My dad, who lived to be 94, might have been called a dandy in his younger days. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use the term much nowadays, and for those too young to have heard it, it describes someone overly concerned with appearance.<\/p>\n
Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most proximate term might be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153metrosexual,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d although not all the connotations of the term apply to Dad. And in absolute fairness to him, I emphasize he worked hard to support his family of eight. But he still liked being dressed up.<\/p>\n
My dad, J.D. Trujillo, is remembered in his neighborhood on Railroad Avenue as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the man who always wore a suit and tie.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He walked to work, to the Ford dealership three blocks south, on Grand Avenue, and sometimes caught up with a number of other Werley Auto employees, who also lived in this barrio. In those days, people bought homes close to where they worked and took jobs close to their homes. Few had cars.<\/p>\n
There was a contrast: My dad in hat, suit, white shirt, tie and French cuffs taking his diurnal stroll with a bevy of other men dressed in street clothes or overalls. I remember Cayetano \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shorty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bustos, Jess Gallegos, Larry LeDoux, Leo LaChar, Perry Salazar and Bob Hood.<\/p>\n
Cravatted and wing-tipped, Dad always welcomed compliments about how he looked. The dress code at the dealership certainly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t require tux-and-tails, or even a suit, but since Dad worked in the front office and processed all the paperwork, he chose to dress to the nines, even when things were at sixes and sevens.<\/p>\n
And he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bear seeming or looking older than his years. In my parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 later years, my mom Marie, almost a decade younger, constantly implored him to accompany her for lunch at the Senior Center. She enjoyed socializing, joining clubs, going on walks, taking a water aerobics class and traveling wherever the local court of the Catholic Daughters of America pointed their compass.<\/p>\n
But not Dad. He turned down many of Mom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s invitations to join her for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lonchecito\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at the local Senior Center. His reason: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No quiero estar con el viejestorio.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ah, so if he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like mixing with the old people, what was he? Sr. Younger Than Springtime?<\/p>\n
Yet he was willing to attend Sunday Mass at Immaculate Conception Church, which included lots of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153viejestorio,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and to get in line at the Flamingo Dining Room\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s after-church buffet, which we sons and daughters referred to as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the haunt of the geriatric set.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
What is this preoccupation with looking young, even when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not? Does a somewhat youthful appearance translate to better health, immunity from disease, even longer life?<\/p>\n
I got a taste of age-consciousness a couple of weeks ago after signing up for Mayor Tony Marquez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fitness Challenge. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a program that, in addition to providing discounted monthly memberships at the recreation center, monitors participants as to loss of inches and pounds, in the style of TV\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Biggest Loser.<\/p>\n
The Challenge is co-sponsored by Alta Vista Regional Hospital and the City of Las Vegas and involves participants in three age groups: 16-35; 36-55; 56-78. Participants receive a basic health assessment, and after 90 days are monitored. The winner \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the person registering the greatest loss of poundage and square footage \u00e2\u20ac\u201d receives a new mountain bike donated by the hospital and a free year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pass to the center.<\/p>\n
It is heartening to see a number of seniors, people around my age, joining fitness activities at the rec center. Though not all of them necessarily have joined the Challenge, quite a few remain regulars on the exercise equipment and pool.<\/p>\n
In the several years I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been a member, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to know and admire others\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 stick-to-it-ive-ness. And many of the members signed up as long as a dozen years ago, when the facilities and program were located at Highlands.<\/p>\n
A few of many seniors I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve grown accustomed to seeing on the exercise equipment and other facilities are Ernie Abreu, John and Lucy Moya, Bobby and Henrietta Duran, Gilbert and Mary Ann Baca, Grover Durham, Rose Fresquez-Trujillo, Helen Olivas, Lucy Maez, Eloy Gonzales, James Montoya, George Salazar, Tony Lucero, Carlos Thomas, William Oshima, Lee Norman Gonzales, Ron Maestas, Jerry Manzanares and Eugenio Mathis.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
For a second two weeks ago, I felt a jolt to realize how much like my dad I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve become. No, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t preen; I wear a suit only for weddings and funerals; I loathe ties and any button-down shirt. In short, I disdain any hint of foppishness and would have worn a bowling shirt to my wedding, if allowed.<\/p>\n
In fact, the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153chayote,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which for years I believed Mom coined just for me, has fit me well. Although \u00e2\u20ac\u0153chayote\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a chubby, squatty squash, Mom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interpretation was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sloppy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Point well taken.<\/p>\n
Look up the word in Mom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s slightly abridged personal dictionary and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see my photo.<\/p>\n
The jolt to which I refer came in passing a series of mirrors in one of the exercise rooms and seeing who I thought was my father, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been gone exactly 10 years.<\/p>\n
I recognized the hairline, the profile, the way of walking and realized, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting old.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any comfort during the fitness assessment and measuring session when exercise technician Albert Tafoya said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re at risk, sir.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been holding an electronic device that measures body fat. It looks like some video game control. That piece of equipment determined I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m w-a-y too heavy for my height and age and indicates diseases await, unless there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a change in lifestyle.<\/p>\n
When Tafoya placed me on the scale, I wished he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been secretly pressing down on the platform with his foot, in order to say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153just kidding!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But that poundage showed my real weight.<\/p>\n
And when another exercise tech, Edmund Ekeoha, measured my waist and gave me the news, I almost suspected he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d wrapped the tape around me at least twice.<\/p>\n
So, as I approach my 70th birthday, I urge all of you to continue taking exercise and diet seriously.<\/p>\n
As for me, no more of the sweet, sugary stuff. For years, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve enjoyed a little Danish with my matutinal coffee, but no more.<\/p>\n
While on the subject of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a little Danish,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I forgot to mention the birth in Copenhagen two weeks ago of our fourth grandchild, Ellen Vestergaard Trujillo. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little Danish I will really enjoy. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all I will say about the child, as I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like to dote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My dad, who lived to be 94, might have been called a dandy in his younger days. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use the term much nowadays, and for those too young to have heard it, it describes someone overly concerned with appearance. Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most proximate term might be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153metrosexual,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d although not all the connotations of the term […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}