Senior Daze

by Katie Bourg

About Katie: Having arrived in time for the Great (?) Depression, WWII, and all other 20th century problems, I am endowed with long and varied memories. Writing classes have long been my home away from home. Other people's stories are fascinating, and sharing is growth at its best. Hope you seniors will join me with your stories. Try it. You'll like it.

Members of TOPS #1087 are busy making plans. They have a birthday coming up.

TOPS stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly. I joined this group with a lackadaisical attitude and accomplished mild success for three years. Very mild. I didn't expect anything better. After all, I first met these folks at the Smokey Point Safeway, where they met for coffee and sweet treats after their Wednesday meetings. But they were a nice comfortable bunch.

A year or so later, I found myself becoming their leader. This had not been my intention, and I probably wasn't very good at it. The group overlooked my inattention to procedure and concentrated on encouragement. They sort of ran the group, as always, around me.

I began to recognize this bunch as typical senior citizens who didn't waste time and energy being upset about things. We got along very well. Because some of them didn't really need to lose weight, I started asking questions. Turned out they had been there since the beginning of time. Well, the beginning of the group, anyway.

They had lost all the weight they wanted or their doctors approved of years ago. They stayed to keep on the straight and narrow and for companionship. It helped keep their sizes smaller and their energy level higher. Besides, they liked each other. Younger members who joined needed encouragement, and were soon pushing us to better habits. All benefited.

Eventually, some us drifted away from the treat scene, to a favorite eating place-Nadines. There you find wonderful cabbage patch soup on Wednesdays. I began to drop a few pounds. I also learned more of the chapter history. It seems they'd been together nearly two decades. That's when they started making party plans.

TOPS 1087 will be 20 years old on September 16. Quite a few of the original members are still with us. There have been some wonderful younger members join, but no older member is ever forgotten. All are invited.

The party will be at Faith Lutheran Church, 1424-172nd NE, from 10 a.m. to noon.

As all good TOPS pals say, "See you lighter."

More birthday candles for Myrtle Ruckert

When you go to the Stillaguamish Senior Center for lunch on Fridays, you stop at the desk for a lunch ticket. You then proceed into the main hall, where you first meet Myrtle Ruckert, selling tickets for the day's drawing. Ask her how long she has been doing this and she just laughs.

"Thirty-five years or more," she says.

Myrtle and her husband were among the original group that decided there should be a senior citizen center in the Arlington area. They first met with others in the American Legion hall, to make plans and start looking for ways to finance their dream. In a few short years they managed to buy the old cabin camp (now called motels) on Smokey Point Blvd. Once they had the property, nothing could stop them.

The cabins were the first SS Hall, and then the remodeling began.

The car spaces were filled in to make bedrooms, and the cabins became small apartments. The work was all volunteer, done by the men in the group, and the buildings served the community well until recently, when they were finally disposed of.

New apartments have long since taken their place. Myrtle and several others are still serving seniors every week. Once a volunteer, always a volunteer.

Myrtle will be 100 this month. She still drives, keeps her own home, and sells tickets for raffles. Ever looking to the future, she has decided to move to Yakima to be near her daughter. She will be missed but Yakima is in for a treat.

As I find them, I will be mentioning others like Myrtle. They are still too active to show their age, but they are out there. And not just at the Stilly Center. If you know of a sly centenarian, let me know. It doesn't hurt to show the younger kids how it's done.