Archive » March 2016 » Columns

Community Caregivers hosted a special Italian-style dinner for the residents of the Omni Senior Living Community on Carman Road in Guilderland on March 19.  The community room was filled with smiles and laughter, as the residents gathered for this annual event.

This was the 15th year the event has been held, and this year students from the Guilderland High School National Honor Society were on hand to help serve the dinner.  Over 60 residents from the Omni attended.

The event was sponsored by Community Caregivers, a Guilderland-based, not-for-profit organization that provides non-medical services to Albany County residents by matching local volunteers with nearby clients.   

The community room was decorated to reflect the theme for this year’s dinner, which was “You Are the Stars.”  Over the years, there has developed a great fondness between those who have helped organize and serve the dinner, and the many residents of the Omni who look forward to attending it year after year.

Many comment that it is one of the highlights of the year for those at the Omni.  This year’s theme echoed the feeling that the seniors are truly stars in the eyes of the event organizers; however, the appreciation for those involved with sponsoring the dinner is also very evident.

The evening began with welcoming comments, and then a brief overview of the types of services and programs that Community Caregivers offers.  It was noted that several in attendance have either served as volunteer providers for the organization, or as clients that receive direct services.  Community Caregivers was founded in Altamont in 1994, and has offices located at 2021 Western Ave. in Guilderland.Altamont in 1994, and has offices located at 2021 Western Ave. in Guilderland.

A special highlight of the evening was celebrating the tremendous efforts of the Quinn family who have organized all the details for the event for many years.  The Guilderland family has been involved with the dinner for more than 10 years, and parents Suzanne and Kevin have inspired their two teenage boys to take the lead during that time.

Sean and Conor have developed into truly remarkable young men who are shining as examples of what it means to serve as volunteers in their community.  Since Sean will soon be graduating from Guilderland High School and going off to college, Community Caregivers wanted to take this opportunity to thank them by presenting both Sean and Conor with framed certificates of appreciation.  As the two were congratulated when receiving their honors, those in attendance enthusiastically applauded as they recalled watching them both grow up over the years.

After the dessert was served, the evening’s festivities continued with the random drawing of prizes, all of which were donated by local businesses.  Excitement was in the air as the lucky recipients waited to hear if their names would be called, and to enjoy a gift presented to them by one the members of the National Honor Society.  Others at their tables were fortunate to take home the centerpiece vases, which were filled with decorative stars attached to flower stems to reflect the theme of the event.

A special thank-you goes to the 13 volunteers who participated, including student, Sean and Conor Quinn, Alec Betancourt, Jason Falvo, James Gray, Hayli Bazan, Catherine Seita, and Mohona Sengupta.  Adult volunteers included Suzanne and Kevin Quinn, and Nellie and Greg Goutos.  Mary McGann, a resident of the Omni, deserves special recognition for once again serving as the site coordinator.

All the food for the dinner was generously donated by several area restaurants.  Special thanks to:  The 99 Restaurant on Wolf Road, Bountiful Bread, Ciao Italia Restaurant, Paesan’s Pizza, TGI Fridays, Milano Pizza, Via Fresca Italian Gourmet Market, and Marotta’s Towne Pizza.  Also, Price Chopper, ShopRite and Hannaford Supermarkets.  And to Stewart’s for donating the ice cream for dessert.

Prizes were donated by the following local businesses:  Carman Wine & Liquor, Candy Kraft, Robinson’s Hardware, The Pottery Place, Bamboo Restaurant, and The Altamont Enterprise.

For more information about Community Caregivers, please contact the office at 456-2898, or online at communitycaregivers.org.

Editor’s note: Greg Goutos is a longtime Community Caregivers volunteer.

Marshall McLuhan — the great assessor of the impact of mass media on our lives — wrote an essay in 1963 called “The Agenbite of Outwit.”

He said that, when humankind implemented the telegraph in 1844, it radically altered the state of human consciousness because it had projected its central nervous system out onto the world. Every conscious neuron was thence connected by immediate-information-giving utilities to every other.

McLuhan was aware that human inventions involved extensions of the body into space: the wheel an extension of the foot; the hoe, the arm; clothing, the skin; and the book an extension of the eye.

But with humankind’s global connection through its nerves, the axis of reality shifted radically; it created benefits of course but it also created a new set of obligations because no neuron could deny the presence of every other.

