[Texgreen] McMerica...

[Roger Baker]

.....=93I wish for bedtime to come,=94 she said. =93The days are so =
long.=94

Easing down a ramp to her mailbox is a perilous 15-minute ordeal. =20
Still, she said, =93I wait for Fridays.=94

=93That=92s junk-mail day, and I read all the ads. That=92s my best =
day.=94

She added, =93There=92s always older people out there who have it =20
harder.=94.....


                 ************************************************


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/us/24maine.html?hp


Barely Getting By, Too Proud to Seek Help and Facing a Cold Maine Winter
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Dolly Jordan, 61, of Milbridge, Me., who has many health problems, =20
lives on a $623 disability check and food stamps. She turns the heat =20
off at night to save fuel.

In sagging wood homes and aged trailers scattered across Washington =20
County, many of Maine=92s poorest and oldest shiver too much in the =20
winter, eat far more biscuits and beans than meat and cannot afford =20
the weekly bingo game at the V.F.W. hall.

In this long-depressed =93down east=94 region, where the wild blueberry =20=

patches have turned a brilliant crimson, thousands of elderly =20
residents live on crushingly meager incomes. This winter promises to =20
be especially chilling, with fuel oil prices rising and fuel =20
assistance expected to decline. But many assume that others are worse =20=

off than themselves and are too proud to ask for assistance, =20
according to groups that run meal programs and provide aid for =20
heating and weatherizing.

=93One of our biggest problems is convincing people to take help,=94 =
said =20
Eleanor West, director of services for the Washington Hancock =20
Community Agency, a federally chartered nonprofit group. =93I tell =20
them, =91You worked hard all your life and paid taxes and are getting =20=

back a little of what you paid in.=92=94

Over the last half century, Social Security, Medicare and private =20
pensions have lifted most of the nation=92s elderly. In 1960, one in =20
three lived below the poverty line; now fewer than one in 10 do. But =20
in Washington County, the poverty rate among those 65 and older is =20
nearly one in five and many more live only a little above the federal =20=

subsistence standard in 2007 of $10,200 for a single person and =20
$13,690 for two.

For thousands on fixed incomes, fuel assistance may decline while =20
Social Security checks are scarcely rising.

Viola Brooks, 81, worked in fish and blueberry factories while her =20
husband worked in textile and logging jobs. Now widowed, she gets =20
$588 a month from Social Security, supplemented by $112 in food =20
stamps and one-time fuel aid of more than $500 for the winter.

But this year, that fuel aid will not fill a single tank. The average =20=

house cost $1,800 to heat last year, and minimal comfort this winter =20
may require closer to $3,000; trailers will require somewhat less. =20
Electricity and rent already take up most of Ms. Brooks=92s income.

=93I=92m broke every month, and the trailer needs storm windows,=94 she =20=

said. =93I cook a lot of pea soup and baked beans and buy flour to make =20=

biscuits.=94

=93Some day I=92d like to go to a hairdresser,=94 Ms. Brooks said of a =20=

dream deferred. Still she says she enjoys her lovebirds and cats, and =20=

points out that =93some people have it worse.=94

Jobs for the elderly, a growing trend nationwide, are virtually =20
nonexistent in these hamlets. Many people survive with help from a =20
range of programs including food stamps, Medicaid, disability and =20
energy assistance; others suffer silently, long used to hardship and =20
fiercely independent.

In a pattern still common, older people here often held a series of =20
seasonal jobs, usually without benefits. They worked on lobster boats =20=

and dug clams or bloodworms (to sell for bait) from spring to fall, =20
raked wild blueberries in August, harvested potatoes and then made =20
Christmas wreaths for mail-order companies to mid-December. Wives =20
often worked in sardine canneries or in blueberry processing.

=93By their 50s, their bodies start breaking down,=94 said Tim King, =20
director of the community agency at its headquarters in Milbridge, =20
adding that high rates of smoking, obesity and diabetes also =20
contributed to early aging. The aid programs define those as 60 and =20
over as elderly.

Because of their irregular careers and payments into the system, many =20=

people get Social Security benefits far below the national average of =20=

more than $1,000 a month.

Velma L. Harmon, a 79-year-old widow, receives only $220 a month from =20=

Social Security and has a grand total of $85 to live on each month =20
after she pays her subsidized rent and utilities at her apartment =20
complex in Machias, one of a growing number of such federally aided =20
facilities for the elderly.

