The Zimmers

Been a while since I posted - these guys woke me up again. Betty doing well :-)

Formed in early 2007, The Zimmers are not only the oldest gigging band in the world (with an average age of 78), they are also the most celebrated, having recorded their debut album at the famous Abbey Road Studios, under the watchful eye of Acclaimed Producer Mike Hedges.

Oh and by the way, don't tell them you think this is funny, with more aggression than Nirvana and more talent than The Beatles, these OAP's are here to stay. Their first single 'My Generation' is released on May 14th. Expect it to climb faster than a Stenna Stair Lift!

Other songs in THE ZIMMERS repertoire include 'Firestarter' by The Prodigy, 'When I'm (one hundred and)64' by The Beatles and the live favorite (Jermain Stewarts worldwide hit) 'We Don't have to take our clothes off (to have a good time)'.


MEET THE BAND

Winifred Warburton (99)
Winifred lives in a care home in Derbyshire. When she was younger she did a bit of freelance work as a journalist and also wrote a few ladybird books on how to crochet. She’s a bit of a poet and is writing her memoirs. She also likes reading novels and keeping abreast of current affairs through the broadsheets. She used to play the organ and brushed up on her skills in preparation for the recording of “My Generation”. Winifred finds it hard to settle in a care home or find somewhere that really feels like home. She craves more stimulation and interaction with likeminded people. Not one to sit around doing nothing Winifred likes to take matters into her own hands and has moved care home so many times that she’s on first name terms with the removals man.

Eric Whitty (69)
Eric lives in a care home near Liverpool. He’s like a human jukebox – loves karaoke and singing anything from Beatles to Elvis and he does a great rendition of Amarillo. The Abbey Road session was Eric’s first time in London – with “My Generation” set to storm the charts it probably won’t be his last.

Tim O'Donovan (81)
Tim lives in a care home attached to a convent in Clacton. He’s a man of the church and left Ireland to spend many years working as a missionary in Africa. He has mastered computers and writes articles reminiscing about the people and places he’s come across during his life. Tim also enjoys a pint of Guinness in the local pub. Despite being very happy with the home and mindful of how lucky he is, he’s conscious that he’s somewhat outnumbered – sharing a home with 30 women, there’s only so much chit-chat about knitting and manicures that a man can take. Tim craves a bit more male banter and a good joke over a pint now and then.

Joan Bennett (it's rude to ask a ladies age!)
Joan lives on her own in London. Aside from routine visits to the GP Joan hasn’t been out of the flat for 3 years. A carer does all her shopping – her only contact with the outside world is her radio. She used to play the harmonica but it’s been gathering dust in a cupboard for 20 years – who knows, success in the charts just might re-kindle that musical spark.

Alf Carretta (90 years old – Zimmers lead singer) and Bingo friends Ivy Lock, Rose Dickens, Dolores Murray, Rita, Sylvia Beaton, Sally Page. This group of people met at the Mecca bingo hall on Essex Road and have been friends ever since. Some of them were there the day it opened, but sadly, after 30 odd years they’ve played their final game – according to Rank, who own Mecca, the double taxation on bingo gives them no choice but to shut it down. Alf says these are the only friends he has and he’s worried he’ll lose touch. Their efforts to keep the hall open have fallen on deaf ears and they’re hoping a bit of music might be what’s needed to grab people’s attention.

Gillian (Deddie) Davies (69 years old - Actor)
Gillian’s acting career has spanned decades from rep to TV - She played Mrs Perks in the Railway Children and has appeared in comedy classics such as Waiting for God and Little Britain. Gillian is a trustee of Compassion in Care and has been campaigning about quality of life for elderly people ever since her friend was badly treated in a care home. We’re glad to have at least one RADA-trained singer in the band!

