January 2022
‘Just Another
Senior Surprise’ 88-year-old writes witty collection of true stories
Kay Dyre
By Shannon Geisen Park Rapids Enterprise A “long-lapsed English teacher, widow of 10 years and recently retired member of the family resort business,” 88-year-old Kay Dyre says she needed a job. So she authored a book. “Just Another Senior Surprise: A Treatise on Aging” is a collection of humorous and personal tales about everything from “senior moments” to hearing loss to bucket lists. Each of the 30 chapters contains Dyre’s reflections and observations of seniorhood. “Tell it like it is – that’s my motto,” she said. Dyre, nee Karen Kludt, grew up in Detroit Lakes. An avid reader, Dyre dreamed of writing a book of her own. “When I was in high
school the teenage bible, of course, was ‘Seventeen’ magazine,” she said. Each year, “Seventeen” hosted a writing contest. “One year – I think I must’ve been 16 – I wrote a story for ‘Seventeen’ magazine. It was god-awful,” she recalled. “Mine was about a first kiss, the awkwardness of it, that sort of thing.” The short story went unpublished. To this day, Dyre never told anyone that she submitted it to the magazine. “That was the start and finish of my literary career,” she quipped. While briefly attending Bemidji State Teachers College, she was editor of the newspaper “The Northern Student.” Dyre graduated from Moorhead State Teachers College in 1955.
BOOK: Page 2
Inside this issue... 2 Resistance to hiring out fix-it projects 3 Houseplant success 4 Talking about aging and care 5 Turkey Taco Salad 6 Ways to help someone with dementia 7 Pill splitting 8 Bob Peters dies at 84