Make Yourself Feel Good

[Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL)]

Brighten the day of an elderly person and make yourself feel good in the process. Call your local nursing home and see if they will let you bring your old car to show to the residents and maybe even take them for a ride.

We did that yesterday. The residents really seemed to enjoy it. They have a fairly large compound with several little roads. I picked a route and took several carloads of patients for a short ride around the grounds. There were others that would liked to have ridden, but were not able to get in and out. They still wanted their picture taken with the car. It brought back memories for many and did us all good.

[Ron Green]

Hal,

We make an effort every year at our national get together to spend a half a day at the nursing home to take the residents out for rides, even into the water. They really enjoy it and look forward to going. I have had some that needed to be accompanied by a nurse with oxygen tanks however that would not stop them.

[Amphicar BUYER]

Ron - That is still one of the highlights of my trips to Celina. I show up a day early just for the Otterbien Home. The year before last I had 99 year old Enus and his 2 great great grandsons with me. We hit the water at about 20MPH at the kids request. I thought Enus was about to have a coranary from him laughing so hard at how his GG grands kids screamed in terror (at least for a moment!)

[Guest BruceW]

For many many years, our region has participated in the Open House for a retirement/nursing home here in the county. We usually have 8-12 cars of all ages participating. We would display our cars and give rides to the residents and their visiting families. The rides were usually 2-4 miles up and around the country roads back to the home. It would be amazing how some elderly residents barely able to walk could get the energy to get into the cars. They would get out from riding one and immediately get into another. We would be busy for the entire two hours of the Open House. It was fun for them and for us. The joy the residents received and the many stories we heard from the elderly men and women about past cars of decades ago they once had. A member that worked part time at the home said they resident would talk about the rides for many months later. Unfortunately, this year when I mentioned the residents enjoying the rides, our current president stately flatly that there would be no rides, only a static display. I'm not sure if it is the home or an over cautious president. It will sure be a memorable part missing from our annual participation.