Yesterday at our company's Community Service Day, my office participated in working with our local Parks & Recreation department by assisting a rather interesting group of volunteer retirees on a Greenway project.
We were armed with heavy duty rakes and pick axes used to fight forest fires, lugging these about was a work-out in and of its self. We were building a hiking / mountain bike path through the greenway at the direction of several "octogenarian" supervisory volunteers- moving rocks, cutting tree roots and sculpting the lay of the land to form the mountain trail suitable for foot traffic.
The volunteer group that we assisted was quite an impressive group, consisting of retired doctors, lawyers, indian chiefs - average age, conservatively "mid 70's and one 82 year old "hippie", that we promptly nicknamed "Fruit Loop". She even dressed the part and listening to her stories and or ramblings about her life's experiences, hobbies and her collection of animals, insects, flora & fauna and her articulation of same was reminiscent of what I would have thought "Haight-Ashbury" would have been like- back in the day! Her life's experiences were many and at 82 years old, she is still on her adventure, finding frogs and the like and sharing her excitement with the group.
While digging away at the mountain trail, we encountered a rather large, well camouflaged cylindrical shape slithering its way across our work product. Heralding the find to the volunteer population, all work came to an abrupt halt, curiosity set in and we all converged to view the creature.
No one could tell if it was poisonous or not, so the lead octogenarian quickly summoned "Fruit Loop" to identify our new found friend. Upon her arrival, she quickly proclaimed that it was non-poisonous and she removed our visitor-thinking she would take it home with her and add it to her collection of other creatures found during her life's adventure. She eventually reconsidered and helped the creature to an area well away from our work product - We all rolled our eyes and we quickly confirmed why we gave her the nickname.
The average age of our company group is probably about 38, not counting me. At 57 years of age, I experienced the genre' of Haight Ashbury and feel qualified to identify its previous participants-and even the one who can't let go! I consider myself to be in fairly good shape, for a desk jockey, and thoroughly enjoy working in the yard, mowing my 3/4 acre lot with a walk behind mower and any other outside project I can get in to, and found myself rather Humbled not only by the ages, but the stamina and work ethic of the Greenway Volunteers.
Our company group brought a grill for Hot Dogs and all the fixin's and we shared our lunchtime bounty with the Greenway Volunteers, of which they were most appreciative. We listened to their stories, laughed at their jokes, shared in stories about their previous professional careers, and even petted the frog that was captured by Fruit Loop-during her lunchtime adventure!
When ever you hear of the term "The aging of America" keep this group in mind. They do this every Wednesday, in different areas of the state and thoroughly enjoy their retirement and giving back to the community from where they come.
This was one of life's experiences that I will remember always!
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