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Thoughts from Bob’s dog-eared diary

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By Bob Batz

Senior Moments

Dear Diary: I was reading a newspaper advertisement the other day and a very large headline caught my eye. The ad was promoting a huge furniture sale featuring sofas, dining room sets, beds, mattresses and other items.

The enormous headline on the full-color advertisement was “NO INTEREST.” As it turned out the advertiser was absolutely right because I had no interest so I turned to the next page of the newspaper.

This is the best letter I ever received from a reader during my 53-plus years in the newspaper business. It was written by an elderly lady who was living in a nursing home and it was sent to me by another reader. Here is that letter: “Dear Mr. Cooper, I want to thank you for the hair-dryer your organization sent to me.

I am 86 years old and have lived in this home for 11 years. I get very lonely and sad sometimes. I have no living relatives. The woman in the bed next to me is 83. She got a hair dryer about five years ago. She would never let me see it. It is broke now, anyway.Yesterday she asked to use mine and I told her to go to hell.”

Life is about questions. Paper or plastic? Regular or high-test? Cash or charge? Oh, sure, there are plenty of neat things to make life tons of fun but the disappointments are always there, too, just itching to rain on your parade if they get the chance.

I wonder about things.. What if I need a new mattress and then I realize I’ve forgotten my “Sleep Number?” If my number is, say, 31 and I make the mistake of getting a mattress with the sleep number 14 can it harm me? Could all my hair fall out or, worse yet, would all the lottery numbers I choose turn out to be losers?

These Thoughts While Shaving just in from reader Richard Brown: “Do you remember? Sledding down a fairway at DP&L golf course until we were caught. Belly flopping on the sled instead of being pushed and sledding on the backs of autos. I am sure your readers can think of many other old snow happenings”

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By Bob Batz

Bob Batz is a retired long-time journalist and weekly columnist. Contact Bob at [email protected].