[speaker001:] Hello.
[speaker002:] Hello, this is Jim in Dallas. Uh, how you doing?
[speaker001:] Fine. I'm Callie in Garland.
[speaker002:] Oh, you're right here, okay
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] yeah, I'm actually working tonight, I just, uh, called and came in.
[speaker001:] Oh are you.
[speaker002:] Do you work at T I?
[speaker001:] Yeah, you?
[speaker002:] Yeah, I just got a little booklet, uh, this not what we're supposed to talk about, just got a little booklet in the mail with the gifts, and I thought, I better make some calls.
[speaker001:] I know, I know, they.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Yeah. Well, I haven't had a chance, I haven't got a chance to look at them yet.
[speaker001:] It was a lot nicer than I expected.
[speaker002:] My daughter, uh, got a few calls at home. She talked to some student in, I guess they give them to computer students, too, in, uh, Virginia, something like that. She's talked to two students.
[speaker001:] I've talked to, I don't think they were students, one, I think, worked at a university, university
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] um, and the furthest away I've talked to someone has been New York.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah, great. Uh, we're supposed to talk about the elderly now, I guess, uh,
[speaker001:] Yes, we are.
[speaker002:] Do you have anybody that you, uh, are close to that decision on, or anything, or, I've thought about it for myself and all, and my wi-, my wife's mother is in a retirement home. She's not in a nursing home. Uh.
[speaker001:] Oh, well that's a, did you push the button?
[speaker002:] Yeah, did I, didn't we push?
[speaker001:] Did we,
[speaker002:] Let me, [beep] I'll hit it again just in case.
[speaker001:] Okay, just in case [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] I did it as she said, yes. But, uh, she's
[speaker001:] Now, what,
[speaker002:] she's down in San Antonio
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] and it's, it's a, uh, it's a brand new one. It's a Catholic, uh, retirement home for nuns. It's at, uh
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] Trinity, uh, no, let me see, Trinity, I keep calling it Trini-, it's not Trinity, I'll think of, Incarnate Word, and they have a retirement home for the nuns
[speaker001:] Well, isn't that neat.
[speaker002:] and they take some lay people.
[speaker001:] Isn't that neat.
[speaker002:] Yeah, and that one's really super. Now I, I know what they're talking about on regular retirement. Yeah, there's not too many, they do have a wing where the people who are really sick, you know
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] have nurses.
[speaker001:] Oh, that's good.
[speaker002:] And then they have other wings that we visited, uh, that are very nice. I mean it's just super.
[speaker001:] That's neat. Just supervised more or less than anything and security, I guess.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah, they, they, they have, uh, like, uh, a guard with locks. We've been there once at night at Christmas. She just went in last year.
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] She drives and everything, she, she, she's perfectly healthy.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Uh,
[speaker001:] What made you all decide to put her, or what made her decide to go?
[speaker002:] Well, her husband died. They were in the military together, and she just did not want to take care of the house
[speaker001:] Right ,
[speaker002:] and she visited the place, and then fell in love with it, and decided to just shun all responsibilities of any kind,
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] so to speak, and so
[speaker001:] Well, that's good.
[speaker002:] she's happy as, as heck, and they serve meals, of course.
[speaker001:] That's great.
[speaker002:] They have clubs and a swimming pool, so that's nice. Now I, I know the ones where you're really ill, we visited a long time ago when
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] she had a grandmother that was in one. And they were all more or less hospitalized type
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] you know, really, really sick.
[speaker001:] Shut-ins and,
[speaker002:] It's a tough question.
[speaker001:] Yeah, it really is. I worked in one as a teenager. I volunteered,
[speaker002:] Oh, you got more experience than I do then on it.
[speaker001:] Well, it was really, it was really sad, heartbreaking, I guess.
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] And, uh, I just, oh, I just felt for those people, especially the ones that never got visited.
[speaker002:] Oh, that would be awful.
[speaker001:] That just bothered me.
[speaker002:] I never thought about that, you know.
