When Mrs. Garnet announced that she had a new project to assign to her sociology class, she heard many groans from her students. In her classes, her students knew that her assigned projects required a great deal of research and a lengthy paper to be turned in at the completion of the project.
“This project,” she continued, “will be a service project that will teach you more than you could ever learn from a book. We have been studying the problems that come with aging, and now you will get to see the problems first hand.
Mrs. Garnet told the class to divide into groups of four for the project. Gayle, Ossie, Logan and Danielle quickly formed a group together. The four of them, had been friends for six years, ever since the fourth grade.
After the class had divided into groups, Mrs. Garnet passed out packets to each group. Each packet had four identical sets of papers, one for each member of the group.
“Next Friday,” Mrs. Garnet explained, “We will be spending the day at a retirement home just outside Miami. Each group has been given information about a particular resident of the home. Over the next week or so, learn all about that person; their likes and dislikes, hobbies and then discuss among your group, how you can get to know that person, bond with them and understand them. Next Friday, you will get the chance to not only meet that person, but spend the entire day with them.”
“Most of these elderly people have no family and they get very few visitors. They don’t have too much to look forward to, each day.”
“So, what exactly is our assignment?” asked Gayle.
“I want each of you to get acquainted with your assigned person,” said Mrs. Garnet. “Find out what makes them tick. See if you can get them to open up to you. See if you can get them interested in life again, and interested in you. Find common interests that you might share with them.”
“What is the project supposed to teach us?” asked Ossie.
“That depends on all of you,” said Mrs. Garnet. “What you get out of this project depends on how much you are willing to put into it.”
At four o’clock PM; Gayle, Ossie, Logan and Danielle met at the library to read their packets and discuss their assigned person.
His name was Joseph Gaspar. He was eighty years old and had lived at the home for ten years. He had never married and had no living relatives.
Joe had lived a hard life. When he was fourteen, he had to quit school when his father went in the navy during World War II. Joe had to quit school and get a job to support his mother. By the time the war ended, Joe had been working for four years and he liked earning his own money. He did not want to go back to high school. Now that Joe was eighteen, he felt he was too old to go back to high school.
During the war years, Joe had steady work, but when all of the service men and women came back to the work force, Joe lost his job. He began to take odd jobs, here and there, mostly in construction, wherever he could find them.
Joe was always looking for a shortcut to riches, without the hard work. Over the years, he lost several thousands of dollars, to bad investments, and gambling.
After the four students had gone through the information on Joe, they doubted that they could learn much from him. However, as they soon discovered, not everything is at it seems. They would discover that knowledge sometimes comes from the most unlikely places.
On the following Friday morning, the class boarded the school bus that would take them to the retirement home. Some of the students brought flowers, books, or magazines for the person they were going to visit.
When they reached their destination, everybody exited the bus and they were escorted into a conference room, where the director of the retirement home met with them. She went over the rules which included 1) “Don’t get the residents overly excited” 2) “Do not allow the residents to leave the grounds, without a staff member.” and 3) Call for help immediately, if the residents start getting agitated or violent.”
As they walked into the common area where they would be introduced to their assigned resident, Ossie turned to Logan and said, “This sounds like a fun time- Not.”
All of the residents were in the common area also known as the recreation area. Gayle and her group were introduced to Mr. Gaspar and then the five of them were left alone to become better acquainted.
After some awkward silence, Gayle walked over to Mr. Gaspar and introduced the group. “Hi, Mr. Gaspar, my name is Gayle, and these are my friends, Ossie, Logan and Danielle.” When she got no response from him, she tried another tactic. “What’s that you are reading?” she asked him.
“It’s called a book,” said Joe, visibly irritated.
“You don’t have to be sarcastic,” said Logan. “She was just making conversation. What’s wrong with that?”
“Well” said Joe, “Then, why don’t you take your conversation somewhere else.”
“What is your problem?” asked Ossie.
“You kids are my problem,” said Joe. “You come here, to visit us, and you study us for one day and you think that you know everything about us. Well, let me tell you something. You don’t know anything about us.”
“That’s not true,” said Gayle, but before she could say anything else, Joe started speaking again.
“If you hadn’t been given this assignment, would you have come here on your own?” Joe was starting to get a little upset. “I am not some guinea pig that you observe and take notes on. You cannot get to know me and understand why I am the way I am today, just by coming her and staying for eight hours. If this assignment were optional, how many of you would even be here right now?”
Danielle, who had been quiet up to this point, said, “I would have come, whether it was mandatory or optional. I wanted to come here. I never knew my own grandparents, and my parents are workaholics and I barely see them. You don’t know anything about me either, Mr. Gaspar, but at least I am willing to try and be your friend.”
Then, being the emotional one of the group, she started to cry, which made her angry because she did not want to look like a baby.
Logan tried to comfort Danielle, while giving Joe a dirty look, as if to say “Nice going old man!”
Joe’s tone began to soften a little. He looked at Danielle and said, “I’m sorry, young lady. You young people just don’t know what it’s like to be old.”
“Well, then help us to understand” said Ossie.
“Can we start over, Mr. Gaspar?” asked Gayle.
“Only if you call me Joe,” he replied.
So, for the rest of the day, the four teenagers sat and listened as Joe told them the condensed version of his life story.
Joe had lived like a hobo most of his life, moving from job to job, town to town, all over the country. He traveled from Platinum, Alaska to Diamond Lake, Utah, from Sterling, Nebraska to Topaz, New York. He even visited the Emerald Isle, also known as Ireland, in his younger days.
“Why didn’t you ever get married?” asked Logan.
Joe was quiet for a moment, as if recalling a distant memory.“I fell in love, once, a long time ago. I was nineteen years old. I had just arrived in Reno, Nevada. I was looking for work and I was hungry. I only had a little bit of money left and I had to stretch it as far as I could.”
“I went into a local diner called the Sapphire Lounge. I was starving, but I had to get as much food as I could for the little money that I had. I ordered the cheapest things on the menu. I ordered raw carrots, fourteen carrots, to be exact, and a bowl of beef bouillon. I made myself some carrot soup. It was nourishing and filled me up.”
“The diner had two singing waitresses who happened to be sisters. Their names were Ruby and Opal Crystal. The moment I laid eyes on Ruby, I fell in love with her. She was beautiful and sang so pretty that it sounded like a choir of angels. When she smiled at me, her pearl white teeth shone like stars. When I saw her, my stomach felt funny. She sat down and talked with me for a while. I could tell that she was attracted to me as well.”