The Mind of the Elderly

The Mind of The Elderly

For starters, I interviewed Lelane Thomas Allen. He is a friend of mine's grandpa. I had never met or even heard about Mr. Allen until I told my buddy I needed an old person to interview for an assignment. I also thought it was a good idea to interview him, because I could get additional information and facts from my buddy and his parents, who might know some things Mr. Allen might not remember.

Lelane Allen is 72 years of age and currently resides in Omaha, Nebraska. He is about 6'2" and has gray hair of what his bald head has left. He has ten children (oldest to youngest), Gary, Dianne, Richard, Jon Patrick, Susan, Barb, Carol, Dave and Don, who are twins, and Joanne. He also has sixteen grandchildren, which actually is sort of low considering how many kids he has.

Lelane was born September 18, 1932 in Wymore, Nebraska. He comes from a primarily Irish, Scottish, and German background. His childhood was that of a country farm boy. He worked on his fathers farm most of his childhood and didn't have any real exciting stories to tell me. He did mention though that in this free time in his younger years, him and his buddies would get drunk on whatever they could get their hands on and drive around town and through the country roads acting like idiots. He then told me this wasn't a good idea and that times were different back then and they could get away with almost anything.

Lelane continued to work on the farm and other miscellaneous odd jobs until he turned 18 years of age. He then enlisted himself into the Air Force and only really mentioned that he flew a plane quite a bit in World War 2, primarily in Korea. I tried asking more questions about the war, but he wasn't to responsive, so I didn't want to force the issue. He then finished his duty to the military after eight years of service and went on to attend the University of Nebraska in Lincoln where he got a degree in communication.

During Mr. Allen's college years he met his future wife, who was also a student at UNL, but was six years younger than he was. He and his wife then went on to have there ten children and lived a very fulfilling life until she died at the age of forty-five of breast cancer. The first and only job Lelane got after college was working for Western Bell. He kept that job until retirement at the age of sixty.

Mr. Allen is currently retired and living in Omaha, Nebraska in Rockbrook Village with his son. Lelane is still a very active and full of vigor kind of guy. He was very talkative of what he enjoys about life currently, and what his hobbies and future plans are. He is probably one of the biggest fans of nature I have ever met. He is a self proclaimed ecologist and loves everything about outdoors. He loves water, flowers, and trees and has two ponds in his backyard that he insisted on me seeing. He is also a member of the Backyard Wildlife Society, which I have never heard of, but it seems to suit him well. He also mentioned that he is a big hunter and fisher, although he doesn't hunt as much as he would like or used to. He also had an extensive gun collection that he showed to me, which I thought was sort of ironic, because he is a member of a wildlife society. He also claimed that he is still completely mobile and goes out and about all of the time, but mentioned that he can't golf anymore do to old age and arthritis kicking in.

Some of Lelane's favorite things and