Senior News
April, 2001
Vol. 20. No.  4

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Osteoporosis exercise:Strength training for seniors storms the county

ASA Conference: Ideas gleaned, connections made

Remembering Spirit: Celebrate 20 years of Senior News

20 Years of Senior News: Dreaming the dream that started us

Life in Prime Time

Are You Obese?: Empty calories continue the cycle

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Life in Prime Time
by Anne Weiss

I remember the excitement I felt when Yvonne Baginski first approached me in 1981 with the idea for Senior News. Her vision was to publish a real newspaper which would serve all elders by giving them hard news about things that mattered to them-legislation which affected seniors' lives and standard of living; consumer information; legal news, and how to access services available in the community. The result would be lively and feisty as well as relevant, accurate and fair. There was no doubt in my mind that Yvonne had the talent and energy to produce such a newspaper. Succeeding editors, bless them all, reshaped the paper while remaining faithful to its original vision.

My contribution would be a monthly opinion column titled Life in Prime Time. In the column I would express a personal point of view about the political and cultural events affecting all of us. I would also praise, scold, argue with or support people and ideas I found interesting. I would vent my spleen on politics and a political system that consistently promised more and delivered less while turning our election system into a sham. I would praise people whose actions lent truth to their words and made a positive contribution to our community. In short, I would write about the things that pleased me or enraged me or just struck my fancy.

The column was often written with trepidation. As each deadline drew close, so did my qualms. After all, who was I to tell other people what they should do or believe? Why should anyone care what I thought about anything? Would what I wrote appear foolish or presumptuous?

Then I would remind myself-Prime Time is that time when the word "aging" really begins to mean something. Risks are what Prime Time is all about. We can explore new activities, challenge our entrenched ideas, even appear foolish sometimes. Living through this time we have two basic choices. We can use it to enrich ourselves, or we can just sit around and grow old.

Anne Weiss was the founding executive director of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center. She wrote her column Life in Prime Time for most of Senior News' first decade. She lives in Bayside and her e-mail is Roger&Anne_Weiss@htan.org.