Older Folks

Geriatrics on the go!!


95-Year-Old Preps for College Finals

HAYS, Kan. - Like most students at Fort Hays State University, Nola Ochs plans to spend some time reading and studying during this week's fall break. But she'll take time out on Wednesday to celebrate her 95th birthday.

Ochs is living at Wooster Hall on campus while pursuing her general studies degree at the university. She has about 15 hours to take next semester to get her degree.

If she does it, Ochs will be the Guinness Book of World Records' oldest college graduate.

But it will also be the culmination of a lifetime of learning. She started at Fort Hays in 1930, when it was known as Kansas State Teacher's College.

Then in the 1970s, in her 60s, she took classes part time at Dodge City Community College, and eventually St. Mary of the Plains in Dodge City. She took some virtual classes earlier at Fort Hays before deciding to attend classes this semester.

On Friday, the last day before fall break, her family and fellow classmates threw her an impromptu birthday party during her Biblical Studies class. Her son, Alan Ochs, flew in from Jetmore for the occasion. Her granddaughter, Alexandra Ochs, didn't have to travel as far - she's in the same class as her grandmother.

After the party, Alan Ochs took his mother home for Thanksgiving break.

"We're happy to get her back home for a while," Alan Ochs said. "We missed having her out there, especially through the fall harvest."

Though Nola is amused by her potential status as the world's oldest graduate, she said she's more excited about getting to walk at the graduation ceremony with her granddaughter.

Asked for some words of wisdom, Ochs simply said, "I give thanks to the Lord and try to live day by day. I try to do whatever is pleasing to Him. That's what I want to do.

Proof that the saying "You are never to old to learn" is true!

Kinda strange with the granddaughter having granny there to watch over her shoulder, but then again grandparents let grandkids get away with way more than they did their kids!!






Couple Celebrate 77th Anniversary

BRISTOW, Okla. - Gene and Elinor Coleman celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary Tuesday - a marriage that may be the state's longest. Official records aren't kept so no one knows for certain. But the Colemans have been married long enough that their anniversary brought plenty of attention to their one-story, clapboard house with a cuckoo clock in this community southwest of Tulsa.

He is 96 and she is 94, and Coleman says most days "we sit here and look at each other." That, he says, is a blessing because "we're lucky that both of us are still here to look at."

And after all these years, they still sit together like newlyweds, with his arm around her.

"When we got married, people got married to be married," says Elinor. "They made a vow, `Until death do us part,' and we didn't feel like we would break that vow."

Their marriage has never been perfect, she says, "because perfect doesn't exist."

Coleman says that since Sept. 29 he and Elinor have "answered more questions than George Bush."

That was the day the couple went to the Tulsa State Fair to attend a banquet for people married more than 50 years. Of all the people there - "it seemed like a thousand people to me," says Coleman - no one had been married longer than the Colemans.

They met on a blind double date, although they had actually seen each other previously.

"It was at a box supper," he said. "I was sitting on the second row from the front, and I heard somebody behind me drop a chair. I turned around to see what was happening, and there was the prettiest girl I ever saw."

They would be married seven months later on Thanksgiving Day - Nov. 28, 1929.

One of their sons died in 1992 of a heart attack at age 52. "You never get over losing a child, no matter how old the child is," says Elinor. "Emotionally, that's as bad as it gets."

They have two other sons, five grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

Coleman says he hopes they make it to their 80th anniversary.

But, says Elinor, "We can't control that. Only God knows."

Says Coleman, "But we can try. We can try."

They just sit and look at each other! Their marriage has never been perfect, she says. He says they have had 20 happy years together - which 20 he won't say!!







Legally Blind Woman, 94, Bowls a 244

CENTRALIA, Wash. - Esther Medley of Centralia is legally blind, but when she bowls she can glimpse a bit of the floor to line up with the lane.

Medley, 94, can't see straight ahead, so her 86-year-old husband Ralph tells her which pins are left after her first ball.

That's how Medley recently bowled a score of 244, which included eight strikes, at Fairway Lanes in Centralia. It was the second-highest score of the year for her league.

The Medleys have been bowling in the senior league since 1979.

Good thing she married a younger man! I can't bowl half that score so next time I bowl, I'm wearing a blindfold!!!






Well, three outta four ain't bad:

Bingo habit blamed for grandma’s drug running

61-year-old faces up to 12 years in jail after 214 lbs. of pot found in her car

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. - A grandmother found with a trunkful of marijuana was convicted of drug running in what prosecutors said was an attempt to earn cash for a bingo habit.

State troopers found 10 bundles of pot totaling 214 pounds hidden in Leticia Villareal Garcia’s car trunk last year when they stopped her outside Bisbee, in far southeastern Arizona.

Villareal, 61, told jurors before they convicted her Thursday that her only regular income was a $275 monthly welfare check, but she frequently played bingo and occasionally won thousands of dollars.

Prosecutor Doyle Johnstun said the game was Villareal’s undoing.

‘She's got a bingo problem’

“People who play bingo almost every night of the week end up losing in the long run,” Johnstun told jurors. “The underlying issue is that she’s got a bingo problem, which explains why an otherwise nice person might get sucked into something like this.”

A huge Bingo problem, 214 pounds of weed in the trunk ya think!!! This sounds like a Cheech and Chong movie. We gonna be going up in smoke. Bingo Bongo!!!!






C'est la vie say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell!!

Saturday, pushing, shoving, feet stepped on, kids crying, people walking in groups so you can't pass, move outta the way I see a sale.

Yeah baby it's time to Christmas shop - let's hit it. Return here tomorrow for more of less!!