22 - Sunday, Nov. 1, 1992 ~ North Shore News

Aged need simple diversions

SOME YEARS ago

I was a goggle-eyed

observer at an American exercise known as
the Trade Convention. Sure, we have them
too, but the concept was born in the U.S. of
A. and by the time of which I speak had
achieved gigantic proportions.

The venue was vast, sev-
eral acres of concrete under
a roof ablaze with lights,
and several thousand people
milling. This show had to
do with rubber, as in tires,
and an American company
was unveiling its new revo-
lutionary machine for ap-
plying molten rubber to cas-
ing.

It marked a singular ad-
vance in the tire world, and
was the focus of many. The
most active observers were
the Japanese contingent,
who literally swarmed over
and around and above the
new device, wielding their
cameras and their tapes and
their notepads and their
sharp pencils.

Last week at Margaret
Fulton Centre the same
saturation techniques were
being applied to examina-
tion of the construction of a
purely social phenomenon.
In this case, a group of
young Japanese people had
come to the North Shore
for the particular purpose
of learning how our Adult

' Day Care centres operate.

This is quite a leap for
Japanese people, whose el-
derly have always been
‘simply part of the

. background. And if they
fell ill mentally or physically
it was not a topic for
discussion with the
neighbors.

They were old, and
venerated, but out of the
stream.

Certainly the visitors left
no aspect of the. physical
side of the operation un-
turned. There were 17
young people and half a
dozen what you might call
officials, and every one of
them took pictures, of those
in attendance, of the staff
and volunteers, of the cook
and her kitchen and the
‘Birthday Board’’ and the
cribbage game.

Eleanor
Godley

THE VINTAGE YEARS

They viewed and recorded
the ladies at the craft table,
and the evidence on shelves
and walls of the many sorts
of handwork done. Every
inch of the facility was
scrutinized there were
precise measurements taken
even of the elevated
miniature bowling track.

I fretted though that they
would miss the essential in-
gredients that make the cen-
tre effective and attractive.

The Japanese are unfail-
ingly polite, forced ta be by
centuries of overcrowding,
and formality is essential
self-protection. They are
also very private about their
family lives, and {
wondered how they could
handle the very necessary
personal connections that
are the heart and soul of
Margaret Fulton’s place.

They had earlier visited
West Vancouver’s senior
facility, but it’s for the ac-
tive and the lively-minded,
and its many projects would
give abundant inspiration
for the ‘‘Seniors Clubs’’
they have at home. Their
name for those is ‘‘Worth
Living Centres.’’ Their
other form of attention to
their old folks is a weekly
visit for health checks and
feeding for those over 65

who are handicapped in
some way.

But Margaret Fulton
Centre exists for those who
are needing a place just to
be with people, to escape
four indifferent walls, to
have a sense of belonging
and of having an identity,
even though they are, many
of them, frail and unsteady
and sometimes disoriented.

They need warm wel-
comes and simple diversions
and the protection that is
always available in this
quiet place. I hoped these
young people, brought up
to keep their distance,
would understand that
need.

I also hoped they noticed
that at Margaret Fulton
Centre there is an obvious
absence of high-tech. There
are games played and
stories related and jokes of-
fered and the piano accom-
panies the old old songs.
This is the way we learned
to live, entertaining
ourselves and one another,
and it’s a relief, a haven for
the assaulted senses, to be
able to come together in
this familiar simple fashion.

That’s therapy for you.

The ‘‘dancing’’? column
brought all kinds of revela-
tions, — the telephone rang
with reports of people in
their 80s and even 90s who
jump at the chance at a
thumba. It also brought
some chiding, for my
failure to reveal that Silver
Harbour has more going on
dance-wise than I wotted
of,

For one, their dances
don’t require one to bring a
partner; rather, they have
regular classes that teach
ladies how to lead, minimiz-
ing the travail, and _ they
also are into line-dancing,

which makes everyone in-

dependent.

Others mentioned  line-
dancing, toc — it can be
enjoyed in fox-trot, waltz,
you name it, one does the
steps one wants to do.

Liberation! No longer
does one have to languish,
waiting to be asked.

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