WOI TV: News Clips 401

the Iowa senior citizens Arts Festival is in progress at the Fort Des Moines hotel in Des Moines one of the individuals that's participating is retired Dr. Fred Bunker from Toledo, Iowa he's retired dentist isn't it right how long ago did you retire? Well I haven't retired completely semi retired I extract and make plates. That's all. no no fillings anything like that you make other things such as these canes too oh yeah how did you get started doing that well I have I've contended that everybody should have a hobby many many years I've been at this various things I've inventing is a hobby of mine I hold 13 patents from United States Patent Office the only one happens ever gave me has ever done anything for me but it's just ideas that that come to your brain and you develop them you'll see something that you you'll ask well how can I improve on this you may have a fork now how could I improve on that or a knife or something that you is hard for you to do it's not how could I improve on that now as far as the canes are concerned your wife was going to need a cane after being in Rochester that's right she was she was bowlegged she's had her leg straightened and I tried every place to find a nice cane for her I couldn't find the cane for her a nice-lookin one she's a very dainty little gal she didn't want to carry one of these crooked you know what I mean they're too heavy so I built her this I made her a cane and one night about oh two o'clock in the morning she almost fell she couldn't find her crutches she couldn't find the cane and she almost fell in the hallway well I told said to myself well I'll do something about that that's how I happen to put this this flashlight in in this cane then she she go out at night and a lot of your elderly people they can't see right and at night they put their flashlight on they hold this down to the curb they can see where they're they're stepping to save them to save them a fall because invariably if you fall and break a hip sometimes that's fatal to you to the older people and all the cane is for is to just to to get you keep your balance I've made these light so they don't have to they don't weigh very much it's easier to carry them around not only that if they have if they have to hold some money that they don't want these (inaudible) still and they just take out the put the money in here and nobody there's nobody gonna be so low as to steal an old lady's cane so let them have their billfold and save your money and it's it's just a unique idea and now on this one you have that's right most of your canes it's the handle is that is a curved handle they can they can hang that over their arm this little they can't do that so I put this gold chain on they put it around the wrist and they have this hand to do things with that's why I have this light so it isn't it isn't necessary to have a a real heavy cane now do you sell these oh yes I it's I sell them just as a hobby you can't make any I don't I don't aim to make any money out of them or anything like that it's just well they're just handy now there's another invention that you had or perhaps adaptation that I'd like to talk to you about I understand that in your background there was an old Packard hearse that's right oh it's been 25 30 years ago I had always driven Packards one evening and gentleman came to me and said that he wanted to sell me a sell me a car why I says no I've got three of them now well he says this is different well I says what's different about it well he says it's a hearse I got to thinking just for a minute I says well I'll come over tomorrow and look at it so I the next day I went over looked at and drove it down the road for a couple or three miles came back and I says how much do you want for this hearse he says sixty-five dollars well I says I'll take it I didn't have nerve enough to drive at home in the daytime so I drove it home at night and when I drove that home you should of heard my wife she says what in the world are you going to do with that I says well do you know how expensive it is that we'd be taking off the cemetery I says we have our own transportation no she says you're crazy you're nuts I said yes I am I took the body off and I built a trailer house on it it's probably the the the only vehicle in the whole world like it at that time we drove it to Texas lived in it for Oh a month just about 20 feet from the Gulf of Mexico shore we had lots of fun it had twin beds it had cooking facilities yes it had it had twin beds it had closets in it had a stove and it was lit for 110 and lights for your car so you was always had lights and I had a gun case in it and my fishing poles refrigerator and everything convenient that the home has except the toilet that's the only thing that's the only thing I didn't have and this is just a glimpse at some of the people that participated in the Iowa senior citizens arts festival that was held at the hotel Fort Des Moines retired semi-retired Dr. Fred Bunker is from Toledo, Iowa and particularly here we've been talking about his canes but also perhaps one of the first campers that's been around and thank you very much thank you this has been lots of fun oh good good of course my favorite clown is this dear soul you never loved what's-her-name Arabia she's out now looking closely I think she has a problem and we're talking to Geraldine Hearst from Ottumwa she has participating in the Iowa senior citizens arts festival and oh who inspired this one well I just got up one morning wasn't feeling too good with my hair all a mess and so I just started and created her now when did you start making clowns in January the last of January Father (inaudible) St. Joseph's Hospital in Ottumwa started me out he said Geraldine I think you can make these and he brought a clown up for me to start on and so from then on I've really got clowns all over the country now how do you get the inspiration and then do you use patterns or how do you carry it out no there are no patterns they are all original each and every one is made from scratch I cut the feet I cut the features and everything from felt and they're glued on to a Styrofoam ball course Styrofoam ball is first covered