Flag Day History
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress replaces the British symbols of the Grand Union flag with a new design featuring 13 white stars in a circle on a field of blue and 13 red and white stripes – one for each state. The number of stars increased as the new states entered the Union, but the number of stripes stopped at 15 and was later returned to 13.
The American Flag, also nicknamed as “Old Glory” or “star-spangled banner”, has changed designs over the centuries. It consists of 13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars. Each of the 50 stars represents one of the 50 states in the United States and the 13 stripes represent the original 13 colonies that became the first states in the Union.
It is widely believed that Betsy Ross, who assisted in the Revolutionary War effort by repairing uniforms and sewing tents, made and helped design the first American flag. However, there is no historical evidence that she contributed to Old Glory’s creation. It was not until her grandson William Canby held an 1870 press conference to recount the story that the American public learned of her possible role.
Although, there are many claims to the first official observance of Flag Day, all but one took place more than an entire century after the flag’s adoption in 1777.
Bernard Cigrand, a schoolteacher in Waubeka, Wisconsin, originated the idea for an annual flag day, to be celebrated across the country every June 14 in 1885. That year, he led his school in the first formal observance of the holiday. Cigrand, who later changed careers and practiced dentistry in Illinois, continued to promote his concept and advocate respect for the flag throughout his life.
The most recognized claim, however, comes from New York. On June 14, 1889, Professor George Bolch, principal for a free kindergarten for the poor of New York City, had his school hold patriotic ceremonies to observe the anniversary of the Flag Day resolution. This initiative attracted attention from the State Department of Education, which arranged to have the day observed in all public schools thereafter.
It was not until May 7, 1937, that Pennsylvania became the first state to establish June 14 Flag Day as a legal Holiday. Flag Day is a national observance today, but Pennsylvania is the only state that recognizes it as a legal holiday.
Both President Wilson, 1916, and President Coolidge, in 1927, issued proclamations asking for June 14 to be observed as the National Flag Day. However, it was not until August 3, 1949, that congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed it into law.
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RD Corner
Wow! Months certainly seem to go fast! Warm weather is here and time to enjoy the outside. A question I get a lot this time of year is can I enjoy a cool ice cream treat. OF COURSE!!
Eating healthy is about the fact there are no good foods and totally bad foods. It is all about moderation! Focus on healthy foods first: Fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean meat and dairy. After you have consumed the healthy foods, it is perfectly ok to have a piece of candy, cookie, serving of chips or piece of dessert once a day! By all means, enjoy the ice cream treats this summer and enjoy what the summer has to offer!
REMEMBERING THE PAST
Children of the 30s & 40s “The Last Ones”
Born in the 1930s and early 40s, we exist as a very special age cohort. We are the “last ones.” We are the last, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the war itself with fathers and uncles going off. We are the last to remember ration books for everything from sugar to shoes and stoves. We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans. We saw cars up on blocks because tires were not available. My mother delivered milk in a horse drawn cart.
We are the last to hear Roosevelt’s radio assurances and to see gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors. We can also remember the parades on August 1, 1945; VJ Day.
We sawu8 the ‘boys’ home from the war build there Cape Cod style houses, pouring the cellar, tar papering it over and living there until they could afford the time and money to build it out.
We are the last who spent childhood without television; instead of imagining what we heard on the radio. As we all like to brag, with no TV, we spent our childhood “playing outside until the street lights came on.” We did play outside and we did play on our own. There was no little league.
The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real understanding of what the world was like. Our Saturday afternoons, if at the movies, gave us newsreels of the war and the holocaust sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons. Newspapers and magazines were written for adults. We are the last who had to find out for ourselves.
As we grew up, the country was exploding with growth. The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow. VA loans fanned a housing boom. Pent up demand, coupled with now installment payment plans, put factories to work. New highways would bring jobs and mobility. The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics. In the late 40s and early 50s, the country seemed to lie in the embrace of brisk but quiet order as it gave birth to its new middle class. Our parents understandably became absorbed with their own new lives. They were free from the confines of the depression and the war. They threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.
We were not neglected, but we were not today’s all-consuming family focus. They were glad we played by ourselves ‘until the street lights can on.’ They were busy discovering the post war world.
Most of us had no life plan, but with the unexpected virtue of ignorance and an economic rising tide, we simply stepped into the world and went to find out. We entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where we were welcomed. Based on our naïve belief that there was more where this came from, we shaped life as we went.
