Connection and a sense of community can be critical to well-being as people continue to distance and isolate. It can be challenging, especially for older adults, but there are ways to engage, explore and unwind.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so choose a few things that suit you and commit to them. Remember to pay attention to your social and mental health while taking care of your physical health, and consider these ideas from the Administration for Community Living.
Connect
Use social media to stay in touch with friends and loved ones or reconnect with people you haven’t seen in a while.
Take advantage of video-call platforms to see family and friends while you talk to them.
Write letters to friends and reminisce about some of your favorite memories. Ask them to write back and share their own memories.
Keep up to date with current events and stay connected to neighbors by reading local newspapers and community bulletins.
Explore
Take free courses online. With subjects ranging from computers and cooking to studio arts and foreign languages, there is something for nearly everyone.
Explore zoos and aquariums across the country through virtual tours and lessons. Many have live webcams to watch the animals in real time.
Enjoy artwork from around the world. Thousands of museums and galleries are displaying their collections online through virtual tours.
Tour one of the national parks offering digital tours and experiences you can access any time from the comfort of home.
Unwind
Borrow libraries’ free e-books and audiobooks without leaving home. Consider joining a virtual book club to connect with others enjoying the same book.
Host dinner or a game night with friends via video. Word, trivia, and acting games tend to work well virtually.
Catch free performances online. Some opera houses and theaters are streaming plays and performances for digital audiences.
Watch a TV show or movie while talking to a friend on the phone or over video chat. Many streaming services offer free trials and some even have a way to watch together online.
Take advantage of video-call platforms to see family and friends while you talk to them. (Getty Images)
Today, thanks to extraordinary medical, demographic, and economic shifts, most of us will live unprecedentedly long lives. Consequently, the world is witnessing a powerful new version of retirement—the Third Age—driven by the power and needs of the massive Baby Boomer generation. Consumers over 50 now account for more than half of all spending and control more than 70% of the country’s net worth. How will work, family, health, leisure, money, success, purpose, and retirement be transformed in the years ahead to accommodate two billion people over the age of 60 worldwide?
A book by researchers Ken Dychtwald and Robert Morison might have the answers. The authors say“What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age†explains how individuals, businesses, non-profits, and governments can best prepare to thrive in a new era—where the needs and demands of third agers will set the lifestyle, health, social, marketplace, and political priorities of generations to come.
“Over the past decade, our teams of researchers, psychologists, economists, and gerontologists have spent more than 70,000 hours investigating how the Boomer Age Wave is transforming every aspect of retirement,” Dychtwald said of work that went into the book.
Among other matters, the authors delve into which pioneering organizations and companies worldwide have created breakthrough products, services, and marketing that resonate with the quirky and demanding Boomer generation.
“Our research reveals the new world of opportunity and choice that today’s retirees have in all facets of their lives—and the nearly unlimited opportunities for businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies that want to serve them well.†Morison said.
The mask zeitgeist has shifted, now that President Donald Trump wore one in public. He said on July 1 that he thought it made him look like the Lone Ranger, even though that Western icon wore a mask across his eyes rather than over his mouth and nose — that was for bad guys. Critics have zeroed in on Trump’s Johnny-mask-lately conversion, wondering how many lives might have been saved had he embraced his inner Lone Ranger earlier.
Nevertheless, the topic of masks and wearing them is still hotly debated, often in retail chains as iPhone cameras roll. These videos have prompted questions: Was there resistance to masks during the 1918 pandemic? Did they work? How was mask wearing enforced in the old days?
Quick answers: Yes, there was resistance and defiance, masks worked to limit or stall the spread of disease, and mask-wearing was sometimes enforced with fines, arrests, jail time and, in at least one case, gunfire.
After scouring press coverage on the West Coast during the 1918 flu era, I can say resistance to adopting masks wasn’t universal, but it also wasn’t uncommon. In Seattle, during the influenza’s lockdown period in October and November of 1918, people without masks were banned from public transit and ticketed or fined by members of the police’s masked “Flu Squad.†Headlines had a somewhat negative spin: “Thousands Are Hit with Flu Mask Order,†shouted one in the Seattle Star.
The masks recommended during the 1918 pandemic were made of heavy-duty six-ply cotton gauze. They were thick and no particular joy to wear. People who refused to wear them or couldn’t be bothered were called “mask slackers†or “mask scoffers.†During World War I, the term slacker described people who neglected their patriotic duty, almost as bad as being a draft dodger.
In Walla Walla, the chief of police, John Haven, refused to enforce a state mask mandate. He pointed out that he was going to meet heavy resistance and had no authority to carry out a state directive, only city ordinances. Still, he also openly defied the instructions of the city’s health officer, J.E. Vanderpool, to follow the state health officer’s guidance.
