Where's Armand?

Touring Armand's Brain

This is a photo I used in one of the first Where's Armand articles I wrote, titled "Why I'm Chasing a 92 Year Old Man". This was taken in August 2004, three months shy of his 90th birthday and it quickly came to mind when I watched a documentary about some amazingly fit seniors in Japan. Although, like Armand, some of the people featured in the movie may have passed away since it first aired, they were all mentally and physically productive well into their 90s and 100s.

As the documentary opens, you'll see 102 year-old Ryohei Omiya jogging along a country road as he trains for a marathon. What you'll discover later in the show is that there was a time in his mid-80s that he was unable to walk and suffered from depression. The film literally looks into the the brains of these vibrant elders to show the importance of exercise: physical and mental. There's no mention of their diet, but you can easily gather that they don't expect to die soon (one man begins learning Chinese in his 90s) and their routines are healthy.

What can we learn from these "super seniors" and their healthy brains? Health writer, Jean Carper, did some extensive research upon finding that she has the ApoE4 gene that predisposes her to Alzheimer's disease and compiled her results in a new book. Some of her 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer's and Age-Related Memory Loss, are similar to the actions of the super seniors. I see several Armand traits and actions, and would love to explore them in his diaries for future articles.


For now, enjoy:

1. The Brain Tour, a set of interactive slides that will give you a quick lesson on the anatomy of the brain and the effects of Alzheimer's disease.
2. The Art of Aging. The documentary is a Google video that's a little over 50 minutes and you can enlarge the screen size by double clicking the picture.
3. Read more about Jean Carper's book or purchase it (available for Kindle too) from Amazon.

Saluting Ladis Kristof

I am a fan of journalist and author Nick Kristof and follow his column in the New York Times through his Twitter links. His father, Ladis Kristof, recently passed away and Nick wrote a brief, yet touching article about an extraordinary ninety-one year old. I couldn't help but see the similarities between the elder Mr. Kristof and Armand Singer. Here's an excerpt:

Seeking an echo of his old estate, my dad settled us on a farm, which he equipped with tractors and an extraordinary 30,000-volume library: From chain saws to the complete works of Hegel (in German), our farm has it all.

At the age of 80, my father still chopped firewood as fast as I did. In his late 80s, he climbed the highest tree on our farm each spring to photograph our cherry orchard in bloom. At 90, he still hunted.

Read the entire article, My Father's Gift To Me. I would have loved to introduce these men to each other and then sit quietly to the side while they conversed, for hours perhaps.

Photo: NYTimes.com

Crossing Paths

 


Stefan Pinto and I met last year when we sat next to each other on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles. He was moving to LA while I was on my way home from a Mediterranean cruise and since then we've been supportive buddies on Twitter and in life. Well, he confessed this weekend to being a stamp collector at one time and attended,

 "All of those 'PEXes. I had to attend trade shows. Worked for ASDA, American Stamp Dealers Association. I had a huge collection."

 
I immediately told him about Armand and decided that they had to have crossed paths at some point in time. I remember how excited Armand was to show me a republished version of his Catalog of Himalayan Mountaineering Correspondence when he visited in 2007 and how unprepared I was (still am) to appreciate the depth of his knowledge of Tibetan and Nepalese philately.

While searching for something philatelic to show Stefan, I came across an eBay guide's description of Armand's Tibet, The Armand E. Singer Collection, 1809-1975 which proceeds to accurately describe the author:

...it is much more than a conventional assemblage of a collector's pages, as Professor Singer enjoys placing a great deal of information on his pages...
(Read the entire review here.)

I'm so intrigued by connections and always wonder about paths that cross. If Stefan and Armand had met at one of the many philatelic trade shows they both attended, they could easily have talked about stamp collecting, or acting (Stefan's an actor and Armand loved movies), maybe even Don Juan. Who knows? Maybe there's a connection to be made in the future.



Photo: Armand with a copy of his book. Kona, 1/07.

Introducing The String of Pearls

This group of tap dancing women, ranging from 52 to 80 years of age are keeping the "Where's Armand?" spirit alive and well. I watched them rehearse once during my first visit to Morgantown, WV, and it looked like a grueling workout.

Cindy Heiskell (third from left), has long been an Armand fan. She's the one who started the campaign after his arrest in 2006 by changing her t-shirt from Where's Armand? to read Free Armand! These days Cindy and her friends love to take their show on the road to visit the less-than-hyper-mobile-elderly. Folks in wheelchairs roll back and forth while others clap in time to the music and the smiles on the dancers' faces match those of their audience. Young seniors entertaining the older ones!

Where's Armand? salutes the String of Pearls and everyone who views the aging process as the time to "take their show on the road". Keep it up ladies, we're going to keep track of you!

Watch an energetic stage performance by the String of Pearls on You Tube
(03:18 ) and/or become a fan on Facebook.

In 1963...

I saw a video this weekend that immediately had me thinking of Armand. Ninety year old Rachel Veitch is still driving her 1964 Mercury Comet and has driven every one of the 540,000 plus miles on her car's original engine. She's a gun-toting, flag-waving, all-American woman and you can see how she cares for her Chariot, here on Growing Bolder.com. She was 89 when the video was made.

It drove me to find a diary entry of Armand's as close to 1964 as possible. I was curious to see where he was in his travels and found him ready to expound:

"December 6, 1963. Gyrovagically, we all took an ambitious trip last summer. We motored in June by way of Colorado and Utah to Los Angeles. Crossed the Colorado River above Hatch, Utah by ferry using last such conveyance still functioning. Drove over some of the area of the proposed Canyonlands National Park, saw Arches N.P., Glen Canyon Dam, Bryce and Zion Parks (climbed Angel's Landing), and so to California.