with a sock and the body is made from 2 by 4 or from detergent bottle and fastened on with the sock and the head that way it makes it real solid and then your piece of material it takes you about 3/4 of a yard to make the clown's body and everything but of course the outward appearance yes it's all inspirational I do it from scratch and I don't know myself how the clown is going to look until I put the last dot on him well what is there about a clown though what how does a clown work a clown is a cover-up for what is on the inside he may be a happy clown but as a real they're not very happy but they like to make people happy and so they're always laughing and trying to make the other person happy and then that way why they have happiness themselves now how old are you I'll be 70 Thursday I never thought I'd ever lived this long but here I am and able to walk what does your apartment look like with all these materials looks just about like this here table of clowns but what about the materials where do you get the materials well I have a lot of material as I say my apartment it's pretty crowded but I have all my materials there and I just pick up a piece of material and I decide that's what I'm gonna make a clown out of then I go ahead and finish the rest of it now I think some people think that they never can be creative what are some of the ingredients of such well first of all you have to do want to do it and then in that way wanting to do something inspires you to go ahead and do it and then when you've created your first clown you're so thrilled about it and then you keep going on and on and on I've made probably a hundred clowns and no two alike so you see there is no pattern but of course other people can copy things of which I can't but they can copy and so they could take any one of these clowns and copy them and have them look like that clown let's take a little peek at some of your clowns yes now this little little boy he's a real nice little clown and he just is real young you know his father was a big clown so he's gonna be a following his father's footsteps so he has a drum and he said you want to play my drum and I think he's real cute and this one over here he he feels a little bit sad but he says I'm I'm not sad I just look that way so see and then this one down here I think is a real cute little town he says I've got to watch the kids and there's two little tiny clowns and then the one the snake charmer from Arabia he forgot his basket and his snake got away so he can't do that act that he was going to do and so now I'm going on and we've been talking with Geraldine Hearst of Ottumwa and now I'm going to talk with another woman from Ottumwa and thank you thank you Mrs. Ed Hauke from Ottumwa does work with shells Mrs. Hauke when did you get started doing this about 1961 do you pick up the shells in Florida or do you have to use regular shells we pick up quite a lot of shells but we sell them pick up enough of one size and one color to make an arrangement so we have to buy them just to get a large number of shells in the same size how do you go about getting the inspiration and then carrying out a theme for it well take any one of these well they the inspiration sometimes comes to me just by something I see in nature or something I see that attracts my attention and then I work it out but never in duplicate I never duplicate it but I'll work it out in my own way and change it until you'd never recognize anything if I get the inspiration that way and sometimes it comes to me through a song or sometimes through well at night when I'm lying awake the inspiration will come to me and just the same as it would in poetry that comes to me in the night and I jump up real quickly and make a sketch but it's just creative and something that it's just a talent that the Lord gave me how long does it take you to actually develop one of these Oh a week or if I worked at it it's quite you make that prepare the flowers and then and that takes hours and hours you know to do that oh you work weeks and weeks on one a large arrangement and into months on some of the larger ones I have at home do you sell them no I don't sell them why because I can't part with one of my children do you do you do other crafts many kinds many kinds of craft for instance well I I just make about everything I see but I tapped and I write and I just make everything I use a I have quite a display of things I have made out of used greeting cards that people give me and they are very attractive I have many things like that do I dare ask what your house looks like and how many cans of shells you must have well I have over 60 gallon in the basement and I have well the house is full so that keeps you busy my living room is has glass cases built in that they're under glass which is very nice and I show them and I'm always happy to show people that cares to call me before they come do I dare ask how old you are I'm 73 no 74 and this is Ed Hauke doing part of her or showing part of her work at the Iowa senior citizens arts festival that was held in the hotel Fort Des Moines many beautiful things and I congratulate you for participating thank you and it was a privilege of me to me to be asked what does this symbol mean well Dorcas this is the international symbol for accessibility and wherever you might travel in the world in a wheelchair this shows you that wherever this is displayed that that place is adapted for your use and you would have complete access to all the facilities in that building now I think perhaps we have been most aware of it in restrooms at this particular time as far as a general public I think that's probably true although hopefully it's becoming much more widespread in its usage so that actually people in wheelchairs can take a lot of the problems out of their travel just everything that a person might use in his normal activities of daily living everything now Rolf Carlson is executive director of the Easterseals Society for crippled children and adults of Iowa incorporated that's an awfully long title it sure is now tell me a little bit more what we're really talking about here as we said we're talking about the restrooms but much more well just for