RJ McDonnell, Senior Tweener, Fulfills a Lifelong Dream

R.J. McDonnell

Sometimes attaining senior status means finding the time to reconnect with an unrequited passion. For the past few years I’ve been at that awkward age I call Senior Tweener. I have adult children, but haven’t attained grandparent status yet. Instead of attending sports events and dance recitals, I actually had time to pursue an old dream.

Ever since elementary school I wanted to be a rock musician. During my high school years I helped out with a garage band down the street from my home, and picked up mini-guitar lessons during their breaks. I joined my first band in my freshman year at Penn State, and in 1980 I moved to San Diego to pursue music as a career.

But life doesn’t always go as planned. A few months after my move, I was in an accident that shattered my left wrist. After 23 months of casts, braces, bone graft surgery, and rehab, I couldn’t play guitar for more than 15 minutes without severe stabbing pains. Over the next five years I tried everything, and finally resigned myself to the fact that the dream was over.



L-R, Robbie Walsh, RJ McDonnell



Twenty-five years later I visited a guitar collector friend and told him my story. He found me a Fender guitar that was exceptionally easy to fret. In 2007, at the age of 53, I enrolled in lessons at a local music studio, and rekindled my passion in the process. Last month I recorded my first commercial song, playing with Robbie Walsh, a lead guitarist who toured extensively with Noel Redding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Chubby Checker and Jethro Tull.

The song is called The Concert Killer, and is the soundtrack to a mystery novel trailer. You can hear it at www.rjmcdonnell.com. It’s never too late to make dreams come true.

RJ McDonnell

Spunky Senior, The DanZman, Still Rocks!



The DanZman at Mt Prospect Lion's Club
4th of July event, 2009, starring Ronnie Rice.

  Eleven years ago I wrote a story for the Daily Herald about a popular figure in the NorthWest suburbs. Since then, the subject of my story, The DanZman, a Spunky Senior, still rocks non-stop.





With Kerry of Libido
Funk Circus at the
Mane Event 2011, in
Arlington Heights



The DanZman's not a band member, but almost every band in the area knows him personally or knows of him.

When he's in the audience, way in the front dancing where you can't miss him, he almost always gets a call-out from the band some time during the performance. If he's not there, it may be a sign the band isn't too terrific; that is, unless there are lots of great bands playing at the same time. After all, he can't be everywhere.

His collection of band tee shirts has to rival a Valley Girl's shoe closet. When more than one band is featured on a particular night, The DanZman delves into his gym bag and changes shirts to reflect whichever band takes the stage.

Here's a link to my story about him, written in those long ago days before I acquired my pen name -

http://www.festfinderfor60srock.com/storydanzdlyhld.html

Spunky Senior, Morgan Mandel, Owns a Pit Bull

Morgan with Baby Rascal




A Little Older

 

Rascal with a Sunburn

I never thought I'd adopt a pit bull but that was before I fell in love with a puppy on Adoption Day for Chicagoland Dog Rescue, in front of PetSmart, over 6 years ago. I'd heard terrible things about the breed, which really scared me, but this little one seemed harmless enough when I first met her.

That was before she ate the hallway linoleum and chewed the legs on the rocking chair, and tried to eat a piece of glass I hadn't even noticed was on the floor, yet she'd managed to find.

She's tamed down her eating habits since then, reserving them for grabbing slippers or socks to get my attention.

I'm afraid I've spoiled this vicious pit bull by giving her peanut butter on a biscuit treat in the morning with her breakfast and baby carrots at night with dinner. She does look ferocious, doesn't she? Don't worry, I'm spunky. I can handle her, because I know the secret. She'll do almost anything for another treat.

Lucille Perkins Robinson, a Spunky Senior With Her Hands Full





Lucille Perkins Robinson





Life isn't always easy. Lucille Perkins Robinson can testify to that. She's had her hands full for quite some time. In her own words, here's some of what she does and has done, which truly qualifies her as a Spunky Senior:



Pamela Renee LeJeune



I take care of my comatose daughter, Pamela Renee LeJeune, and have been for the last 9 years.