We enjoyed a luxury; we felt secure in our future. Of course, just as today, not all Americans shared in this experience. Depression poverty was deep rooted. Polio was still a crippler. The Korean War was a dark presage in the early 50s and by mid-decade schoolchildren were ducking under desks. China became Red China. Eisenhower sent the first ‘advisors’ to Vietnam. Castro set up camp in Cuba and Khrushchev came to power.
We are the last to experience an interlude when there were no existential threats to our homeland. We came of age in the late 40s and early 50s. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, climate change, technological upheaval and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with insistent unease.
Only we can remember both a time of apocalyptic war and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. We experienced both. We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better not worse.
We are the ‘last ones.’
Author unknown
Paying for Long-term Care
by the GWAAR Legal Services Team (for reprint)
There seems to be a new headline every day warning about our country’s increasing aging population, the impact aging baby boomers will have on already stretched resources, and that life expectancies continue to rise. These projections point out that this growing aging population will also need more health and home care, and for longer amounts of time than ever before.
For people with enough resources to pay for care, the main question is a matter of “where?” Where will I be able to receive the care I need? Where will I be able to maintain my independence and dignity? Where can I live so that my family can still visit? But for people with moderate, low, or no income, the main question is a matter of “how?” How will I pay for the care I need?
Contrary to popular belief, Medicare is not the payer of these long-term care services. Medicare Part A, otherwise known as hospital insurance, only covers up to 100 days in a skilled nursing facility, and even then only after a person has met the qualifying 3-day stay requirement in a hospital first. Many people do not realize that Medicare does not pay for the type of long-term care they envision – care that usually extends well past 100 days. In fact, the average length of a nursing home stay is about 835 days – more than two years. This length of stay is often much higher for people with illnesses such as Alzheimer’s - a diagnosis that is also on the rise.
Some people have long-term care insurance, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain. Many insurance companies have realized that long-term care insurance is not a profit-generating product and no longer sell it. Even those people with long-term care insurance are finding out their coverage is far less than what they need, or their premiums increase to levels they can no longer afford.
When a person’s income and assets have been exhausted, Medicaid becomes the go-to option to pay for long-term care. That said, Medicaid (as with any public benefit program) is not an easy system to maneuver. Not only do people need to meet low income and asset limits, but their giving (known as divestments) will be scrutinized up to 5 years prior to application in Wisconsin, and their estates will be subject to estate recovery after the person’s death. Meaning, Medicaid will impose penalty periods if it seems like a person tried to transfer or hide money before the person applied, and Medicaid will expect to be repaid after the person has passed away. Medicaid also requires annual renewals and reporting whenever a person’s situation changes. Not only that, but there are questions regarding Medicaid’s ability to financially support the increase in demand that is expected to emerge in the next few decades.
There is no question that lower-income aging adults will need more options to pay for long-term care, but the solutions have been slow to come. Recently, however, there has been talk about shifting payment responsibilities in the future in two major areas: Long-term Care Insurance and Medicare.
Long-term Care Insurance. The Long-Term Care Financing Collaborative issued a press release in February, 2016 proposing major changes in the way long-term care is financed and delivered. The proposal includes the following calls to action:
Establishing clear private and public roles for long-term care financing;
Creating a catastrophic long-term care insurance program that would shift away from a welfare-based model to an insurance model;
Encouraging private long-term care insurance initiatives to lower cost and increase enrollment; and
Increasing retirement savings and improving public education on long-term care costs and needs.
The main focus of this model is to encourage the private insurance market to come back to the long-term insurance table in order to help people plan ahead for their long-term care rather than rely on Medicaid.
Medicare. Another proposal comes from Health Affairs Blog, which sets forth an income-based payment structure through Medicare to help the 75% of Medicare beneficiaries who do not qualify for Medicaid receive long-term services and supports in their homes. In this model, beneficiaries would be responsible for coinsurance of a portion of the cost of services based on income. These services would be available to Medicare beneficiaries with serious physical and/or cognitive limitations, but focused on those who are living at home or in independent living settings. Not only would this model help beneficiaries afford the care they need, but would also promote independent living.
It will be interesting to see what additional ideas begin to surface, and which ones, if any, actually take hold. Regardless, the need for change is present and growing.
DID YOU KNOW? Older drivers with a history of falling are 40% more likely to be involved in crashes than their peers. Falls limit an older drivers’ ability to function behind the wheel and can make driving risky for themselves and others on the road. These findings are important since annually a record 12 million older adults will experience a fall.
Falls can result in a loss of functional ability, such as wrist fractures or a broken leg, which can make it difficult for any driver to steer or brake to avoid a crash.