Peter Oakley (Coming up for 80)
Otherwise known as “Geriatric 1927” to regular You Tubers, Peter has become the internet Grandad through his video blogs with his reflections on life. People love the fact that he’s just himself – utterly genuine – as well as being someone who challenges many of the stereotypes of elderly people. In the build up to the Abbey Road session Peter was looking forward to meeting others face to face for a change, and he watched videos of The Who performing My Generation live in preparation for our recording.

see Peter in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY

Buster Martin (100)
Buster works 3 days a week for Pimlico Plumbers. He was recently in the press because he gave as good as he got when attacked by muggers. Someone like Buster who is still going strong at 100 years old is a great example to us all.

John & Bubbles Tree (big jazz fans – used to listen to Chris Walker's jazz show on Radio Solent), Rob Fulford (Used to enjoy Dennis Skillicorn’s sailing programme on Radio Solent), Dennis Skillicorn (Former presenter on Radio Solent) Though they once tuned in on a daily basis to listen to their favourite shows, these former listeners turned off when Radio Solent decided it was time to let some of their more elderly presenters go. None too impressed with the current trend for music and banter geared towards a younger audience, they’re united in their determination to get older voices back on air. If they can get a record in the top 40 they’ll be all over the airwaves.

Grace Cook (83)
Grace entered the world of showbiz at the age of 7 enrolling in an amateur dancing school where she was trained to sing. She went on to perform mainly in pantos and summer shows and she’s been with the Hoxton Singers for about 10 years, performing occasionally to elderly people in care homes. Grace jumped at the chance to lend solidarity to the other band members and break down a few stereotypes at the Abbey Road session - at 83 she’s definitely still got it.

Personal Blog Item

Betty, my mother, had a fall yesterday at the top of the stairs - fortunately, she landed at the top - she fell on a shoe of all things -they took her to hospital at about 10:00 pm, gave her meds to reduce her Blood pressure which was at 220 given the stress of the situation, conducted an examination and concluded she had no broken bones. She twisted her spine and bruised her side badly. She's in awful pain.

My brother Colm acted quickly and set up a bedroom on the ground floor for her . . . she came back today and is resting there already. We had a plan. There's already a shower on the ground floor. We're pretty much shutting off the upstairs and Mum and Dad will live on the ground floor until we can get a stair lift. Betty will need 3 weeks to recuperate - we're setting up support systems.

A fall has real personal meaning when it happens - people are in pain - you need to think about it before hand so that things are quickly put in place - a little thought and preparation before hand are essential to pulling this off.

Wii and thee

Residents at the Sedgebrook retirement community in Lincolnshire, USA have been playing the Nintendo Wii regularly from Christmas. The average age of the residents at the old age home is 77 and majority of the people living here have not picked up a video game controller in their entire life.

Flora Dierbach, 72, says, “I’ve never been into video games But this is addictive. They come in after dinner and play. Sometimes, on Saturday afternoons, their grandkids come to play with them. Many grandparents are being taught by their grandkids. But, now, some grandparents are instead teaching their grandkids we’ll even have a fan for people to dry their hands before they bowl.”

Nintendo is also enthusiastic about it. Beth Llewelyn, Nintendo’s Director of corporate communications explains, “And that’s the whole idea. We certainly are grateful to our ‘core’ gamers and will continue to supply them with games. However, the question is, how do you build a bigger audience. Therefore, the idea was to make the controller look like a remote control with just a couple of buttons. People have no fear of picking up a remote control, but they’re hesitant to pick up a video game controller”

The residents of the Sedgebrook retirement community prefer bowling and they have loved it so much, that on Sunday afternoon there will be a video game bowling tournament in the lounge. Twenty residents have already signed up for the tourney and are all geared up to win the competition, just like the younger gamers who play in WCG and GameBox. The Wii is a couple of hundred bucks and is freely available in Best Buy and other dens of iniquity.

Numbers tell the story

The Virginia-based National Association of Home Builders estimates the 55-and-older population will reach 85 million by 2014, at which time it will represent 41.7 percent of homeowners. That group is pushing changes in design that crop up everywhere, from apartments to family homes that feature "first-floor masters" or ground-level suites that cut out taking those nasty steps at the end of the day. "The market is definitely there," says Howard Hanna, chairman and chief executive officer of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.

