Rural System's

The Codgers
(Maybe Old Geezers ... A Group for Folks of Advanced Age)

Our motto (whichever one that you can remember) ...

We still know some stuff.
Use it before you loose it.
No one has read the minutes of the last meeting!

cod•ger \"kä-jer"\ n : an odd or cranky and usually elderly fellow (c)2000 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

The Old Codgers is a web site for folks that have done a fair amount of aging. They're generally pieved (but not very cranky) about having people treat them as having "gone dull" after they retired. Brought up on the idea of the importance of history, of building on the past, of respect for experience, on maintaining records,and of standing on the shoulders of giants, they're still have those ideas and feelings. Old Codgers believe that they may still have something to offer.

Here is one place that they try to offer it. Here are

• some ideas
• some potential contacts
• even some direct help
• some consultants

Each person on the list has volunteered to try to be of help. If you have a serious question or request for help, maybe one of these old guys ("guys" is male female or other) may be able to help or knows someone, or knows where to look for the answers.

They paid a small fee, part of which went to support Rural Systems and the blooming spirit of an eastern Tennessee and western Virginia community. The other part went to get this web site up and running and to keep it running. Part of the fee goes to a baseball cap with and Old Codgers' insignia (essential these days, you know).

Each person completed a form, only filling in the answers as they desired. The members have been grouped a little, but the best way to see if you can get help is to use the "Search" command at the top of your screen. Look for key words, names, places.

See www.Eldercare.gov for planned expansions and special use.

Members have a lasting invitation to The Old Codgers' Place, a unit of The Camps Group of Rural System

Camp Concept: The Old Codgers' Place A camp for the elderly where "to re-discover the child " is one slogan. Skits, dancing, marbles, ball toss, bike riding, swimming, reading, "how to use the computer " instruction, finding rocks in the stream, top spinning, singing, talent shows, art, songwriting, clogging, costume night, quiet times, good food, hikes, medical analyses and prescriptions for exercise and health, lasting memberships, newsletter and website and chat-room for each year, nature study and instruction, black bear and other wildlife ecology, photography, wood carving, Novosports, hide-and-seek (a new binoculars game), story telling.

Under development ....Ideas
Advertisements (see all in AARP and sell ad to AARP); Allied products for hat and other items; link to Memorials group; announce special tours; offer a carved cane handle from the Sculptors, clothing from Outfits; CD services from Hayward Shepard; and an Anti-falls project

See RuraLives, a proposed enterprise to conserve the most precious resource, the knowledge of the experienced person.

See Ancestry.com for potential collaboration.

See Elder Wisdom Circle (since 2002) providing advice from elders 60+ . In 2007 it had 500 volunteers answering 5000 requests/queries per month.

See Elderly past 60

Perhaps you will share ideas with me about some of the topic(s) above .

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Glossary
Robert H. Giles, Jr.
July 3, 2005