[speaker001:] That just bothered me so much, especially, you know, at my age, I was probably about fourteen.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And that really made a bad impression on me [LAUGHTER]. I always thought, not really bad of them, I mean, because they are, most of them I believe are probably pretty good for the people, but, I don't know. It's just a, it would be a tough, tough decision.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I think that, uh, hopefully we as a country are learning a little more about it, and they're getting nicer.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] I've seen on T V where they take animals and young children, in fact my daughter is one. My wife took my daughters one year when they were getting some points for school, took them to an elderly home, and boy that really pumps them up.
[speaker001:] Helps, yeah.
[speaker002:] That is very nice to see young people. I think that's one of the sad things, is when you're in an older home.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, uh-huh.
[speaker002:] If you just have people your own age, you never get a chance to see kids or anything
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] or animals or anything, you know
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] you can't take care of them, kind of obvious you can't take care of children or animals
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] in a nursing home, but it's nice to have them visit and everything.
[speaker001:] Yeah, and get that youth back.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] You know, sometimes that even helps them, just being around young people to, because some of them are so, um, just stationary
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] I mean, they'll get in a wheelchair or they'll just sit in a chair and, and, until you come along and really try and pump them up, they're just stationary, and I feel like, gosh, that's all they do all day long. So I do, love to see young kids go and, and men take the pets and everything. I think that's a real, real neat idea.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I think you do get more by stimul-, by stimulation. My, in fact, my mother in law just visited. She's just about seventy-five. Again, perfectly fine.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] But, one, and, and she visited us here in, in Dallas. When she went back, every time she goes back to, uh, San Antonio, my wife has two sisters there, too, she said she's much better, she's much more alive and, and, uh, active when she's been on a visit
[speaker001:] That's,
[speaker002:] with somebody else, you know
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] and, and our routine has obviously hectic with teenagers and everything
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and she's much, and so the stimulation part is really important. I think, like any animal, anything
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] you just lay around, uh, that's the fastest way to die, I think, you know.
[speaker001:] Stagnant [LAUGHTER]. Yeah, that's exactly right. I think they're really neat. Um, of course I've seen those reports on T V, the horrible ones
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] and that scares me.
[speaker002:] I'm afraid I'm a T V flipper. Anything bad, I like, I like to,
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] flip, [LAUGHTER] I flip it off. But it's sad, it's sad, yeah.
[speaker001:] It's sad to think that we would do that to people, and you know, I've seen them on T V with, uh, bed sores, and
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] oh, they just stay in the same clothes or the same sheets and not do laundry. And I just think, how can you do that? These people have given so much of their lives, you know, to, to America
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] you know, whatever, and here is how we treat them. Just put them in a home and leave them.
[speaker002:] Right. When I was, uh, younger, we, I lived in the East, I'm from the East really, and it seemed like there were several people that I knew that had their, uh, parents, {A I guess they would be, but well in their seve-, } living with them.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh [NOISE] [water sound].
[speaker002:] And one of them was even a woman who was fairly old, and I guess she, [NOISE] [water sound] she had her own separate room. And I think, whether it's more a custom up there, or maybe because I was younger
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and it's just not a custom anymore to have, uh, you know, the grandparents live with you anymore. I guess that, uh
[speaker001:] I think,
[speaker002:] well, we aren't getting away from that, which is not right.
[speaker001:] Right. I think it's neat. I think, uh, you learn a lot from them
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] from all their experiences, and, and that's one of my favorite things to do is sit around and listen to their stories.
[speaker002:] Oh, right, right.
[speaker001:] I think that's neat, because they really have a lot of good i-, insights
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] that my fa-, my husband's father is really old. He, he had him late in life, and he's, he'll be eighty this year.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] And I just, uh, he lives with different, you know, people in the family. He'll switch from time to time. I just,
[speaker002:] Well, that's nice in a lot of ways.
[speaker001:] Yeah, I just couldn't imagine locking, not locking him up, but putting him in a home and just,
[speaker002:] Bet you were surprised that you said that by mistake. Yeah, right,
[speaker001:] Lock him up.