She is grateful for free lunches provided by the Eastern Agency on =20
Aging, another government-financed group, but too proud to apply for =20
food stamps that would give her a bit more spending money. =93Trying to =20=

buy Christmas presents, that=92s the hardest thing,=94 said Ms. Harmon, =20=

who has a mangled finger from her years of snipping sardine heads in =20
a canning factory.

The preoccupation right now is soaring fuel prices: cheaper natural =20
gas is unavailable in this region, and wood heat is often impractical =20=

or insufficient. But because of limited federal money, average fuel =20
assistance for the 46,000 low-income Maine families expected to apply =20=

will probably decline to $579 this year, from $688 last year, said Jo-=20=

Ann Choate of the Maine State Housing Agency.

=93Low-income people aren=92t even going to be able to fill up a single =20=

tank of fuel oil,=94 Ms. Choate said. =93They already wrap themselves up =
=20
in blankets during the winter. This year they=92ll be colder.=94

The disabled, and there are many, may have it hardest. Dolly Jordan =20
of Milbridge has a history of two bad marriages, a bone-crushing auto =20=

accident and poor health, and looks and feels older than 61. With =20
osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes and obesity, she spends most of the =20=

day in a wheelchair and uses a combination of a gripper, a broom and =20
a cane to make her bed or hang her laundry.

Come winter, she hangs a blanket over the front door of her little =20
red wooden house, where she has lived alone the last 10 years and =20
which sits on concrete blocks with no foundation. She turns the heat =20
off at night to save fuel.

Her disability payment is $623 a month, plus she gets just $10 from =20
the state and $74 in food stamps. After paying the housing tax and =20
her utility bills, she said, she must watch every remaining penny. A =20
daughter drives her to the distant town of Ellsworth for cheaper =20
shopping.

Like many, she keeps a police scanner on as a diversion and, unable =20
to afford cable, she watches the same videos over and over =97 her =20
favorite is =93On Golden Pond.=94

=93I wish for bedtime to come,=94 she said. =93The days are so long.=94

Easing down a ramp to her mailbox is a perilous 15-minute ordeal. =20
Still, she said, =93I wait for Fridays.=94

=93That=92s junk-mail day, and I read all the ads. That=92s my best =
day.=94

She added, =93There=92s always older people out there who have it =
harder.=94

Frederick and Kathleen Call, in Harrington, are in their 60s and live =20=

in a 1970s trailer with buckling walls. They live on his disability =20
check =97 he has had six heart attacks =97 and food stamps and fuel =20
assistance. Like many others in the region, they buy all their =20
clothes at a church-run thrift shop. They spend their days playing =20
board games and rummy and watching squirrels on their porch.

=93We used to go to the food pantry for a free box,=94 Ms. Call said, =20=

=93but I saw an old woman who looked like she really needed it. She was =20=

thin and cold. I gave her a blanket. We haven=92t gone for free food =20
for years.=94

Some people here seem to have sunny outlooks no matter what. In the =20
fishing village of Jonesport, Elizabeth Emerson, 87, is hard of =20
hearing and has a titanium knee but is spry and irrepressively cheerful.

She lives in the tiny house her husband, a trucker, built in 1949, =20
and has a view of the gravestone where her name is already etched =20
next to his. Having a daughter nearby, and a total of 52 grand-, =20
great-grand and great-great-grandchildren, whose pictures fill the =20
walls and the refrigerator door, helps in ways practical and emotional.

Ms. Emerson said she =93thoroughly enjoyed=94 the 25 years she spent =20
working as an aide in a nursing home, and she demonstrated the =20
yodeling she used to perform on command for one patient.

Each day she walks with her dog, Sabrina, down to the stony beach =20
where her family once swam. =93I saw moose tracks the other day,=94 she =20=

exulted. =93Here is where I used to pick heather.=94

With her Social Security payment of $683 a month, she refuses to feel =20=

impoverished.

=93I was never a person to be extravagant,=94 Ms. Emerson said, adding, =20=

=93I don=92t play beano,=94 using the local term for bingo.

Besides, she said, she can still afford an indulgence here and there. =20=

=93My greatest vice,=94 she added, =93is Hershey bars.=94