The demand is resulting in new homes that allow a person to age in place, says Mary Jo Peterson, a member of the home builders' 50+ Housing Council. "The age boom is helping people because it is leveling the playing field for everyone," says Peterson, of Connecticut, who also is an interior designer.

The demand has led the American Society of Interior Design to appoint an Aging in Place Council. It will try to "educate the public and designers" on the best ways to approach this aspect of life, says Michael Berens, director of research for the group.

"What a different set of seniors," says Nanci Case, vice president of marketing at the St. Barnabas Health System, which has a 110-unit home site geared to active, independent adults in Valencia, Butler County. She says this up-and-coming breed, which often includes new retirees, is more active than the same generation from the past. They look for communities that have walking trails, or are built around golf courses or near enticing attractions.

"It is not about age, but functional level," Pieffer says of Presbyterian SeniorCare. "It is a lifestyle choice." Some members of this maturing generation look for services at their home sites, while others simply want to maintain an independent, but easier, lifestyle. Renee Lukehart, for instance, talks about how there is a great feeling of freedom, but togetherness, in Cambridge Manor because the neighbors tend to be around the same age, in their 40s and 50s.

"There's a clubhouse with an exercise room, and people get together for all sorts of things," she says of the site with 180 condos and 10 single-family homes.

Wanted: An easier lifestyle

Home developer Bruce Crum believes the most important part of this lifestyle search is the desire to stay in a single-family home, but one that is simpler to handle. He is one of the owners of Adams Development Group, which has built a carriage-home community near Mars, Butler County. That neighborhood started in 2000 with 60 homes and now is in the construction phase of the latest addition, which will bring the total to 190.

He says he and his partner, Chris Frank, saw the yuppies of the 1980s were getting ready to retire and wanted homes that gave them all the features they were used to, but didn't require a lot of maintenance issues. The result was a community in which nearly all of the carriage homes are in units of four with all maintenance included in a $150-a-month condo fee. The homes start at prices from $265,000 to $325,000 and feature customizable living spaces.

Cathedral-ceilinged great rooms can be made into one-story areas with another room added above. Enclosed sun rooms can become outdoor porches. "These are people who don't want to worry about things," he says of his clientele, which he describes as between their late 40s and late 60s. "They want to be able to travel and not worry about security or whether the grass is cut." Dick Ciripompa agrees, saying that easier lifestyle is exactly why he and Judie are moving from their Franklin Park home.

That search for independent, free living also is the reason the St. Barnabas Health System added its collection of Woodlands homes a little more than a mile away from Adams Crossing. Douglas W. Day, president of St. Barnabas Communities, says the leaders of that retirement community saw the same desire when they began work on their collection of the same type of homes. "The new retiree, the young retiree, is very different from that of the past," he says. "They are active and want activities for them. In fact, they demand it." Because this site is part of St. Barnabas, its clientele is a little older. Day says the age of the residents ranges from 57 to late 80s, with most in their 60s and 70s. There are 110 units in the Woodlands now, and work is continuing toward an eventual total of nearly 300, he says. The community is full and has a waiting list and an average turnover of one or two a year, Day says. These homes are rented, however, at between $1,800 and $2,751 a month, and residents immediately become part of the health system.

Part of a community

That is why Cyril and Gloria Rogers moved to the Woodlands from their two-story home in McCandless. He had his left knee replaced in 2005 and had to deal with multi-level living during his rehabilitation. "The stairs finally defeated us," says Rogers, who is spry and energetic at 88.
Gloria Rogers, who will not offer her age but jokes she is "much younger," says the health-care aspect was the lifestyle offering that made the community attractive. "We knew we would have to do something eventually about health care," she says. "This gave us the chance to do it before we were made to." She says the single-family nature of the homes, along with the social activities offered by St. Barnabas, also made the site attractive.