Even as people dropped dead in Walla Walla and rural southeast Washington, business owners pushed to have their establishments — saloons and billiard halls — reopened in defiance of advice from most doctors and health officials. The Walla Walla police chief’s determination not to enforce a state edict is mirrored today by a number of sheriffs in rural Washington who have said they will not enforce Governor Jay Inslee’s mask requirements. The sheriff of modern-day Lewis County told his people, “Don’t be a sheep.â€
Yakima was less reluctant to crack down on scoffers and slackers if they were doing business with the public. The city’s sanitation inspector arrested 15 people for “working or transacting business in a public place without wearing gauze masks prescribed by the city health commissioner,†according to a 1918 article in the Spokane Spokesman-Review. The problem was the merchants, not their customers. The business community held that the city had no authority to mandate masks.
Then, as now, health officials were divided on whether masks truly prevented the spread of Spanish influenza. Many understood that the chances of transmission were worse in enclosed public spaces, like churches and movie theaters, but opinion was divided on the efficacy of masks outdoors. Some believed the fresh air fought the flu, and encouraged people to open their windows and let in the bountiful breeze.
Mainstream medical belief held that going maskless could spread contagion. The multi-layered gauze masks appeared to work in reducing new cases, and they proved effective for medical staff treating flu patients.
Other physicians claimed the masks themselves became an unsanitary health hazard if not cleaned and sterilized. Dr. J. C. Bainbridge, a prominent physician from Santa Barbara, Calif., claimed, “The common use of the mask tends to propagate rather than check influenza.†Others simply argued that masks had no effect. However, historians generally believe that social distancing and masks saved tens of thousands of lives since there was little else that proved truly effective, such as vaccines and serums.
Still, divided opinions and often localized health authority meant communities responded differently to the pandemic. Seattle and Spokane, for example, were generally mask-compliant. Spokane, in fact, had trouble keeping up with the public demand for masks, and many of the coverings were hurriedly made and ill-fitting. The Spokesman-Review featured photographs of professional women in masks under the headline, “Women in Business Life Don ‘Flu’ Masks.†There was less enthusiasm in Portland, which didn’t pass a mask ordinance, with one city council member objecting that he would “not be muzzled with a mask like a hydrophobia dog.â€
The San Francisco Bay Area saw reluctant acceptance of masks at first, then massive pushback. A mandatory ordinance, announced in bold headlines on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle in October 1918, read: “Wear Your Mask! Commands Drastic New Ordinance.†It blared over the mugshots of city leaders masked up like surgeons. Many equated mask compliance with patriotism and the war effort, an appeal that worked for many prior to the end of WW I with the signing of the armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, mid-pandemic on the West Coast.
In Seattle, a similar narrative took hold. Once people were free of their masks, they refused to go back to them, even as flu cases started to rise again. A Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial in December 1918 warned that reinstating health edicts would spark fear not of the flu, but of an excess of “regulatory zeal.†There was no indication, the editorial opined, that “another shutdown of business and revival of the mask would be tolerated.†Compliant Seattle was done with compliance.
Many observers of the time believed masks helped flatten the pandemic curve. When it came to stifling dissent, however, they proved an ineffective muzzle.
Reprinted with permission of Crosscut, a non-profit news site (crosscut.com). Knute Berger, who wrote this article,
A newspaper boy in 1918 Seattle wears a mask in front of a closed theater. In response to the flu pandemic of that time, theaters, churches and schools were closed by the city’s health commissioner. (Photo credit:: Museum of History and Industry)
Think back on some of your favorite family meals over the years and it’s likely that Campbell Soup Company played a role during those important moments around the table. An American icon, Campbell is celebrating its 150th anniversary.
From tomato soup and grilled cheese on a cold day to green bean casserole, generations of home cooks have made Campbell food, snacks and recipes part of their daily and holiday food traditions.
Here are some facts about Campbell’s place in American culture:
Campbell Soup Company was founded four years after the Civil War ended in 1869 by a fruit merchant and an icebox manufacturer. By the turn of the century, the company flourished as a result of several innovations, including Dr. John T. Dorrance’s invention of condensed soup, which made nutritious soup more affordable to millions of Americans at just 10 cents per can.
Campbell food was served during World Wars I and II, and during the Apollo missions, offering troops and astronauts comfort and a taste of home.
Campbell’s influence can be seen in American pop culture throughout the years, from Andy Warhol’s iconic paintings of Campbell’s Soup cans to the enduring “M’m! M’m! Good!†jingle, to other cultural icons like the Campbell Kids and President Ronald Reagan’s V8 ad.
The Green Bean Casserole, invented by Campbell employee Dorcas Reilly in 1955, was served at 20 million dinners last Thanksgiving. During the holiday season, Green Bean Casserole recipes were viewed more than 6 million times on the Campbell’s Kitchen website.
Campbell’s tomato growers harvest over 1.5 billion pounds of tomatoes per year. Eighty percent of the growers and their families have worked with the company for more than two decades.
Over the years, the company has grown to include numerous other brands that are staples in American households, among them Pepperidge Farm cookies, Goldfish crackers, Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels, Lance sandwich crackers, V8 beverages and Swanson broths. 95 percent of U.S. homes have Campbell products in the cupboards and fridges.
For more information, as well as recipes, visit campbellsoupcompany.com.
In this photo taken in 1905, workers label and pack cans of Campbell Soup, one of the products of a company whose food has been part of American culture for 150 years.
