Old People Sure Are... Special
"The residents start drifting in forty minutes before breakfast is ready... If someone rejects the French toast we're offering, Linda and I make toast or a peanut butter sandwich... I make an effort to learn names:... Letty, a diabetic who has to be watched because she sneak doughnuts from other people's plates. Ruthie, who softens her French toast by pouring orange juice over it" (Ehrenreich 62-63)
I have read this book before and my favorite part is when she works in a nursing home. I worked in a nursing home also as a dietary aide this past summer and during my senior year of high school. I don't know how many times the old people would come to dinner an hour or so too early and I would have to persuade them to leave and come back later. They would always argue with me and claim that they were exactly on time, and then they would forget what they were doing on the first place. They never wanted what was offered for dinner and I constantly found myself heating up leftover food and making PB&J sandwiches for them. We had a Letty where I worked, his name was Paul. He always collected the cookies from everyone at his table and ate them even when we told him not to. We also had a Ruthie, her name was Mert. She would dip her toast and pizza in milk to soften the food. It is defiantly interesting to work with old people.
I have read this book before and my favorite part is when she works in a nursing home. I worked in a nursing home also as a dietary aide this past summer and during my senior year of high school. I don't know how many times the old people would come to dinner an hour or so too early and I would have to persuade them to leave and come back later. They would always argue with me and claim that they were exactly on time, and then they would forget what they were doing on the first place. They never wanted what was offered for dinner and I constantly found myself heating up leftover food and making PB&J sandwiches for them. We had a Letty where I worked, his name was Paul. He always collected the cookies from everyone at his table and ate them even when we told him not to. We also had a Ruthie, her name was Mert. She would dip her toast and pizza in milk to soften the food. It is defiantly interesting to work with old people.
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Recent Comments
Erica Gearhart on Old People Sure Are... Special: I really like all of your comm
Angela Palumbo on Old People Sure Are... Special: I, too, have had my experience
Dennis G. Jerz on Old People Sure Are... Special: On Friday nights, while my fri
Kaitlin Monier on Old People Sure Are... Special: Dr. Jerz, I agree that she did
Dennis G. Jerz on Old People Sure Are... Special: My first job was as a dietary
Maddie Gillespie on Old People Sure Are... Special: Those are memories that make a
Angela Palumbo on Old People Sure Are... Special: I, too, have had my experience
Dennis G. Jerz on Old People Sure Are... Special: On Friday nights, while my fri
Kaitlin Monier on Old People Sure Are... Special: Dr. Jerz, I agree that she did
Dennis G. Jerz on Old People Sure Are... Special: My first job was as a dietary
Maddie Gillespie on Old People Sure Are... Special: Those are memories that make a
Those are memories that make an impression and it seems as if the residents would give you a different adventure everyday. This blog has a sweet read to it, though maybe bittersweet. I can't help but feel sad for the residents even as I smile at their antics. I suppose its all in the experience.
My first job was as a dietary aide. It really wasn't a bad job. I won't usually steer the discussion by giving my own personal opinions of a text, but I already said this at the book discussion in September, so I'll repeat it.
I thought the end of the nursing home job was the lamest part of the book. Quitting a job because an old person with dementia threw food at her, and then writing about the incident as if she expected the reader to sympathised, is elitist and silly.
If she were really an uneducated drifter with no prospects or hope, she'd have kept this job. But that would have messed up the premise of her book, that employers treat their working-class employees unfairly and inhumanely.
I suppose that as a 15-year-old in a good high school with every expectation that I'd be able to afford college (I went to an in-state public school), I could put up with indignities because I knew the job was just temporary for me. (We got paid in 15-minute chunks, and were supposed to show up at 5:10 but didn't start getting paid until 5:15.... so they expected us just to give away 5 unpaid minutes of our time. But if we clocked in at 5:07, that was considered dishonest and we got docked an extra 15 minutes.)
Dr. Jerz, I agree that she didn't have a good reason to quit. She could have cleaned the food off of her and continued her day. I've had silverware and orange juice thrown at me before but that did not stop me from working there. It is disappointing because she just ended the best (and in my opinion) the only good part of the book.
Maddie, it was an adventure everyday. I really enjoyed it, even though sometimes I would be a little annoyed with their nagging. I had a laugh or funny story every time I worked, and I really hope to return there this summer.
On Friday nights, while my friends were starting a night of partying, I was in the dining room feeding oatmeal to old folks, and I'd listen to their stories and think about how I was going to live my life. Maybe it was a quarter-life crisis, but whatever it was, it really made me put my life in perspective.
I, too, have had my experience with nursing homes even though I never worked there myself. My grandmother spent the last years of her life in a nursing home and my mother even got a job there to ensure that her mother was cared for properly. There were numerous funny characters that lived there. There was Jenny. She didn’t speak but she would grab onto people and not let them go. Then there was Margaret who was one of the most interesting people to talk to. Her claim to fame was her daughter who danced with Elvis! Top that! She was full of awesome stories that never seemed to end. There was also Madelyn who was the sweetest person ever. She was so young, in her 50s, and she had MS. My mom and I would occasionally see her out at Target or somewhere else. She’d take the access bus. Her case was really upsetting because she was mentally perfect but her body was in terrible shape.
I have to say that I enjoyed hearing about the different antics of the old people in the nursing home but like Maddie said, it was sad. I enjoyed this section the most because I connected with it.
I really like all of your comments here. I have never worked at a nursing or personal care home; however I have volunteered at them. You must have so much patience and compassion to do this job every day and enjoy it. This is really Ehrenreich's problem here: she does not have the compassion to deal with this type of work.
I also like how Dr. Jerz pointed out that if she had not quit this job, she never would have finished her book. However throughout this book she put a lot of drama into the stories that was not really there, and this is one section where she did this. She made the story of her quitting the job more dramatic. Alright, someone threw food at you-Get over it and do your job.
If Ehrenreich did not actually dramatize her situation, I'm glad she was able to experience the reality that most people experience on a day to day basis.