Somewhere in the middle are the residences offered at Redmont Village in Hempfield, Westmoreland County. The 12 elevator-served apartments and 50 one-floor homes are sold from $120,000 to $275,000, says Presbyterian SeniorCare's Pieffer. It is next to Redstone Highlands, an elderly care facility connected to SeniorCare. The Village is not a direct part the health system, and residents simply are put on preferential status when they need care, he says.

Some communities, such as St. Barnabas and Redmont Village, are age-qualified, meaning residents must be of a specified age to move in, most often 55. Others areas, though, draw a certain generation of people because of their nature. Patricia Burk, director of housing and urban development at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, suggests that Downtown is attractive to adults wanting to pursue a lifestyle geared toward cultural activities.

She points to research done at Carnegie Mellon University that indicates 44 percent of recent migrants to Downtown are between 45 and 64. The largest part of that group comes from the baby boom generation. The U.S. Census Bureau defines that as being made up of people born between 1946 and 1965. "Some people just want to be in the center of things," Burk says. The neighborhoods can become pleasant because of that shared nature -- but that isn't necessarily an entirely positive effect, says a sociologist from Duquesne University, Uptown.

Michael Irwin, an associate professor in the department of sociology, says research done there shows that a variety of people creates a "social capital" that is lost when residents are the same. He also says residents generally feel better about the worth of their neighborhoods when they encounter different people in them. "Suburbs can be homogenous," he says, "but that generally is by class, not age." Nonetheless, homeowners such as the Rogers and Lukeharts speak positively of their move. "It was the best decision we ever made," Renee Lukehart says.

Accessibility features

Mary Jo Peterson says members of the baby boom generation are open to design changes in homes "as long as you're doing it for someone else." "Everyone wants to be nice about making sure a home is usable by the disabled," she says, discussing clients who often don't want to deal with aging. "Just don't mention the 'A' word when you're talking about something for them."

Peterson is an interior designer from Connecticut and a member of the National Association of Home Builders 50+ Housing Council. "Let's face it," she says, "no one wants to get old."

Baby boomers need to deal with matters of attitude as well as housing features when they are looking for a new home, an aging-in-place expert insists. Rebecca Stahr is a member of the National Association of Home Builders 50+ Housing Council. She also is a member of the American Society of Interior Design and a Certified Aging in Place Specialist. She says physical features that make homes easier to use create a sense of "empowerment that allows you to feel in control of things -- and that is the best attitude you can have." That means, she adds, home buyers need to be aware of the aspects of everyday life that are important to them.

"A lot is dependent on personality," says Stahr, the founder of LifeSpring Environs Inc., an Atlanta firm that does housing redesign and assessments. She says, for instance, if cooking is important, a resident should make sure the kitchen has counters that are the proper size, appliances that are appropriately placed and storage spaces that are easy to access. She says there are hundreds of items that can be part of an easily livable home space. Among the most important:

• A full bedroom and bath on the main level
• No-step entries
• 32-inch or wider doors throughout so a wheelchair can pass if necessary
• Drawers that pull out all the way, allowing easier access
• Levers instead of doorknobs
• Lighting that meets individual visual needs
• Appropriate placement of seating
• Low maintenance
• Access to service, cultural activities, medical treatment, friends and family

While most baby boomers in this category are empty-nesters, friends and other members of the family often visit. Therefore, it is important to have room for those stays, Stahr says. The whole matter centers on being aware of features and what they mean, she says.

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities

Social Scientists are noticing the growth of Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities across the country. These are social communities where the vast majority of the population are seniors who have simply remained in place as their kids live and move to other parts of the country, so that eventually a significant portion of the population is retired and still living in their old homes.

USA Today has an article today on a couple who wish to age at Home in a NORC. Edna and Kenny Geiman moved to Campbell Street, New Hyde Park, NY in 1950 when it was full of starter homes for WWII Veterans. Now the kids and grandkids are mostly grown up and gone, and, in many of the houses, only seniors remain. The Geimans aren't interested in senior housing, assisted living or moving to North Carolina to be near one of their four children. "I would rather stay in the house I stayed in all my life," Edna Geiman says.