The late great contemporary composer John Cage took a liking to these ideas. It was not that they flipped reality on end but more that they presented opportunities for living more sanely. They redefined the concept of sharing so that it now includes sharing not only the benefits but also the burdens of others — fully supportive of the axiom: People are happier when dog no longer eat dog.

In his classic, “A Year From Monday,” Cage says (and I paraphrase, you can see the original on Page ix): it is now incumbent upon humankind to implement globally the disciplines people traditionally practiced to be at peace, at one with themselves — meditation, yoga, psychoanalysis, and every related modality.

When such disciplines are practiced globally people recognize that others are not threatening and greedy by nature. They are better able to see the needs of others (people are more inclined to speak of them) and moved to take steps to meet those needs without resentment or derision. Such is how an effectively working planet-wide central nervous system operates.

For a long time, Cage was interested in producing a list of utilities that connect us to each other (e.g., the telephone, radio, Internet) whereby we come face to face with every language, custom, and ritual situated along the spectrum of humanity.

In “Agenbite,” McLuhan said that, since the world contracted to the size of a tribe or village where everyone knows what’s going on everywhere, the human community feels compelled to participate. Participation is the democratization of happiness.

Understandably McLuhan has long been thought of as one of the inventors of “global village” but a village free of zenophobia. Zenophobes fear diversity, it contradicts assumptions about self and other that thrive on a divide-and-conquer ethic.

Anyone interested in anthropology knows that people living in pristine tribal cultures — there are a million studies on it — find it impossible to think of themselves as an “individual” or “independent” operator.

Of course “primitives” recognize differences — some folks are faster, smarter, stronger, and more efficient in amassing prized money-shells — but the faster do not tax the slower to enhance their prestige. A consciousness wired to every other induces genuine humility and compassion.

For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church tried to promote global connectedness through the concept of a “mystical body” asserting that through Jesus all Christians share a mystical, spiritual bond that cannot be broken.

And Alexander the Great proposed a similar idea in his “homonoia,” a universal union of hearts, a “brotherhood of man” but, in his brotherhood, brother does not share the burden of brother.

Though we continue to reap the benefits of a fully-operative global nervous system, the human community still has not faced up to the task of putting flesh and bone on those nerves, that is, of creating a political economy designed to meet the needs of all, one that fits the complex of nerves.

And needs-based means providing not only full health care for everyone, from the day we’re born to the day we die, but also housing, daily sustenance, old age care, the works — the opposite of a deserts-based, dog-eat-dog, tribal mind.

Thus the potential for achieved well being is no longer limited to Christians or Macedonians or any other sect but extends to every physical, neurological, consciousness in our global home.

Disbelievers in this connectedness are at least willing to acknowledge that what happens in China (and Mexico, Vietnam, and Japan) affects the quality of our lives in the United States. They acknowledge globalization but only in so far as it relates to money, trade, power, and deserts-based benefits.

Otherwise their battle cry is for walling off the self and nation from what exists on the other side of the synapse and for siphoning off “differences” among populations into “ghettos.”

This is nervous-breakdown thinking and explains why at any moment some group somewhere can rise up and terrorize the world, claiming their dreams were shattered through demonizing, exclusionary, needs-denying practices.

Quite astoundingly, two of the 2016 presidential candidates in the United States are calling for revolution: one for “political revolution,” the other for a guilt-free battering-of-the-weak-without-reprisal revolution based in an ideology that stigmatizes difference.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard predicted this would occur when his “The Concept of Dread” appeared the same year the telegraph was born. He was addressing the dread of connectedness, the dread of facing up to a needs-based political economy that being linked neurologically requires.

Pope Francis recently said that people who wall themselves off from others, who classify and divide, are destroyers of the mystical body and cannot call themselves Christians. They tear away at the limbs of a universal needs-meeting body.

Which brings us to the true function of the computer. People might use the machine to Google cheap flights to Spain or find a good house at the shore but the computer exists primarily: (1) to inventory the needs of every neuron in the cosmic system; (2) to inventory every available worldwide resource (every kind everywhere); and (3) to find the best way of getting what’s needed to those in need without charge or delay.

