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6 - The Eagle
Opinion
June 11, 2011
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From the Editor
Time machines among us T here’s a passage in Ray Bradbury’s 1957 fantasy novel, “Dandelion Wine,” that has always haunted
spiration is rapidly disappearing—the Greatest Generation, a term coined by broadcaster Tom Brokaw. me. This, our oldest surviving generation, The grandfather character of Bradbury’s tempered by economic depr ession, steeled protagonist, 1 2-year-old D ouglas S pauld- by w ar, s hocked b y t he a tom b omb, d eing, is referred to reverently by the kids on serves better. the block as a “living time machine.” When As many baby boomers like me str uggle the old man spun his colorful memory sto- with mortgage payments, college-bound ries while r ocking on the family’s fr ont kids, and the early warning signs of our porch, the boy traveled back in time with mortality—why aren’t we getting to know the old man, too. this generation better in or der to seek its I personally know two living tim e macounsel? Those of us of the Baby Boom Genchines that have been a part of my life since eration, born between 1946 and 1964, ar e birth. (I am sure you know one or two time the first generation to be less appreciative machines just like them.) of those who came before us. Shame on us. My 95-year -old mother and 97-year -old Last week, I had the privilege to tour a father are an amazing time-travelling couwonderful senior citizen art exhibit curple. rently on display in the lobby of the Lodge Approaching the century mark, they live, at Otter Cr eek adult living center in Midindependently, in the 1956 suburban Penn- dlebury (see the story in this week's Eagle). sylvania house where I grew up. In a sense, This art exhibit is pr oof positive that their household is a living time machine, you’re only as old as you think. too, even though I now know the days ther e All the art on display at the Lodge is senare dwindling down to a precious few. sitive, playful, accomplished, inspir ed— While my father sleeps more and has suf- and the creators are all in their 80s and 90s. fered a physical setback in the past year , There’s so much more we can learn (as well he’s still sharp as a tack; he r eads several as about the art and science of living) from books a month and passes them on to me. this Greatest Generation—so much wisdom Interestingly, he was pictur ed on the fr ont yet to be harvested. page of the local newspaper—mowing the Maybe you know an elderly neighbor, a grass with his old-fashioned r eel-lawn- widow at chur ch, a neglected father , a mower during an August heatwave a few World War II or Korean War veteran down years ago. Well, that’s my old man—tough the street? There’s still time for you to disand old fashioned; "conservative" in all the cover—and experience for yourself—their meaningful, valued ways of the definition. world, as they lived it. Put aside your issues My father, born during the month and because this is not about you. For when that year the Great War exploded in Europe, has generation is gone, their memories will strong m emories g oing b ack t o t he e arly fade away like the “old soldier” of Gen. 1920s—from having met U.S. Army veter - MacArthur ’s 1951 farewell address to Conans of both the U.S. Civil W ar and W orld gress. War I to having seen Babe Ruth play baseAnd just like my parents’ own stories of ball a nd s haking t he h and o f a m an w ho the Depression and World War II, someday shook the hand of President Abraham Lin- your Baby Boom-era memo ries, college coln. tales, an d ‘ 60s v agabonding e xperiences, When I talk with my father and mother , will inspir e, even motivate someone the world of the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s comes younger. alive. So, don’t wait for your child or niece or My mother is a one-woman workfor ce, nephew to ask you about your past—tell still trimming the backyard hedges, and all them about yourself, warts and all. Sit them the while sewing beautifully , handcrafted down and gently have them listen. They clothes. She alos still recounts stories of her may grumble, they may groan, but your life lean youth during the Gr eat Depr ession, stories, like seeds cast upon fertile soil, will feeding railr oad “hobos” at the family’s one day sprout and bloom as richly scented back door, and helping collect neighbor - flowers to be passed on. hood scrap metal for the war effort. Now r un—look in the mirr or. Meet the The point of this editorial is to point out newest living time machine. that one of America’s greatest sources of inLou Varricchio
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How sweet it is
I
t isn’t often that a local Fourth Estate enterprise scoops one of the national pros, but that happened last week when the Addison Eagle was—after a gap of several weeks—followed by the Wall Street Journal on the subject of health care plans designed to reward healthy consumer behaviors. Both op-ed writers were amateurs with non-FourthEstate day jobs (one is your humble scribe, writing several weeks back on the Safeway Health Care Plan and its applicability to Vermont), and the other is one David Gratzer, M.D. (who was accorded more than 24-column inches on the op-ed page of the WSJ’s May 21-22 edition to discuss Vermont’s embrace of the public option or single-payer health care strategy. Towards the end, Dr. Gratzer argues, as had your humble scribe earlier, that Vermont would have been a particularly fertile field for a plan with a wellness-reward component, and that it’s a pity that Vermont chose not to. Clearly, Dr. Gratzer ’s correct, even if he didn’t first get his argument from the pages of the Eagle (then again, Dr. Gratzer may well have been inspired by your humble scribe’s recent column). Nevertheless, as 1950s television icon Jackie Gleason often said on such salutary occasions—“How sweet it is!”
