The 50′s may have been a golden age for American cars but many automobile companies stopped production during the 50′s. It wasn’t because these cars were deficient in styling or features. These cars were built by smaller companies that were unable to dent the market as the big three took control.
Nash was a car that didn’t survive the 50′s despite unique styling and features. In the 50′s cars didn’t look alike and the Nash was distinctive from the sleek curves of the 1950 model to the sporty elegance of the 1956. Despite many unique and progressive features, a merger with Hudson to form American Motors, only the smaller Rambler continued production into the 60′s. This video shows the unique features that Nash provided.
Because so few of these cars were sold, you don’t see very many at car shows. The limited availability of parts makes restoring these cars very expensive. Still you do find examples of the Nash Ambassador from time to time which provides a window into the variety of car models available in the 50′
You may have noticed ed the Trailmeme plugin here at RCB. This is a powerful way to link and organize posts by content or to tell a story. I have been exploring the potential of this plugin and along the way I met on line with Todd and Venkat who are part of the Trailmeme team and who also have a blog about the web and lifestyle design. Recently Todd asked me if I would answer some questions about my blogging experience. I agreed and this week over at Trailblazers it went live. If you want to know more about why I blog and what shaped my life, then head on over to Trailblazers and check it out. While you are there learn some more about the Trailmeme Plugin which I believe is a great tool to help shape the information in your blog and make it more accessible to readers.
You probably need more! Zinc is found in almost every cell of the human body. It supports a healthy immune system, wound healing and promote the senses of taste and smell. Besides maintaining the immune system, zinc can also reduce an enlarged prostate. Most adults do not get enough zinc from their diets and this is especially true for seniors who may not absorb zinc as efficiently as younger people. Vegetarians are probably zinc deficient because some plant based foods block zinc absorbtion and beef is one of the riches sources of zinc. Oysters are also a good source of zinc. The RDA for zinc is 11 mg per day for males and 8 mg per day for females.
Higher zinc dosage may be necessary for seniors.
For individuals over 65 there is no recommendation for higher doses although average zinc intake tends to be lower than the RDA and there are several circumstances which might decrease an older person’s ability to absorb zinc from the diet:
1. Aging individuals may not absorb zinc as readily as younger individuals
2. Aging individuals may suffer more frequent occurrences of diseases which change zinc utilization.
3. Aging individuals my have increased usage of drugs which increase zinc excretion and cause mild zinc deficiency.
4. Vegetarians may need supplementation because zinc absorption is lower from plant sources than from animal ones.
So you can see that there are many reasons to suspect that supplementation for zinc is essential for good health especially as you age. Zinc deficiency of even a small degree can affect the immune system and loss of zinc from biological membranes can contribute to increased damage from oxidation. Because zinc is so important to good health and inexpensive, there is no reason not to supplement.
Even if you have a healthy and active community of friends and family after retiring, you need more. Most people find that their community dwindles after retirement. Maybe the friends from work no longer relate the way they used to. Maybe you never developed friendships because of work and family responsibilities. It doesn’t matter the reason. If you don’t have a community of friends and family in retirement then build one. Start by asking yourself who you would like to be part of your community and them plan your life to make room for them. Ask yourself three questions:
1. Who are they?
2. What do they like to do?
3. How can you rearrange your life to make room for the things they like – and them?
Be Proactive
They can be a grandchild, someone you know distantly or people you don’t know at all but once you identity them then you discover what they like to to and start doing it. Include the activities that they like into your life so that there is a natural place for you to interact. Then offer to share the things you like to do with them. Doing things that you both enjoy makes a natural way to develop a relationship and even a friendship.
Don’t to remember:
Don’t expect them to decide they want to spend time with you and take the first action. They won’t.
Don’t invite them to do things that you like – unless you know that they like it too.
Don’t wait for them to reach out to you.
If the chemistry isn’t there, don’t push– move on to someone else.
Don’t focus on one person.
You are the person in charge and you must be active and positive. Make yourself into the kind of person that the people you want to relate to like by doing the things they like to do and offering to share with them. Don’t be a wallflower hoping to be recognized. It won’t happen. If you do all the right things and it still just doesn’t happen, then move on. There are other people worth forming relationships with and no reason to limit yourself.
What would you do to be able to spend more time with them?
It is a cliché to say that you must be positive if you want success. But it is absolutely true. And it is true in making a successful retirement as in everything else. Negative people don’t win. Negative people don’t even start the race. If you are truly a negative person, you are probably not reading this post because only a positive person would be trying to become better. The big difficulty is that even positive people can’t be positive all the time. The negative forces today are pervasive and persistent and it is hard to stay positive every minute. You need to develop defenses against the pressure and resources to pull you attitude up when you begin to go negative.
Don’t be a loner. It is too easy to get down and stay down when you are alone. Have a partner who shares your goals. That way when you are down, you have someone to help you get back up. Even better you should have a coach or mentor who can help you recognize the progress you are making and keep you on the course you set for yourself. Alone, it is hard to recognize progress and easy to become discouraged. It can seem as if you have been struggling forever and making no progress at all. You can’t be a good judge and you will always undervalue your accomplishments. A coach or mentor can tell you that you have made progress and keep you hard at work. Professional athletes all have coaches to give them objective opinions and keep them focused on what is important. Senior retirement is no less important than sports. Apply the same focus and commitment and have a community to help you when you become discouraged and make sure that you stay on track.
