Historical Clippings Book - Fashion (HC-17) (451 pages)

For preretirees only Will retirement mean I should move toa new home? B. sure you consider carefully all angles of plans for your retirement housing, before you make a move. Plans for one’s living arrangements after retirement must be made as part of a total retirement plan. Health — present and future — will have a good deal to do with where and how one can live. Postretirement income is another important factor in making plans for living arrangements. Leisure time pursuits also will have considerable bearing on retirement housing plans. Too often, when retirement housing is mentioned, people think of homes for the aged, or retirement communities. Actually, people may plan to continue to live in the same house in which they have spent their working years. Others, to reduce expenses, reduce the number of rooms in the houses they occupy as their families decrease through children growing up and leaving home. Some move to a “retirement state” — one with a warmer climate during the winter months, or one that offers substantial tax advantages. In moving, they may shift to a mobile home, smaller housing, or housing designed for retirement living. Later, they might decide that, due to health or a desire to eliminate the chores of cooking and housekeeping, a home for aging persons would be preferable. Others may start their retirement in a community develtone and circulation. oped for retirees that has living accommodations for various levels of health. How much should I be concerned about my health when I retire? Many older people think that because they are getting older, they also should have aches and pains. So they treat aches and pains, instead of preventing them. The mind’s picture of an older person as a terribly ill individual, lying in bed waiting for death, is one we carry with us from our early days. This often comes to be the picture of the Recommended: daily exercise to improve muscle @ A CASE HISTORY Planning can make retirement an especially rewarding time of life. Here retired schoolteacher Iva V. Adkins tells of her experience for the information of those not yet retired. —Ed. i .pout a year ago, I finalized an important decision — to leave a teaching career of many years. I didn’t have to go; I was neither too old nor too ill to remain; no one was prodding me from above, and my assignment was in one of the best schools in Los Angeles. Why, then, did I leave? My reason was simple. For years I had been building a list of sparetime hobbies, interests, involvements, want-to-dos, telling myself as I broke away reluctantly, “One of these days I’m going to have more time for that.” So I took stock of the situation and 50 decided that “‘one of these days” could and should be now. The last 12 months have been so varied and exciting that I’d like to tell about them for the benefit of newcomers about to join the ranks of the retired. Perhaps some of them are fighting a feeling of uncertainty. Will they miss their jobs, the companionship of fellow workers, the sense of being a part of things? Will they find enough stimulation to keep their minds active? I can be completely encouraging and cite my own experience as an example of the satisfaction to be found when one door is shut so that many more may be opened. The first and most obvious thing everyone enjoys about being away from the job is the complete break from tedious routine — the early rising and late night papers that are part of a teacher’s commitment. My enthusiasm, however, does not stem from any additional rest that has resulted: quite the contrary. Enchanted by the extra time at my disposal, I have plunged into a variety of enjoyable projects—some long anticipated, others newly conceived — so that each morning’s awakening brings a sense of adventure. And capturing a sense of adventure is, to my mind, an integral part of happy retirement. To get started and minimize the effect of being away from familiar scenes, I did what many others do — planned an especially interesting trip to coincide with the opening of the new semester. Returning five weeks later, I was quite in the mood to tackle further items in my list of want-tos, and a sort of informal schedule has evolved. On Monday mornings, I lay out a rough draft of a program for the week, involving at least two categories other than social. Enough flexibility is provided to allow for impromptu ideas. Some of the activities that have occupied my days and made me feel quite wnretired could be mentioned under several different headings: ® NRTA JOURNAL NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1972.

For preretirees only Will retirement mean I should move toa new home? B. sure you consider carefully all angles of plans for your retirement housing, before you make a move. Plans for one’s living arrangements after retirement must be made as part of a total retirement plan. Health — present and future — will have a good deal to do with where and how one can live. Postretirement income is another important factor in making plans for living arrangements. Leisure time pursuits also will have considerable bearing on retirement housing plans. Too often, when retirement housing is mentioned, people think of homes for the aged, or retirement communities. Actually, people may plan to continue to live in the same house in which they have spent their working years. Others, to reduce expenses, reduce the number of rooms in the houses they occupy as their families decrease through children growing up and leaving home. Some move to a “retirement state” — one with a warmer climate during the winter months, or one that offers substantial tax advantages. In moving, they may shift to a mobile home, smaller housing, or housing designed for retirement living. Later, they might decide that, due to health or a desire to eliminate the chores of cooking and housekeeping, a home for aging persons would be preferable. Others may start their retirement in a community develtone and circulation. oped for retirees that has living accommodations for various levels of health. How much should I be concerned about my health when I retire? Many older people think that because they are getting older, they also should have aches and pains. So they treat aches and pains, instead of preventing them. The mind’s picture of an older person as a terribly ill individual, lying in bed waiting for death, is one we carry with us from our early days. This often comes to be the picture of the Recommended: daily exercise to improve muscle @ A CASE HISTORY Planning can make retirement an especially rewarding time of life. Here retired schoolteacher Iva V. Adkins tells of her experience for the information of those not yet retired. —Ed. i .pout a year ago, I finalized an important decision — to leave

a teaching career of many years. I didn’t have to go; I was neither too old nor too ill to remain; no one was prodding me from above, and my assignment was in one of the best schools in Los Angeles. Why, then, did I leave? My reason was simple. For years I had been building a list of sparetime hobbies, interests, involvements, want-to-dos, telling myself as I broke away reluctantly, “One of these days I’m going to have more time for that.” So I took stock of the situation and 50 decided that “‘one of these days” could and should be now. The last 12 months have been so varied and exciting that I’d like to tell about them for the benefit of newcomers about to join the ranks of the retired. Perhaps some of them are fighting a feeling of uncertainty. Will they miss their jobs, the companionship of fellow workers, the sense of being a part of things? Will they find enough stimulation to keep their minds active? I can be completely encouraging and cite my own experience as an example of the satisfaction to be found when one door is shut so that many more may be opened. The first and most obvious thing everyone enjoys about being away from the job is the complete break from tedious routine — the early rising and late night papers that are part of a teacher’s commitment. My enthusiasm, however, does not stem from any additional rest that has resulted: quite the contrary. Enchanted by the extra time at my disposal, I have plunged into a variety of enjoyable projects—some long anticipated, others newly conceived — so that each morning’s awakening brings a sense of adventure. And capturing a sense of adventure is, to my mind, an integral part of happy retirement. To get started and minimize the effect of being away from familiar scenes, I did what many others do — planned an especially interesting trip to coincide with the opening of the new semester. Returning five weeks later, I was quite in the mood to tackle further items in my list of want-tos, and a sort of informal schedule has evolved. On Monday mornings, I lay out a rough draft of a program for the week, involving at least two categories other than social. Enough flexibility is provided to allow for impromptu ideas. Some of the activities that have occupied my days and made me feel quite wnretired could be mentioned under several different headings: ® NRTA JOURNAL NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1972.