On June 14, sailed on the Matsonia for Honolulu. "Five fun-filled days at sea" (as the brochure puts it). Really very luxurious, with fine food in Brobdingnagian quantities and dishes such as shark fin soup and passion fruit ice. Hawaii got a pretty full treatment.

All the visitable islands: Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Maui and Hawaii, with extensive drives by rented car from a ten thousand foot volcano top on Maui to the beaches of Waikiki. Flew back.

Drove up California's coastal highway north of San Francisco: Big Sur, Carmel, and all---then on to Seattle and into Canada. Cut northeast up into British Columbia to Mt. Robson Provincial Park, which lies against the west edge of Jasper Park. There we took horses up to Berg Lake, a cold mile high, lying against a great glacier that tumbles down Mt. Robson (12,972') itself, the Monarch of the Canadian Rockies.

The wretched weather (we got soaked on our horses both going and coming--so wet we often had to walk them up and down for fear they'd slip in the mud) didn't cooperate at all but we caught a few glimpses of Robson, the most magnificent peak in the whole range and got in a few good climbs. Then home to teach the second term of summer school.

Whew! I wonder if Rachel Veitch would have ridden shotgun for Armand during his last few road trips. Think they would have gotten along?

Photo: Simplon

Alive in the Likes of...

SHIGEAKI HINOHARA. I introduced you to Dr. Hinohara in November of 2007 and in Armand-like fashion, he's still a productive, contributing member to mankind. My brother sent me a recent article on Dr. Hinohara and I've chosen a few statements that I think represent the Armand spirit:

Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot. We all remember how as children, when we were having fun, we often forgot to eat or sleep. I believe that we can keep that attitude as adults, too. It's best not to tire the body with too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime.

Always plan ahead. My schedule book is already full until 2014, with lectures and my usual hospital work. In 2016 I'll have some fun, though: I plan to attend the Tokyo Olympics!

There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65. The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago, when the average life-expectancy in Japan was 68 years and only 125 Japanese were over 100 years old. Today, Japanese women live to be around 86 and men 80, and we have 36,000 centenarians in our country. In 20 years we will have about 50,000 people over the age of 100.

It's wonderful to live long. Until one is 60 years old, it is easy to work for one's family and to achieve one's goals. But in our later years, we should strive to contribute to society. Since the age of 65, I have worked as a volunteer. I still put in 18 hours seven days a week and love every minute of it.

If you knew Armand and have a story that relates, please make a comment. Also, if you know of someone in their 90's who's still productive, please let me know. The world needs to be inspired by the Likes of Armand!

Read the entire Japan Times Online Article.

Photo and Source: The Japan Times Online

Pointing Out: Daniel Schorr

Here's another Where's Armand? Fellow: NPR's Daniel Schorr. This ninety year old award winning journalist began his career as a foreign correspondent in 1946 and is still working in a career that has lasted over six decades.

"His analysis of current issues is broadened by his firsthand perspective on recent history", says Schorr's NPR biography. It's the same kind of "I was there" authority that Armand held which punctuated his stories so well. Remember Armand's experiences at the outbreak of World War II?

I wonder how Mr. Schorr would have answered Armand's letter to the editor of Time Magazine (April 19, 1999):

Ours has been a full century demanding answers, glorying in solutions. Somehow the bigger picture has eluded us. All the wondrous advances you covered are seen from inside the reassuring cocoon of the surrounding universe. No one seems to be stepping outside to ask the big questions: Why is there time? Why should there be life, matter, space? What's the reason for existence, including that of God? If we cannot find answers, we are literally nowhere. Let's admit it, none of us has a clue. ARMAND E. SINGER Morgantown, W.Va.

I'm sure they would have had a lot to talk about. Daniel Schorr was introduced to Twitter this past weekend. When asked if he had any questions about it he answered, "Yes, how do I do it?". Within a few hours, Schorr had over 2,000 followers and I'm one of them!

Dan Schorr Meets the Twitterverse. A 3 minute introduction to Twitter.
Follow Daniel Schorr on Twitter.
Follow me on Twitter.

Thanks to Jean Swift, D.O. for bringing Dan Schorr to our attention.

Photo: Harvard University Gazette

Checking Out Suggestions

Yes, of course there will never be another Armand Singer, but in the quest to find folks who share some of his unique qualities we have some suggestions:

(1) Florence Hasegawa is 100 year old woman living on Maui and still employed by the Department of Health. She issues marriage licenses out of her home. Read about this amazing woman and her outlook on life: "Songbird of Lahaina". She's got the Armand spunk for just getting on with life.

Armand writes in December 2006: ...the broken pelvis and left wrist to match had healed in one month (the doctors said it was most fortunate). No new breaks since, but, what do you know? My kidneys of all things, collapsed. There was dire talk of dialysis or at least holes drilled in the organs with tubes coming out of my back.

I self-diagnosed, arguing that bone-building Fosamax was the culprit. "No way", said my favorite physician. Yeah, but even the brochure that came with the pills admitted it just could be. I quit the pills and I seem to be fine now. I simply work harder at avoiding open manholes, drop-offs on the sidewalks and tripwires (I also had my fingers permanently cross wired).

(2) Chris Guillebeau's goal is to visit every country in the world by April 7, 2013. Currently he's at 103 out of 197. That's Armand's kind of determination along with his passion for travel as this Armand story relates: On a 40,000 mile Plane Trip.

Keep your eyes and ears open for More Armands. Send in more suggestions, I'm sure they're out there.

Photo: SwissMiss.com

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