My Mature Times

Though you may not know it, scientists have already found the one magic bullet that will prevent disease, promote longevity and ensure lifelong independence. It’s neither sexy nor groundbreaking. It’s easy and hard, simple and complex all at the same time. It’s exercise.

Have you by chance ever heard of the “The Platters”? This group emerged in the mid to late 1950s. “The Platters” sold more records, played more venues, appeared in more films, and romanced more Americans than any other group of their time. With their simple romantic melodies and satin smooth voices; “The Platters” were a phenomenon.

With his patented “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” Muhammad Ali took the boxing world by storm. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay on March 17, 1942, Ali was a fighter par excellence, becoming at that time the youngest man to win the World’s Heavyweight Championship when, at age 21, he defeated the monstrous Sonny Liston – twice. But, before that, he did his growing up in Louisville, Kentucky where, as a 12-year old he started to learn the sweet science, advancing until he won the Kentucky Golden Gloves Championship. His mother said that she knew he was going to the state champion because when he was young, he called her GG.

Thanks to EPT Seniors Fund, Lions Clubs of El Paso, and the Texas Ramps Project, an El Paso woman had a handicapped ramp built on her home Sunday morning. More than 25 people, all volunteers, gathered at the home site to cooperate in building the woman’s ramp, which became necessary when one of her legs was amputated due to diabetes complications.

Emma Molina and Pedro Gomez were ecstatic that the first check from the El Paso Community Foundation just came in. “We’ve been working on this for about a year. We are trying to get more aid in helping those in the Agua Dulce colonias that need help,” says Emma Molina, M.A.C. president.

For almost 40 years, Audrey Glaze has been a proud and prominent resident of Horizon City, Texas – and for the past 14 years, she’s been a member of the Oz Glaze Senior Citizens Center, at 13969 Veny Webb in Horizon City. Glaze said that she and her husband, Oz, moved to Horizon City from Los Angeles, California, for health reasons and, almost immediately, they became involved in the Horizon City Lions Club. “My husband and I were very active in the small community,” said Audrey Glaze, now 85. “That’s why the Senior Center was named for him, because he was a friend to everybody.”

Those of us who consider a pet a member of the family will sooner or later experience the pain of loss, and it can be as devastating as the loss of any loved one. That doesn’t mean you’ll get much sympathy from those who don’t see pets the way you do. “Much of society is not aware of the strength of the human-animal bond, so pet loss is often seen as ‘disenfranchised loss,’ meaning it is not socially recognized,” says Joelle Nielsen, a veterinary social worker at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Listen to your head or follow your heart? When it comes to choosing a cat, it’s possible to do both, as long as you know what you’re getting into.

For many, a kitten is the only choice: A healthy feline baby is nearly irresistible, and the choices are many during “kitten season,” which is at its height now. But feline experts say that for many people, saving a cat others pass on — an older cat, or one with special needs —- can be intensely satisfying on a personal level, and that benefit is one that should not be discounted.