Senior News November, 2004 Vol. 25. No. 11

 

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.

Memories in the making taps into always-present creativity

Last chance to get $600 credit for Rx costs

Think About It - Not driving

CSL decides priorities

CNA cites judicial decision about covering patients

Media Q&A regarding the Informational Picketing

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Think About It - Not driving
by Ruth Mountaingrove

       It's been a year and a half since I gave up my driving privileges. In March I sold my car, and in July I applied for my identification card for check cashing purposes. My card expires in February 2014 when I'll be 95. Well, we are all living longer. There are even cards in the stores now wishing people happy birthday on their 100th.

With such possibilities it makes me wonder if I should take on another career - one without a car of course. Maybe involving an aspect of the computer world, maybe my memoirs. Who knows, it's wide open.

"How does it feel" my daughter asked when she visited me in August, "to not be able to drive a car?"

"Well," I said "as long as I have friends who will take me to the Co-op, to the post office, the credit union, I can handle that part of my life pretty well." Some of my friends take me to plays, movies, even to college, though I can also take the bus which now goes directly to the college rather than doing the three-mile loop. And in nice weather I can walk back. It's all downhill.

Not having a car and getting rides from other women takes some getting used to. Different seat belts, different styles of driving, different kinds of cars or trucks. Stepping down, stepping up, swinging the body up onto a seat can be a bit of a strain, but it can be done. I've learned to plan ahead for groceries that I can't buy at the local store. When friends are going to Eureka, I can go too. I've been using these offers to go to The Ink People where for 12 years I've been in charge of the photography darkroom.

I used to average four to five trips a month to The Ink People where I mix chemicals for black-and-white photography, check the enlargers, orient new users to the darkroom. Now, I'm not always available to do orientations.

My writing group meets in McKinleyville twice a month. Most of the time I can get rides. I've begun to wonder if I should look for an Arcata writing group. There is a Sunday night singing group in Eureka, and women have to come and get me and bring me home. There is another singing circle I can walk to when it's just down the block.

Some of these problems have been solved by having meetings in my apartment, like meetings to plan "Through the Eyes of Women" (I am one of the producers for the KHSU show) and meetings of our poets group. Others, such as being on the advisory board of Senior News, are no longer possible.

Feeling some obligation to each woman and her kindness feels uncomfortable to me. I can't give back in kind, and that is what I pay for not being able to drive. Did I give up driving too soon? Not according to the DMV. I failed my driver's test and rather than continue the anxiety brought on by the test, I decided to quit. Now I can hardly remember what it was like to drive.