Falls can increase an individual’s fear of falling, which can lead to a decrease in physical activity that weakens driving skills.
When it comes to physical health, you either use it or lose it. Falls often scare people into being less active, but decreasing physical activity can weaken muscles and coordination, making someone more likely to be in a crash.
It’s important to address health issues that can lead to falls, such as lower body weakness, poor balance, certain medications, dizziness, or vision problems. Older drivers should find activities that challenge and improve their balance and strength.
Attending a fall prevention program, such as “Stepping On”, is a great way for older drivers to keep themselves and others safe while on the road, in addition to maintaining independence by learning numerous strategies to prevent falls. “Stepping On” workshops help older adults identify causes of falls, include strength and balance exercises, several guest experts, and much more. It has been researched and proven to reduce falls by 50% in Wisconsin.
Upcoming “Stepping On” workshops are being planned in Suring and Townsend starting in September 2016. Details will be in the August/September issue of the FOCUS. For more information about the workshops, contact Carol Jean Luebeck at 920-373-1441, or email Registrations will be taken starting August 15.
(Driving study details are from March 2016-- AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety)
Lakewood Nutrition Center - Lois Trever, Assistant ManagerJoyce West, Assistant Manager
(715) 276-7336
17258 North Road, Lakewood, WI 54138
JUNE – Dairy Month & Caregiver Month
1: Marilyn Monroe Born
5: D-Day 1949
9: Donald Duck – 1934 – Cartoon, The Little Wise Hen
14: Flag Day – Be Proud – Fly Yours!
19: Father’s Day
20: Summer Begins
24: Song – Happy Birthday to You, 1924
30: Gone With The Wind – 1936 – Margaret Mitchell
2nd week of June – National Hug Week
JULY – National Ice Cream Month
1: I Forgot Day – Remember all the Birthdays, etc. you forgot
4: Independence Day – Meal Site Closed
10: Hottest Day Ever Recorded - 134° - Death Valley
18: Foot Clinic – Call 715-276-7336 for an appointment - $20.00 Donation
20: Space Day – 1969 Landed on the Moon – Neal Armstrong & Edwin “Buzz”
Aldrin
21: Foot Clinic – Call 715-276-7336 for an appointment - $20.00 Donation
23: Birthday of Ice Cream Cone – 1904
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Oconto Falls Nutrition Center - Mary Blumreich, Manager920-846-3479
Oconto Falls Senior Center
512 Caldwell Ave, Oconto Falls, WI 54154
JUNE
8: Foot Clinic – Call Mary at 846-3475 to make an appointment - $20.00
Donation
9: Foot Clinic – Call Mary at 846-3475 to make an appointment - $20.00
Donation
14: Flag Day
19: Father’s Day
20: First Day of Summer
JULY
4: Closed for Independence Day
13: Foot Clinic – Call Mary at 846-3475 to make an appointment - $20.00
Donation
14: Foot Clinic – Call Mary at 846-3475 to make an appointment - $20.00
Donation
24: Parent’s Day
We play cards every day from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. then we have a nice hot lunch. Come and join us.
Florence Birr does blood pressure checks from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. every week on Tuesday.
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“HALT!” shouted our drill instructor. He had noticed that, for the umpteenth time, a recruit kept going to his right on a left command. Our instructor approached the directionally challenged Marine and stomped on his left foot. “Now,” he said, “when I say ‘left’ it’s the one that hurts.”
Gillett Nutrition Center - Leola Schneider, Manager920-855-2066
Tabor Methodist Church
120 West Main St, Gillett, WI 54124
JUNE
2, 3, & 4: City-wide Rummage Sales
14: Flag Day – Show your colors
14: Foot Care Clinic – please call 855-2066 for an appointment - $20.00 Donation
19: Father’s Day
20: Summer Begins
JULY
4: Independence Day – Meal Site Closed
Parade – 2:00 p.m. – Gillett
12: Foot Care Clinic – please call 855-2066 for an appointment - $20.00 Donation
June, July, & August, the Gillett Museum will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 2 – 4, cost: donation. New items have been added; the Carriage House has been opened and organized. A huge amount of history has been preserved in the many booklets on site, also pictures. Notice our “Memory Site” out in front of the museum. Spaces can be purchased “In Memory” of someone.
Have a safe and happy summer, the meal site can provide your meals, give us a call.
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Volunteers Needed
The Oconto County Commission on Aging, Inc. is a not for profit organization. We operate largely on donations and volunteers. If you are looking for a charitable organization for 2016 donations, please consider us.