The Land of Enchantment Part 1
I
park on level two of Burlington International Airport’s too small garage, because my return flights usually de-plane on the second floor of the terminal and I like to walk a straight shot from the plane directly across the skywalk to my car. Traveling without even a carry-on assures I can navigate the route from plane to turning my truck’s ignition within an elapsed time of about three minutes. It cost $82 for six days parking, in case you wondered. Burlington’s airport is clean, the ticket folks are attentive, and it’s small. Not so small that it doesn’t have all the bland modern day apparatus larger airports have, it just has less of it all. It’s often better to have less things—food, people, magazines, trinkets. Not urinals. It’s good to have too many urinals. Relaxed in extra leg-room seat 5-C, a short taxi of I’d say 20 yards stops with a chime from the cockpit and our pilot’s shockingly un- intelligible voice, (apparently it takes very little verve to fly a plane), informing us that Washington’s Dulles Airport is stacked up and that we’ve been ordered to wait 30 minutes till take-off. 30 minutes stretched to and ended at 60, and we were off to Washington. I rarely travel on a tight schedule and I had a two-hour wait to connect once I got to Dulles, so the 60-minute hold-up didn’t raise the tiniest hair on my neck. Flying and waiting time all gets filed under—time to read. And read I did. My Christmas 2010 under-the-tree book haul totaled 5, and I’m well past done reading those, plus one, “Unbroken,” given me by a fellow from the gym. So for the trip to my sister’s in Albuquerque, N. M., I spent part of a 100 dollar gift certificate my ma got me on two books. Steve Martin’s “An Object of Beauty,” a novel about a young women mixed up in the New York City art world. I was personal assistant to the late William J. Doyle, founder of
Dr. Gratzer recites all the usual reasons why Vermonters, in the state which scores number 1 in the nation, health-wise, according to the United Health Foundation, using various wellness measures, “…Could receive incentives to prevent diseases caused by obesity, tobacco, and other life-style choices…,” but then, recognizing Vermont’s political disposition, closes with “…but don’t expect Vermont…to test it any time soon. Not while the public-option itch is still out there waiting to be scratched.” Exactly. Unlike your humble scribe, Dr. Gratzer addressed zero column-inches to why is Vermont number 1. The answer is in some readily available statistical rankings. Warning: some viewers will find these statistics displeasing to the point of requiring censorship. We start with the recognized positive correlation between citizen health and citizen I.Q. This subject has been broached, cautiously, in a number of domestic generalreadership publications, but knowing that they would be dismissed by a majority of Addison Eagle readers as identifiably infected with a conservative bias, your humble scribe hose to cite a pair of academic publications instead. One is a collaborative effort between the Universities of Delaware and Edinburgh, in which authors Gottfedson and Deary document the epidemiological fact that See HARRIS page 9
Doyle New York, (as seen on “Antiques Roadshow”), for six years, so I thought I’d relate to Martin’s latest. The second purchase, “How to Be Alone”, is a book of essays by Jonathan Franzen. I had read, “Freedom”, his latest novel, and loved it, and having finished his book of essays I’m happy to report I loved them too. How fantastic and rare it is to find someone you love to read. I trust you’re at least tolerant of this column? Upon arriving at Dulles Airport, my first glance at the departures/arrivals board noted my connecting flight was running 30 minutes late. Cake, not a problem. I was into Martin’s book in good shape and was happy to spend the added gate wait forging deeper. After a potty break, the ever changing departure board noted my connecting flight was to fly 90 minutes past it’s schedule, leaving me with more than 2 1/2 hours to fill. I don’t eat when I travel. I hardly hydrate. I have no one to call for leisure chat. 3 hours isn’t time enough to taxi to town and see the president. So I read a bit more, then figured a way to make my time 100 percent meaningful. I walked the terminal. At a stout pace I walk a mile in 15 minutes. So I tittered from terminal A-C,3, to the very end of B, and back, twice, for a total of an hour’s time, and four miles traveled. Here’s what I saw along the way. To be continued. Rusty DeWees tours Vermont and Northern New York with his act “The Logger.” His column appears weekly. He can be reached at rustyd@pshift.com. Listen for The Logger, Rusty DeWees, Thursdays at 7:40 on the Big Station, 98.9 WOKO or visit his website at www.thelogger.com