We do know of course that in every Eden people steal, cheat, rob, and raid your cache — sin is a given — but in the meantime, in this era of our neurologically-connected needs-based revolution, every person on the planet is treated like the richest person on earth.

Now that’s a revolution of dread.

Most junior and senior boys are studying for the new SATs, waiting to hear from colleges, trying to find jobs, and maybe figuring out who they want  to take to the junior prom and the senior ball. Conor, and Sean Quinn, 16 and 18 respectively, are doing all these things plus one other pretty big activity: They’re in charge of putting together a pasta dinner for 50.

The dinner is for the residents at the Omni Senior Living Community in Guilderland on March 19. And for the last three to four months the brothers have done all the work.

They begin by contacting Community Caregivers who sponsor the dinner and prepare the letters the boys send out to vendors for raffle items, decoration materials, and the food: salads, rolls and butter, pasta with sauce, and desserts. Any furniture, silverware, trays, etc. come from Altamont Reformed Church where Greg Goutos, a longtime volunteer with Community Caregivers,  has connections

This year, four or five  students from the Guilderland High School Honor Society  will help serve. Tyler Mazone, clarinetist, has asked the boys if he can provide entertainment.

Conor says, “Tyler is a happy, upbeat person, full of enthusiasm. We like people like this — happy — to be a part of the event.

The boys’ mom, Suzanne Quinn, says her sons have been in charge for the last two to three years, and she’s very proud of that fact.

As Conor reflects on the work they do, he says some parts are hard. “Lots of businesses give to a lot of organizations. They don’t all say, ‘Yes, we’d love to help.’ We do what we have to do.

But, he says he isn’t discouraged. Sean explained that the day before the dinner the tables and chairs, table settings, decorations — all the physical stuff — are dealt with.  The day-of, they spend time getting the food and getting it heated. And, yes, Mom makes meatballs and extra sauce.

What do these guys do for work and fun and what are their future plans? Sean does odd jobs such as walking dogs and mowing lawns. And, he’s a scuba diver. Two years ago, he went to Bali and, aside from diving, he also taught kids English for three weeks in July. As a senior, he’s waiting to hear from colleges and is interested in history.

“History has always fascinated me,” he said. He wants to make history “usable, applicable. Why does this matter?”

Conor does a lot of volunteer work. At Whispering Willows Wild Care, he helps animals get back into the wild. He mentioned hawks, owls, and kestrels as a few of the creatures the organization has rehabbed. But he’ll do anything there like providing water, cleaning cages, talking to them.

“I love to bond,” he adds.

Since he was 15, he’s volunteered  at Homeward Bound in Schenectady. This place helps dogs get adopted, and he does whatever they ask him to do.  Right now, he’s hoping to get his real first time job at a doggie day-care business. And you guessed it, for his future he’s looking at a career dealing with animals.

When the boys began their connection with this dinner, they were  “unofficial mascots.” They went around hugging people and being cute. As they grew older, they talked with the residents and listened to their stories.

Sean says, “I’ve always loved storytelling because it’s entertaining and a good way to connect with people.”

As the years went on and he got to know the people, he realized the residents were part of his community and also his friends

“It feels good.” And he concludes, “Satisfaction comes from helping people.”

Conor says now that they’re older, one of the responsibilities he and his brother take on is seeing that the Omni  residents are comfortably seated. Some are in wheelchairs so the boys help them get situated.

He says, “We try to make sure everyone is comfortable and well fed.” As with the animals he works with, Conor likes to bond with people, too. “I like to  help people and make them smile.”

Community Caregivers has been fortunate to have this family as volunteers. With Sean off to college next year, he can’t predict  his involvement with the dinner. What we can predict is these two guys will move through life with some pretty strong volunteering skills and love of helping their neighbors.  Mom has taught her sons well.

The Old Men of the Mountain gathered together on March first (on the Hill, March roared in like a lion during the night; the wind rattled the windows — welcome March) at the Chuck Wagon Diner in Princetown. The sun was shinning so bright in the morning that the blinds had to be shuttered because of the glare.

The Chuck Wagon is on Route 20, which runs east and west in New York State.  The windows on one side of the restaurant face just about due east, and, while enjoying the breakfast at the restaurant early in the morning, the OFs can welcome the sun as it eases its way over the hill.

