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In 1935 the National Association of Manufacturers testified before Congress that Social Security would represent “ultimate socialist control of life and industry.” Other opponents argued that the initial Social Security registration process was like social engineering used in Nazi Germany. These critics predicted that American workers would be forced to wear metal Social Security tags on chains around their necks. Earlier in the decade industrial production had fallen 46 percent, foreign trade had plummeted by 70 percent, and unemployment had...
This is an article in an ongoing series by the Diverse Elders Coalition, focusing on different ethnic and demographic senior groups. Last month, I was in New York City to celebrate reaching another decade with four of my friends. Three of these friends I have known since high school, and we were roommates at one time or another in college. My son, Aiden, calls them his "aunties," because they have loved him through his transition and love him the same today. We decided on New York, because it...
Homer residents turned to Betty Crocker when they needed a firetruck in the late 1960s after learning about a promotion offered by General Mills. The nationally known company offered a program where people could turn in their coupons for large househlold items. An $800 piano could be purchased with 160,000 coupons redeemed at one-half penny each, according to a Homer Tribune article, titled "Bringing home 'Betty," by Naomi Klouda. How many coupons did it take to get a fire truck? Five million,...
Off-screen, Valerie Harper has been an inspiration to many following her optimistic defiance to a well-publicized life-threatening medical diagnosis in 2013. The star of the hit 70s TV series "Rhoda" now brings her indomitable spirit to the big screen to hearten families dealing with Alzheimer's. Harper, Liz Torres, and Harmony Santana star in Susie Singer Carter's short film, "My Mom and the Girl." Based on Singer Carter's own mother's battle with Alzheimer's, the writer, director and...
I really wish they hadn’t called it an IRA. Back in 1997, a senator named William Roth pushed through a law which allowed for a different type of retirement account. Up until then, if you wanted to save for retirement in a way that was tax-advantaged, your only option was a traditional IRA, or one of its close cousins like a 401(k) or SEP. There were minor differences, but these IRA-type accounts pretty much worked the same. There was a tax deduction when you put the money in, but you had to p...
Q. What do you think of using a service like Airbnb or HomeAway instead of a hotel? A. My family has used various websites to find daily rental lodging for over 10 years. When everything goes according to plan, they are fantastic. But a bad experience can ruin your vacation. We have experienced both kinds, on multiple occasions. There is a huge inventory of rooms, apartments and houses available for rent online. They are offered by different types of businesses – everything from individuals with a spare room to property management companies t...
Aggressive deportation policies, like those that have been enacted since President Donald Trump's inauguration, tear families apart - including elders and the family caregivers they depend upon. Since 1980, the share of households headed by an immigrant has doubled (from 7 percent to 14 percent in 2012). In 2009, 16 percent of households headed by an immigrant were multi-generational, compared with 10 percent of households with a U.S.-born head. Many immigrant and refugee elders depend on their...
We used to have two cars until a few years ago when the 1992 Dodge Grand Caravan suddenly made loud clunking noises and stopped running – forever. On the one hand we were sad to see her go. My wife and I had lots of shared memories about taking the “red rocket” on camping trips around Alaska, and even a three-month car-camping excursion down the Alcan and around the western half of the United States. On the other hand, two cars for two people seemed a bit excessive. We could save thousands of dollars a year by sharing a single car. Lower...
Four small cannons in Sitka, which started out in Unalaska, stand in testimony to Alaska's occupation by Russia and the subsequent transfer of Alaska to America 150 years ago. The Northern Commercial Company in Unalaska donated the cannons to the state of Alaska two years after statehood. The artifacts date back to the 1700s, when Lord Baranof ruled Alaska for Russia as its manager and governor. The antique guns, made of bronze, weighed about 500 pounds each and had the date 1723 stamped on...
For over 50 years, L.Q. Jones was a familiar supporting character actor in some 100 films and hundreds more television shows. Lanky, tough and athletic, he could tackle any role although was often cast as the 'heavy' in westerns and dramas, projecting the 'bad guy' image with merely a sinister smirk or a menacing twinkle in the eye. Jones turned 90 on Aug. 19, and two days later hosted a showing of "The Wild Bunch" at Grauman's (now the TCL) Chinese Theatre. Born and raised in Texas as Justus...
It used to be a rare thing to meet someone who worked from home and actually made a decent income. Some people say they could never do it. They’re not self-starters. They can’t deal with the distractions. They’d feel like they were always at work. Then there are people who work from home, for an employer or for themselves, and never want to “go to work” again. Who actually works at home? In 2015, only about 3 percent of workers, or 4 million people, worked from home. As millennials swarm the workforce and always talk about work-life balance,...
Let me tell you a story. I promise I will eventually flounder my way to a relevant point. A few years back, on a cold winter day, I was out walking my dogs. At one point the boy dog suddenly began pulling in one direction, and the girl dog in the other. It caught me off guard, and I happened to be standing right on an icy spot. My feet went out from under me, and with both hands tied to the leashes, I was unable to get a hand down to break my fall. I went down hard. The next day, realizing that...