 


I take care of a husband who seems to have hit an all-time low in depression since our daughter, Sheryl Ann Bourque, died on



Sheryl Ann Bourque



June 6, whom I had taken care of for the past year and a half.



My husband was already depressed because of being diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago. 

Further back I began college at age 35, took up education grades 1-8 and taught middle school for a couple of years before getting certification in special education and taught resource which is drawing special ed children out of regular classes for an hour each day, 10 years.



Before that I've worked as a machinist threading pipes of all lengths and sizes, a waitress at a truck stop, and mostly a mother rearing 6 children.

I've also served the Lord since I was about 9-12 [one of those years] and have had interesting things happening to me down through the years. When my mother died when I was 8, I didn't cry. When my father died in the 1970s, I didn't cry. When my daughter died in June, I didn't cry. I was filled each time with unbelievable calm and faith that all would be well.

From 12 years ago - I'm the short one in the middle. Ted is the one in the back [this is before all the problems started.] Patrick, my 3rd child is standing to Ted's left, then going on around thus, next in line is Robin my 2nd child, Angela my 4th child, Perry my 1st child, Sheryl my 6th, and Pamela my 5th.

I'm of old fashioned beliefs that sex should come after the wedding ceremony and not before, that children should not be allowed to disrespect or sass their parents, that children should be taught to handle money, should be taught what life is all about before they hit the age to quit school and bum around [although I wasn't successful with 2 of my six children where this idea is concerned].



I love to garden, crochet, sew [don't do well making clothes], paint pics when I can lay them out without fear of them being damaged while drying. Wish I could go swimming more often and travel more.

Lucille Robinson

Please leave a comment for Lucille to welcome her here at Spunky Seniors.

Spunky Ginger Simpson Gets An Unexpected New Lease On Life



Ginger Simpson



My plan was to share pictures of me doing something "daring," but the pictures of me parasailing at 700 feet in Hawaii some years back are stowed in the attic.

Instead, I'm going to share something some of you may consider mild.  

I just returned from six weeks in Alaska, a trip I never expected to make and one that changed my life.  



Visiting Ekluta Cemetery Spirit Houses
of Alaskan Native Americans



For the past three years, my health and energy level had declined beyond belief.  I spent most of my days locked in the house or in bed because I had absolutely no interest in going anywhere or doing anything.  





Her greatest fear -
2 1/2 mile one-way tunnel
to get to cruise



From the Glacier Day Cruise



My friend and hostess in Alaska is an FNP and specializes in hormone replacement treatment.  She and I had discussed my condition prior to making the trip, and a two day hospital stay right before my departure caused fear that I would have to cancel my plans.  For my dear husband's sake, I pushed on, and we went.  





20 feet from a moose in
her friend's backyard.



After we arrived, Ann ran blood tests on both Kelly and I.  Neither of us had much more than a measurable hormone level and after reading up on the topic on interviewing other satisfied "patrons," we are now the proud "owners" of rice-sized pellets implanted beneath the skin on our hips.  This process has been around since 1939 but has been secreted away to keep the drug companies rolling in dough.  I'm happy to say that I've decreased my RX dependency by three pills and a big monthly expense.  The pellets will need to be replaced every four-five months for me and five-six months for Kelly, but it's an investment I'll gladly make. I know I sound like an advertisement, but...

I cannot boast or emphasize enough how this changed my life.  I've rediscovered I have one and regained the zest I'd lost.  I won't be entering any cross-country marathons or leaping hurdles, but the fact that I can even imagine them amazes me. *smile*  My husband presented Ann with flowers to show his appreciation for her giving him back the wife he married.  My skin, hair, and attitude have improved, and we just made an offer on a house for a future I doubted I would have.   



