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Meet Socrates G. Cretekos, nicknamed "Odg." It's a miracle this Greek-American from Tarpon Springs, Florida, lived to share his story, 77 years after landing at Normandy on D-Day 1944. If you saw "Saving Private Ryan," you got a hint of what it was like to hit that beach in a hail of enemy gunfire. Odg tells it as an eye witness who led and lost men through the landing, then helped free Paris, rescued skeleton-like prisoners at Dachau, and suffered two wounds along the way (that's him in the photo receiving his second Purple Heart medal). Odg may not look like a history-making hero, but he's the kind of guy the book "The Greatest Generation" was written about.
Confessions of a 70-something Blacksmith
Having a reason to get up in the morning can make your life more meaningful, enjoyable — and even add years to that life. It’s one of the secrets for positive aging found just by Googling graceful aging tips. There’s even some research to prove it. Maybe your reason to bounce out of bed is an energizing hobby. Or the soul enrichment found in volunteering to help others. Or it could be the satisfaction of fulfilling work — like Dan the blacksmith, the seemingly ageless artisan in our latest episode. He can’t wait to get to his studio every morning, fire up the forge and have something beautiful and useful to show for it. As Dan says, “I don’t work any day. Because it’s not work, it’s fun.”
Photo credit: Jonathan Bean unsplash.com
The Farm: From Hippies to Homesteaders
Kindness In The Time of Coronavirus
Besides bread, toilet paper and staying home, there's another essential we recommend to get through the virus crisis. You'll find it on the Unleashing Kindness Facebook group. Launched long before the Coronavirus broke out, and the brainchild of retirees Rich McGuinness and Pat Fiorello (pictured below), it's a resource and reminder that treating each other with compassion and respect is not only a good habit, it’s absolutely free. Rich and Pat join us on this episode to reveal how their kindness crusade is inspiring readers on every continent. And, not incidentally, how it's giving their lives a greater sense of purpose after executive-level careers.
(Photo credit: Phil Skinner, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
This story begins and ends in Woodstock. A daughter digs into the past to learn about the Mother she barely knew. She discovers a woman named Didi from a wealthy family, who rejected an upscale lifestyle to became a hippie during that legendary 1969 music festival in rural New York. Instead of a trophy husband, two kids and house in a tony neighborhood, the impulsive Didi went on to live a gypsy existence entirely on her terms. Or as they would say in the 60s, relationships were not her bag. Writer Arden Thira takes you on a bittersweet journey to know the flower child who, far from being the Mother Of The Year, left a hole in the hearts of those she allowed to get close.
A geriatrician on a mission to empower elders and redefine aging
She's a doctor. She's an author. She's a charming woman with a forceful message. Dr. Louise Aronson brings decades of experience as a geriatrician to her best selling book "Elderhood." So we sat down with her at a book fair to talk about the good, bad and maddening of life in your 60s and beyond. Like older adults being overlooked by a healthcare system that seems geared to everybody except them. And while Dr. Aronson has a lot to find fault with, she balances it with a positive accent on getting the most out of all your years.
Photo by Matthew Bennett on Unsplash
Meet The 97-Year Old Gym Rat
If you’ve never heard of a gym rat, one dictionary defines it as:
“Someone who spends all leisure time playing sports or working out in a gymnasium or health spa…Someone who is so ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction.”
The last guy you’d expect to fit that label is a 97-year old Holocaust survivor. But six days a week you’ll find feisty Ben Heller sweating on the treadmill, doing cardio on the elliptical, or cranking one of the weight machines at a suburban Atlanta fitness club. Ben has won the respect of millennial club members amazed by his Just-Do-It determination. Especially when they learn his backstory of survival during three grim years in a WWII Nazi death camp. Ben told us about his remarkable life, right after—what else?—a long workout at the gym, where he’s become a friend to folks less than half his age.
Here's Ben with his friend Gary, one of many he's gotten to know while working out. And in the photo above, Ben appears speechless when his gym friends surprised him with a party on his 97th birthday.
The episode audio above doesn't go into great detail about Ben's concentration camp ordeal. So we recorded him at a later date talking about his years of imprisonment before being freed by the Russian Army near the end of the war. Since this audio was recorded with an iPhone, it's not the best, but we thought you might like to hear it.
“I’m living on borrowed time,” is how a former GI describes his incredible luck in surviving the 1968 Tet Offensive, the turning point of the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, he and a buddy relive the bloody attack that found them under siege in a house in the city of Hue. Their small unit fought a pitched battle against the Viet Cong until forced out by flames. Dodging heavy enemy fire, the two soldiers escaped in opposite directions — split-second decisions that would impact the rest of their lives. Today, well into retirement years but still bonded by the experience, they remain grateful to have survived a conflict that killed so many brothers in arms. We doubt you’ll hear a war story with two such different twists.
My Psychedelic Escape Plan
Receiving a draft notice in the late 60s felt like getting a death sentence. Add to that a growing resistance to the Vietnam War and it's easy to see why guys between 18 and 26—like our friend Bob—looked for any way to avoid induction. Instead of fleeing to Canada or shooting himself in the foot, Bob came up with a creative ploy he hoped would work: LSD.
There was a word-of-mouth rumor that taking it could make you unfit for military service. So with the help of his girlfriend, Bob dove into an altered state not unlike Alice in "White Rabbit." Did it work to avoid the Army? We'll let Bob explain. Let's just say there were unintended consequences and plot twists. And while his psychedelic escape plan didn't turn out the way he hoped, Bob still took some positives from the experience.
Fifty years after Bob's trip, LSD is back. Not yet legal, but used to cure addictions, to ease the end of life for the terminally ill, and for a new fad called micro-dosing. Check out these links for some serious reading about all of the above.
"Psychedelic Science Is Making a Comeback"
"The Science of the Psychedelic Renaissance"
"Why people say ‘micro-dosing’ is curing their mental illness"
"Psychedelics Are Helping Cancer Patients Fend Off Despair"
Her Name Was Jean
You didn't have to attend high school in a small midwestern town to know a couple like Denny and Karen. They were always together, holding hands and whispering secrets. Before class. After school. At the mall. Everybody knew a graduation ring would soon be followed by one that announced engagement. It all rings true for Karen and Denny — except the last part.
Theirs is the story of love that was lost and found more than once. How it survived through decades, and despite marriages to others. And a happy ending that became the first step on a new road of discovery.