountiful and inexpensive.
One could play baseball, walk on stilts, swim in a nearby river, run two-legged and wheel barrow races, play board games and the piano, sit on the porch in the eveningsand talk.
The 1970s TV series The Waltons depicted life during the Depression very well.
These were proud people who asked for little or no help other than, perhaps, to build a barn, a one-room school or to make a feather bed, situations that were actually enjoyable community events.
Many became quite well off, relatively speaking.
As for those who didnt, they still count themselves among those proud people who stood on their own two feet and helped make Canada the great country that it is.
So, is it any wonder that these people, who are now seniors, are hugely under-represented at food banks and other help outlets?
They learned to take care of themselves.
************
Elsie Dawe is a Kelowna-based freelance writer and retired educator.
elsiedawe@shaw.ca
Hello, from one of the exceptions.
bttt
During those years my husband thought he was rich because he made $100 a week and I made $60 a week for 60 hours of work. We really struggled. There were no fast food restaurants, no Visa, MasterCard, etc. If you didn't have the money, you couldn't spend it. We didn't worry about going to the gym, we were too tired and there was too much to do.
We sacrificed plenty, and never once thought about how much we gave in Social Security. When one of our parents died, we grieved, and were happy when the parent left had Social Security so that they could be as independent as possible. If they didn't have the money, we would have gladly supported them.
During our younger days we raised three children, supported them with their competitive sports (not sports paid for by the town), financed their private college education (3 in college at once), paid for their weddings, and were the hand out when they have been in need as well as the baby sitters when our grandchildren needed us.
And, would do it all over again.
Once a week I visit a senior center at the Salvation Army where I (pay) for oil painting instruction. There are a lot of takers at the Salvation Army, not many are senior. The seniors, for the most part, are the givers.
Not many family farms these days. It’ll be *interesting* to see what all the dispossessed will do if, God forbid, there is another depression.
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I have thought of this many times, when I was growing up we had food even if we didn’t have much else but I can see the potential now for this nation to go from overeating to doing without food in a VERY short time.
Medicare IS 65 . Some boomers cant collect full rate SS till 66 or 67 now but all can get reduced rate at 62 . They raised the age limits for certain birth years.
You sound very upset with older people. Did your parents cut you out of their will?
That picture hung on my Grandma's kitchen wall all the time I was growing up.
My Irish immigrant Grandfather died in 1939, leaving her with 4 kids to raise. They had a real tough go of it.
I never heard her complain once about anything.
I live in a conservative area, politically and social, and it is not unusual to see couples, usually middle aged or older, bow their heads and offer thanks for their burgers and fries before eating them. Not usual, but also not so unusual as to attract stares or comment.
These people will be able to handle whatever comes.
“One thing that is missing from the article is who is to blame.
Certainly NOT the young generation (1-30)
The majority of Freepers need to look in the mirror before casting stones.
Oh yes, they didn’t cause the problem.
But neither did they solve it.”
LOL, welcome to the boomer world, the oldest boomer in America reached age 30 in 1976 while the youngest boomers like Sarah Palin were only twelve.
The media has conditioned people so much that boomers are blamed for every bad thing in America since the 1940s, it is pretty amazing.
If the current bunch of seniors were so frugal and spendthrifts why did they give us Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public shousing, etc.? Why did they give us socialism? They live off the rest of us for their means.
“That totals about $585 billion annual payout.”
With 15 million workers that averages out to $3,799 per working person each year in Social Security taxes.
Yessir, I forgot a zero. typo.
Is OK, found out this AM that his travel buddy (a school chum we have known for years) will be moving in sometime in Jan - so he and the Booze hound (his bassett hound) will have some company.
And the new roomie can COOK! SO pretty win-win right now.
THanks for the kind words, may you have a Merry Christmas!
Absolute bullshit....not that you’ll ever change your little mind.
Define 'milk it'
As I interpret it, and I'm too young to be on SS, they qualify for it, and do so without having to misrepresent themselves or their situation in any way.
Further thought on the SS question I asked upthread, asking you to define the phrase ‘milk it’ as it pertains to older Americans recieving SS.
Rush often mentions how his grandfather, who didn’t need, or want, his SS check went and to great lengths to stop the SS Administration from sending him the monthly check.
Would you also accuse Rush’s grandfather of ‘milking’ the SS system because he still got those checks?
If yes, why, if no, why not?
How is Rushs grandfather different from my grandfather whom (I presume) also got his checks until he died?
One third of Republicans were against it at the time.
But interestingly big labor hated it the most.
Well, we did wimp out at night and kept us an enamel “pot” or “slop jar” (some called it) under the bed so we wouldn’t have to go outside during the night or real early in the morning. My granny had a big old pottery “pot” that probably came over on the Mayflower. - My Daddy built two of the houses we lived in while I was home; also the outhouses. He used creosote on the outside and lime in the pit, painted it a nice brick red color, but with no half moon. Those were the days, and we weren’t aware of being at all deprived.
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