Needy or Elderly in Rural America
Or, random thoughts after a low speed collision while waiting for the ferry.
So this is going to be a very bloggy blog post here on the ol’ substack. It won’t touch on much in the way of technology…..I have something in the hopper that’s currently all over the place about forking and computer languages that, despite the dry description, will be super fun or something….
A bit about me geographically speaking: I live west of Seattle, across Elliott bay. When I have cause to head to the city1 one must take a ferry east from Bainbridge Island to Coleman dock along the Seattle waterfront. Even when it’s foggy, or rainy, it’s so much fun to see the sound from the water, even if it’s just through a windshield.
WSDOT will sometimes even stop the ferry to let a pod of orcas go by, and you can always spot waterfowl, the odd dolphin and all sorts of fish if you look for them. For shipping fans, you’ve got a terrific view of ferries, boats, tankers, bulk carriers, RO-ROs, Containers and even the odd aircraft carrier or Sub heading into the Puget Sound Naval Shipyards. Given the shallow draft at Rich’s passage, Submarines will commonly surface to avoid the sandbar and deeper draft ships will wait for high tide to traverse.2
All in all, it’s pretty special and I look forward to these little excursions. I pulled into the Ferry waiting lot about 10 minutes before loading would begin for the 10:20 ferry. I had just started a call, navigated the IVR phone tree and was introducing myself to that person attending to the call, when:
*slam*
“I’m going to need to go, I just got rear ended….call ya back later maybe.”, I said.
The car rocked back a bit then *slam* rolled forward a bit. I pressed the emergency brake and hopped out of the car. Luckily I didn’t hit the brand new bright blue BMW in front of me.
Attached to my back bumper was an early 90s Ford 250 pickup truck. This was a definite bummer, as this is the first accident of any sort that I’d experienced in my relatively new car. The older driver got out of his car, apologized as that he thought he was hitting the brake during the second hit and didn’t know what happened.
I asked him if he could back his car up so we could look at the damage. He did so, came out again and we chatted about it. The ferry was loading and since both cars were clearly drivable we decided to head onto the boat then continue to exchange information on board.
You’ll be happy to hear he didn’t hit me again on the boat. So that’s nice.
We exchanged insurance information, as one does after an accident. I asked him if he wanted me to email him my details, but, alas, he didn’t have email. Text was also not an option as he didn’t own a cell phone. I went to fetch a pen from my car, which is when I realized that I didn’t have any paper in my car to write things down for him.
I ended up writing my info on a CVS receipt he had in his car. He mentioned that he really needed to figure out how to get to his appointment, and not having a phone, he was going to use a map or something.
And that was how I ended up dictating driving directions for a 79 year old’s dentist appointment in Seattle. It is also how I found out, as he would show me, the problems he was having with his dentures. TMI? Sure? I mean, I’d never looked all that closely at dentures, much less fresh from the mouth dentures glistening in the spring sunlight.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: Should he be driving if he’s getting into wrecks like that? Should he really be attempting to drive the sometimes perilously narrow streets of the Seattle neighborhoods surrounding his dentists? In a car a wide as a Canyonero? In this economy?
Did he really pull his dentures out and show me the pockets and wear damage?3 How much damage did he do to the car (not the dentures) anyhow?4
Probably the most common thought is simply: If he’s making mistakes like this, maybe he’s too old to drive. Believe me: I get it; I also thought it at first. But before going there: Let me paint a picture for you, living in the West Sound area means you really, really need a car to get around.
There are buses, ambulances and other civic disabled driving services, and closer to the larger cities of Bremerton you have your Ubers and your Lyfts. But when you’re near Kingston or Poulsbo, there’s not a lot of that. You desperately need a car to basically do anything. So should he be driving? I mean, maybe? I’ve been rear ended or otherwise hit by way more people in their teens and twenties than people in their late 70s at this point in my life.5 Yes, older drivers as their senses decline represent a real risk to themselves and those around them on the road. At the same time, as those senses degrade, their need for medical care if anything increases and the time to attend to those needs similarly rises.
The state of public transportation in all but the major metropolitan areas means that as people stop being able to drive, they are simply unable to live in the more rural parts of America.
Even before considering the food and healthcare deserts that dominate across the more rural parts of the country, are we comfortable as a society telling people that rapid decline in quality of life is the cost of being old (and not wealthy) in the US?
Given the recent assaults on Medicare and Social Security, it’s pretty clear what message is being sent to the old and infirm from the powers that be.
The city of Seattle, not SF. Its taken me years to make the ‘city’ shorthand to mean Seattle in my brain.
A few years ago a Ferry ran aground there, it was quite the story, locally… https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2023/04/16/bremerton-sun-archives-walla-walla-runs-aground-off-bis-wing-point/70119799007/
And the other unasked question: Did I have to describe the dentures so graphically to include the word “glistening”?
Turns out the bumper is going to need replacing, as it was buckled in the accident.
Similarly, I’ve been struck by as many clueless skiers as snowboarders while skiing, despite the latter’s reputation for collisions as introduction…