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7 |The South Marysburgh Mirror Growing Old Valerie and I were musing the other day how things had changed for us and others over the years we have known each other and especially since we’ve been together. There is nothing new in this since reminiscing and pointing out changes to others has been going on since man existed. I used to get a trifle angry with my parents when they would start out with the opening comments “Now when I was your age’ This signaled a great tirade on how spoiled we children were or how easy life was for us kids compared to theirs or how hard they had to work to provide for us. We’ve done the same sort of thing with children and grandchildren which always meets with ‘Oh here they go again’. In fact we were in the car taking our 21 year old grandson home to Toronto for Christmas last year and when I started on “When I was your age’ he finished it with “Yes I know granddad you used to walk three miles to school through snow drifts up to your waist!’ I do thin! that society has changed much faster during our growing up period than had probably occurred with our parents and in tum with their parents. I think that some things that exist at the current time are beyond my ability to understand very well and I no longer worry about the fact that the grandchildren know more about computers and ipods and other electronics than Tever will. At least I know a few basics and can deal with emails and data searching through Google and other search engines. A lot of people I meet around my age don’t know very much about electronics and some don’t even own a computer. I don’t think we could talk to our grandkids if we didn’t use email. Using the phone is somewhat alien today. One of the areas which impacts our daily living more and more as we age which is beginning to defy un- derstanding to me is the health care system. Now perhaps you think I am exaggerating but I don’t think so. Iam on the board of Community Care for Seniors which is part of the health care system but I confess that with the number of agencies involved it is difficult to understand who is re- sponsible for what. We have Family Health Teams that your family doctor is part of but when he/she is away you have to go to the Emergency Room at the Hospital for service. Doctors are so specialized now that as I said to Valerie I seem to have a doctor for every part of my body. If we go on spe- cializing like this we'll find that if your right arm is caus- ing you a problem you have to find a right arm specialist if you want the proper treatment. I began to think that my inability to reasonably sort out how the system works was due to my increasing old age and the fact that my brain isn’t what it used to be at an- alyzing things. But reading the paper lately and listening to various commentators and experts one thing i is becom- ing frighteningly apparent. Even the ‘experts’ can’t tell you why it is so difficult to find out how the system works and who you should be seeing and where you should be going. In fact it is getting more complex as there are more tests and more specialists. I guess I leave it to the children to sort it out when their tums comes around because the baby boomers are now 60 - WOW! I consider myself really fortunate to have experi- enced the system a lot lately and survived so far. - John A Jackson Friends of Clapp/Scott’s Mill Help us June 5th if you can Saturday June 5th from 9am to noon will be the annual cleanup in which the com- munity are invited to assist. Thanks to the early spring efforts of John Lyons, our tasks will be easier than in the past. Help- ers please bring gloves and tools for jobs you will do. In 2009, the major improvement to the mill- site was the completion of the new step and access ramp. The Friends’ goals for 2010 are the creation of display boards ex- plaining the History of Milling in Milford and opening the mill for visitors on Milford Fair Day. For helping to make these goals a reality, the Friends gratefully thank the workers who come out on clean-up day, the com- munity for their membership donations and the Fair Board for its substantial con- tribution toward the construction of the information displays. Due to our need to conserve our funds for these important