Ecumen Century Club: Happy 102nd Birthday Erma Lundberg
Ecumen honors Erma Lundberg, a resident of Ecumen Centennial House in Apple Valley, Minn., who is 102.
Ecumen Blogger Jim Klobuchar: If You Think Politics Today Are Loopy, Here’s a Lesson From 1972
There’s a chance that the recent brawling of the mid-term election campaign has left you exhausted. You need some form of civilized rescue.
I’m here to remind you that it could be worse.
In a few weeks the Democrats will choose the site of their national convention to nominate a presidential candidate to run in 2016 against the Republican’s choice, which will be made later this year in Cleveland, Ohio, the city the Republicans have already chosen to rally their warriors.
The Democrats most likely choice for their own site right now is Philadelphia and possibly Brooklyn.
But it doesn’t matter. They don’t make conventions any more like the ones in Miami Beach in 1972. To this I can offer personal testimony, having covered every raucous day of it. You should know that this was the year of the Yippie rebellion when thousands of young folks descended on Miami that year. Their aim was to disrupt the Republicans as well as the cops — the symbols of law and order who had earlier grapplings with the youth rebellion over the war in Vietnam.
Abbie Hoffman was there rallying the discontented youth who showed up by the thousands from around the country, occupying parks, and raising particular hell generally. Hunter Thompson also starred among the New Age journalists. So, too, making far more than a cameo appearance, was the actress Jane Fonda. You may be curious about what I was doing among this crowd of the disaffected. In those years the Minneapolis Star and Tribune were owned by the politically active Cowles family. I wrote a daily column for the Star and managed to stay a few strides ahead of hanging posses and football fans demanding to know if the Vikings would ever win the Super Bowl.
The Yippies in the 1970s, though, were impossible to avoid. They filled the beaches at night, staged allegory plays in the park and climbed the banyan trees when the excitement slowed down.
I covered the convention business that on the Republican side produced no unexpected news because Richard Nixon was the clear choice for re-election and Spiro Agnew his sole choice as the vice president. But the clear side story at both conventions, in effect the dominant story, was the Yippie rebellion that included such overt nastiness as flag burning, blocked traffic, midnight marches through the city, and then on the climactic day a brawl with the police when they surged toward the convention center.
It didn’t take the powers of a professional sleuth to be aware of all this. From the convention center I filed the usual stories as the selection process droned on. But I decided in the late stages that there was a bigger story outside: the Yippies advancing against the forces of law and order amid waves tear gas. So I strapped my little Olivetti typewriter into my vest, wired the office in Minneapolis to pick up all of the relevant convention news from the wire services and walked into the gathering night, where the Yippies we’re trying to take over the street against a half dozen platoons of police.
“Don’t go too far,” one of the cops said. “The street is full of tear gas.” I nodded my thanks, pulled my shirt over my mouth and nose and inched my way into the street, where the action between the police and protesters was getting heavy. I wanted to ask these folks what they hoped to accomplish and if there was another way to do it. Another cop appeared and said I better finish that interview in a hurry, and then, suddenly, Miami Beach went black.
I was flat on my back and a young man in priest’s garment was saying, “Do you speak English?
I started to answer but couldn’t . I gargled and tried it again and said, “Under normal conditions, yes.”
He introduced himself as a priest from a Latin American country working in the states and a volunteer to law and order during the convention.
“Can I walk you back to the safe zone,” he asked.
I smiled heroically and said I was sure I could manage.
I landed on my butt after two strides.
The priest took the Olivetti and walked me back to the convention center, where Spiro Agnew was joyously being greeted as the vice presidential nominee.
The newspaper’s chief editor called me the next day.
“Nice coverage,” he said. “The next time you decide to take on young revolutionaries, get rid of the Olivetti and switch to a gas mask.”
I said I would consider it but how about my billfold?
“What about it?”
“I Iost it climbing a banyan tree. There we’re better stories there than on the convention floor.”
Friend, if you think the political times of today are loopy, let me reintroduce you to the Yippies.
Top 5 Blog Posts - October 16
Ecumen employee Chuck Zimmerman topped Ecumen's list of most popular blog posts last week. In case you missed out, here are the stories our online visitors found most interesting:
Chuck Zimmerman: The Joy of Service Defines His 35 Years with Ecumen
An Unlikely Caregiver Batles Dementia with Friendship at Ecumen Prairie Hill in St. Peter
"Glen Campbell I'll Be Me" Tells Powerful Story of Music Legend Living with Alzheimer's
Ecumen Opens Its First Senior Living Community in Michigan
Elsie Williams, 9 Months Old, Is Changing Aging as Ecumen's Youngest Volunteer
To read more Changing Aging stories or Ecumen news, visit ecumen.org!
