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Gifts for the elderly? Well, I guess to everyone age forty and younger that's me. I'm sixty-one. So, I'm fairly certain that group will probably give me tennis balls to keep my walker sliding or maybe one of those emergency button thingys to wear around my neck so I can get help if I fall and I can't get up. Not!

Seniors are people too, we still play tennis (so I guess those balls might come in handy), we garden, we go hiking and swimming.

Unless we're very ill or maybe in our nineties, we really find some of those old people gifts' a bit insulting.

There is one common thread among us, and that is usually that we already have too much stuff' and don't want anything else to dust or trip over. I don't mean to sound ungrateful or cranky, but after fifty years of collecting knick knacks, kitchen gadgets and embroidered toss pillows, the last thing most of us need is more of them.

I do admit to having arthritis and my vision isn't as good as it once was, so there are a few old people' items I've gotten and are handy.

1. A Reacher/Grabber stick. It has a squeeze handle at one end and pinchers on the other for
picking things off the floor or overhead. I mostly use mine when I fill my bird feeders. Sometimes I reach out and yank on my grandson's shirt when he's not looking it gets a laugh every time.

2. Magnifying/light. This is great for doing needlework or working on electronics. There is a magnifying glass in the center and a natural light bulb (ring) around the outside. It clamps to a table.

3. A garden caddy. This is a fabric insert for a five-gallon bucket. The insert surrounds the outside of the bucket and has pockets for all the small gardening items; trowel, plant markers, stake ties, etc. I love mine.

4. A sit-on rolling garden storage/seat. My knees aren't happy when I kneel anymore (somebody please tell the Pope). With my little rolling seat with storage under it, I can pull weeds without getting up and down a kazillion times. I keep some sunscreen, mosquito spray, and other small items in it.

5. My Dad, yes he's still alive at eighty-nine, likes to work crossword puzzles. I gave him a subscription to Dell crosswords, a box of No.2 No. 2 pencils and a tin of his favorite cookies. He loved it.

6. He also likes to do jigsaw puzzles, so I've had a couple made up (kodak.com) using family photos. They come in a very nice metal tin with the picture on the lid.

7. My elderly' neighbor (age seventy) has a new MP3 player that her

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