Safety
AROUND YOUR HOME

Visit our greatest natural resource — grandparents

Brian Anderson

Visiting grandparents — safety related? In a roundabout way, I suppose. It's an issue that has come up a lot recently around our house, and I remember having the same conversations with my parents when I was a youngster.

I still remember the feeling that I had as a kid when my parents would tell me that we were going to visit the grandparents. On Sunday afternoon the sun would be shining, the birds singing, and my mini-bike would be calling me to go for a ride — then, bam! Mom would tell us that we were going visiting. How could she do that? Didn't she know that in less then 12 hours I would be headed back to school? I had so little time. Life was passing me by. I was 12 and had no time to waste on visiting "old people."

Boy, what I wouldn't give to have those days back. I would have listened more closely, remembered a lot more, and not been in such a hurry to get home. At the time I didn't realize what I had and what I was missing. Now I do, and I am trying to convince my kids that they do have the time and should make the effort to visit those "old people." There is so much knowledge and experience there free for the taking — a lot of lessons to be learned the easy way — just by listening.

I realize that the people in the grandparents and great-grandparents age group are better conversationists than the teens of today. They had to be. They grew up without Gameboys®" or video games that can occupy a kid for hours without having to say a word to anyone. Some of them can probably still remember not having electricity, heaven forbid.

The art of conversation is not a dying art. It is just being re-defined. E-mail, voice-mail and instant messager services on the Internet are all forms of communication. Not what our grandparents are used to, but conversation nonetheless.

What I propose to the youth of today is to spend time with those older and wiser adults, listen to their stories and watch their faces as they relive the past. Then take the time to explain your new world to them. Tell them how you can take college classes "on-line," talk to several of your friends at one time on the Internet and wear the same bell-bottom pants that your parents wore when they were teenagers. You will be surprised at how interested and amazed they will be.

If you think back on it, it's like when I was a teenager. I could have explained to my grandparents how the transition from LP records to 8-track tapes was the coolest thing since disco. By the time I am of the grandparenting age, I can't imagine someone not wanting to listen to my stories. Do you think that's what my grandparents thought?

This doesn't just pertain to teenagers visiting relatives either. It's an effort that people of all ages can make. It can be an elderly neighbor down the road, that little old lady that you always see at the checkout line in the grocery store or old Uncle Fred who is not really your uncle.

Not only will they be glad to see you, but it is also a good opportunity to check on their health and well-being. Some medications, weather extremes and other variables can disorient elderly people and make them unaware of potential health problems. After storms, or on really hot or cold days, make the effort to call or stop by and say hello.

I can remember while I was a lineman at Adams Electric and we'd have a storm roll through causing several outages. We'd stop and check on some of our older members or someone living alone, just to make sure that their power had come back on and their furnaces or air conditioners were working. It doesn't take long and besides, that's what makes rural life so unique. Everyone looks out for everyone else. See, there is a safety message in here after all.

I remember what my wife's grandmother once told me. She said what young people don't realize is, "I'm just like they are, only stuck in this old body." Let's not waste one of earth's "Greatest Natural Resources." Go visit a great- grandparent, grandparent, aunt or uncle or even the little old lady from the check out line at the grocery store. And, oh yeah, leave the Gameboy at home.

Brian Anderson is a safety instructor for the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives and a former lineman for Adams Electric Cooperative, Camp Point. E-mail briana@aiec.org.

14 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING • SEPTEMBER 2001