Retirement
Talk for Boomers, Seniors and Retirees
What to
do with the Rest of Your
Life? |
Episode 120 Road Trip Part 13: “Savannah and Strength Training”
The Hilton Hotel in the old
district of Savannah was our choice for two night’s accommodations, but it cost
too much. We dislike driving and wanted to be able to park our car and walk or
bike to wherever we might want to go. We wanted a fitness room in which we
could do some strength training. And we had to have a reliable Internet
connection.
We decided to try to talk our
way into a lower rate for the room. “That’s a bit more than we intended on
spending,” we said. The desk clerk looked again at her computer and then wrote
a lower number on a piece of paper. Once again, we looked at each other and
said with a grimace, “Well, that’s closer, but it is still more than we
budgeted for this stop.” She quickly returned to the computer for just a few
seconds and then wrote down another number that was forty dollars less than
where she started. We took the room – it was a suite – and very nice. You might
try that tactic some day.
This is Retirement Talk. I’m
Del Lowery.
Our drive to Savannah
included a memorable lunch stop at a little road side restaurant in Darian, Georgia
called “B&J’s”. We wanted a salad. They offered a real southern ‘buffet’
for eight dollars. “All you can eat including desert” she said. “Southern fried
chicken, barbequed ribs, pulled pork, grits, mashed potatoes, biscuits’ and
gravy, collard greens, zucchini and tomatoes, salad and a banana cream pudding
to die for.” We settled for the buffet; an amazing meal; not the healthiest
meal, but certainly one of the tastiest.
Savannah impressed us as a very relaxed and beautiful city. It
has all of these parks laid out in a symmetrical pattern. I don’t think anyone
in this downtown area is less than four blocks from a park or an open space
square the size of a city block. Whoever laid out this city was thinking of
people and the need for open space. It is very pedestrian friendly.
Brenda took a delightful two
hour walking tour of some of the old southern mansions. We biked from one park
to another and stopped to take innumerable pictures of beautiful old homes. Our
hotel was located next to the “market place” - a few blocks with just walking
streets; lots of shops, sidewalk restaurants, coffee stops, and buskers – we
always pause for sidewalk musicians. There’s lots of history in Savannah. One of my
favorite stops was at the home of writer Flannery O’Conner. She was such a
master of telling a story.
Gordon Scoles lives just
south of the boarder between the two Carolinas..
He lifts weights. He’s about my age – last half of the sixties. He lifted
weights while in college. He threw the shot-put and discuss on the track team. He
went on to earn a PhD. in physical education. He then held a myriad of jobs. He taught from high
school through university level. He coached at all levels. He worked in college
administration and wrote books. He was going to write some more books during
retirement and then said to himself, “I can do that when I get old. Right now,
what I would really like to do is lift weights.”
Gordon and his wife, Pat,
settled in Bennettsville, South Carolina. “You’re in the rural south
when you get here,” he told me. The town has about 7000 residence; same number
as there are seats in their high school football stadium. The streets are
clean, the houses are relatively inexpensive and the taxes are almost
nonexistent. We marveled at how healthy the downtown core looked as we entered
the town. Later we learned that it was all a show. Stores that looked like
viable concerns were really just store fronts that had been updated and made to
look like real businesses. It’s sort of
like a western movie set. The front looks good, but there is nothing behind the
first 10 feet but empty building. Some of the businesses are for real, but most
of them aren’t. I will say it looks a lot better than broken windows and
plywood doors.
The Scoles like Bennettsville
as a retirement community. “It has lots of churches”, Pat said, “maybe 20. Then
it has probably that many for blacks.” It has one tavern or bar. Drinking is akin to
sinning. We tried to buy a bottle of wine to take to their house for dinner but
the stores wouldn’t sell us one. “Not on Sunday”, the clerk said. The scanning
machine wouldn’t even read the price. “Not on Sunday”.
We hadn’t seen the Scoles for
14 years. We started talking like we had just left off yesterday. Good friends
seem to have this ability. It was Super Bowl Sunday and Pat, an avid fan, would
jump out of the chair at any big play. We ate super bowl food and talked away
all but the last few minutes. Then the close game demanded all of our
attention.
The following morning Brenda
and I went for a bike ride. Then Gordon took me out to the garage which serves
as his weigh room. He lifts competitively and looks every inch a competitor.
His weight is under control and he is rock solid – just as he was in his
earlier college days. The demands of competitive weight lifting force him to
watch his weight. He’s slimed down. The idea of having to jump up a class
because of extra pounds provides real incentive to watch his diet. Perhaps that
is what we all need; a good reason to watch what we eat; a reason or cause that
we can believe in. It certainly works for him.
"We have a
choice as we age: don't exercise and suffer the physical liabilities against
your will, or exercise and consciously choose how you suffer. Conscious
suffering, which is the result of choosing how you train, always results in
growth." Frank Zane, Mr. Olympia
Scoles
quoted me this as we left his weight room. Then he added, "Either way, you are going to suffer".
This
is Retirement Talk.