Ecumen Among Panelists At Common Good Breakfast Series in Minneapolis on Navigating the Senior Bubble
Common Good Breakfast series event on October 30th in Minneapolis to look at "Navigating The Senior Bubble."
Ecumen Century Club: Happy 104th Birthday Lillian Oberg
Ecumen honors Lillian Oberg, who is 104 and the oldest resident at Ecumen Bethany Community in Alexandria, Minn.
"Glen Campbell I'll Be Me" Tells Powerful Story of Music Legend Living with Alzheimer's
Glen Campbell is a music legend, winner of the Grammy for Lifetime Achievement and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He also has Alzheimer's.
In 2011, Campbell set out on an unprecendented tour across America. What made this tour extraordinary was that he had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Glen and his wife went public with his diagnosis and announced that he and his family would set out on a "Goodbye Tour." The tour went on for 151 spectacular sold out shows across America over a year and a half.
The film tells the music legend's story. His life, his music and the extraordinary 151-city "Goodbye Tour" de force that's made him a hero.
"Glen Campbell I'll Be Me" debuts October 24 in theaters New York, Tennessee, New Jersey and Arkansas. The film will be released in Minneapolis and Rochester, Minnesota, and other Midwestern locations on October 31.
Visit www.glencampbellmovie.com for more information.
Ecumen Opens Its First Senior Living Community in Michigan
Ecumen is once again teaming up with Edward Rose & Sons, a Michigan real estate developer, on a new senior living community in Clinton Township, Mich., northeast of Detroit. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony is today.
Chuck Zimmerman: The Joy of Service Defines His 35 Years With Ecumen
In his 35 years at Ecumen, Chuck Zimmerman has done his part in changing aging, presiding over countless transformations in senior care. All that experience makes him certain of one thing: there are plenty more changes to come.
An Unlikely Caregiver Battles Dementia with Friendship at Ecumen Prairie Hill in St. Peter
Doug Mehlhaff’s job description is about caretaking rather than caregiving. But lately it’s hard to make the distinction.
As Environmental Services Manager at Ecumen Prairie Hill and Sand Prairie in St. Peter, Minn., Doug is responsible for the bricks and mortar and the surrounding grounds — making sure the residents have a safe, clean and well-maintained place to live.
But when you see Doug working at that job, very often you see Bill Sexe too. Bill is 63 years old and is a resident at Ecumen Prairie Hill. He has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and Lewy body disease, a progressive brain disorder that cause motor impairment and is the second leading cause of dementia in the elderly. The routines of daily life are full of challenges for him.
Bill and Doug have formed a deep and abiding bond — a bigger-than-dementia friendship that touches the heart of everyone who sees them together.
“This is such a special relationship,” says Nicki Rehnelt, the housing director. “Seeing Doug and Bill moving through the day together is just so uplifting.”
It’s not that they do anything out of the ordinary. Rather, it’s that the very ordinary things they do together take on a special meaning because of Bill’s disease and Doug’s determination to help him have a normal life.
They pull weeds. They water flowers. They clean carpets. Or they just go for a walk.
Doug says when Bill came to live at Ecumen Prairie Hill last April it was just so obvious that Bill want to be doing more — that he was not going to succumb to this disease.
As if it were meant to be, the friendship just happened. “I just sort of started helping Bill help himself,” Doug said. “I knew that he could be doing more.”
Their routine is now well-established. Most days, they’ll have breakfast together and get to work, side by side. “If I don’t see Bill, I really miss him,” Doug says.
“Bill just wants to be one of the guys, and there’s only about 10 years difference in our ages,” says Doug. “We’re able to communicate and just be good friends. Sometimes he’ll have a really bad day, and we’ll talk it through and find the faith side of a bad situation.”
And they find wisdom. Doug says the main thing he has learned though his friendship with Bill is simply this: “No matter what, live every day to the fullest.”
Top 5 Blog Posts - October 6
Baby Elsie, our youngest volunteer, topped Ecumen's list of most popular blog posts last week. In case you missed out, here are the stories our online visitors found most interesting.
Elsie Williams, 9 Months Old, is Changing Aging as Ecumen's Youngest Volunteer
"Smile" on Ecumen When You Shop on Amazon
Dr. John Brose on Dementia Care: It Doesn't Have to Be This Way
Adeline Carlson, a Gold Star Mother Living at Ecumen Detroit Lakes, Remembers That Day - Always
Star Tribune Highlights Ecumen's Efforts to Make Communities More Age Friendly
To read more Changing Aging stories or Ecumen news, please visit ecumen.org.