Seniors of Capetown
“It’s fun to learn who they were in their younger years. They were raised in a different era so it’s interesting to learn about who they were and who they’ve become,” said Samantha May. The world was a much different place when they were kids. Learning to adjust to the new world couldn’t have been easy.
The world has changed a lot over the decades. The older generation used to do things for fun that people don’t do now. Older people are known for their wisdom. Most younger people talk to the older people because of how different the world was back then.
Jerry Parker, is an 83 year old resident at Capetown Independent and Assisted Living. In Parker’s younger years, he worked on the Mississippi river on towboats for 18 years, then drove heavy equipment for a few years. He then finished up and retired from P&G.
His favorite thing to do is hunt and fish. His most favorite memory is with him and his brother when they were younger. Parker and his brother would light firecrackers in their grandfather’s yard where his grandfather had chickens. When they would light the firecracker and throw them, the chickens would chase them and pick them up. The firecracker would explode and blow the chickens’ beaks off. Parker said, “I got a good beating after that. I would never do that again.”
Another favorite memory of his is, him and his wife were fishing on Kentucky Lake when they went under a low hanging tree and a snake fell in the boat with them. “I think you can imagine how interesting that got.”
JW Burford is another resident at Capetown. He is 74 years old. Burford was in the Air Force for 4 ½ years. He then went on to be a Highway Patrol Officer for Missouri for 35 years. During his highway patrol career there were fun times. But like every other job there were boring times.
The most exciting part of his patrol career was delivering a baby on the side of the road. During training, officers have to watch a video on what to do if they were to deliver a baby. Burford said, “If it wasn’t for that video, it could’ve gone way worse.” The car got pulled over for speeding. The officers soon found out that the parents were rushing to the hospital to have the baby. Once the baby was delivered, the officers put the baby in their car and rushed it safely to the hospital.
Janet Burford is also a resident. She just turned 74 this past Saturday. Burford went to nursing school and soon worked at a small hospital. She worked in the hospital at Poplar Bluff for 35 years. She was also a hairdresser and taught at a Christian school.
While working at the hospital, she did a little bit of everything, “The most excitement I had at the hospital was, we had a guy come in with the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, it made him go out of his mind. He was a huge guy. We looked up and he was coming down the hall with his IV ripped out and his wallet in his hand. He still had his gown on. I tried to stop him and he told me to get out of his way ,so we called security. We hear a loud crash to see that he had jumped out the window on the main floor onto the sidewalk. They had to give him a shot to calm him down and he was allergic to the shot. He almost tore the emergency room apart.” Working in a hospital, nurses always come into contact with interesting people.
In the world today it’s normal for parents to buy their kid a car when they turn 16. It’s normal to turn the TV on and watch it for however long a person wants, or to stay on the phone all day. If one is ever interested in the old world, the older generation is a great way to learn about what it was like living in a different time.
