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Health & Fitness

Go Wild Out East - At Woodbury Days

Festivals are the best way to meet the locals.  Woodbury Days’ summer is packed with three days and nights of great socializing, and showcases the best of everything associated with our city living.

A parade just isn't a parade without the best contortionists, magicians, break dancers, comedians, food and all round jesters from our city.  Many came to Woodbury Days Parade to battle it out for the most coveted titles.

To kick off Woodbury Days on Friday at Woodbury Senior Living, we met Jeannie and Sharon from the Woodbury Days council.  We had already witnessed the hospitality and friendliness of Mr. Sommer and Ms. Janechek (since I moved back only a little more than a month ago from PR, I had a bit of catching up to do & they have been so helpful & kind).  

With thanks for a few items we donated for the volunteers, Jeannie and Sharon showed us the true spirit and excitement for what was to come. Those ladies offered warm hugs - showing us the epitome of neighborly love and appreciation.  I wanted to go with this movable feast that they had planed for 100 volunteers.

Alas, I headed back to work and thought that life was good and imagined all the chefs and purveyors for the Woodbury Days gathering early at Woodbury’s coffee shops on Friday morning for killer cappuccinos, large muffins & a generous serving of Woodbury gossip.

THE PARADE ON SUNDAY
The crème de la crème of any parade experience for me is seeing the teens that participate in them, the patriotic anthems spilling out of amazingly flagged homes and those colors donned proudly by the masses all over the city.  But the holiday is not only for the youth… Me and mine from the Woodbury Assisted Living aimed to have a riot of laughter and fun.  

So, our senior citizens at WSLiving exercised their mental muscles and decided they would make the forecast of high humidity and high temps into a good challenge.  Our brain cells are renewing constantly, and we need stimulation & activity to keep our brains healthy and memories strong.

We decided that nothing would stop us and we were going to meet the locals, go wild out east, and our eye was on the most coveted title awarded at the Parade.

TO MEET THE LOCALS
We met the most lively and fascinating of friends, old and new, we met the children of the elderly, we met the marines, the army, we met Dick & Diane Hanson, we met Santa, we met Kris Janish, we met Alisa Rabin-Bell, we met men with tattoos, we met our Woodbury Mayor Mary Giuliani-Stephens.  We met the son of one of our favorite men of all time, Ellis.  Ellis was involved in the printing press downtown St. Paul nearly 100 years ago and he died two summers ago.  We met many of our Woodbury neighbors - all loaded with such imagination and wit that as a participant, you felt after their voluptuous embrace -  that the mind and body was both satisfied.

PUNK ROCKER SIGHTINGS
Abundance on our BUS at the Parade took form in more than just a bunch of old seniors and decoration.  What the elderly brought to Woodbury was the virtues of life…love, hope, faith, justice, fortitude, restraint, Punk Rocker Bess, Cleopatra (Marjorie), Gansta Brawl John, Hot Lips Joan,  Helen Van Allen the Tornado (Princess), 100 year old Ed Lidell (King of WSL) Queen Babe of WSL,  Captain Else, Lampshade Oline, French painter Mavis, ole lady bus driver Kristina.  We even housed our prison escapee Woodbury Senior Living volunteer bingo caller for the past 4 years, Wendy …Our bus was full of witty and compassionate residents at the average age of 95!!!  All uncomplicated and full of surprises.

THEIR PANACHE
I truly love all of the elderly I work with.  Every man is ruggedly handsome, each woman is pretty, and they teach me that it is never too old to dream and dress with color and pizzazz and make life fun.

Thank you to our Woodbury friends and neighbors (all of YOU) who cheered and clapped.  Some of you mentioned how you wished you had the confidence of these older people to show off these amazing bold looks!

WE ARE NOT JUST EXISTING AT OUR RIPE AGE…WE ARE LIVING WELL!
Many of our elderly in Woodbury are older, independent and alone, but NOT lonely.  Indeed, we are sustained by memories, and by the life we pull from the likes of events like the one at Woodbury Days today.

Thank you Woodbury Days council and thank you to all of the volunteers.






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