Aging in Place

Some friends my age are building a new house, their "Age in Place" house as they call it. It will be fitted out for whatever the future brings as far as mobility and other physical considerations go. Seems a wonderful, sensible idea for those of means, but I don't think building another house is in my personal future. Could be wrong. The shop needs a remodel, and I was standing in the yard yesterday picturing how to rebuild that back corner that is rotting from the rain.

Mostly I know now that I can't do it alone, because I don't have the fifteen years that I spent on this house. I know too much now about how things have to be done well to last...things I will be doing over in this house. Like wooden front porch steps. They just aren't going to last for decades.

Aging can come with lots of fears. I think I cracked a rib cleaning the other day. I got some new furniture thanks to the ever-generous Betsy and took the opportunity to rearrange and clean my living room and bedroom. It is lovely, even scrubbed the Jell-O out of the carpet. The new hutch hides the TV and a lot of the clutter is gone. Yay. Aging will need some simplification and decluttering for sure. It could bring some breaks and pains and decreased mobility. I spent a few hours wondering if the rib ache would make me stop printing. No such luck.

As an aging member of a subculture, the craftspeople, I've been thinking about this concept, which I will call the Age in Place Initiative. I'm planning to work on this in my two organizations, Saturday Market and Oregon Country Fair. It comes from the fact that we older master craftsmen and women are treasures, and our needs are a little different from other interest groups in these memberships.

In OCF, Booth reps are not currently really included in the Elders system (which is a wonderful step forward for many folks), so we have the perfect opportunity to craft a proposal for a little system of our own. We want to remain in place, doing what we do. We need the opportunity to earn, still, and we won't retire if we can help it. We don't want to give up our spaces, and many of us don't want to take on partners, pass the business to family members, or whatever options are currently viable. OCF doesn't have a plan for us, except that we should give over space to younger crafters and get out of the damn way. We can take this opportunity at the committee level to talk about our needs and figure out what to make guidelines about.

At Market, the Kareng Fund is a huge step forward in providing small grants to those members in crisis. They are currently discussing a Modest Needs Initiative that will be an expansion of the effort to fill pressing needs. I think the Age in Place Initiative is a way to frame the current wish to address what we've been calling Vintage Vendors, a confusing term that isn't quite right yet. We can look at what the Market already offers in both policy and practice, and brainstorm ways to address the needs of those who will not be able to continue to do things the same way they did them in their forties and fifties.

I see things like fee relief, point-system fine tuning, and mutual support. For the OCF I see a scenario where there would be a lot of trust of the aged vendor, to take us out of the party booth concept into the way it could be if we look for elegant solutions.

If you see us as treasures, it is easy to see why we might need some kind of protection. As the Fair gets bigger and bigger, it has been a struggle to keep up. I don't think I can work as hard as I've been working, for too many more years. I already have eight people who help me do parts of it. I can't even provide passes for that many people as it is. What if I need more? My son has a crew job, and at the moment, has no interest in my craft business. I want to stay in my space selling my stuff until I die. How can that work for me and for the Fair at the same time?

I guess I am starting a task force or committee to brainstorm and make proposals. I'll announce that at this month's meetings. We'll see if anyone is ready to work on this or if it stays in the concept stage a little longer. There's no hurry...I'm only going to be 62 this year. Maybe when a person gets social security they are happy to really retire. I doubt I will be. For one thing, I need to stay active to be happy, though whether or not this has to include screenprinting is a big question.

That's one of my problems at the OCF, that my craft definition is screenprinting, although I can jury new crafts if I desire. There is a returning vendor clause that gives extra points so the jury is more flexible about the nature of the crafts. My wish would be for a pass from the jury process at a certain age. Maybe this would be 70 or 65, but I'd like a little old lady to be able to bring whatever she has made to sell. If this means she sews one bead on a scarf and calls it transformed, I'd like to see the organizations be able to accept this reality. That will probably not be easy. We're pretty tied to the "ever-increasing level of artistry" concept.

Let's face it, things really don't get better and better as we age, although we can delude ourselves to that effect for awhile. The physical limitations are rough. The energy just isn't going to be there, no matter how much we might want it to be. I can't sustain having eight or more people make my OCF experience possible. Somehow I need it to be many people less. The Elders had to fight for one companion or helper. Even that isn't going to be enough for me to keep selling.

So how will I do it? I need more people to help me solve this problem, to help remove barriers and make it possible. At Market we have informal systems where neighbors help each other with the hard parts, erecting popups and taking breaks, etc. I'm in a great neighborhood for that and feel pretty secure for this season. It wouldn't be hard to formalize some of that. We have a great point system and pretty good compliance for the volunteer two hours for HM. We could find ways to support vendors helping vendors.

OCF vendors are different because of the high volume of work compressed into the short time, so we tend to be more isolated in our needs, but still, I have good neighbors there who would help me, and do. If they can't remain there either, though, that falls apart. They're starting to talk about the transitions too. I don't want to feel overrun or forced to change to fit the rules, I think it might be possible for the rules to change to fit me. Not me, per se, but my subculture, the segment of our unique area population that we are so lucky to include.

So that's my idea of the moment. Now to apply the creative process.