[speaker002:] That's what I think about it for me, I think, Well, my kids better not do that to me.
[speaker001:] I know, I know.
[speaker002:] I don't want that, you know. So I, I think of it, Well, how would I want to be treated
[speaker001:] Right, exactly.
[speaker002:] rather than, well, it's easy to say, Oh, yeah, let's put these old folks in a home, but when I think I don't want to do that, you know. I don't want to be
[speaker001:] That's right.
[speaker002:] I'd want to have my little home. I always threaten my daughters, I say, Well, I'm going to build a little house behind yours,
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] and I'll take care of your lawn, he says, but I'm not [LAUGHTER] going to one of those places.
[speaker001:] Oh, you're going to put me away.
[speaker002:] Right, yeah.
[speaker001:] That's what my mother, she always, You're going to lock me up one day, aren't you.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I can tell, you're going to lock me up.
[speaker002:] That's what we, that's the way we call it, which is really wrong.
[speaker001:] I know.
[speaker002:] But my wife's mother, and the one, she's in San Ant-, it's everything but. The opposite of what you've seen. I mean
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] it's a little hotel, you might say.
[speaker001:] That's great.
[speaker002:] Again, a swimming pool, and grounds, and she has enough room. She has two bedrooms, and a, and a
[speaker001:] Gosh.
[speaker002:] separate living area. They don't have kitchens or anything
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] but they have little, it's like uh, on each floor they have a little kitchen area
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] where you can go down and have a
[speaker001:] Prepare your,
[speaker002:] make a meal, you know.
[speaker001:] Well, that's great. Now can she leave, um, on a day by herself?
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah, it's, it's, it's nothing like that. It's like living in the hotel. I mean
[speaker001:] Oh, man.
[speaker002:] she's totally on her own.
[speaker001:] That's neat.
[speaker002:] Uh, and she still drives, which we do, does scare us some, because she has dented a few things, you know,
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] and we keep thinking about that, you know
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] because she, they get less alert, and they don't care, and I've seen some of these elderly people on T V you know, the ones from Florida that just run into people and they don't even
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] understand what happened, you know.
[speaker001:] I know, bless their hearts, you hate to hurt them by doing that, that's
[speaker002:] I know.
[speaker001:] like their one last thing that they can still do, and you take away that driving ability and that would really be hard. We've,
[speaker002:] I, I know. Go ahead, I'm sorry.
[speaker001:] Well, we've thought about doing that for my husband's father, because he,
[speaker002:] Oh, he still drives?
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] That's gre-, well, it's wonderful in one respect, but I don't know if you can afford the insurance, yeah.
[speaker001:] Well, luckily he drives a big old tank [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] So, he, I mean, I don't think he, he could get hurt. I just hope to God he doesn't ever hurt anyone. But he
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] he hasn't had any accidents luckily.
[speaker002:] That's good. I mean, people are all different.
[speaker001:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker002:] I, I wonder if they should give them a test, or at least maybe not take their licen-, maybe give them a refresher driving course, and just to see how well they are every five years.
[speaker001:] I saw that on TWENTY TWENTY.
[speaker002:] Are they doing it?
[speaker001:] They, um, you know, they're testing that, they're, you know, thinking of doing that. And I think that would be a great idea, because I think they do, come, become less aware, and they just, I don't know, they, and they don't hear as well, for one thing
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and that doesn't help.
[speaker002:] Well, everybody needs retraining. It doesn't hurt, uh,
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] you know, the best football players and all the opera singers still have coaches, and I don't know why you couldn't after sixty-five every five years have a refresher course and then take another driving.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] It would sure, the insurance companies would, would probably help pay for some of that, you know.
[speaker001:] At least that way the burden is not on the family of taking their license or their car away [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Right, there you go, there's a good point
[speaker001:] It's on the state [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] very good point. Very good point. But I think they maybe, should do that, and then the families,