Read and reread positive books
There are so many negative influences today bombarding us in the media and even in casual communications that it take commitment to stay positive. Cut the negative out of your life as much as you can by avoiding news and cutting negative people out of your life. Then inject positive by reading good positive books that help you become a powerful, positive influence. Start with the Magic of Thinking Big. If you read it before, then read it again. Your brain can retain only so much information and the influence of any book diminishes with time. Each time you read a good book, you find information that you missed or just didn’t appreciate before.
Do you have any tips for staying positive? Please share them or your experiences with positive thinking. We all love a good positive story.
The 60′s brings to mind great musical groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, great artists like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix and unforgettable music like Inagaddadavida. This is serious music, maybe even a bit pretentious from time to time but there was another side to the 60′s which was silly and slick. The lyrics were trivial and forgettable but the melodies would get indelibly etched in your memory no matter how hard you tried to forget them just like the music of Andrew Lloyd Weber. This music was called bubblegum music and it was a helpful antidote to the pretentiousness of the later Beatles.
Try this video as an introduction. If you lived through the 60′s it will refresh your memories and if you didn’t it will show you an overview of the groups and the style of babble gum. Then if you aren’t turned off try the bon bons below.
Sugar Sugar by the Archies.
Yummy, Yummy, Yummy by Ohio Express
If you have a sugar high, maybe you are a bubble gum lover and if you want to learn more, I recommend that you check out this history of bubblegum music by a real bubble gum lover. If you have any memories that involve bubble gum music, leave a comment.
Take these three steps to an outrageous retirement
1. Think Big
2. Don’t listen to ordinary people
3. Find your passion
Have you stopped thinking big?
Society and the media don’t like big thinkers. They prefer ordinary. They may call it normal or maybe average but it is small thinking. It is what everybody expects. It is not surprising or remarkable. Let’s be blunt! Ordinary is dull. Ordinary is predictable. Ordinary is passive. Lets be honest here. Was being ordinary ever your goal at any time in your life? When you were a kid, was your fantasy to grow up to be ordinary? I don’t think so. Aging successfully and having an outrageous retirement means that you don’t settle for ordinary. Think big.
Who says retirement should be dull?
Dull people do. It is like a conspiracy produced by people who have given up on themselves. If they have settled for an ordinary existence then they want everybody else to settle as well. Achievers make them feel bad. They make them find excuses for their humdrum existence. They don’t like you to get exited. They especially don’t like seeing passion and energy dedicated to making a difference. These are the folks who will tell you to take it easy, don’t wear yourself out, Don’t listen to them because they are thinking about themselves and not you. They have given up on themselves and want you to give them cover.
Get to work. Find your passion.
You won’t see passion in an ordinary retirement. So pull our the stops to find (or reawaken) yours. Make sure that your retirement is filled with activities that you are passionate about. If that stops you because you have lost your passion don’t despair. It is probably just hiding. You need to let it grow again. Give it a chance to grow by participating. Be more active and until you find your passion, try many things. Start with things that you used to get excited about or maybe always wanted to do and try them out again. Maybe it is golf? Maybe it is gardening? Maybe it is tutoring? Do them long enough to discover if you have a passion but keep looking until you find it. When you discover the passion in your life, you will turn your retirement from ordinary to outrageous. Don’t be afraid to try new things along the way.
Leave a comment about your retirement. If you have found your passion, please share in the comments section. Was it hard or easy to find. If you are still looking, share your search.
When you are young, your body can run on auto pilot. It is an amazing machine and it can repair and cope with many stresses. When you get to retirement age, it is a different story. Either the neglect and stress of your lifestyle is beginning to produce some health problems or you worry that it is coming. Your doctor wants you to lose weight and lower your cholesterol. You get some stiffness now and again. Is it just aging or can you get control back. Two of the best ways to improve your health are to change your diet and start exercising. Today lets talk diet and consider the Paleolithic Diet – sometimes called the caveman diet.
After 50 years or more of life it get pretty easy to predict our every action. There just aren’t any surprises left. Maybe we get comfortable. Maybe we just give up and drift. There isn’t any excitement left and nothing that causes us to jump out of bed each morning eager to face the day. It is easy to rationalize that the good times are past. Nothing new or exciting is going to happen. Life is over. I can understand that thinking because I have been there. I’ve been knocked around. I’ve been discouraged. I’ve been tempted to say that I’m done and accept my dull, humdrum life. That is what most people do. But I’m not ready to quit yet.
If you want a happy retirement, you need to be part of a supportive social community. We like having friends and family with whom we can share the pain and joy of life experience. We pick up friends as we move through life usually because they are sharing experiences with us. There are friends from school, from the military, jobs and community activity. Some of these friends stay close throughout our lives. Others only last a short time. Think about how many friends from grade school are still part of your life today? When you retire it is just the same. Those workplace friends will probably not be a big part of your retirement experience. So now that you are retired, who do you have to share the experience with? When you think about it, your community may be rather small. Is that what you want? Of course not. You want to have a strong and supportive community.
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