One OF found that using the microwave to boil sap is not a good idea. The steam generated started to loosen the wallpaper in the kitchen.

The OFs remembered renting steamers, or making steam on their own to do just that — loosen the wallpaper — so it becomes pliable, and then with wide putty knives the OFs could scrape the wallpaper off the wall. Then they would hang new wallpaper.

That was back when wallpaper was popular. Some of the OFs still prefer wallpaper to paint. One OF said with the wallpaper there is still the insulation aspect of the paper on the wall.  The OFs that know how to apply wallpaper would rather do that then apply paint.

Eerie talk

How this next topic came up, this scribe does not know, not having caught the beginning. The subject was wax in their ears, which is normal, but a rather curious conversation at breakfast.

However, the OFs continued on by pointing out that they had gotten bugs in their ears. The range covered most flying insects, from the no-see-ums, regular cluster flies, the occasional small moth, and lightening bugs, to the really bad bugger — a hornet. Inside the ears is no place anyone would want to be stung.

Pure water and fresh air

The OFs who live on the Hill said, with all the water problems that seem to cropping up in other areas, they are glad they live up here with the trees and rocks. The Helderbergs do not have much dirt and except for the areas that will support a pond and a few small lakes there is not a lot of water on the Hill to support industry.

One OF mentioned the prevailing winds blow across a lot of open real estate before it reaches the Hilltowns. This, the OFs thought, also allows the Hilltowns to breathe fresh air.

One OF mentioned that the few that want to bring industry to the Hilltown are thinking more of the buck, than of the health of those that live here. As time marches on, the OFs are beginning to see there is a considerable downside to many industries as far as the general health of the public is concerned.

The OFs were in a preachy mood on this subject.

Some of the OFs say they are going to make a change to stainless steel, glass, or cast-iron cookware now, and not use anything covered with Teflon.

Practical advice on planning funerals

It seemed strange that, after this subject was covered, the OFs went on to chat about something else and the topic was funerals. None of the OFs want to experience a funeral from the inside.

One OF mentioned how some funeral directors lead the family to purchase the best caskets.  An OF thought this was easy to do because of the state of mind the family is in due to the death of a family member. It was a form of conjecture on how the OFs have their ducks lined up in case the OF’s foot meets the bucket.  

One OF thought that, if you know you are going to die, it is a good idea to get the family together and straighten things out so they are not left with a mess when you do enter through the pearly gates.

On the other hand, if your demise is sudden, and the OF is in good health, the family is left with this type of mess unless the OF has taken the time to show someone in the family where the paperwork is, and what kind of funeral the OF wants, and what kind of casket, etc. It seems the OFs have covered this before but this time it seemed to come from a different angle and be a bit more practical.

Good vibrations

The OFs discussed how much technology is now crammed into a little smartphone. They mentioned how clear the tiny little speakers are.

One OF said he can put his phone on speakers, put it in his shirt pocket, and have a conversation. The OF said people can hear him, and he can hear them.

Some of the OFs said that is where they carry their phone but most of the time they can’t hear it when the ringtone is calling them. They also mention that, when the phone is on vibrate, it needs to be close to them or they can’t feel the vibrations

The OFs said that, though the technology is beyond their understanding, the age-old idiom is true: As the OF gets older, his sense of hearing is dimmed, and his sense of feel is beginning to migrate from the body. This may be the reason for their complaints, the OFs can hardly hear Big Ben, or sense the vibration of a concrete leveler.

Antiques experts

Many of the OFs are antiques, and it stands to reason that many watch the “Antiques Roadshow” on PBS. Quite often, the objects some people bring in are what the OFs have hanging around the house or are still using.

One OF suggested someone should bring him in and see how much he is worth as an antique. I’ll give you five bucks was a reply to which another reply was that it was too high.

Those OFs who made it to the Chuck Wagon Diner in Princetown and all still very much alive and ambulatory were: Miner Stevens, Bill Lichliter, George Washburn, Robie Osterman, Roger Chapman, Roger Shafer, Bill Tinning, John Rossmann, Harold Guest, Jack Norray, Mace Porter, Gerry Irwin, Wayne Gaul, Lou Schenck, Glenn Patterson, Mark Traver, Chuck Aelesio, Ted Willsey, Jim Rissacher, Elwood Vanderbilt, Harold Grippen, and me.   S