A new program called Project Independence, funded by the state, the town and a social service agency, is designed to help the Geimans do just that. It provides care giver support, help with transportation, doctors who make house calls, and referrals for services for seniors like a local Handyman. Project Independence is one of a growing number of programs that make it possible for residents of senior communities to stay in their homes rather than move to senior housing or nursing homes.

Like 5,000 other neighborhoods across the country, according to an AARP estimate, this patch of Long Island is a "naturally occurring retirement community," or NORC, a demographic term used to describe neighborhoods where at least 40% of the residents are older than 60. The first NORC program began in New York City in 1985. Now, funded by grants from government, foundations such as the Denver-based Daniels Fund, and social service agencies, there are such programs in 25 states. Most federal money for the programs — about $23 million since 2001 — has come from "earmarking," funds obtained by a member of Congress for a specific program. Earmarking, however, is a practice the Bush administration and the new Democratic congressional leadership have vowed to end.

In October, Congress included NORC programs in the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act, which gives grants to states for services for the seniors. Money to fund the programs has yet to be appropriated by Congress. If federal money comes, the programs could get a big boost, but money for all programs for the seniors has been increasingly scarce, says Rob Goldberg of United Jewish Communities. "Our focus in this Congress will be to get that program funded," he said. UJC is the umbrella organization for Jewish social service agencies and perhaps the biggest champion of NORC programs: It has funded 41 programs and is very active here in Michigan.

Those who advocate for services for the seniors say expanding the programs is urgent. Not only will many of those seniors want to grow old at home, some of them will have to. "You can't possibly build enough senior housing for every senior," says Julia Pierson, a senior housing consultant in Baltimore, where there is a NORC program. There are some serious benefits to using NORCs to support aging in place. NORCs typically have an economy of scale which allow the sharing of services such as described above affordably across the community.

Younger seniors often are recruited to take care of home repairs. "This notion that 'it takes a village' does not apply just to children," says Fredda Vladeck, who founded the first NORC program and is director of an aging-in-place initiative for the United Hospital Fund, a New York research and grant-making foundation. "We need to go back to transforming our communities into good places to grow old," Vladeck says. "If we don't, we're still going to be doing aging services one hip fracture at a time. And that's not an effective way to do it."

Want to see if you community is a NORC? Check the following scholarly article for some pointers on how to measure the factors that make up a NORC.

Appliance makers show Senior Sensitive products in Orlando

Catering to the Baby Boomer market, appliance-makers are focusing more on ease of use. Last week the had the equivalent of the ultimate home center with 1,900 exhibitors at the International Builders' Show here in orlando displaying cutting-edge products for the home.

Take, for example, the Lift Oven by Gaggenau. With the push of a button, the glass-ceramic base drops down to counter height so cookie sheets and roasting pans can slide from the counter to be easily loaded and then raised back up to the oven. "You do not have to bend or lift. When you reach into the oven, that's when you get burned. This time the oven comes to your worktop," said spokeswoman Vanessa Trost. Already for sale in Europe, the oven will be available in the U.S. in July and will cost about $3,300.

Fumbling with house keys may soon be a thing of the past as both Schlage and Kwikset showed locks that work with the touch of a finger. Kwikset's biometric fingerprint SmartScan deadbolt is activated by the swipe of a fingerprint across an indicator behind the teardrop-shaped lock. The battery-operated lock requires no hardwiring and can be programmed for up to 50 fingerprints. It also can be programmed to allow entry for limited time periods if, say, the housekeeper comes from 8 a.m. to noon on Fridays. And, of course, it could solve the problem if you always lose your keys, like me. The lock will cost about $200 and be available in June.

Interesting Post On Gilbert Guide Blog

Here's an interesting post on Baby Boomer Women sandwiched between children and senior family members. This relates to the topic of Caregiver burnout as a major cause of having to move to assisted living which was discussed earlier here.