Q. A few months ago I used my email address to gain access to a website. It turned out I was not interested in the site, but I am still flooded with junk email from the site despite using the “Unsubscribe” link. Is there anything else I can do? A. Sadly some companies are more lax than others when it comes to respecting your email privacy. If a company fails to honor an “unsubscribe” link, your options are limited. Stop clicking unsubscribe and just delete the message without opening it. Mark it as spam or create a mail filter rule that se...
Editor's note: This article is part of a monthly series from the Diverse Elders Coalition, focusing on different segments of the senior population. My grandfather passed through the Golden Gate - where the Golden Gate Bridge would later be constructed - in October 1903. He arrived in the time between the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924. By 1924, the U.S. government had completely blocked the immigration of people it deemed undesirable, including Asians, Arabs,...
My column has been AWOL for the last couple of issues, and I apologize. I became one of the “walking wounded” in early June after a fall which broke my right arm. Despite having an extensive workplace safety enforcement background, I willfully and stupidly violated the three points of contact rule by not using the hand rails. My fall broke my right arm and rendered me incapable of independent living for several weeks. This article isn’t about my injury, which is healing, and I expect to be at...
Our lives with our animal companions are defined by rituals. Here are a few that have taken place in our home: Monkey barks every morning as soon as we wake up and continues until breakfast; Blue begins silently commanding us to bed at 9 p.m. every night – staring at us as he moves toward the bedroom; Elsie meows for the bathroom faucet to be turned on so she can sip water from the running stream. Some of these rituals still happen, others ended years ago with the passing of that animal, and o...
Enterprising newsmen published the first issue of the Yukon Press in March 1898. The 14-page effort shared the news of the day from St. Michael to the upper Yukon. With the discovery of gold along Interior rivers and in the Klondike region, thousands of stampeders flooded into the wilderness of Alaska looking for their pot of gold. Circle City, located about 160 miles northeast of present-day Fairbanks, got its start in 1894 as the supply center for the Circle Mining District 50 miles to the...
The list of actors with whom Barbara Rush shared the big screen is impressive. "I did work with a lot of interesting and talented men," said Ms. Rush from Los Angeles. "And actresses, too, such as Jane Wyman. I found the nicest people were actually the biggest stars because they were all so gracious and helpful." Just considering 1958's "The Young Lions," she worked alongside Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin. "It was a serious war film, but Dean still made me laugh – a lovely m...
Remember 1987? If you lived here in Alaska, you might remember that it was the absolute nadir of the recession. Oil prices had dropped, jobs had gone away, houses had been abandoned. Generally speaking, it was not a good time and place to start a career. But there I was, fresh out of law school and returning to my hometown. Growing up and going to college here in Anchorage, this had been an exciting boomtown. In the three years I was gone, it had become more like a ghost town. If you’re an a...
Q. My family is spread all over the country, but we keep in touch on Facebook. Do you have any suggestions for things we could do online together? A. My mother, who will turn 80 next year, used Facebook to help her create the ultimate family photo album. Once a week she would select an old family photo and upload it to Facebook. Uploading is easier than ever, since smartphone cameras can digitize images as well as scanners once did. Once online, she would caption the image to identify who was in it, where they were, the date, and any other...
Editor, I read your July edition. As usual, there were many articles on Medicare, most apparently talking down to recipients. Have you ever considered an article from the recipients’ viewpoint? First off, please remember that most of the people enrolled in Medicare pay premiums for Medicare and D and Supplements. Medicare is not free. Are statistics available on the total paid to Medicare? Supplements are quite expensive but they must be profitable to insurance companies or the companies would not offer them. Often, medical practitioners s...
This is an ongoing series from the Diverse Elders Coalition, looking at different segments of the senior population. Hispanics and Latinos make up the fastest-growing demographic of the U.S. population. In 2015, the Hispanic population reached 56.6 million, making Hispanics the nation’s largest ethnic/racial minority, constituting 17.6 percent of the US population. It is projected that by 2060, the Hispanic population will reach 119 million, or 28.6 percent of the U.S. population. In addition to rapid population growth, Hispanics and Latinos a...
A pachyderm named Annabelle, who became prolific with a paintbrush and easel, is responsible for the creation of the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage. It all started when Jack Snyder saw a tongue-in-cheek come-on for a Chiffon toilet paper contest for grocers in 1966. The Crown Zellerbach company ad announced: "$3,000 or a baby elephant" to the winner. The Anchorage grocer won the contest. Snyder then startled the tissue paper executives when he said, "I'll take the elephant." One can just imaging the...
Whether singing her own words or those of others, the sublime vocal talent of pop/folk singer Judy Collins has been drawing audiences for over 50 years. But it almost never happened. "I contracted polio as a child and later tuberculosis when I was in my early 20s," recalled Collins from her home in New York. "My school teachers told me I was suffering from growing pains but when I was around 11 and the pain became severe, I went to the doctor who said I had polio. Of course, there was an...
“I’m just gonna leave everything to Bubba,” says the gent across from me. “That's certainly doable,” I tell him. “But what's the reason you’re disinheriting your other kids?” “I’m not really disinheriting them,” he says. “Johnnie has some alcohol problems. Dolly is fine, but if her no-good husband gets his hands on the money, he’ll spend it all. So I’ll just leave it all to Bubba, and he’ll take care of the other kids.” “So... when you say you’re leaving it to him, I take it you mean, he’ll b...