With Hubby at Cook's Statue,
Cook's Inlet, Anchorage, AK



I guess if you can't consider my pictures as evidence of spunkiness, maybe you can refer to me as "frisky." Okay...TMI, I know, but I can't contain my glee at living life again and loving it.  

My husband has renewed energy, has lost inches and is gaining back some of his lost muscle mass.  



Best of all, he smiles and winks at me.  Love it!

Ginger Simpson

http://www.gingersimpson.com

http://mizging.blogspot.com/



Spunky Songster Karen Walker Belts Out About Being a Senior



Left to right:  Marti Brandtner, Karen Walker, Jeanne Brown



When I hear the word “senior” I still think of old people. Then I remember--I’m a senior now, having just turned 62. It’s mind-blowing to me. But the funny thing is, it’s as a senior that I’m getting to do something I’ve wanted to do since I was a small child--be in a girl group. It’s called Sugartime and we perform at retirement communities, hospitals, nursing homes, and at special events. Our mission is to bring music to those who can no longer get out to hear it. Here we are singing “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.”

                       

It’s a blessing in so many ways. How many things do you do that bring you joy but also bring joy to others? We sing songs from the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. Most of our

songs have choreography, so we get to wear hats and canes and feather boas. Our audiences seem to love us and we sure love singing for them.



Spunky Songster Karen Walker



The message here is, it’s never too late to go for your dreams. Who knew that when I fractured my ankle in seven places in early 2006 and could no longer folkdance (a major passion of mine) that singing would not only replace it, but become such an important part of my life in retirement?

I’m living proof that when one door closes, another appears. You just have to remain open to the possibilities. And keep dreaming.


For more on Karen, see http://www.karenfollowingthewhispers.blogspot.com

Easy Rider Randall Lang Explains His Motorcycle Addiction

I am now and have been, for what seems an eternity, a motorcycle rider.  From the first time I sat on the back of a classmate’s Honda 350 Super Hawk, helmetless and clinging desperately to the driver to avoid slipping off of the back of the seat, I was hooked.  Until you have experienced the freedom of motorcycle travel, it is difficult to understand the addiction.  And although it was several years before I was able to get my first motorcycle, the desire for one never left me.

In 1971 my first real pay check went to help pay for a new four cylinder, 75 horsepower, 700 pound beauty with chrome fenders and exhaust pipes that wrapped like chrome snakes beneath the frame of the machine.  Over the next 20 something years I logged 15,000 miles of bug-eating while experiencing lead butt, unexpected  rain storms, clueless drivers, flat tires, and a myriad of other unpleasantness without ever losing the enthusiasm for the ride.  Eventually my ol’ hoss surrendered to deterioration and antiquation, becoming resigned to a dusty corner of the garage because I didn’t have the heart to scrap it.

 There is an exhilaration that goes with feeling the warm, fresh air against your skin.  Going from a warm hilltop to a chilly, fog-laden valley sends a tingle through your body that is hard to explain.  On the breeze are the scents of mint, blossoms, pine and other natural aromas, admittedly accompanied by shots of road kill, diesel, and dairy farm.  But it is the endless variety that makes the journey colorful.  Those who travel in cars (cagers), breathing chilled, recycled air and listening to artificial sounds are truly missing the depth of experience that is out there for the taking.

One of the few benefits of age is that mortgages get paid off, children complete their education and get jobs, weddings get paid off, and finally the big house is sold to be replaced by a smaller, more efficient, and less tax-burdensome accommodation.  When you stop writing checks to everyone else, you get to buy toys.  Nice, comfortable, sexy toys that almost make getting older worthwhile. As my years wind toward their inevitable end, I include among my toys a machine that is as powerful, luxurious, and high tech as the mind of man can create.  I can now travel many miles over many hours in comfort, yet still experience the sensory delights that the outdoors has to offer. 

Next time you see one or a couple of ‘spunky seniors’ cruising by on a nicely equipped motorcycle, you can be sure that they’re diggin’ it. You are cordially invited...

Randall Lang
http://www.randalllang.blogspot.com/