A Little Tidbit For Our Readers!

If your memory isn't what it used to be, don't worry. Go get some exercise and have a good time. It won't help your memory, but at least people won't pay as much attention when something slips your mind.

That's what a study in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences found.

When older people with a conservative lifestyle forget something, friends and family assume that the memory loss is due to mental deterioration. But when older people who practice a younger lifestyle forget the same things, friends and family don't take it too seriously. They just assume the older people aren't paying attention.

Now that we all know that, we realize that it is just one more reason for us all to be Walkie Talkies and to enjoy "the good life" that we do--lots of exercise and lots of laughter and excitement and new things to do!

An Exciting Morning!

Yesterday, Linda Tyssen, a reporter for The Mesabi Daily News joined about nine of us at our coffee table (We knew she was coming, so we got a little "fixed up"). Emily brought some of our photos from the archives plus Linda took a photo of the group at coffee. We are hoping that they will be in the paper around February 28 when they do a special section--kind of "A day in the life of . . ."

She was told that she would be meeting with a women who discuss meaningful topics. When she arrived the group was discussing the book clubs and winter reading programs at both libraries, so we appeared to be fairly "cultured."

We'll add a link when the actual story appears in the paper, so stay tuned!

Dinner for Four with Nancy

Last Friday night, "Dinner for Four with Nancy Zieman" was held at Mary's home. This dinner was one of the silent auction items at the Lutheran Church Women's Christmas dinner. Debbie, Paula, Tammy, and Marge's top bid earned them an invitation to an informal dinner with cloth napkins and surprises on January 12 when PBS Television star Nancy Zieman ("Sewing with Nancy"--see link at the right) came to Aurora for her annual January visit.

The meal consisted of lasagna, salad, garlic bread and date/chocolate cake for dessert. Dinner conversation included everyone sharing how she became interested in sewing; mothers and family friends were influential in building this interest. After dinner the entertainment was provided by the dinner guests and hosts who showed some of their sewing projects. It was an interesting discussion and sharing session.

The guests received copies of Nancy's and Mary's books and kitchen tools from a special event at Nancy's Notions. Tammy's husband was called to be the group's official photographer.

Front: Mary, Nancy and Marge.

Back: Debbie, Tammy and Paula.

As the newspaper social reporter used to write, "A Good Time was had by All."

More Good News!

Another red-letter day: Pat's husband is now in our local hospital also--he was transferred today. They have been in separate facilities since the accident. We know they are thrilled to be able to see each other and to be able to converse and to check on each other. It's also a lot better for the family so that they don't have to run between hospitals that are sixty miles apart!

We are all thrilled!

Better Late Than Never!

The WT's celebrate birthdays as close to the actual date as possible. However, we celebrate other holidays whenever we can get the group together. Today we celebrated the new year--just a few days late but it was still quite a celebration! We met at the hospital so that we could all visit with Pat and have a celebration at the same time--to celebrate the new year and hope for good health in 2007, to celebrate Pat's recovery after the accident and to celebrate Lorraine's recovery after her fall.

The two "Walking Wounded"--Lorraine on the left and Pat on the right.
Lorraine shows that she can still raise a glass in celebration--even with the bad elbow. Today she got her staples out and a new cast put on. What a sport she is to come out with all of us so soon after this!
Anna (left) and Helen S. (right) are evidently deep in thought (or tired from the wine and beer!). Helen just returned yesterday from two weeks visiting her son and family for Christmas in Connecticut.
The traditional group photo: Front: Jodie, Lorraine, Pat and Anna.

Back: Dorothy, Mary, Emily, Joan, Sharon, Irene, Helen S., Tee and Naomi. Again, a good turnout for a party (of course, there was plenty of food: shrimp cocktail, crackers and cheese, homemade hard tack by Irene, and wine and beer!).

On New Year's Day, Pat's grandchildren made a snowman for her right outside the window of her room--great fun to watch them build and great fun to see every day!

A Walkie Talkie anecdote: Yesterday Jodie was shopping in Target and ran into one of the nurses from the hospital. Conversation soon turned to the party we would be having the next day. The nurse wanted to know if we would be bringing stemmed glasses to the party. She was so disappointed when she found out we would only be using the regular water glasses in the hospital cafeteria. She made Jodie feel so bad that she finally ended up buying some plastic flutes to use (after all, they were on clearance after the holiday!). Last night the nurse called to say that she had found a dozen wine glasses for only $10. She said they wouldn't "ping" like crystal, but they were quite nice. She said she would wash them and bring them in and we could buy them or not. Well--they were great. Now the WT's have wine glasses for the next party. Irene is storing them at her house and has our permission to use them if she throws a party of her own! We have found that lots of people like to help with our celebrations and get a vicarious thrill from doing so.

Once again, a great time was had by all. We are all so thankful that Lorraine and Pat are doing so well!

It's Time For Another Party!

It's time for a party! The WT's are having a (belated) New Year's party with Anna and Pat at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow, January 4th. We are all looking forward to celebrating 2007 and hope that many of us will be available to be there. We have "plans" for a great time!

A VERY White New Year!

We didn't have a very white Christmas, but it certainly is a white New Year. We had rain followed by snow and ended up with close to eight inches by this morning. It appears that it sort of stifled some of the usual revelry in town. However, the roads are all cleared and the sound of snow blowers is definitely welcoming in 2007!

Even those of us who do not like the snow are admitting that this is quite beautiful!