Monday, June 04, 2007

Old Farts, Unite!

Chuck Ferris, an AOL Journals blogger I faithfully read, had an interesting entry on "Senior Semantics" betwixt residents and staff in the “old folks home” (his words) he resides at. This all stemming from issues over the placement of personal property too high on shelves to be reached by the wheelchair bound. An interesting observation, to say the least.

Somewhat the opposite, I've had a running battle with the manager of the local super market (no sense naming names, he knows who he is) over the placement of low sodium V-8 juice. I have pointed out to him on several occasions that those of us with bad hearts or recently out of cardiac surgery for bypass and placed on low sodium diets are not likely to get down on our hands and knees to reach the desired bottle when it is placed on the bottom shelf (where he has insisted on having it placed despite repeated, polite requests to have it shelved just a shelf or two higher). I finally had to resort to writing the Chairman of the Board of Directors (it's a publicly traded company) concerning this matter. While it may have helped that I knew his wife had just left hospital after a quadruple bypass, the message seems to have come down, in no uncertain terms, to raise the product higher on the shelf.

Chalk one up for us old farts!

3 comments:

Carly said...

Hey Wil :)

Good for you! :) I will be 45 in a few weeks, and in my elderlyness I am shrinking a little more everyday. It is something that wouldn't bother me ordinarly, but see I was never knee-high to a grasshopper anyway. Oh to be even that tall. Now, with my new agedness, I have high blood pressure. Sigh. Ok, I can accept that... it's all a part of living, the eventualities that go with it, but I can't seem to reach the items that I need off of shelves. I can't reach the things on a shelf too high or too low. I wish stores would reserve the middle shelves for those of us who can't do either extreme. Sigh. In a pinch I insist on having someone get it for me... or wait till some cutie patooty guy is available, to which I usually get a "isn't that cute" look. Sometimes it's all worth it. ;)

Anonymous said...

Hooray for old farts! LOL

Thanks for stopping by - hadn't seen you in ages! I've been a terrible blog buddy - haven't had time to visit anyone - so sorry!

Keep up the good work and best wishes to you for a wonderful (and not-having-to-stoop-over) day!

threecollie said...

Your new template looks terrific! Good for you for standing up and getting counted.