example the person who wants to go to the post office needs to be able to get in not only to see the inside of the building but to do the business that he needs to do to carry on his daily life the person who wants to go to church on Sunday certainly has a right to that opportunity it's guaranteed under the Constitution now you were telling me a little while ago a story of a gentleman who perhaps his church absence had been misinterpreted yeah a real fine fella who's now in his late 50s who wrote me after he had been at camp and said that he dearly loved to go to church every Sunday and I'm sure the minister would have been delighted to see him but he hated to embarrass his neighbors by asking them to carry him up the steps in a wheelchair this is not something that's done intentionally and consequently when we contacted the church they were certainly agreeable to putting in a ramp so that this fellow could go and worship the Lord as he wanted to every Sunday and now this affects not only people in wheelchairs but we're talking about people that have other sorts of walking disabilities don't we oh yes any number of people those on crutches we have the unseen handicapped you know people we don't realize people who have had cardiac problems coronary problems who really can't master steps very well who have gait problems and all of these people have a tremendous amount to give their community if we'll just help them have the opportunity to give it now as I said we're talking about steps this sort of thing we're talking about the one step that it takes to get into your home or the one step up in the park or all this sort of thing too oh absolutely many buildings for example that are architecturally accessible wonder why we don't say oh you're great and we find that they've provided fine ample parking lots but the one curb over which the wheelchair can't climb by itself and the people can't get up to the building to use its accessibility so that it's important as far as a you a whole community to be concerned about the corners at the sidewalks as well as then getting into the walk that goes up to the building yes that's very important there are a lot of housewives on crutches in wheelchairs Cardiacs and so on who would love to come spend money with the merchants downtown but can't because they can't get up the curbs from the parking lots or crossing the streets a very ordinary daily problem for example most of us I think have to go to the bathroom from time to time in the day and for that person who is handicapped and needs a special type of bathroom accommodation they almost have to plan their shopping trips according to how long they estimate they can go without having to visit the restroom I'm sure that the mother who has having a back problem and perhaps could not lift that stroller up would be glad to have a place that they could push it up a ramp and nobody perhaps knows the mother has a back problem that's right and it's amazing Dorcas how many stores have put in ramps finally and then found that the major portion of the traffic handicapped and otherwise used the ramp rather than any steps that are right next to the ramp now we think of children and water fountains what about other people that are not quite like you and I well of course we're just children at heart no this is right really the person with a disability has a right to use all of the publicly sponsored things they like to go into auditoriums they like to go to concerts and so on and they enjoy having a drink of water they may need to call home so that the phones ought to be at a convenient height they'd love to give the dimes to the telephone company once again the restrooms are a big consideration in the use of recreational type public buildings because for the large part people didn't take these things into consideration when most of them were built now going back to the telephone and the water fountain thing are there ways to design these so that they would be accessible to all people oh yes there are ways and there are specifications that are available to people the biggest problem really is calling to the attention of the builders and the architects before they are in the actual blueprinting states when they're in the planning stages then the cost is really almost the same cost in some cases it could be less in many cases it might be a little more but in terms of the traffic using that building and the opportunity to be of real service to your fellow man the cost is a very minor thing what about designing our own homes for our use or for our friends use I think it's critical that we take these same things into consideration because one thing none of us knows is when we might have occasion to need our house to be completely accessible architecturally I know of a case in the not too far distant past of a man who built a beautiful $60,000 tri-level home just a wonderful place with all the conveniences and about a year later was injured in an automobile accident needed to be in a wheelchair the rest of his life and had to sell his home to make another one that he could operate and live a consistent daily life in of course we could make a difference as far as how much of a host and hostess we are too as far as our friends absolutely where is this information available if somebody really wants to know how they can perhaps make some of the changes in their home their church the community oh we'd be delighted send the information that we have Dorcas in addition there are any number of resources who make special adapted equipment like the claw grip reaching pincers for the housewife who may need to get into a high cupboard that you can't reach from her wheelchair of course it'll be much better to build them that way in the first place but we'd be delighted to send whatever helpful information we can we'd be delighted to show films about accessibility and to just be of whatever help we can to people who are in the planning stages and we have been talking with Rolf Carlson and he is executive director of the Easter Seals Society for crippled children and adults of Iowa incorporated and the post office box is for 4002 Des Moines, Iowa and thank you very much thank you for coming out